A HTPC for my parents, AM3 OR E-350? :)

[Bowser Delta]

Hi guys, im building a htpc for my parents. It'll most likely run Ubuntu or XBMC Live (maybe even W7 if i can get a copy). Its purely going to be used for streaming HD media (Youtube and iPlayer) and watching fullHD videos off of an external drive.

The part i'm stuck on is whether to go for:

Case: Antec ISK-100
Mobo: Asus E35M1-I DELUXE
RAM: Corsair XMS3 4GB
HDD: Western Digital Scorpio Blue 250GB

--OR--

Spend an extra £20 on

Case: Antec ISK-100
Mobo: Asus M4A88T-I Deluxe + Athlon II X2 250 3Ghz
RAM: Corsair SODIMM 4GB
HDD: Western Digital Scorpio Blue 250GB

Do i need to favour the better graphics (i think they are? lol) of the E350 or go for the faster clock speed of the Athlon?

Thanks

 

[DarkMatter]

I amjust about to make myself a new HTPC and i decided upon the E350, i kept on looking at I3 etc but ultimately if the E350 can do the job and is the cheapest..... Then i couldn't justify getting anything faster, also it being passivly cooled ticks one my biggest boxes being silence....

 

[gropingmantis]

E350 definitely. Unless your parents are going to be doing anything particularly CPU intensive the better graphics will be more useful in an HTPC.

 

[shadow_boxer]

E350 definitely. Unless your parents are going to be doing anything particularly CPU intensive the better graphics will be more useful in an HTPC.

This! I have an Athlon X2 240/Radeon HD5450 (passive) and I can tell you in this weather its not exactly cool. The E350 is definitely the way to go. Won't struggle with full HD. Discrete gfx cards are useful when playing back blu ray at 23.976 fps as on boards IGP introduce stutters when playing back at 24fps.

 

[Bowser Delta]

Went for the e350, might post some pics when i'm done. Thanks very much guys

 

[welshdragon]

Case: Antec ISK-100
Mobo: Asus E35M1-I DELUXE
RAM: Corsair XMS3 4GB
HDD: Western Digital Scorpio Blue 250GB


Thanks

I recently built a system almost identical. I'm really impressed with E350 and case. Cannot hear it at all. Win 7 is surprisingly quick as is xbmc. I used the asrock board with the cpu fan and changed the fan speed in the bios to lowest as the case is well ventilated with a fan on it.

E350 all the way for just web/xbmc etc

My build log:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18271957

Its a nice tight fit which may cause some swearing but stick with it.

 

[onlinegamer3]

E350 has lowe power consumption and still can go it's job quite well, and the gpu is better than on Asus M4A88T-I Deluxe, and E350 with it clocks can handle movies very well