What sort of system for 4K media centre?

[Gietzy]

Hi. Last time I built a pc it was a 2500k and SLI GTX 580 for 5760 x 1080 Crysis. Needless to say, I’ve been out of the loop for a few years. Hoping to build a nice media pc for home. Priorities are;

4K HDR
Small form factor
Quiet as possible

Nice to have but not essential are;

Blue ray or UHD Blu-ray
Limited home server functionality (want to remotely access my files without drop box)

I really have no idea what’s going on in the industry at the moment so need suggestions for everything. I assume integrated graphics are fine for just playback.

 

[LuckyBenski]

Some integrated graphics will do this, but some are limited to 4k30FPS because of decode capability or connectivity (HDMI 1.4 is limited in framerate at 4k).

That said, most 9-series and I think all 10-series Nvidia cards have HDMI 2.0. Recent AMD cards should be similar (think RX 460/550 if you want simple). Nvidia GT 1030 is good if you're after low power consumption but proper decode.

There are a wealth of small form factor cases and ITX motherboards about these days, although most are more cube-like than classic AV cabinet shelf sized. Check out Bitfenix cases for cubes and Silverstone for traditional SFF. The only problem with slim ones is needing a low profile CPU cooler, whereas cubes allow a bigger heatsink. Quiet PCs come from big heatsinks allowing less fan speed, IMO. There are some nice budget cases that are small too, like the Kolink Satellite.

Pretty much anything can fit a large HDD in order to serve files too, though I'm picky about noise and find mechanical drives noisier than my fans!