HTPC Build - mATX vs. Mini-ITX

EvilGrin

EvilGrin

EvilGrin

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Hi guys, I'm looking at spending ~£200 on a mobo, case/psu and processor (I have hdd, ram etc. good to go). I'm having difficulty deciding on whether to go down the round of AMD mATX platform or Intel Mini ITX...

The PC will replace my current HTPC (An ageing socket 754 Athlon 64) and will be used to play x264 codec high def content at 1920x1080 and possibly in the future blu rays as well (if I find a reason to go that route instead of using my PS3). I doubt I'll be gaming on it much, if at all, so the main concerns are HTPC connectivity, display quality and have enough power to play x264 issue-free.

From OCUK, these are the parts I'm considering:

mATX Build:

Antec NSK 2480 Desktop Case - Black/Silver (380W Earth Watts PSU) £89.99
(£78.25)
Asus M4A785D-M Pro AMD 785G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £57.99 (£50.43)
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 240 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £45.99 (£39.99)
Sub Total : £168.67
Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 15.00% VAT : £25.30
Total : £193.97

Mini-ITX Build:

Zotac GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi Mini-ITX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £113.99 (£99.12)
In-Win BM639 Mini-ITX Case - Black (120W PSU) £56.99 (£49.56)
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail £52.99 (£46.08)
Sub Total : £194.76
Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 15.00% VAT : £29.21
Total : £223.97

Which one do you think guys?

Cheers!

edit: For the mATX I'd actually likely go for the Antec Fusion Remote instead as I've found it for £69.99 instead of the NSK 2480 listed above
 
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Hi - i dont know exactly what to get as well as i'm on a similar ship like yours.

Just a few questions.

Is size a huge issue of where the HTPC is going to go? If the price are very marginal i would consider a mini-tower AV case and go for the cheaper products and you can add a standard 3.5 Desktop 1/2TB hard drive.

Also as for the optical drive route, if those motherboards only fit into mATX / Mini-ITX case. You will be spending more money on the laptop style Blue-Ray players / recorders.

How are you going to relay your sound, through an AV Amp via HDMI or through optical route?
 
Do you really need m-itx? If not, (similar to what schizophonic says) why not get a m-atx intel board and the Antec Fusion like you are saying you want?

Saves money. Why spend more than you need to?
 
Depends if you value the space saving to be worth it. If its just going to sit under a desk then you will not notice it. I have my mini itx on a shelf so needed to slim and small.
 
Well, we're going to be changing our TV unit soon, so the space may be a mitigating factor indeed. Mind you the Fusion Remote isn't huge either, so it might fit perfectly. However as you guys suggest an intel board, I can't honestly find a decent mATX intel board that's cheap enough with a comparable integrated graphics card, which is why I was look at AMD.

The Mini-ITX case looks pretty sweet as it can hold a 5 1/4 optical disk along with a 3 1/2" hdd and a 2 1/2" hdd. Expansion beyond that would more than likely have to be through E-Sata though.

As for the sound side of things, I'll have that going via optical to our external 7.1 amp, it's too old for hdmi unfortunately.
 
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You can find quite a few G33 - G45 boards if you look at other resellers that would be good or if you're worried about the video combine a £50 board with a HD4350 ?
 
Hm, any specific board recommendations in the G33-G45 range which have a decent onboard graphics? I'd definitely prefer to keep an integrated graphics card rather than another card, mostly due to the fact that combined, we're talking roughly £80-90, which is getting towards the cost of the Mini-ITX anyway...
 
how are you going to cool those chips btw?
I don't know about the antec case, but the in win one, the fan on the psu is pretty loud, and I've replaced the case fan with a quieter 15 dB one.
Of course, for me, I'm from a zalman reserator water cooled case thats virtually silent, so any fans seem loud I guess.
 
ChileanLlama said:
For a good mATX Intel board but maybe a bit over budget?;

9400 Chipset and 8 channel LPCM audio.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2946

I'm running one with an E5200 and it has no problem playing back HD content from the server.

OC don't stock it, but maybe it's in the pipeline as they've just expanded the Gigabyte range.
Click to expand...


I personnally am going to order this tommorrow:

http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=161&l3=0&l4=0&model=2268&modelmenu=1

Its over HALF the price of that gigabyte board, does exactly the same HTPC features. I'm going to pair it up with an AMD 240 dual core, 4 gb ram and alll my old parts I have lying around.

You cannot beat this motherbiard for price/performance. I have found the board for £45 from an ocuk competitor.
 
Go the nVidia chipset route whichever form factor you get, better support for more files using DXVA and CUDA decoding with CoreAVC. Some 9300/9400 boards have 7.1 PCM over HDMI which would be advantageous for BD (Zotac is only 5.1).
 
there's lots of people on the net complaining about the LCD on the antec fusion, I am looking to upgrade my htpc and was looking for a case.. I had picked the fusion until I found out about the LCD issue.. seems lots are way too bright and very hard to read.
 
EvilGrin said:
... However as you guys suggest an intel board, I can't honestly find a decent mATX intel board that's cheap enough with a comparable integrated graphics card, which is why I was look at AMD.
Click to expand...

Oxy said:
he said he was undecided. He would consider AMD or Intel

What have I missed?
Click to expand...

Post 5. I was recommending an Intel based board. Not disputing that the 8200 is a good alternative...just responding to the later question the OP asked ;)
 
i have recently built my htpc, i used the nvidia 9300 based asus board with 7.1 lpcm audio over hdmi. I have a E5300 sitting in it with 4gb ddr2 the motherboard has a toasty northbridge but that is combated with some decent airflow, very very impressed with the mobo, got it set up in a silverstone milo ML02 case. ill get some pics up soon but i dont have a great deal of time at the moment, might try tommorow as im going to buy my reciever and speakers. im very pleased with it performance and really think its worth the money, also aroun £20-£40 cheaper than the gigabyte.
 
antec fusion lcd and lcd in general is bling and I find it of very little use, getting it working is not that hard but why would you want it? Main issue I had was its inbuilt microsft remote compatible sensor, range was appaling and got repalced by a separate MS sensor.

For both matc and itx, you will probably want to add some tv tuners, most are still pci and you need 2 to make a good enough freeview or sattelite PVR, ITX gives you very limited choces with expansion.

YOU NEED A REMOTE unless your arms are very long, add one to your build, preferably the MS one if your running media centre!
 
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