HTPC spec help - really need advice! < £300 if poss!

[dlthorpe]

Hi all,

Im looking to get a media pc for my lounge that will connect to my projector or tv. Its main purpose is to play 1080p HD movies or simply AVI tv episodes etc. Perhaps even not very demanding games.

I want to use HDMI as my connectivity and already have a ATI Radeon 3650 GFX card to use. I assume like home cinema amps that the HDMI on the pc can also carry sound with the video?

One thing i am not sure about is the motherboard because im thinking with that gfx card i dont need to spend so much on the mobo to get HDMI on-board? I dont have anything else really to save buying something new.

I was also looking at the Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 as a friend recently bought this and has it clocked from the standard 2.5 up to 3.8.

So can anyone help me on this? I dont want to spend more than £300 if possible. I need... Ram, mobo, psu, cpu, case.

Thanks for any replies,
D.

 

[Glaucus]

forget the gfx card, get a 780g board with any amd chip.

wont you need a blue ray drive? or is it only for encoded media, in which case will you need several TB of hdd space?

 

[dlthorpe]

Thanks for the reply.

I may get a bluray drive but its not essential for my hd viewing. I get them in wmv or ts or 264 format. All i really want is a machine decent enough to run them to the projector. I already have the drives i need too.

So are you saying if i get a mobo with hdmi its actually worse for the machine if i use this gfx card?

 

[Glaucus]

So are you saying if i get a mobo with hdmi its actually worse for the machine if i use this gfx card?

Not in terms of speed but a 780g is more than good enough for hd (that's what it's designed for). so adding a gfx card will just take up space, use more power and as such generate more heat and noise.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...0G (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Ram just get 2Gb of 6400 which can be had at around £20-25
Case really depends what you want and what cooling you need.

 

[mattheman]

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G or GA-MA78G-DS3H <---- this is the better one.
The all you need is chip mem hdd and dvdrw, and a case with a max 400-450w power supply.