{"id":2468,"date":"2013-04-07T12:11:47","date_gmt":"2013-04-07T17:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/?p=2468"},"modified":"2013-04-07T12:11:47","modified_gmt":"2013-04-07T17:11:47","slug":"help-me-pick-an-htpc-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/?p=2468","title":{"rendered":"Help me pick an HTPC replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late last year, I built up a home theater PC<\/a> to replace one that had died. It’s got a very pretty case<\/a> designed to fit in with audio equipment (protip: if you’ve got young kids or large dogs, don’t hook up the power button to the motherboard. Use the reset switch instead). I put a Blu Ray drive<\/a>\"\", about 6 TB of storage, and a massive amount of RAM in it. It’s a hoss of a box, and I’m not going to be getting rid of it.<\/p>\n

The new house we bought has a great media room. It’s already wired for sound and has surround speakers in the ceiling. The HTPC would look great on the built-in media rack.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the media room is a converted attic space. It’s not connected to the central HVAC in any way. Instead, it’s got a 13 year old PTHP<\/a>\"\" that only has “on” and “not on” as options. They’re kinda spendy to run, and spendy to replace with newer computer controlled models. What that means is that this room will only be climate-controlled when we’re using it, which probably tops out at 2 hours a day.<\/p>\n

Having an always-on server in that kind of situation is bad. I imagine that the room will get to probably 110F in the summer, before<\/i> you add the waste heat that electronics produce. \u00a0I need some sort of set-top box that can do the following:<\/p>\n