Advice/Reccomendation's Small Form Factor Media Centre Build

[Brutalraw]

Hi Everyone ,

im just looking for a bit of advice really .

its been a good 5 years since ive built up a new System and could really do with someone's help in reccomending Hardware to meet my need's .

I've managed to Acquire an Intel Core 2 Quad (Q6600) and im looking to build my Family a little media centre PC that will sit underneath the Tv downstair's (Mainly because our Freeview/HDD recorder combo died at christmas).

At this point i only have the Q6600 and 2 x 2GB DDR2 RAM Module's.

so i wondered if somebody could reccomend me a few part's to match up with the processor , i would ideally have it in a case that is as Slim as Possible but realise by doing this im limiting my option's in regard's to performance .

all we really need it to be able to do is Take a TV card and a receiver for a remote control so we can watch TV via Media Centre .

Im completely open to suggestion's.

CPU : Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
RAM : 2 x 2GB Corsair XMS (will check the Model and speed tonight)
Case : I was thinking something like an Antec Fusion Micro ATX case? but again its completely open to discussion .

Graphics Card : ?
Power Supply : ?
TV Card : ?
Wireless Card : ?
CPU Cooler : ?

Budget : Ideally something around the £400-£500 mark but can stretch a bit further if needed , i will just have to wait off untill the next payday .


Thank you in advance for anyone willing to help .

BR .

 

[Brutalraw]

Thank You for the Reply

R088ieS86 Thank you very much for your reply .

thats exactly what i was looking for , and yes i will swap the DDR2 for DDR3 thats no problem . the DDR2 was from a pretty Old AMD Black Edition build a while back so is probably very dated by now .

Cant thank you enough for getting back to me , i was really sturggling to find the right kit to fit the Mobo size i needed but that post pretty much covered it all.

I already have a 2TB HDD but was thinking i may get a SSD for the OS install .

but will deffinetly be getting a Blueray drive later down the line .

I Apologise about Hotlinking also that was a genuine mistake which i porbably should have thought about prior to Posting it up , i will edit that out now .

*Apologies to Admin's also really was a Genuine mistake*

Kind regards

BR

 

[Brutalraw]

Thanks For Reply

Hey CTF ,

Thanks for the reply , its something i will take into consideration but ideally i wanted to Re-use my Quad as i have it spare .

Thanks for the input eitherway .

BR

 

[Brutalraw]

Looks like the Antec Fusion is a no go ,

Out of stock on OCUK and everywhere else by the looks of it .
Any suggestion's on a SFF Case that would house the following :

1 x OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-60G) £59.99
1 x Compro VideoMate S800F PCIe Quad Mode DVB-S / DVB-T / Analogue TV / Radio Tuner and Remote £50.99
1 x ZOTAC GeForce GTX 520 ZONE Edition 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £41.99
1 x Asus P5G41T-M LX Intel G41 (Socket 775) DDR3 Motherboard £39.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £34.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £19.99
1 x OcUK Value 300Mbps Wireless-N PCI Adapter £16.99

Taking into consideration i wont need the "Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £104.99"

so i have about £200 to play with there on a decent case as Antec Fusion was the only SFF case i could find that took Full Size card's and had a nice black piano finish to match in with the current T.V setup.

Again any advice is very much appreciated and thanks again to R088ieS86 for his help so far.

BR

 

[Brutalraw]

The thing is though,idle power consumption of the Q6600 is quite high(I have one myself) and I just get the feeling the A6 would be a better choice in the long run and also it will be easier to cool quietly too.

After quite a lot of thought on this speaking with my Dad last night i think your quite right CTF your suggestion may be a better one long term in regards to consumption and for remaining quiet underneath the TV , im holding fire on Buying the part's now until the end of April anyway maybe even May .

but i have the Q6600 + Mobo and RAM already so I was just looking to utilise some spare part's so i may just end up sticking those in a full ATX tower case and buy a seperate SSD , GFX card and PSU for my friend as he is suffering along with an old Acer Laptop running a Celeron (poor guy) .

then as you Suggested maybe i will get the GBA55M Mobo and the Llano A6-3500 CPU , but will this be as efficient as running the Q6 i leave myself asking?

Also this will still leave me enough slot's for the Wifi , GFX and TV card's R088ieS86 has kindly suggested so looks like a winner .

Silverstone do some nice cases:

SilverStone Grandia GD02(pic is in white but does come in black)
SilverStone Grandia GD06

Zalman also brought out a htpc range like:
Zalman HD503 Home Theatre PC Case

Again R088ieS86 great find thanks for your help ,

think i will opt for either the Zalman HD503 or The SilverStone GD06 but i have a whole month to decide on that so thanks for taking the time to look for me , ive not kept upto date with my IT/PC stuff for a few years so looks like ive got a lot to read up on .

Thanks again guy's .

BR

 

[Brutalraw]

Don't bother with a graphics card unless you want to play games on it, the one built into the A6-3500 is plenty good enough for even the largest of videos. Plus it will keep your idle power much lower than the Q6600, it really is no comparison in that way. I have seen the A6 having whole computers running at 20W idle.

How about a 150W pico psu? That should be good enough for what you run.

so im guessing the A6-3500 with the built in IGP should about cover what i want to run ?

it only need's to achieve running Media Centre on Win 7 so we can record TV show's on there (replacing an old Freeview to HDD recorder combo)

and to Play Blueray (MKV) quality films from my NAS drive

i was just a bit worried that the IGP on that CPU may not be powerful enough to play MKV file's as ive seen some low end card's sturggle playing Film's like Transformer's when it gets to the CGI scene's so thats why i intended to get an Additional Gfx card .

but if you guy's think the A6 with the Onboard chip and the Pico PSU will be enough to achieve what i want then im willing to bow down to Superior knowledge and take your word for it .

I will be getting half the parts this month and half next though I think it may be worth getting the 450W PSU just in case i choose to add a card in later on.

As always Thanks for the Input guy's much appreciated .

BR

 

[Brutalraw]

Yeah it has plenty of power! I use an old Ati 4350 graphics card and it plays very high bitrate mkv's fine, lets say a 100minute video that is 15gb. Have a read of this thread as the guy uses an A6-3500 for media playback. As you can see his power usage is really low.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18360592

Strange coincidence that , i was reading that very thread yesterday afternoon just after i posted my reply in here .

im still in 2 mind's wether to run a Pico + Brick (Im pretty bad at making decisions ) or just to get the Xfx 450W now as if being honest with myself im probably never going to chuck any games at it to play , just needs to decode a blueray at the most so the lower power consumption and the Pico may be a smarter move .

do you think 120w is enough or should i opt for 150w if i can find one for a decent price? (i have looked but they do end up a bit expensive after you add the powerbrick in ontop of it?)

Ive also managed to find Antec Fusion case i was after online so i might still opt for that in the end.

Payday tomorrow though so going to start buying some of the part's and finish the build in April if all goes to plan .

BR