Spec me a pure Blu Ray HTPC

Faztastic · 5 Nov 2010 at 11:22

Hey gang,

Basically what im looking for is a small slim build that will fit neatly under my freesat box and black samsung 1080i television (<-- fail i know haha) it will be replacing the spot of my ps3 as im only using it for blu ray. Then i can sell my ps3.

I will be connecting to the tv via hdmi, and 5.1 surround sound home theatre that isnt hdmi but is capable of DTS with spdif (optical) so motherboard must have these connections. (i saw the Zotac 9300ITX Motherboard are there any similair ones but cheaper)

i just want to be able to browse the web at 1080i resolution and purely play blu ray, no games involved but i wouldnt mind a graphics card that will enhance picture quality in cyberlink.

so remember

Small as possible, low power, losless blu ray sound, and a small gpu to give a bit of a boost. (unless the zotac can provide that)

budget £350 could push to £400 but cheaper the better.

Thanks OCUK, you will be doing me a big favour as this is for the whole family.

95thrifles · 5 Nov 2010 at 11:33

Hey, look at build in this thread, just delete windows n kb/mouse you should be under £400, the integrated gpu will be fine

Faztastic · 5 Nov 2010 at 11:38

95thrifles said:
Hey, look at build in this thread, just delete windows n kb/mouse you should be under £400, the integrated gpu will be fine

Could i go with a socket 775, and an intel duel core. surely that would be enough, that will save a few bob.

Dont forget i need blu ray drive.

95thrifles · 5 Nov 2010 at 11:43

oh yeah, lol, might help

Just looked and it doesnt really save you much (bout a tenner - mobo same price, ram same price, cpu little cheaper) going 775, still get what you need under £400

Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Mini-ITX Motherboard £89.99
Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £79.98
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £65.99
Lian Li PC-Q07B Mini-ITX Case - Black £49.98
LiteOn iHOS104-37 4x BD-ROM Drive (Black) - OEM £41.11
Corsair CX 430W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUK) £37.98
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £33.98
Total : £399.02

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 5 Nov 2010 at 11:44

Faztastic said:
Could i go with a socket 775, and an intel duel core. surely that would be enough, that will save a few bob.

Dont forget i need blu ray drive.

Easily.

I have a E6750 with 2Gb of cheapo ram and its hardly stressed.
Using a 4550 GPU I think or maybe a 4650 (can't remember what it was)

RJC · 5 Nov 2010 at 12:41

My HTPC spec was a E2200 and 4650 gpu, this played blu-ray fine.

Faztastic · 5 Nov 2010 at 17:55

I have just found
eMachine ER1401 Desktop which says it supports hd audio.. with spdif, i hope it can do 5.1, i can then buy a slim usb blu ray drive.

all for £339 without optical drive

Audio
S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface)5 support for digital speakers
High-definition audio support
MS Sound compatible

Processor
AMD Athlon™ II Neo dual-core processor K325 1.30GHz
2 MB L2 cache,
800 MHz FSB
NVIDIA®nForce® 9200 Chipset
Memory
3GB DDR3 800MHz
2 x soDIMM slot
Hard Drive
500GB 5400 RPM
2.5” HDD
Optical Drive
None
Software
Operating System: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit
Adobe® Reader®
Microsoft® Office Home and Student Edition 2007 Trial8 (Service Pack 2)
Microsoft® Works Trial
Adobe® Flash® Player
Google Toolbar™
CyberLink® PowerDVD™
Nero® 9 Essentials
Oberon GameZone
eMachines Recovery Management

Wireless mouse and keyboard

good value?

would this work?

95thrifles · 5 Nov 2010 at 18:04

It'll work, but unless you need all that software, youre getting much less hardware for your money, by the time youve bought a blu ray drive youre not far off £400, the build above has much more power so will run faster, last longer and be upgradable to a decent machine if ever needed

Faztastic · 5 Nov 2010 at 18:06

95thrifles said:
It'll work, but unless you need all that software, youre getting much less hardware for your money, by the time youve bought a blu ray drive youre not far off £400, the build above has much more power so will run faster, last longer and be upgradable to a decent machine if ever needed

That is a good point, but i already have a gaming pc, this will just be more of a convenience thing, if i want to show my parents something quickly i can just show them on tv excetera, I did forget to mention i needed windows 7 and probably some blu ray software and it comes bundled with it.

Jony27 · 5 Nov 2010 at 19:40

95thrifles said:
Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Mini-ITX Motherboard £89.99
Intel Pentium Dual-Core G6950 2.80GHz (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £58.74
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £65.99
Lian Li PC-Q07B Mini-ITX Case - Black £49.98
LiteOn iHOS104-37 4x BD-ROM Drive (Black) - OEM £41.11
Corsair CX 430W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUK) £37.98
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £33.98
Total : £378

total price was an estimate lol, i only swapped the cpu