HTPC Build

thenameDS · 3 Apr 2013 at 03:46

So my old man is looking to buy a HTPC for the living room, he gave me £500 and told me to build one for him. He got a 55 inch 3D LED in the living room and would like to be able to watch blu-ray and also 3D films. A hard drive is not needed he already got a 3.5 one with a ton of films on it and I also have a blu-ray optical drive here.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Silverstone Grandia GD06 Desktop Case - Black (SST-GD06B) £99.98
1 x ASRock FM2A75M-ITX AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £73.99
1 x Adata XPG Xtreme v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C10 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U2133XC4G10-2X) £59.99
1 x AMD A6-5400K Black Edition 3.60GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD540KOKHJBOX) £55.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £40.99
Total : £345.05 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Currently I have this, he likes that case and watched a youtube review on it and decided he wanted it although I can change it if others are better. The other parts are pretty much changeable, I feel that £500 is overkill but he said just spend it all and I quote "get me something that will last." Maybe add in a nice graphic card? I wanted the XFX PSU but it's out of stock. Also I have a copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8 (through uni dreamspark) he can choose what he wants.

Avenged7Fold · 3 Apr 2013 at 04:04

If it is just for films, no need to add a GPU, wack the cash towards an A8 or A10 if you are really looking to get rid of it. I might be wrong but i think the CX 430 psu you chose, is the only one from the builder series produced by Seasonic, so good choice.

I speced that motherboard for someone a while back because of the memory speed support but someone informed me that the board was apparently notorious for dodgy VRMs or something like that. Its the only time i heard anything being said about the board, so i would keep it anyway.

Spend the left over cash in speakers or a PCIe media remote or something!

thenameDS · 3 Apr 2013 at 13:51

Yea I will probably stick with that PSU anyways the XFX seems to be out of stock and Corsair have a great RMA service too. The motherboard there was only three to choose from and this one seemed the best so hopefully no problems. Speaker wise he has a soundbar that is plugged into the tv optical port so he won't need speakers.

I emailed him the build this morning and asked about a graphic card and he said he would prefer to have one, may do some light gaming if he doesn't feel like going on his desktop. I honestly have no idea about budget graphic cards so can't really spec him one.

Gav_881 · 8 Apr 2013 at 19:36

thenameDS said:
Yea I will probably stick with that PSU anyways the XFX seems to be out of stock and Corsair have a great RMA service too. The motherboard there was only three to choose from and this one seemed the best so hopefully no problems. Speaker wise he has a soundbar that is plugged into the tv optical port so he won't need speakers.

I emailed him the build this morning and asked about a graphic card and he said he would prefer to have one, may do some light gaming if he doesn't feel like going on his desktop. I honestly have no idea about budget graphic cards so can't really spec him one.

The A10 has a very good graphics chip on it and will do a lot of light gaming, unless he's going to put £100+ on a GPU you wont see a big improvement over it.