HTPC Build Log: Part 4.... How Does It Work?

A few months ago during my HTPC Build Logs, I talked about "cutting the cable". Well; I did it! Actually, what I did was; do away with cable TV, which was in excess of $70, upgraded our internet to "unlimited" Data at 1Gb down and 50Mb up speed. It's roughly $30 per month. I'd have to say pretty good, now that they've actually blocked all the channels from the feed after a month. 

We either use Kodi, or go directly to the network and watch our shows from through the browser. My daughter who's the main TV watcher likes to "binge-watch" FoodTV shows anyway, so Kodi is a great answer for that. She can watch several shows one after another. And since we have an HTPC hooked up to every TV, she can do that while her brother monopolizes the gameroom TV for gameplay. How has those machines worked?

I'd have to say that the "Den" system running out of the tiny Silverstone PT13 has been an absolute stunner! As you can see, from the illustration, it's amazingly small, but the main thing has been it's performance. So far, it has clearly outperformed the Viking build in our bedroom which is based on an ASRock board running an AMD A6-3600. That part isn't terribly surprising since it's a Gigabyte B75 Haswell generation board, but it's only running a Pentium 2030T low voltage processor using the onboard graphics! All three of the HTPCs run 8Gb of RAM, SSDs for the OS and Windows 7. The main system which has an AMD A8-7600 does pretty well but that should be no surprise. However, that little Intel system is essentially a "business class" chipset with a ultra-low-voltage CPU designed for USFF cases. Right now, it's the "mighty mite" of our fleet!