Best Htpc Build?

[bettz]

Hi all i've been messing with my Revo rl70 for the past 3 weeks and i'm very impressed with it.I've showed my parents what it can do and they want one but in a case that would fit in there tv unit.I was after some advice & help on what parts would be best? My dad would like to be able to play some pc games old total war games etc nothing to new!! Would it also be possible to record tv? then he can sell his humax box ??

He's looked at a few cases he likes
Lion-Li Cases & Antec Fusion Cases
I was thinking of at least a 1TB Hdd
We wouldn't need an O/s as i've windows 7 Home

Any Advice?



I was tempted to buy a build off ebay for £400 but wasn't sure it was worth it ??


Antec Fusion Remote Case
Be Quiet 520W PSU (very quiet..)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit-SP1 -OEM- loaded + disc.
ASRock Z68 Pro3-M Motherboard + discs
ASRock instant boot installed return to Windows from power off in seconds
Intel i5 Quad proccessor @2.80GHz
4GB Corsair Memory
Samsung Spinpoint 1TB hard drive + spare drive bay
Samsung Blu-ray drive ;-write DVD-R -RW +CD CDR
Play or Copy Blu-ray with correct software
USB 3.0
HDMi + DVI +Display
Spdf digital output

 

[Gav_881]

N40L microserver - £100-120 after cashback
2Gb RAM - £10 ish
HD5450 - £20-25 or HD6450 £30 - worth it for game play (mine with a 5450 did SWTOR at 720p low settings and the 6450 is a far better card)
TV or sat tuner card - £40-120 depending on preference.

Comes with a 250Gb HDD and room for 3 more 3.5" drives and a 5.25"drive bay (you need a molex to sata cable and a sata cable to use the bay)

Doesnt give you USB3 but its fairly quiet an compact and cheap as chips, an I5 is very overkill for a HTPC.

 

[bettz]

Hows this look?

Case: Antec Fusion £118

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3V, £40

Processor: Intel Core i3 3225,£110

Psu: Be Quiet E9 Straight Power 480W £90

Gpu: ATI Radeon 6450 £20

Cpu Cooler: Scythe Shuriken £20-£30

Ram: Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600MHz Memory £20

Tv Card: BlackGold USB twin DVB-T BGT3550 £90

HDD:SSD to install Os £50
1 TB HDD £50

 

[The Deuce]

first thing I would do is ditch the intel system and go for an AMD Llano A3870k system, will do everything you want and a lot cheaper

check out these.....

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-358-GI&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=2058

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-316-AM&groupid=701&catid=1967&subcat=2060

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-135-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1387

The onboard APU GFX will be a lot better than a standalone 6450

 

[bettz]

Thanks but i've noticed the AMD is more power hungry than the i3 3225

first thing I would do is ditch the intel system and go for an AMD Llano A3870k system, will do everything you want and a lot cheaper

check out these.....

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-358-GI&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=2058

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-316-AM&groupid=701&catid=1967&subcat=2060

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-135-GL&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1387

The onboard APU GFX will be a lot better than a standalone 6450

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks but i've noticed the AMD is more power hungry than the i3 3225

TDP does not equal power consumption. My experience with the A6-3670K is that it really does not consume that much under load - basically it consumes no more than 80W for a whole system using an SSD under a gaming load. Llano also has low load and idle power consumption - my A6-3670K and my Core i3 2100 are not very different TBH. A few people have run them off picoPSUs too on this forum AFAIK.

The IGP on the Llano A8 is around HD5550 GDDR5 or HD5570 GDDR3 level.

However,the Trinity A10 CPUs are being launched next week. This improves CPU performance a bit over the Llano A8 CPUs. It also increases IGP performance a decent level - it appears to be around HD6570 GDDR3 level. Idle and low load power consumption appears to have improved over Llano.

The 65W TDP A10-5700 looks quite interesting and for an HTPC looks a great option IMHO.

Edit!!

Here is a comparison of the 100W TDP A10-5800K and the Core i3-3225 running a few games at 1920X1080:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/trinity-gaming-performance,review-32533-5.html

The A10-5700 has a lower 65W TDP, but only drops the IGP clockspeed by around 5% and CPU clockspeed by around 5% to 10% so should be around A10-5800K level performance.