HTPC Steam Machine vs XBOXONE: A TriniSpartacus 2014 Project

[TriniXaeno]

Having waxed poetic about building a new HTPC for all of 2013, I am committing myself to the act in 2014

The objective....to complete the build for less or the same price as an xbox one: US$499

Then to compare the performance and capabilities of the HTPC Steam Machine against Microsoft's next gen box.

Not starting from zero as I have already scavenged for cheap hardware on these very forums via the trading grounds.

Collected thus far:

CPU: Intel Core i5-2400 3.1Ghz/3.4ghz  US$70.00
RAM: 2x2GB DDR 3 US$30.00
HDD: Plethora of loose HDs laying around my office: US$0.00
MOBO: Gigabyte LGA 1155 DDR3 1600 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Motherboard GA-H77N-WIFI: US$112.00 Gigabyte GA B75N 1155 Mini ITX board (with optical out): US$90.00

Total: US$212

$287.00 in budget to go.

WTB

CASE: Cooler Master Elite 130: US$50.00
PSU: Corsair CX  Series 500W Modular: US$55
VID: Used ATI 6970: US$204 (Alternatively, a GTX 660 for US$180 or a Radeon R9 270 also at US$180.00)

Total Projected Spend: US$499.00


Boom Bang

[Berzerk]

actually considering doing this myself for living room, but looking at TV options first. What input devices you looking at?

[Arcmanov]

But if you add up the price of every single part (new prices of course), won't that come up to substantially more than 499 US?
I think that defeats the goal of this 'project'.  I re-used 'older' parts in my current HTPC build also.  The only 'new' parts  are the case, cooler and GPU.


I actually thought you were building something from scratch for 499 US.

[Fkacn_tt]

Possible if you go AMD and shop around/deal hunter.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[TriniXaeno]

@ Arc: Define "from scratch"

This HTPC did not exist before, so in my eyes, this is from scratch.

As Slaming alluded, the idea is to deal hunt and scavenge to make an epic HTPC for the price of an xbox one.

The GATT trading grounds has assisted greatly towards that goal thus far. Those components would easily cost twice the price new.

I will be looking for similar deals in 2014 to complete the rest of the build. Monitoring sales like a hawk.

Lemme know if you want to sell that Cooler Master case, lol

It isn't anything unusual tbh. Considering that the numerous HTPCs I have had in the living room over the years were always "hand me downs" and frankenstein creations from left over parts after upgrades and such.

[Arcmanov]

Well I do have the Elite 120 there lying idle eh....

*strokes chin*





Samsung Galaxy Note 3 | SwiftKey | Tapatalk 4

[TriniXaeno]

dazwhawetalkinbout!

[Vengeance]

Soooo when you complete this build, what games gonna run on dat SteamOS?

Or you gonna put windows on it?

[MessiaaH]

I too am building a dedicated box for HTPC/Gaming duties this year, right now I using my old laptop, since I have my beast machine connected to TV via ah 40' HDMI cable. But I want to have a dedicated box for gaming in the living room to make it simple to just HDMI switch, and game. So I intend to build ah cheapo rig.

Living room gaming will be restricted to Rayman type games, fighting games etc. Wont be running no Titan fall on that. So I thinking the machine not going to need no set of power Atal . Maybe an i5 (or i3) and ah gtx 770 or something. Need to research and see what best. That card and all mite be overkill for living room gaming needs.

[TriniXaeno]

Quick Update:

Acquired this mobo:  Gigabyte LGA 1155 DDR3 1600 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Motherboard GA-H77N-WIFI  @ US$112



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009JDTWVC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B009JDTWVC&linkCode=as2&tag=g12n7-20

A little pricier than originally budgeted. Was hoping for a board with dolby digital support for surround sound in games

Unfortunately it seems that doesn't exist at the mini itx form factor.

Ultimately, I may snag an external sound card for the feature at a later date like this:




http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0044DEDCA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0044DEDCA&linkCode=as2&tag=g12n7-20

Hopefully, I can save US$20 somewhere else in the remaining purchases to stay within budget.

I do have an old PSU laying around that might do the deed. It is 420w though which may not be enough for the GPU under heavy load. Also, it is not modular and the tiny case won't have space for all those cables.

Going to be a close call.

In retrospect, I should have gone with one of these cheaper US$50 ITX boards, since the reason I was spending decent money on a mobo was for a feature I ultimately did not get....optical out with dolby digital.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0065SM75M/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0065SM75M&linkCode=as2&tag=g12n7-20

The money saved would have been better spent on a faster graphics card.

[MessiaaH]

Fortunately for me, my htpc going to be integrated into my home media center, so I don't need a soundcard, the gpu going to provide audio from the pc via hemi cable to my receiver. Mobo don't even need to have built in audio.

[TriniXaeno]

Absolutely.

HDMI out is the best bet but you need an HDMI capable receiver for that. Particularly one that doesn't introduce any lag.

Santa Claus has ignored the Denon AVR on my list for the past three years so my logitech Z5500 will have to do the deed.

As anyone who has dabbled in home theatre setups by now should know, most TVs do not pass positional audio sent via HDMI through their optical out port. Only stereo sound.

Either you go to a capable receiver or to the speakers directly via optical or analog.

[W1nTry]

I still think this is misleading, are you buying a second hand XBO? or anything for the console that is 2nd hand? cause the concept of putting an HTPC against the XBO imho means both starting from the same line, which is NOT IN HAND -> Working in living room. Also since the XBO comes with a Kinect, you either have to get a 1st Gen Kinect for PC or at least a capable 1080p webcam. Just to make sure you can skype and such from the htpc in the living room.

That 500USD tag you using is buying everything in one shot. You having parts lying around is cheating. Also you have to account for the Operating system (WINDOWS) to compare MS to MS. which adds a nice 100USD+. Just throwing that that out there. Otherwise you ought to discount the XBO in some fashion for it to be a sensible COST comparison. Once you throw away cost, then a comparison of capabilities would make sense.

[Arcmanov]

Nope nope nope.

TS, yuh harden.  I TOLD you which mobo to get that would give you your 5.1 audio over TOSLINK, but trini feel dey know everything.

...and my Samsung TV does exactly that: pass HDMI 5.1 audio through to the optical port, which my Turtle Beach PX5 headset reproduces just fine.

So much so that my MGR, Xbox 360, and PS3 are all connected via HDMI.
All 5.1 audio from these devices are conveyed just fine.





Samsung Galaxy Note 3 | SwiftKey | Tapatalk 4

[TriniXaeno]

@ w1n
1) I am talking about a cost to acquire. US$500 for an xbox one and US$500 for an HTPC. If I could get a used xbox one for less practically, I would redo the math. Gamers most definitely can acquire a used HTPC for the price mentioned. Historically that is how most of our HTPCs have been acquired to date so it is a very real world approach.

2) All of my HTPCs run linux. Zero cost. (You should know that)

@ arc, I said most TVs....not all. The vast majority do not pass 5.1 over the optical. None of mine do.

And kindly point me to wish mini itx mobo is doing dolby digital? I could not find any.

[Arcmanov]

Actually...that's the exact mobo I was recommending.  My fault for not reading your post properly.    Apologies, Dominus.
That's the one in my MGR.

I don't know what you're worried about...the optical output provides a proper 5.1/7.1 audio signal.
I've confirmed this with both of my gaming headsets.

[TriniXaeno]

hahhah @ apologies dominus

Takes me right back to blood and sand.

but yeah, dolby digital is the only way you'll get 5.1 in games over the optical port

I have been confronting this issue for many years (since first acquiring my Z5500) so let me pull together some quotes that will explain the situation better for you arc.

Movies/DVD's are already encoded in Dolby Digital or DTS formats, which can be carried over SPDIF. Games however, use uncompressed audio, and an uncompressed 5.1 audio signal can NOT be carried over a SPDIF connection, so you get 2.0 instead.

The only way to solve this problem is to get a soundcard that can handle real-time encoding to either Dolby Digital or DTS.

If you’re connecting via HDMI, everything’s in the clear. You’ve got uncompressed stereo, 5.1, 7.1, and DTS options. For most scenarios, this is perfect. (Protip: don’t expect to get anything more than 2-channel audio by running a digital optical cable from your TV. Most of them are throttled down, but check your display manual for details.

For the Dolby only headsets, my understanding is that these will work but you will only get stereo audio since we only pass Stereo and DTS through the optical port.

Optical output can only carry a few outputs:
Uncompressed 2.0 PCM (up to 192 KHz/Sec)
Dolby Digital 5.1
DTS 5.1

Both DD/DTS requires that your sound system is able to decode the incoming signal for the output to be sent to your speakers, hence why they are generally not used as output. Instead, 2.0 output is generally upscaled to 5.1 using other methods (DTS Neo PC, Dolby Pro Logic, etc).

To get 'true' 5.1, you either need a receiver/speakers than can decode an incoming DD/DTS signal, or connect using HDMI, which can carry 5.1/7.1 as uncompressed PCM, removing the need for a decoder. Alternativly, you can use the older analog connections to hook an individual speaker to an individual sound channel (still the best option for PC's, for the above reasons).

tldr

IT WON'T WORK

but I'm ok with that, for now....as even the xbox one shipped out of the box without the capability.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/439649/xbox-one-lacks-optical-dolby-51-post-launch-patch-promised/

I will however be able to get gaming surround sound using the analog connections which won't be an option on the xbox one, so still an early victory for the htpc (in my setup)

[TriniXaeno]

so quick update on this.

I did acquire the Cooler Master Elite 120 (thanks Arc!)

Cost was around US$40 so that is a $10 savings off the total budget.

Also found a working power supply laying around the store, saving yet another US$55.00

It isn't modular but the cables surprisingly fit neat inside the tiny Cooler Master case.

And last but by no means least, Valve updated SteamOS to run on AMD hardware.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2084938/steamos-now-supports-amd-and-intel-graphics.html

This allowed me to stick my old 4870 card in the box for a whopping $204.00 in savings.

Bringing the total spend for this Steam Machine down to a respectable US$252.00

Not bad at all. Very impressed with the performance for the spend.

Here is a picture of the box running side by side next to an Xbox One



It was originally meant to serve dual purposes, that of an HTPC and a Steam Machine. Unfortunately, due to having kids in the house, it was being severely under utilized as a gaming rig in the living room. Most of the games nowadays are not fit for young eyes.

As a result, I am back in the market for a dedicated HTPC set top (and have been following woody's Fire TV exploits keenly here: http://www.carigamers.com/cms/forums/index.php/topic,28784.0.html)

Expect a new thread on the final home theatre build imminently

[TriniLink]

Can you list the specs for that build? You have me curious on what hard drives and if it's a dual OS system. As well as your Mobo and processor. (My build is almost done, would like to compare)