Help picking parts

swiss_tony · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:31

First post on this forum (although regular poster on avforums) and just trying to get some advice on htpc build (budget). I have used media streamers in the past and frustrated with poor interfaces etc. Basically been racking my brains on what a ideal system will be. Main goal is to get a system which can handle video output (HD etc) and HD audio, internet browsing (wireless), TV. My budget is £350 (inc OS) and going to add optical drive at later date. So far I have:

Gigabyte GA-880GMA-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) DDR3 microATX Motherboard

Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-II 64MB Cache -OEM

OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz

OcUK Aphrodite Media Case -Black

AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 255 3.10GHz

XFX ATI Radeon HD 5450 SILENT 512MB GDDR3

TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless-N PCI Adapter

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

I have included a separate graphics card just incase the motherboard one won't suffice.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

stulid · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:33

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £81.98
(£68.32) £81.98
(£68.32)
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.33
(£53.61) £64.33
(£53.61)
AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 445 3.10GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM 1yr Warranty (ST31000518AS) £37.99
(£31.66) £37.99
(£31.66)
Corsair Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit £33.58
(£27.98) £33.58
(£27.98)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.98
(£11.65) £13.98
(£11.65)
Sub Total : £284.87
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £59.07
Total : £354.44

are you wanting a HDMI connection? so you can transmit video and audio to a TV?

swiss_tony · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:45

Yer, will likely be connected through my amp so will need some form of hdmi output.

stulid · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:52

its lucky that the motherboard has a HDMI video/audio port on the back, and a optical S/PDIF as well.

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=bZpT4egUiqtojuHR&templete=2

swiss_tony · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:55

Thanks for your help, will I need to include a network card for WiFi purposes?

stulid · 31 Jan 2011 at 19:56

swiss_tony said:
Thanks for your help, will I need to include a network card for WiFi purposes?

dont know, can you just use a ethernet cable?

and you cant add an optical drive later, how will you install windows?

swiss_tony · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:00

Good thinking about Windows. Ideally would prefer the option of wireless internet incase I shift pc into bedroom, or alternative would be to buy another router to put in bedroom.

Tonester007 · 31 Jan 2011 at 20:25

Just a thought... if you have access to another PC you could create a Win7 install on a 4Gb USB stick. I upgraded my netbook to Win7 using this method.

swiss_tony · 1 Feb 2011 at 08:09

Good thinking.

swiss_tony · 1 Feb 2011 at 17:42

Last question before I buy, does the Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard have any performance benefit over the Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard?

stulid · 1 Feb 2011 at 17:52

it has a slightly better on board gpu, but both are so slow that gaming would be pants anyway, for what you want, either is fine.

The £80 gigabyte GA-880GMA-UD2H has sata and usb3.0 too.

swiss_tony · 1 Feb 2011 at 17:57

Guess it would be better putting the £21 difference to the cost off an separate graphics card in the future.