decent HTPC build questions

nuzik

nuzik

nuzik

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Joined
29 Jun 2012
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Hi guys,
looking to build a decent one for the living room, ideally that will cope with everything i throw at it.
3d Bluray etc
now i have an amp that doesnt support 1.4hdmi (3d bluray passthrough) do you know if cards output that signal or do they still go 1.3?

looking to go i5 processor not haswell though that will be too expensive.

i want sound and video quality to be good i a have a decent amp and speakers
suggestions ideas etc, im an open book
 
Don't worry about the different versions of HDMI, if your amp doesn't support 1.4 then it simply will not pass the 3D content through.

Couple of questions:

1. When you say "everything I throw at it" do you mean movies only or games as well?
2. Do you need large amounts of storage?
3. What size case are you looking at?
4. How much are you looking to spend
 
Hi thansk for the reply.
only movies and music.
Ideally looking to keep it small
as for the storage just an SSD i have another pc that keeps my 3tb drive in. I may move it into this new build if there is space
£500-£700
 
cool cool.
You won't need an i5 for the rig, 3D movies are hardware accelerated so a nice low profile graphics card will handle all the leg work.

So next step is for you to get a case you like the look of, 2 options really. Do you want the case to be on show or VESA mounted to the TV?

Now OcUK has extended their HTPC case range so there is quite a few to look through:
HTPC cases

But on the other hand if you want to go small then these are your options:
Mini ITX cases

Just for ideas, this is actually over specced:

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD A8-5600K Black Edition 3.60GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor **FREE SIMCITY PC GAME** (AD560KWOHJBOX) £79.99
1 x LG CH10LS28 BD-ROM 10x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £63.98
1 x ASRock FM2A75 Pro4-M AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £59.99
1 x Silverstone Milo ML03 HTPC Case - Black (SST-ML03B) £56.99
1 x Crucial V4 32GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive £43.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £39.98
1 x Thermalright AXP-100 ITX & HTPC CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £39.95
1 x TeamGroup Elite 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED34096M1600HC11DC) £29.99
Total : £428.36 (includes shipping : £11.25).



The APU actually has enough grunt for low end gaming, but the built in graphics will handle all 1080p content easily.
 
Yup AMD are actually a lot better in the HTPC area than Intel, because their IGP's are much better at playing [email protected].

If you really have something against AMD then you could swap it out for and Intel/nVidia build.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI H61M-P31-G3 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £38.99
1 x Intel Celeron G550 2.60GHz Socket LGA 1155 Processor - Retail £37.99
1 x KFA2 GeForce™ GT610 2048MB GDDR3 64bit Low Profile SILENT DVI/HDMI/VGA/PCI-E Graphics Card £35.99
Total : £123.47 (includes shipping : £8.75).

 
nuzik said:
i want the case to be about 30cm width i know its a lot to ask but still

AMD????? yuck!
Click to expand...

Oh grow up :(

You clearly don't know what AMD's APUs are so should listen even more to the advice given.

Intel can't touch the Trinity for media centre use, and if you're looking at low power, low profile yet highly capable, hardware accelerated media playback then it's Trinity all the way.

AMD drool more like!
 
nuzik said:
its AMD THOUGH! i will look into them a little more if your saying so many nice things about them
Click to expand...

/facepalm

Go read up on the Trinity APU and see what it's all about. DO NOT confuse these things with Bulldozer and Piledriver.

But if your "eww AMD" opinion is based on the failures that are Bulldozer and Piledriver then you need to look back in history to see how awesome the Phenom II series are for sheer power on a budget, how AMD used to kick Intel's rear end, how the Radeon series of graphics cards trade blows with Nvidia and, looking forward, just how awesome the APU is.

There's no place for fanboiism here - nobody here is going to give you bad advise or push a poor product on you.
 
i used to have AMD all the time, i have an AMD graphics card. I havent seen too much about that current one you spoke about so i will check it out and see what its all about.
No fan boy here
 
That CPU Boss comparison does nothing to illustrate what the APU is actually for. To answer your question: yes, the GPU element is far superior to the i3 and as an overall media package the A8 is much better all round.


Here's my take:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Streacom Nano 150w HTPC Power Supply/Adapter £77.99
1 x AMD A8-5500 3.20GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor **FREE SIMCITY PC GAME** (AD5500OKHJBOX) £76.99
1 x MSI A75IA-E53 AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £69.95
1 x Streacom ST-F1CB EVO HTPC Aluminium Case - Black £69.95
1 x Adata XPG Xtreme v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C10 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U2133XC4G10-2X) £59.99
1 x Crucial V4 32GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive £43.99
1 x Akasa Low Profile AMD AK-CC1101EP02 CPU Cooler - 80 mm (Socket AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £9.98
Total : £420.24 (includes shipping : £9.50).



Although you'd need to source a slot-loaded Blu-Ray drive from somewhere else - OcUK don't stock them.
 
I wouldn't use GPUBoss. It seems to have many inaccuracies on the stuff they list. Use reputable websites for comparisons (Like Tom's Hardware etc).

The people here are trying to give you advice. AMD are strong in this area, I'd recommend you take the advice from all the people that have built systems to do exactly what you want to do.
 
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