Budget spec check

NotAGolf · 11 Jul 2011 at 10:37

So I've come up with the following spec for a budget build to be used in my living room as a htpc. I had a go at spec'ing a small unit (see here), but I'm not sure that'll be powerful enough.

My only requirements is that it is good enough to play blurays smoothly, is cheap, and as quiet as possible. I've come up with the following:

I already have a hard drive and blu ray drive to use with it.

I've also priced up and AMD alternative at the same price (other components the same):
- AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.00GHz Socket AM3 2MB L2 Cache Retail
- Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2 Geforce Socket AM3 mATX Motherboard

Will that do the job? Any improvements or suggestions?

Thanks

hybrid572 · 11 Jul 2011 at 10:43

Both builds you've mentioned seem fine. I'd be tempted to go for the AMD build over the Intel one purely because AM3 is still current gen and if you ever wanted to upgrade it to a PC for gaming or anything else that needs a fair bit of juice, it's far easier when your hardware socket hasn't been made obsolete twice so far.

hybrid572 · 11 Jul 2011 at 10:47

It's also worth mentioning that Atom, Ion and Zacate systems are all fine for HTPC use as long as you have 2GB of RAM, and their power use will be considerably less (~60W as opposed to ~180W). On the other hand, if you wanted to go overboard an i3 2100 plus an H67 motherboard has some serious power behind it, albeit for £170.

Jony27 · 11 Jul 2011 at 11:49

ever thought of going Llano and use the powerful onboard graphics?

cheapest Llano i could spec

AMD Llano A6-3650 2.60GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor (AD3650WNGXBOX) AMD Llano A6-3650 2.60GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor (AD3650WNGXBOX) £88.99
(£74.16) £88.99
(£74.16)
Asus F1A75-M AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM1) DDR3 Motherboard Asus F1A75-M AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM1) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Cooler Master Elite 330 Midi Tower Case - Black Cooler Master Elite 330 Midi Tower Case - Black £28.99
(£24.16) £28.99
(£24.16)
OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3G1333LV4GK) OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3G1333LV4GK) £25.99
(£21.66) £25.99
(£21.66)
Lepa N-Series 400W Power Supply Lepa N-Series 400W Power Supply £24.98
(£20.82) £24.98
(£20.82)
Sub Total : £207.46
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.25
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £43.74
Total : £262.45

NotAGolf · 11 Jul 2011 at 12:10

hybrid572 said:
Both builds you've mentioned seem fine. I'd be tempted to go for the AMD build over the Intel one purely because AM3 is still current gen and if you ever wanted to upgrade it...

Very unlikely to upgrade tbh. I've had 3 pc's over the years and everytime I've come to upgrade I've always ended up buying a whole new setup as it was all old hat. With this it should be even longer as the requirements of playing media shouldn't change much!

hybrid572 said:
It's also worth mentioning that Atom, Ion and Zacate systems are all fine for HTPC use as long as you have 2GB of RAM, and their power use will be considerably less (~60W as opposed to ~180W).

I linked to a thread in my OP where I made up a small form build with an ION in for less than this build but I was concerned it would not be powerful enough....

Jony27 said:
ever thought of going Llano and use the powerful onboard graphics?

I'm not convinced by the onboard graphics and that is over budget even with a questionable psu I'm afraid!

Thanks again.

Reaper 392 · 11 Jul 2011 at 12:13

mpledge52 said:
I'm not convinced by the onboard graphics and that is over budget even with a questionable psu I'm afraid!

Thanks again.

onboard graphics are about 3x better than intels best onboard offerings. they can happily run crysis 2 at middling settings

munz · 11 Jul 2011 at 12:36

could get away with 2gb ram

been looking into this area a lot recently it all seems to be i3/ zacate/llano builds tbh.
nice to see a core2duo build would be very interested in how it does once its built.

Zacate should be more than powerful enough for what you need tbh.
this poweful will be powerful enough aswell.

NotAGolf · 11 Jul 2011 at 12:45

Hmm, it's interesting that you're saying the Zacate/ION boards will be powerful as that would be my preffered choice - smaller, quieter and cheaper (to purchase and run).

After reading a bit I started to convince myself they wouldn't be quite good enough for BluRay playback (direct from disk or from mkv on hdd).

I personally like the look of the Asus AT5IONT-I Intel Atom D525 / NM10 Motherboard for £125. Teamed with a couple of gig of ram.

munz · 11 Jul 2011 at 15:54

zacate will be less powerful than C2duo + hd5450, upgrade wise i guess you can drop a quad core cpu in or newer gpu down the line but with the zacate you have to change 1 big component (cpu/gpu/mobo all in one)

av forums in general is great palce to find out mroe info about htpc also:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/home...amd-zacate-mini-pc-build-video-build-log.html

http://www.avforums.com/forums/home...silverstone-lc19-case-low-power-amd-e350.html

are couple of threads i found in my favourites might be useful.

im personally im gonna go AMD Llano... because its 4 core, its new, its apu performs better than HD6450.... good balance between power usage and performance
cons: matx only atm so bigger case, bit overkill for htpc but gives some head room/wiggle room I guess