budget htpc

[MrMoonX]

Hi all, ive been on mac for the last few years but I want an HTPC so I can play Pc games, I dont have a lot of money but whats a good set up for around £400-500

cheers

 

[zbo]

What about installing windows on your mac? That'll be the cheapest option.

 

[MrMoonX]

What about installing windows on your mac? That'll be the cheapest option.

its only a macbook, would be good to play arma2 on my 37" tv

 

[iraiguana]

Optimal PC Requirements

* CPU: Intel Core 2.8 GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or faster
* RAM: 2 GB
* Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT / ATI Radeon 4850 with Shader Model 3 and 512 MB VRAM or faster
* OS: Windows XP or Vista

Get better than this and stick it in a matx htpc case? May struggle with the budget to be honest as the cases alone are not exactly cheap.

 

[MrMoonX]

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £145.99
Lian-Li V350B Aluminium Mini-Tower - Black (No PSU) £85.09
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £62.09
Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H GeForce 7100 Micro-ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard£57.49
Sony BDU-X10S Blu-Ray Reader Serial-ATA Drive - Retail £53.99
OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply £52.99
Samsung SpinPoint F1 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502IJ) £44.99
Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX Dual Channel (TWIN2X4096-6400C5) £39.99

Sub Total : £471.84
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £72.54
Total : £556.13

Please critique

 

[hawker1986]

Looks OK, but you could get the OCZ gold RAM and shave £5 off. Change the Samsung drive for one of the 500GB Seagate 7200.12 and save another couple of quid (it will be faster too). Change the PSU to a corsair 400W, which is more than adequate for your needs, and then replace your frankly rubbish mobo with an intel G33/35/4x series one so you can get a decent OC out of the CPU. Even one of the cheapo G31s would be better than that one.

Hawker

 

[freddie64]

I would not get the Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H if you plan to overclock, the ram volts are fixed at 1.8v and can't be altered.

 

[manic111]

If you're looking to save money drop the 4890 for a 1GB 4870; £50 cheaper, and if you're building on a budget the performance is still ace!

 

[errata]

whys this a htpc and not just a gaming rig?
vista is going to cost circa £60 as well

 

[Columbo]

I'm using a very similar build to the one below and it does everything I need it to.

 

[ZXSpectrum]

You really dont need to spend a huge amount on a HTPC... Is it going to be plugged into a TV or a Monitor? Is it 720p or 1080p?

Mine was pretty cheap... But i dont game...

M-ATX Motheboard with HDMI From MM - £25
Intel E2180 CPU From MM - £20
Compro Dual DVB-T Card From MM - £40
500Gb Hard Drive - £39
4Gb DDR2 From MM - £22
Hyper media Chassis - £60
Optical DVD-RW - Free

Total: £206!!! i am sure that would be fine playing games if i stuck a half decent card in it (If it would fit.. )

 

[The Deuce]

Maybe check some of AMD's energy efficient cpu's like the 5050e..won't overclock well though!