Building a HTPC

Ph4lanx

Ph4lanx

Ph4lanx

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Joined
19 Apr 2010
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474
Location
Surrey
Hi guys,

I've been trying to read up on good HTPC-style motherboards and parts to use for a HTPC I want to build for my dad for Christmas. I've got about £250 for the system itself (not including peripherals, etc) and I was wondering how you guys might spec out a HTPC for that price.

I'm not too worried about storage, as I have a NAS on the network, and I have the OS already, so I'm looking for straight hardware and of course, quietness, to a certain extent.

What would you guys use in your builds? Does anyone feel like speccing up an example I can work from? :)
 
Your basic mobo/ram/cpu will look like this

Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard £69.99
Patriot Viper 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS34G1600LLK) £63.44
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £41.99
Total : £175.43

The mobos onboard gfx will be fine for HTPC, add in your HDD, optical drive and go for as good a case as you can stretch to as this will have biggest impact on noise levels
Dont need v high wattage PSU but get good make one if you can, eg Corsair CX430
 
Ah, so AMD is the preferred choice for HTPCs then? Fair enough.

Do you have any suggestions on a case? A more subtle front fascia would probably suit my father's layout better, and possibly not too big :)
 
An alternative to the above would be to go ITX, eg

Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Mini-ITX Motherboard £89.99
Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £85.99
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £65.99
Akasa Crypto ITX Case - Black (60W PSU) £44.99
Samsung SpinPoint M7 320GB 5400RPM SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HM320II) £32.89
Sony Optiarc AD-7700S 8x DVD±RW SATA Drive - OEM £23.49
Total: £343.34

Make sure if you go this route you order the slimline optical drive and 2.5" HDD as included
I'll have a quick look at cases for the mATX build, does it have to be media style? i.e. flat (cos theres not too many cheap models of this about, cheapest in stock), or would he be happy with a simple small tower stood to the side E.g.?
 
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Go second hand. I am right now trying to make up a htpc from old pc parts. I will be using just a p4 3.4ghz but offloading the video to a cheap (was thinking a 5450 @ sub £30) graphics card. People have told me on other forums that it will be able to do 1080p mkv's with the correct codec setup to make use of the graphics card. If you go new here is a list below, then add a psu and case to that.

spec.png


Edit - Slight mistake, you need ddr3 memory instead.
 
Wow, this is harder than I realised. Would I not need a motherboard with integrated graphics? Otherwise I would be looking at a stand up machine instead of a HTPC design?

Edit: 95thrifles, I do have the HDD and OS, yes. Good point! Do you think a case and PSU could come out of £75 and not be a normal case tower?
 
You can get cases that use risers or you go for a half height graphics card. Thats what I am looking at and I am finding the case ends up being ~100mm thick with a half height.
 
Well, the machine just has to handle some light internet surfing and playing videos and DVDs and that's about the hardest it will have :)
 
Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) - Retail £82.24
(£69.99) £82.24
(£69.99)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £58.74
(£49.99) £58.74
(£49.99)
MSI H55M-E23 Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 Motherboard £51.69
(£43.99) £51.69
(£43.99)
Sub Total : £163.97


£192.66

The abilty to bitsream HD master audio over HDMI makes i3 the perect choice.I'm gobsmaked people are suggesting AMD for the same price.

someones even suggested a 5450 at 35 on top. Whats the point? Thats nearly the cost of the mobo I suggested
 
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easyrider, would you use the stock cooler for the CPU or replace it with a quieter one? It needs to fit that media case. Would you use the 500w PSU included in the case with your i3 setup?
 
Yes the stock cooler is fine. i3 runs incredibly cool and uses less power. The PSU is fine although I would get a corsair 400w instead for piece of mind.

But tbh it would be fine
 
OK well thanks. I feel more comfortable with Intel simply because it's what I know, so thank you for your feedback :)
 
easyrider said:
I'm gobsmaked people are suggesting AMD for the same price
Click to expand...

To be fair its not quite the same price though is it? Prices have come down a lot since this thread started, meaning the AMD route is now only 160 quid, over 30 cheaper than the Intel

Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard £59.98
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £58.74
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £41.99
Total : £160.72

30 quid for slightly better audio???
Also youll note I did also recomend an Intel system, its just it was ITX version
 
95thrifles/easyrider, would you guys add any fans to the media case at all or just keep the case standard? Should I expect hot temperatures?
 
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