First time HTPC builder.

wodgah

wodgah

wodgah

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First time building a HTPC wanting to use it for XBMC.

Looked around and thought this might suit my needs.

It will be running thru an Onkyo SR606 and i want 1080p video with full DTS-HD sound.



I am looking at this so far.

AMD Llano A6 A3500 2.1GHz Socket FM1 3MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor £55

Asrock A75M-HVS AMD A75 Socket FM1 5.1 Channel HD Audio mATX Motherboard £50

I need to find a small case with psu and i have some ram i can use in it.

What does anyone in the know think.

Thanks
 
Looks good. If you'll only be using it for watching movies/music you could go for an AMD Zacate build. Will bit-stream lossless audio over HDMI and plays large Blu Ray rips fine. Has lower power consumption but it can feel a bit a bit sluggish sometimes when multi-tasking.

What kind of case are you after? HTPC or Mini/Midi-tower? Budget? How much space do you need for HDDs?
 
I'd keep with the Llano, it is hardly any more expensive, and the Llano still idles sub 20W. Which is very similar to the Zacate's idle! The extra power really comes in handy if you want heavy XBMC skins, plus the Llano can play 10bit hd videos using the cpu no problem whereas the Zacate won't.

I would power it with a pico psu setup, you can find a 120W setup for £40 area but will make it more efficient and no fan needed on it. Plus it will allow you to use a smaller case.

So yes what we need to know is how many/what size hard drives you are wanting to have in the case. Also if you have a preferred shape of case?



shadow_boxer,

Have a look at this link for power usage.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-fusion-intel-core-i3_8.html#sect0
 
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I will be totally honest i was looking at the antec 300 isk cases with the psu with them, i currently have a media streamer i have a spare ssd to use as a boot drive and with space to spare on it.

I would want to put 1 or 2 2tb drives in it if possible.
 
saitrix said:
...Have a look at this link for power usage.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/amd-fusion-intel-core-i3_8.html#sect0
Click to expand...

Thanks. Good comparison of power consumption there. :) Never realised Llano was so low!

Just comparing to Zacate (E-350), 7.3W at idle (system) and 14.9W at 1080p playback. Link. But I do agree it's nice to have the power should you need it that Llano offers. The A6-3500 seems like a great choice, 15.4W at idle and 32.5W at 1080p playback, very impressive.
 
shadow_boxer said:
Thanks. Good comparison of power consumption there. :) Never realised Llano was so low!

Just comparing to Zacate (E-350), 7.3W at idle (system) and 14.9W at 1080p playback. Link. But I do agree it's nice to have the power should you need it that Llano offers. The A6-3500 seems like a great choice, 15.4W at idle and 32.5W at 1080p playback, very impressive.
Click to expand...

I didn't realise that Zacate was lower than the Atoms idle power, thanks for the link there. The A6-3500 is the one every is buying at the moment on the XBMC forums, also I would like to see what power usage you can get it down to if you undervolted it.

wodgah,

Try the different htpc software on your current pc to get a feel for them. What about case type, number of hard drives etc?
 
I have a spare ssd i was going to use to run it off, but wanted to put at least 1 2tb drive in it, preferably 2.

Case i am undecided on but would prefer one that can fit comfortably on my tv stand where i am my av receiver/sky hd box/ blu ray player etc.
 
wodgah said:
I have a spare ssd i was going to use to run it off, but wanted to put at least 1 2tb drive in it, preferably 2.

Case i am undecided on but would prefer one that can fit comfortably on my tv stand where i am my av receiver/sky hd box/ blu ray player etc.
Click to expand...

I looked into this as well. There aren't too many cases with a relatively shallow depth with room for 2x3.5" HDD, which is what you'd be best off having when putting it in entertainment furniture.

Ones I found are the Silverstone GD series (GD04, GD05 and GD06), Moneual 300 series (312, 320), and Lian-Li cases PC-C50 and PC-C60. All of these have a depth between 325-340mm. Of these, only the Moneual has a built-in IR receiver, but USB IR receivers are easily available. The Moneuals are the most expensive at £180+, but also look the most like normal AV equipment. There is also the Wesena E6, but that is slightly deeper at 390mm and might be a bit tight.

But of course this depends on the TV stand you have, if you have room that can accommodate deeper cases, you have a lot more choice.
 
Most cases you can house a couple of 3.5 drives if you use a Pico over an ATX PSU. Takes a bit of imaginative joggery pokery but its doable.
An ATX PSU takes up an amazing amount of real estate in htpc cases, a Pico takes up virtually none.

2.5 SSD's can be velcro'd to any of the HTPC walls that does not block ventilation leaving the designated internal bays for the larger sizes.

Whats your budget for case?
 
My overall budget for the system sits at around £175 I believe.

I do have a SSD to run os etc on and i have 8gb of gskill sniper ram sitting about i realise this is massive overkill but selling it would mean about £30 id receive and by the time ive bought new ram etc it just seems like id be as well just using this.

I had pencilled in the llano 3500 and then ASROCK board so that leaves around the £70 mark for the case and PSU which I realise isnt a lot.

Are the antec cases bad ? as the 310 isk with the 150w PSU in seem to be around my price range and roughly the size I want.
 
That'll be a nice case there. Only downside is you will have to mod it to fit in a single 3.5" hard drive. Plus you will need a mini-itx board for that one.

I guess you may need to raise your budget to £200 to be doable.
 
The board I am looking at is Mini-ITX as far as im aware, and as far as thew 3.5" drive thats my stumbling block I think. I have a 2tb drive ready to go in the build and i think thatd be fine for now just need to be able to fit one in!

Any reccomendations other than the antec ?
 
The Asrock board is 170x170 so will fit in that case just fine.

Fitting a 3.5 is possible but as Saitrix states you will need to mod the drive cage. You planning on putting in an ODD or you going to stream everything to it?
 
Well again I am a novice with this but with the 3500 llano and as i wasnt going to use an optical drive with the antec case I thought I could buy a 5.25 to 3.5 drive bay adapter , they are about 6 pounds from maplin. Then i could mount the SSD for the OS and use windows on that and then the 2tb in the drive bay.
 
The 5.25 bay is for a slim ODD so a converter would not work.

The caddy for the optical drives looks like a one piece hinged affair that houses the ODD under the space for the 2x2.5" drives. This is what I can make out from this PDF
http://www.antec.com/pdf/manuals/ISK 310-150_Manual_EN.pdf

To house a 3.5 you would probably have to remove the upper hinged part and install the 3.5 where the ODD sits. Would take some modding, all depends on how confident you are.

I've had a search and cannot find any sites that actually show any working mods, so please don't take what I say at gospel, plenty of people say its possible but no working proof.

Edit:

Just had another look at some videos. Forget the ISK-310 with a 3.5 unless you are really feeling like doing some modding :(
 
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