Another HTPC change
The last update to my HTPC wasn't that long ago but I happened to come into posession of a Dell Inspiron 3470.
Specs
The specs on the machine are (or were):
- Intel i5-8400
- 8GB RAM
- Intel UHD 630 GPU
- 128GB SSD
- 1TB HDD
- DVD drive
Hardware changes
I started by replacing the original 128GB SSD that housed the OS with a pre-owned Samsung 128GB M.2 SSD from CEX.
The machine came with a 3.5" HDD, and to allow that to house my 4TB Samsung 870 EVO 2.5" SSD I needed to buy a different caddy, so eBay it was.
As the motherboard had two PCIe slots, I was able to pick up an NVMe to PCIe adapter and move the SSD that had been connected via USB internally.
I added the other NVMe M.2 SSD via the Sabrent M.2 NVMe to PCIe adapter I already had.
| 128GB Samsung MZ-NLN128C 2280 M.2 SATA SSD | £6.95 |
| Dell Vostro/Inspiron SFF 2.5" SSD caddy | £11.95 |
| Glotrends PA09-X1 M.2 NVMe to PCIe X1 adapter | £8.99 |
The benefit of the newer chip means more encoding and decoding options for h.264 and h.265 via Intel's Quick Sync Video technology. This allows me to watch movies on more devices, notably my tablet and phone as it's capable of transcoding on the fly using hardware acceleration, which the previous machine was incapable of.
Software
Rather than Linux Mint XFCE, which I was running on the previous machine, with the hopes of easier remote access I elected for vanilla Ubuntu (24.04) with Jellyfin once again providing media services.
As I say, the reason for the switch was Mint's lack of access via Remote Desktop and not finding a suitable alternative. Ubunutu's isn't perfect but it works well enough.
Power
Impressively, the machine idles around 11W (measured at the wall using a kill-a-watt style device).