Help with spec'ing first HTPC

[NotAGolf]

I'm looking into getting a HTPC but I'm having difficulty getting a spec'ing one up. I'm used to trying to find the fastest kit, not the smallest and quietest!

My budget is as cheap as possible. I'm thinking around £200. I will be using it as a typical HTPC so will need to be quiet and low powered. A small case would be a bonus, but I imagine that bumps the price up. I also want it to be powerful enough to play blu rays.

I've got a blu-ray drive in my existing pc that I can reuse, as well as a 1TB drive. I've also got an old asus 7300GT kicking about but I'm not sure that will be good enough??

Thanks for any help.

 

[NotAGolf]

I've just spoke to my brother and can salvage a few more parts if they'd be any use:

Thermaltake VC2000BNS Mambo SuperMidi Tower - Black
Tagan TG380-U01 380W ATX2.0 Silent PSU
Asus A8N SLi Premium
Corsair 2GB DDR
AMD 4000+

 

[shadow_boxer]

At that budget I think you might struggle to get it all in if you wanted new case and PSU. What are you planning to be using as the OS and what is the frontend?

Given that you not too fussed about loudness and wanting the fastest for £200 your best bet would be something along the lines of i3. Reuse Case, PSU, HDD and optical drive.

Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £95.99

Asus P8H67-M Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £84.98

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £31.19

Total : £223.56

Thermaltake VC2000BNS Mambo SuperMidi Tower - Black
Tagan TG380-U01 380W ATX2.0 Silent PSU
Blu Ray Drive
1TB HDD

If your only using it for watching films/streaming consider AMD Zacate. Lower power and cooler but a lot less horsepower.

 

[Disco Boy]

So a motherboard, cpu cooler and a gpu and you're done then?...

 

[Reaper 392]

So a motherboard, cpu cooler and a gpu and you're done then?...

and RAM. the ram available is DDR, not DDR3. also, i wouldnt trust that PSU.

i would have thought onboard graphics would be fine for a HTPC, but im happy to be proved wrong on this one

this is the best i can do

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £95.99
1 x MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** *WITH FREE MSI GRENADE* £59.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 ATX '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £39.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £31.19
Total : £227.15 (includes shipping: FREE).

Thermaltake VC2000BNS Mambo SuperMidi Tower - Black
Blu Ray Drive
1TB HDD

 

[DarkMatter]

Any reason why people are not recommending E350 setups?

I am in the market for a HTPC and unless you have a valid reason not too it seemed that the E350 was the way to go.

low power, great for HTPC dutys & passivly cooled, cheaper too than the intel alternative @ £100-£130.

 

[NotAGolf]

What are you planning to be using as the OS and what is the frontend?

What do you mean by front end? Do you mean media centre type software? If so, I've not looked into that yet. Just working out if an HTPC is a viable solution for now. As for OS. If a simple linux distro geared towards being a media centre exists I'll probably go for that. I've got an old XP copy lying around, or if I reallly need to I'll shell out for another copy of windows 7.

Given that you not too fussed about loudness and wanting the fastest for £200 your best bet would be something along the lines of i3. Reuse Case, PSU, HDD and optical drive.

I am fussed about loudness but I'm not fussed about speed. As long as its powerful enough to play blu rays, either from the disc or hdd, that's good enough for me. No games or anything like that. Pure media centre.

If your only using it for watching films/streaming consider AMD Zacate. Lower power and cooler but a lot less horsepower.

This is the kind of thing I was expecting, something geared specifically for this kind of usage.

So a motherboard, cpu cooler and a gpu and you're done then?...

I think I'd be better off buying new kit as this stuff isn't geared towards a low powered, quiet media centre. But if my budget is pushing it maybe I can reuse bits to cut the cost.

Thanks again.