Cheap silent HTPC?

Ease

Ease

Ease

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Okay, I'm not sure if I'm going to have the budget to do this or not, but I wanted some thoughts/outlines for an affordable, super quiet HTPC.

Firstly; I was hoping to put an HD4850 in it, as I should have one spare soon. I have an Vortexx Neo cooler to put on it, if there ends up being enough room, which should keep it cooler and quieter?

Secondly; power is not a big issue. I probably don't even need dual-core. All it will do is play files from my network, and hopefully blu-rays too (though this isn't an important requirement).

I also have a hard-drive I can throw in it, so that's covered too. What do you recommend?
 
Just wondering why you would put a HD4850 in a mini-itx rig that you are only using it for is playing files... Might be better off selling it and getting something a little smaller, low power consuming and that stays quieter/cooler or an ION.

If you are looking to stick with the HD4850, then you're best looking for a SG05, E5200 on a zotac 9300ITX

If you're prepared to sell it, you could get an InWin and a Zotac ION N330 which would play your movies nicely (not sure how well it handles blu-ray, but its suppost to be good)
 
Well I figure I have it here already, and when I get my new graphics card (which will be when the Dx11 cards come out) the prices of HD4850's should drop again, so it'll be hard to sell. Plus I'm quite busy (read as: lazy) and can't be bothered to sell it. :P

What about the MSI M3-F Intel G31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard? Much cheaper, a bit smaller, and seems to be pretty good. Also, with an E5200 and an HD4850 what power supply should I be looking at? 300W? Or a lot more? Should hopefully only have one hard drive (maybe even SSD) and one optical drive (maybe blu-ray).

What do you think of this?

htpc.png


What CPU cooler will fit? Any chance (I know this is a long shot) that I could down-clock the CPU and use a passive cooling method?
 
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your first mistake is that case, the blu-ray drive cannot fit in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you really need SSD for streaming your Friends DVD rips?????? I think its OTT. Just get a cheap 120GB laptop drive.

Your G31 is a bit pants for HD playback, I would go AMD and get a sempron 140 45W cpu & a motherboard with the nvidia 8200 chip built in.

Sell your 4850 and put it towards a proper HTPc build.

Also that G31 is micro-atx and wont fit in the mini-itx case!!!

You really do need to do more research!!!

if your dead set on mini-itx, blu-ray roms are like £150 :eek: but you could install the xotac 9300 Wifi with the e5300 and buy a gemini 2 cooler. This can be run passively in the sugo SG05B case. Google is your friend, I beliebe the sgo5b is featured in a hardforum thread with the gemini2 installed if you want piccies.

As for psu you could even get away with a 120W pico psu, if you select the right components.
 
You really do need to do more research!!!
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I've done none. None, whatsoever. That's kind of the point of this thread. Wasn't sure about the blu-ray drive fitting anyway; that's not that important as I do have a PS3 already. The SSD is for silence and power-efficiency. A hard-drive spinning up in the middle of a movie would really annoy me.

Also, isn't a mini-itx much larger than a micro-atx, so a micro should fit in it?
 
If all you are going to do is use it to play movies from a server why not get one of these Asrock Nvidia ION 330. It comes in a tiny box and all ready to plug and play. Stick W7 on it and you're golden.

The only thing it doesn't have is a blu-ray drive but there is a model coming out soon which does. The other option is to buy the version OcUK has now and stick a slimline blu-ray drive in at a later date, they will also be cheaper by then.

mATX is a fair bit bigger than mini-ITX.
 
I was tempted by one of those actually, but part of me wanted the joy of putting it together myself. Stupid, I know, but I may/probably will be swayed into just getting one of these anyway.

Thanks for the info on mATC and mini-ITX. I guess I was just thrown by the names, as micro sounds smaller than mini to me :P

I was also hoping to play low-end old games on whatever I built, like Battle for Middle Earth (one or two) or other cheap games, but this isn't a big requirement as I do have a main PC anyway.

The Asrock ION actually looks pretty good for the job... I'm going to sit on this idea and think about it a bit!
 
if your waiting, and you already have a ps3 (So do you really need a HTPC???) I face the same question :p it maybe worth while waiting to the end of the year. Why I hear you ask? Well VIA have a cpu called the NANO, it is a similar design to intel atom but is a lot faster in comparision. VIA have teamup with Nvidia and will get ION 2 when it is released later this year.

VIA NANO + ION 2 = perfect for xvid, mkv, blu-ray & wait for it......... flash HD ala youtube HD, Hulu streaming etc. Atm Atom + ION cannot do flash HD, it just stutters.

I can really see Video on Demand taking off and I assume it will be delivered using flash, so you will want you system to be bale to handle it. I am going to wait ti see what the VIA NANO + ION brings later this year.

You could just buy a AMD athlon 240 & the asus 8200 AMD mainbaord and be done with it!
 
The reason I need an HTPC as well as a PS3 is that the PS3 seems quite picky about what files it will play. I have a whole series on my computer, all of the same file format from the same source, and the PS3 will only play half of them... even though my computer can play all of them without any problems. Also quite a few of my files are .mkv for subtitles and whatnot, or ISO's, and the PS3 can't do either of them.
 
Ease said:
The reason I need an HTPC as well as a PS3 is that the PS3 seems quite picky about what files it will play. I have a whole series on my computer, all of the same file format from the same source, and the PS3 will only play half of them... even though my computer can play all of them without any problems. Also quite a few of my files are .mkv for subtitles and whatnot, or ISO's, and the PS3 can't do either of them.
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yeh this is why i'm considering a HTPC. I am also in the process of installing ubuntu on my ps3, going to try to get the ps3 remote working tonight, then install mythtv.

The ps3 and ubuntu may just save me a couple of hundred quid. :)
 
a media extender linked to your main pc will be cheaper than building a new htpc,

the hd 4850 will never be quiet enough to be a good component, get something cheap and passive like a hd 4350.

A HTpc can never be quiet enough, what sounds fine during playback can be real pain if you leave it on and listen to something with quiet sections or have to leave it on in a bedroom say
 
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