MiniPC/Media Player Build.

R

rkd29980

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 19, 2015
Messages
181
1) What will you be doing with this PC

24bit Music playback, 1080p video playback.

2) What's your budget?

Whatever it takes

3) Which country do you live in?

US

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?

Case, motherboard, PSU, Battery

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?

None

6) Will you be overclocking?

No

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

7"
Display Resolution: 800x480
Supported Display Resolution: 320x200, 640x200, 640x350, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 and 1280x1024

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Now

9) What features do you need in a motherboard?

Support for 4 or more M.2 SSD's or SATA SSD's, USB3.0 (3.1 Preferred), onboard video, onboard audio (24bit)

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

Don't know what OS I will be using.



I considered connecting 4 USB SSD's to a Raspberry Pi to make a media player but decided to build a mini PC. The goal is to pack as many small SSD's into as small a space as possible. I will need the smallest case and motherboard out there. This is a portable media player build so it needs to be small and light weight.

I was thinking of using THIS or THIS as the display.

I will also need help with finding a battery/power source for it.
 
.....Why not just get a 2in1 laptop with external USB 3.0 drives for additional storage? It would be more cost-effective.
 
You could always try one of these cherry trial chinese tablets like: 32GB Teclast X80 Pro 8" Dual OS Tablet $87 + Free Shipping $90
Also how much room are you needing? Sandisk just came out with the 1tb x400 m.2 drives, which you could do a usb3 to m.2 adapter, or if you are needing more space Samsung just announced their 4tb 2.5" ssd's. The tablet also has mini-hdmi out, which should in theory carry the 24bit audio. Or you can do 200gb microsd cards.
 
How much space I need depends on SSD prices which are still high. I need at least 4TB which as you know, is pathetic and small by today's standards. Anyway, I have been researching 2 in 1 and laptops looking for one that has 4+ M.2 slots. I guess I could buy an inexpensive netbook and velcro a bunch of SSD's and USB hubs to the bottom of it.
 
rkd29980 said:
How much space I need depends on SSD prices which are still high. I need at least 4TB which as you know, is pathetic and small by today's standards. Anyway, I have been researching 2 in 1 and laptops looking for one that has 4+ M.2 slots. I guess I could buy an inexpensive netbook and velcro a bunch of SSD's and USB hubs to the bottom of it.
Click to expand...
Exaggerating a bit there. The majority of PCs out there have 1TB or less of space. 1TB more is the minority and still quite large by today's standards.

Anyway, netbooks are poor values for what they offer considering that decent laptops don't cost much more. Also, there are just a handful of desktop motherboards with three M.2 slots. Not one desktop motherboard has 4 x M.2 slots. So no laptop or 2in1 is going to have that many. 1 M.2 slot is the norm. Also, you stated in your op for the budget as "Whatever it takes" so why the concern about SSD pricing?

If you don't mind me asking, why exactly are you looking for a mobile device with 4TB of storage to watch 1080P content on? Also, how long of a battery do you need/want? Do note that more storage basically means less battery life.
 
Dangman said:
Exaggerating a bit there. The majority of PCs out there have 1TB or less of space. 1TB more is the minority and still quite large by today's standards.

Anyway, netbooks are poor values for what they offer considering that decent laptops don't cost much more. Also, there are just a handful of desktop motherboards with three M.2 slots. Not one desktop motherboard has 4 x M.2 slots. So no laptop or 2in1 is going to have that many. 1 M.2 slot is the norm. Also, you stated in your op for the budget as "Whatever it takes" so why the concern about SSD pricing?

If you don't mind me asking, why exactly are you looking for a mobile device with 4TB of storage to watch 1080P content on? Also, how long of a battery do you need/want? Do note that more storage basically means less battery life.
Click to expand...



I am not exaggerating. Any serious heavy PC user is going to have several terabytes at least of storage space. since cheap 4TB and 5TB drives can be picked up for $100-125 and is so common, that is the "standard". Back in 2008/2009 a 500GB-750GB drive may have been the standard but not anymore. 6TB and 8TB drives are becoming the new consumer standard in storage.

Considering how much space 16bit and 24bit music, 1080p and 4K Bluray video, 20+ MP images and AAA games take up, I would say that a 4TB drive is small and pathetic and so a measly 1TB drive would be.

I do need a lot of space because I am a music collector and my music collection has outgrown the capacity of my ipod years ago and is only going to get larger. I am tired of only being able to have my favorite songs with me in crappy MP3 quality. The love for music may be dying with streaming but some of us still love music and still love owning our music in CD quality or higher and love being able to tag our music the way we want. Fuck spotify and pandora and netflix for the death of owning media in favor of renting low quality shit and fuck crApple for giving up on the ipod. :(

What I want is a tablet or 2in1 with 4 or more M.2 SSD slots for lots of INTERNAL storage but since no company has had the bright idea of taking a tablet or small laptop and adding a shit ton of M.2 SSD slots, I guess I will have to get a 2in1 or laptop with a screen that swivels and connect a USB hub to it with a bunch of SSD's connected to it. I don't want mechanical drives because they take too much power.
 
Laptop, external 2TB 2.5" USB hard drive.

You don't mention the use case, other than you want it to be portable. Jogging? Car? Gramma's house?

There's a reason nobody offers laptops or tablets with that many internal storage devices in this day and age - networks and the cloud. If your mass storage isn't on a home or corporate network, then it's in the cloud.
 
Last edited:
rkd29980 said:
I am not exaggerating. Any serious heavy PC user is going to have several terabytes at least of storage space. since cheap 4TB and 5TB drives can be picked up for $100-125 and is so common, that is the "standard". Back in 2008/2009 a 500GB-750GB drive may have been the standard but not anymore. 6TB and 8TB drives are becoming the new consumer standard in storage.

Considering how much space 16bit and 24bit music, 1080p and 4K Bluray video, 20+ MP images and AAA games take up, I would say that a 4TB drive is small and pathetic and so a measly 1TB drive would be..
Click to expand...
I say you're exaggerating based on the Steam Hardware Survey:
Steam Hardware & Software Survey

Out of the millions of PCs surveyed by Steam, only 26.70% of them had more than 1TB of total hard drive space. Which means that 73.30% of those millions of PCs have less than 1TB of space on them. Which means that 1TB+ more is still the minority and not quite the defacto standard. I say all this as a "serious heavy PC user". See my sig rig and my file server.
rkd29980 said:
What I want is a tablet or 2in1 with 4 or more M.2 SSD slots for lots of INTERNAL storage but since no company has had the bright idea of taking a tablet or small laptop and adding a shit ton of M.2 SSD slots, I guess I will have to get a 2in1 or laptop with a screen that swivels and connect a USB hub to it with a bunch of SSD's connected to it. I don't want mechanical drives because they take too much power.
Click to expand...

The tech isn't there yet dude. Not to mention that you're probably part of a handful of people that would want that many M.2 SSD slots.

Anyway, get this cheap 2in1:
Amazon.com: HP Pavilion 13-s120nr 13.3-Inch Convertible Laptop (Intel Core i3, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD, Windows 10): Computers & Accessories

Then using these instructions:
Removing and Replacing the Hard Disk Drive for HP Pavilion x360 Notebook PCs | HP® Customer Support

Swap out the hard drive for this 2TB SSD:
Amazon.com: Samsung 850 EVO 2 TB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E2T0B/AM): Computers & Accessories

Buy another of that same 2TB SSD and this USB 3.0 enclosure:
Amazon.com: [Upgraded Version Support UASP] Sabrent Ultra Slim USB 3.0 to 2.5-Inch SATA External Aluminum Hard Drive Enclosure [Black] (EC-UK30): Computers & Accessories

Boom, closest thing that'll fit your rather unique requirements. Total price will be around $1616.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Basically what Dangman said. But you still have not given a use case ;) So if you are just chilling at the house or have a decent internet connection, and cell / wifi access when you are out and about, you might consider just setting up a nas, or converting an old desktop to serve up your content. This way you could setup multiple 8tb HDDS, and then directly map the drives to your device, or even use a cloud type connection to get access on the go. For video Plex is a pretty good choice, pretty sure that you will need another mechanism for the audio you are wanting. With wireless AC you are looking at near 1gbit type connection speeds so transfer to your device should be fine assuming you have a modern AC router.

Bang for the buck the 4tb 2.5" externals at $110, or 8tb 3.5's at 200-250 each is going to blow away any ssd. The lowest I have see the 2tb Samsung's is $599 and the 4tb drives are near the $2k range.

Just my 2c
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top