Suggestions for a low power consumption m-atx HTPC

Jon20 · 26 Jul 2009 at 12:59

Suggestions for a low power consumption m-atx/m-itx HTPC

Hi,

As the title suggests, I'm looking for advice on building a low power consumption m-atx HTPC. I'd like it to be as quiet as possible. It would mainly be used just for watching TV and some DVD's. So far from looking around I've come to a list of components that include:

AMD 780G motherboard - not sure which, would be nice if it had the possibility to undervolt the CPU
AMD 4850e CPU - seem to be difficult to find though
Scythe Mini Ninja - hopefully run passively
Silverstone ST30NF PSU - fanless so no noise
4GB RAM - probably not needed but its as its cheap, why not
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB or Samsung EcoGreen F2 1TB
Possibly a Blu-Ray drive but I'm not sure if I'd really need it, so might just stick to a DVD drive
Lian Li V351 - personal preference but I'm open to other case suggestions
TV card - no idea which, preferably with twin tuners

Is there an Intel equivalent for the motherboard and CPU? I haven't seen much mention of them in the HTPC sector.

Thanks.

Edit: Also including suggestions for m-itx now.

95thrifles · 26 Jul 2009 at 13:07

Been toying with the idea of a HTPC myself and this spec is pretty good, imo

Jon20 · 26 Jul 2009 at 13:17

I also looked at the Mini-ITX, as it would be nice to have a really small case, and specifically at the Zotac boards but I couldn't see a PCI slot which would be needed for the TV card. Do the Zotac boards have one? I know you can get USB TV cards/sticks but I'm not sure how reliable they would be. Hence why I've been looking at m-atx, as it seems to give more options.

95thrifles · 26 Jul 2009 at 13:23

It has one PCI-E slot, which you can either use to add a dedicated gfx card (no real need unless youre gaming, the onboard is very capable) or install a PCI-E TV card, whilst its a x16 lane you can still install a x1 or x4 card, PCI-E is backwards compatible like that

Jon20 · 26 Jul 2009 at 13:31

95thrifles said:
It has one PCI-E slot, which you can either use to add a dedicated gfx card (no real need unless youre gaming, the onboard is very capable) or install a PCI-E TV card, whilst its a x16 lane you can still install a x1 or x4 card, PCI-E is backwards compatible like that

Ahh, I didn't know you could get PCI-E TV cards. That opens up a lot more possibilities then, thanks 95thrifles.

Jon20 · 26 Jul 2009 at 16:41

Just wondering how this looks. It's basically the same as 95thrifles, except for the hard drive. I don't think I really need a 1TB drive and as HDD is a 2.5" it should run cooler and quieter? Just leaves me with finding an aftermarket cooler and a PCI-E TV card. Any suggestions for those? Perhaps a Scythe Shuriken for the cooler, no idea about the TV card.

Jon20 · 27 Jul 2009 at 15:45

Is this TV card any good? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-018-CP

Also is the stock cooler that comes with an E5300 quiet? I've never used a stock cooler before as I've always just used aftermarket coolers. If not, is a Scythe Shuriken the way to go?