HTPC help

buzzlightweight

buzzlightweight

buzzlightweight

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Joined
22 Aug 2010
Posts
2,212
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In My Command Center
YOUR BASKET
1 x OCZ Agility 3 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-240G) £139.99
1 x Asrock Z77E-ITX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Akasa Venom 550w Modular '80 Plus' Power Supply £64.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £59.99
1 x Intel Celeron G530 2.40GHz Socket LGA 1155 Processor - Retail £33.95
1 x OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1333LV4GK) £26.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black/Silver/Biege) - Retail £19.99
1 x Akasa AK-CC7118HP01 K25 Low Profile CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156) £11.99
Total : £490.48 (includes shipping : £10.50).



ok i have a top end laptop and just built a top end pc and now im wanting an HTCP for the living room, i and was thinking the above?

most of my media is digital and i am networked at home so i wanted something that was capable of surfing the net, listening to music and watching movies in the living room.

what do you think? any suggestions would be great.

NB i dont have 3D and probably wont :)
 
Wasting quite a bit on a top end motherboard there try this one:
Asus P8H61-I Intel H61

And unless you are going to be installing a lot of programs on there a 60GB/120GB SSD will do fine.
PSU is over kill - Corsair Builder Series CX 430W or Modular - Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W

In short maybe:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sandisk Ultra SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA II Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDH-120G-G25) £71.99
1 x Asus P8H61-I Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £69.95
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BluRay ROM / DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £61.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £59.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £36.98
1 x Intel Celeron G530 2.40GHz Socket LGA 1155 Processor - Retail £33.95
1 x Scythe Shuriken Rev.B Quiet Low Profile CPU Cooler (Socket 939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £27.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £25.99
Total : £401.42 (includes shipping : £10.50).

 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus F1A75-I DELUXE AMD A75 (Socket FM1) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £89.99
1 x AMD A6-3670K 2.70GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor (AD3670WNGXBOX) £89.99
1 x OCZ ZT 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £63.98
1 x Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BluRay ROM / DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £61.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £59.99
1 x Kingston Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £23.99
Total : £502.51 (includes shipping : £10.50).



Llano option, it's IGP is much better than what intel has in it's CPUs.

I do believe that mobo comes with a remote with a keyboard on the reverse of it. This mobo compared to robbies has sataIII so it can use the much faster SSD i spec'd (robbies is sataII). 4GB of 1600mhz RAM for less cash. The OCZ SSDs arent very good, not sure you need 200GB, 120GB should be more than enough.
 
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With the latest driver update the intel iGPU performs very close the low end AMD/nVidia cards.
It gets the playback to 23.972 (instead of 23.976) - much better than its relase performance - unless you watch it back in slow motion you don't notice the frame skip.
(you just know its there in the back of your mind)

Sata3 speeds aren't needed in a htpc - you will be booting and running a single program. Network speeds are more important.
I wouldn't spend £500 on a htpc!
 
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R088ieS86 said:
With the latest driver update the intel iGPU performs very close the low end AMD/nVidia cards.
It gets the playback to 23.972 (instead of 23.976) - much better than its relase performance - unless you watch it back in slow motion you don't notice the frame skip.
(you just know its there int eh back of your mind)

Sata3 speeds aren't needed in a htpc - you will be booting and running a single program. Network speeds are more important.
I wouldn't spend £500 on a htpc!
Click to expand...

To be fair mate i dont see why he doesnt just use the laptop to browse the net on the sofa or plug it into the tv to watch movies when he wants to. If its a top end laptop it must have HDMI.

My spec was better than his original spec which was nigh on £500 and to be fair a better all round PC than yours. Obviously he could use a lower spec'd APU and save cash.....you showed that very well.

I like how we both added a bluray drive in the budget though ;)
 
I like how we both added a bluray drive in the budget though
Click to expand...
Hell yeah ;)

Wasn't attacking you mate. The Llano is a great little system - if the ITX boards were cheaper they would be the clear choice. *coughs in hope*
The dualcore APU would probably suit the OPs needs really - if they didn't need to browse the web then the M1 Hudson would be a great idea.
 
R088ieS86 said:
Hell yeah ;)

Wasn't attacking you mate. The Llano is a great little system - if the ITX boards were cheaper they would be the clear choice. *coughs in hope*
The dualcore APU would probably suit the OPs needs really - if they didn't need to browse the web then the M1 Hudson would be a great idea.
Click to expand...

It's all good in the hood fella. Some people aren't phased by the expense. I've recently been asked to shoe horn a gaming HTPC into a millenium falcon toy....mine is not to reason why and all that jazz lol
 
 
i like all the suggestions, the reason i chose the akasa psu is because it is semi modular and the mobo coz it has built in wifi! and as the itx boards only have one pci-e i thought it was a wise move?

as for the ssd, for an extra ££ i can have 240gb rather than 180?
 
I would go Powerline before wireless for streaming HD content.

Unless you're going to be using it for more than you mentioned then the 240GB capacity is really not needed. If you want to spend that much go for a Llano build like the one honosuseri mentioned.
 
R088ieS86 said:
I would go Powerline before wireless for streaming HD content.

Unless you're going to be using it for more than you mentioned then the 240GB capacity is really not needed. If you want to spend that much go for a Llano build like the one honosuseri mentioned.
Click to expand...

i like the look of these :)

so something like


YOUR BASKET
1 x Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £89.99
1 x Asus P8H61-I Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £69.95
1 x Akasa Venom 550w Modular '80 Plus' Power Supply £64.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £59.99
1 x Intel Celeron G530 2.40GHz Socket LGA 1155 Processor - Retail £33.95
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/4G) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black/Silver/Biege) - Retail £19.99
1 x Akasa AK-CC7118HP01 K25 Low Profile CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156) £11.99
Total : £387.43 (includes shipping : £10.50).

 
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buzzlightweight said:
is there a way to control an htpc with a remote?
Click to expand...

That was part of the reason i went with the Asus F1A75-I DELUXE. As i said it comes supplied with a remote with a keyboard on the reverse. It has wifi and bluetooth built in aswell.

There are apps for android and iOS to let your phone be the mouse and keyboard too, bit of a faff to setup though.
 
honosuseri said:
That was part of the reason i went with the Asus F1A75-I DELUXE. As i said it comes supplied with a remote with a keyboard on the reverse. It has wifi and bluetooth built in aswell.

There are apps for android and iOS to let your phone be the mouse and keyboard too, bit of a faff to setup though.
Click to expand...

ok cool so....
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus F1A75-I DELUXE AMD A75 (Socket FM1) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £89.99
1 x Akasa Venom 550w Modular '80 Plus' Power Supply £64.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £59.99
1 x AMD A4-3400 2.70GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor (AD3400OJGXBOX) £49.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/4G) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black/Silver/Biege) - Retail £19.99
1 x Xigmatek Praeton LD964 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1156/LGA1155 & AMD AM2/AM3/FM1) £17.99
Total : £439.51 (includes shipping : £10.50).

 
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