HTPC. £600 BUDGET

FISHGUTS · 16 May 2008 at 17:18

Hello,

I'm going to buy a new 50" plasma for the living room.
I was going to get the 50" panny 1080 70pz but the px is much cheaper and with the extra saved I can build a HTPC.
So £600 budget including vat. vista not needed, but I need a wireless keyboard and mouse.

I need help as it's about 3 years since I'v built a pc and I haven't got a clue what on earth to get.

Many thanks for your help.

Glaucus · 16 May 2008 at 19:10

how much hdd space you need?

Hesky82 · 16 May 2008 at 19:22

Unless you need loads of storage space, high res gaming or a case made from forged aluminium you need not spend 600 pounds

spicypixel · 16 May 2008 at 19:37

Hope someone specs a AMD 780G system...

FISHGUTS · 16 May 2008 at 20:36

Ok,
If that's overkill that's great.
As for hdd space I dunno what would you recommend?
I'm very grateful for any recomendations as I'm well behind the times

Glaucus · 16 May 2008 at 20:40

FISHGUTS said:
Ok,
If that's overkill that's great.
As for hdd space I dunno what would you recommend?
I'm very grateful for any recomendations as I'm well behind the times

Are you going to rip your dvd's to the hdd?
if so you want about 4GB per film.
SOme cases like this come witha remote and a lcd panel.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-046-SV&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=1114

But they are expensive. But with a 600 budget should be doable depending on hdd storage.

In the mean time, something like this.

Split the smaller hdd into two sections 40/120 or 60/100 os/music
Then leaves the big harddrive for films

thefishdude · 16 May 2008 at 21:03

excellently hi specced system there, i was about to spec one up using virtually identical parts excpet i picked the gigabyte 780g board and 2gb of ram not 4.

anyway what ever you choose the 780g chipset micro atx boars are the way the way to go as they have built hd decoders wich alow low power cpus to play full 1080p with out even breaking into a sweat

Hesky82 · 16 May 2008 at 21:11

4gb for a htpc??

Glaucus · 16 May 2008 at 21:13

Hesky82 said:
4gb for a htpc??

if he ever rips dvds it'll speed it up a bit. I was just specing it to a price. can always get 2 instead.

FISHGUTS · 16 May 2008 at 22:31

AcidHell2 said:
if he ever rips dvds it'll speed it up a bit. I was just specing it to a price. can't always get 2.

4 SOUNDS BETTER

Michael Myers · 17 May 2008 at 01:12

i had a hd rig with an athlon 4200 x2, it struggled to cope playing 1080p films back, it needed a decent overlock to be fine

Glaucus · 17 May 2008 at 01:24

CoreKrogoth said:
i had a hd rig with an athlon 4200 x2, it struggled to cope playing 1080p films back, it needed a decent overlock to be fine

I bet you didn't have the 780G chipset though which is designed to decode Hd videos and so leave the cpu free.

Hesky82 · 17 May 2008 at 01:27

I run a MoDT with a weedy 1.66GHz core duo mobile and thanks to the modern ATI gfx card 1080p playback use no CPU occupancy at all

This way I can run my system completely passive, no fans at all so its dead silent, yet kicks out no heat.

FISHGUTS · 17 May 2008 at 13:18

Thank you Acidhell2.
What about if I wanted to do a spot of gaming, what gfx card should I get.

Glaucus · 17 May 2008 at 13:36

If you want to play games on it that changes everything. You would better going with a c2d and ati graphics card on a normal atx board and a normal case.
Are you really going to play games on it though? I take it you have no table for keyboard/mouse.

Michael Myers · 17 May 2008 at 14:22

AcidHell2 said:
I bet you didn't have the 780G chipset though which is designed to decode Hd videos and so leave the cpu free.

very true missed out that bit

hp7909 · 17 May 2008 at 14:59

FishGUTS said:
What about if I wanted to do a spot of gaming

Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI AMD 780G Micro-ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £52.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ 2.20GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £34.99
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £29.99
Samsung SpinPoint F1 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502IJ) £39.99
Samsung SH-S203DBEBN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Antec Fusion Black HTPC Case - 430HE Watt PSU £104.99
Xbox 360 Arcade Games Console £164.99
Logitech Cordless Desktop Comfort Laser - Retail (967692-0120) £34.99
Sub Total : £476.92
Shipping : £12.95
VAT : £85.73
Total : £575.60

FISHGUTS · 17 May 2008 at 16:38

AcidHell2 said:
If you want to play games on it that changes everything. You would better going with a c2d and ati graphics card on a normal atx board and a normal case.
Are you really going to play games on it though? I take it you have no table for keyboard/mouse.

I'm not bothered about games that much if it was possible fine if not no probs.
I don't want a big ugly noisy pc case in my living room

Glaucus · 17 May 2008 at 16:47

FISHGUTS said:
I'm not bothered about games that much if it was possible fine if not no probs.
I don't want a big ugly noisy pc case in my living room

If it was my I would get a similar spec to the above and at a latter date add a gfx card and phenom if you really want to game. I wouldn't compromise the media computer components to play games. Do you need a tv card?

FISHGUTS · 17 May 2008 at 17:00

AcidHell2 said:
If it was my I would get a similar spec to the above and at a latter date add a gfx card and phenom if you really want to game. I wouldn't compromise the media computer components to play games. Do you need a tv card?

What is phenom?

I guess a tv card would mean I could save tv programs to the HD?
If so yes.