Going Green & recycling to build an HTPC

cukzta101

cukzta101

cukzta101

Associate
Joined
17 Feb 2011
Posts
19
Location
Wigston, Leicester
Hi,

My first post so hi all.

I thought I'd share my plans with you all. I'm building an HTPC purely from second user or last seasons gear.

So far I've managed to pick up an Asus Crosshair III Formula for 50 sheets, a box of 10 fans (various sizes) for 15 squid, a free TV card and a free small PSU. The psu is only 230 watts, so I dont hold out much hope of getting any real use out of it. It be may OK for an HTPC, so i'll keep it for now.

Next up is to source a decent AMD athlon II, or cheap Phenom either in a sale, or b grade or second users off ebay. I'm really tempted at the moment to pick 4gb of ram from Overclockers at the current prices.

I'll decide once I've sold an old eee pc that kids had before I got them a propper laptop.

I'll keep you posted and put up some picks once I get further into the build. My main issue at the moment appears to be sourcing a decent case that fits the bill and is true to my plans.

Cheers all :)
 
Thanks - that looks like a good deal. I've never seen one of these in the flesh. Are they a reasonably solid build?

I'd also welcome suggestions on a cpu. This build will mainly be used for DVD, Bluray dvd playback and streaming media from the net, and across my home network.

I don't need a beast of a cpu as this is primarily a jazzed up dvd player. However, my choices range from an am2+ to am3 processor. So that's a Sempron, an athlon II or a Phenom. I used to be an AMD fanboy until the i7's so i have little knowledge of how good the AMD range is these days.

Any suggestions on a good budget AMD chip? I was considering the Athlon II 250.

cheers
 
Project now finished using the case suggested. Warning its bigger than you might think. The main issues is the length (depth) of the case. You'll need a good size stand to take it without it handing over the front. I had to mod my stand to get the best effect.
 
wow im planning on doing something very similar

got win7, 1tb hard drive, so far :P , did you use integrated graphic?

can it all handle HD video ok?
 
munz said:
wow im planning on doing something very similar

got win7, 1tb hard drive, so far :P , did you use integrated graphic?

can it all handle HD video ok?
Click to expand...

Depends what the integrated graphics is. I use an Nvidia ION chip integrated coupled with an atom and it sails through 1080p.

Just make sure you get board with a decent chip that can offload the work to the gpu.
 
Ok guys i'm all done. Here's my final spec:

Mobo: Asus M4A88TD-M
CPU: Sempron (x2 cores unlock - lucky)
Mem: 4Gb OCZ DDR3 1333
GCard: XFX 5450 (HDMI OUT)
HDD: Samsung F3 500gb (For starters)
OP Sys: Win7 Home Premium 64bit
Case: OcUK Aphrodite Media Case

It surprising how well this setup runs on day to day tasks and media playback on full 1080p. That little Sempron chip is a bargain to get you up and running. With an AM3 board the options for upgrade in the future are excellent. Just saving up now to push in a bluray player instead of the standard DVDRW installed.
 
Just a few final pics as requested. My little media player PC :)

Ok guys i'm all done. Here's my final spec:

Mobo: Asus M4A88TD-M
CPU: Sempron (x2 cores unlock - lucky)
Mem: 4Gb OCZ DDR3 1333
GCard: XFX 5450 (HDMI OUT)
HDD: Samsung F3 500gb (For starters)
OP Sys: Win7 Home Premium 64bit
Case: OcUK Aphrodite Media Case

It surprising how well this setup runs on day to day tasks and media playback on full 1080p. That little Sempron chip is a bargain to get you up and running. With an AM3 board the options for upgrade in the future are excellent. Just saving up now to push in a bluray player instead of the standard DVDRW installed.

I'm not much of a photographer these were taken with my iphone, the last one's a bit ****ty but you get the gist :)

Total build cost was £186.23 (I already had Win7 and OCZ Memory so reused) If I didn't have these my total costs would have been around £290.00 - still a good price I reckon.

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Now managed to get some of my movies back up and ready to view.
 
Last edited:
@munz - No I didn't use the onboard graphics I used an XFX 5450. Got a recommendation for this from another HTPC builder on another forum (Its a good little card that carries both hd video and hd sound.

The onboard graphics do play nicely at 1080p also. I just wanted a little extra in there rather than using up system memory for display purposes.
 
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