HTPC Spec Help

coops1992

coops1992

coops1992

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5 Jun 2011
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Location
London
Hello all,

For a while now ive been streaming movies and music to my TV and surround sound system through my apple TV, but recently its been crashing a lot and apple don't know why. I built my main PC about 9 months ago and now looking at building a separate Home Theatre Media PC. This side of things im very new to. i have all my media stored over a few USB HDD on a network adapter letting them plug straight into my Switch.

Basically what i need is a simple pc that can be connected to my TV or AV Receiver by HDMI or DVI. it need to be almost silent and on a remote control. I have a remote at the moment that uses a usb dongle. If anyone can help spec up a simple system to do this with any of the software i need it would be much appreciated.

Budget is negotiable and not much of an issue. But cheap is the aim, i want to spend a small amount of money to just get the performance needed to run a media extender.

I have a 32"tv and would be aiming for this system to be able to play blu-rays and output at 1080p

any advice and tips for HTCP's would be great too

Kind Regards
Coops1992
 
Just built a very cheap media PC using an AMD A4-3400 and am mightily impressed. Plays 1080 HD perfectly. Don't even need a video card or sound card.....it does it all. Stuck it on a ASUS F1A75-M mobo with 8GB RAM. Cost peanuts and the results are fantastic.
 
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If you have a smartphone and you have xbmc on the htpc you can control it using the xbmc phone app over wifi.
 
desires
Thanks i think i will use XBMC as i use it on my apple tv at the moment.
now just to spec, order and built the HTPC to run XBMC on :P
 
any ideas is the ASUS F1A75-M motherboard would be ok running on a 300w PSU

the case i have found is
- CiT S010BA
OCUK dont sell it but many online retailers do. it comes with a 300w PSU
it has 24pin (i presume) ATX power connection and others
the mobo has 24-pin EATX power connector, will there be conflictbetween the two?
 
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coops1992 said:
Hello Curio,
Thanks for the help
OCUK seams to see 2 of these motherboards

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-473-AS
And
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-474-AS

and is this the CPU you recommend
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-307-AM

EDIT: As you probably know, with PSUs it's the quality rather than the power. 300W will probably be OK if it's a good one (I'm not familiar with that case...) and as long as you don't go adding high-end video cards and other goodies. I went for an Antec Earthwats 380W for mine.


this is the kind of case im thinking of
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-008-OA

But i just cant understand its HUGE price, any other suggestions?
Click to expand...

I went for the standard A75 mobo rather than the Pro. The standard is fully loaded anyway - you just get a few extra features with the Pro that I felt I would never actually use anyway.

Yup, that's the CPU I have.

That case is very nice, but probably overkill. I just went for a cheap (I'm talking 10x less than that beast :p ) standard mini-ATX tower because it's hidden away in a cabinet. Cheap cases have noisy fans though, so you'll probably want to get a nice silent fan if you go that route. Mine sounds like there's an out of control Hoover in the cabinet - so I'll be changing that fan ASAP :D
 
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yeah fans are the big issue for me, this wont be hidden away, it will be sitting ontop of my sony ES series AV receiver and underneath a PS3 so it needs a some what, good, aesthetic profile.
 
300W will be OK if it's good quality (I'm not familiar with that one...) and you don't go adding tons of stuff later. I went for an Antec Earthwats 380W for mine.
 
Spec is along the right lines. Would go with the Pro just for the sake of it, only a couple of quid in it. As for the cpu/gpu, go with the A6-3500, has a better integrated gpu and is tri-core.

In terms of case here are a few to look at, (not all stocked by OcUK though).

Silverstone ML03, Antec NSK2480, Anted Fusion (& Micro Fusion), Silverstone Grandia Series.
 
i have some case research to do for those THANKS
I think ill defiantely go with the Silverstone ML03 as its not to expensive and has USB3.0 on the front*.

can you recommend any RAM to use with the mobo?
 
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Asus F1A75-M AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM1) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard
AMD Llano A6-3500 2.40GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor
Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BluRay ROM
Be Quiet Shadow Rock Top Flow CPU Cooler (Socket Intel: LGA 775/1155/1156/1366/AMD:AM2/AM2+/AM3/754/939/940/FM1)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX)
OcUK Swift 500W V2 Silent Power Supply
Silverstone SST-ML03B USB3.0 PC Case
I already have a 2TB HDD

So this is the spec so far, £345, tad more than i thought it would come to. any ideas to shave some pennies off?
 
Last year, I put a Llano A6-3650, with 8GB RAM, into an Antec ISK350 (150w PSU) as a HTPC. I stream everything off the server, so just an SSD and no additional hard drives or opticals.

CPU was more than needed, but couldn't get the A4 at the time, but overall runs/streams everything really well and after replacing the Antec's standard fans with some Noctua's it now runs quiet too.

One word of advice to OP is think about the case you choose, some will have a remote/sensor built in, the benefit over a USB solution (without mods) is that it allows you to use the remote to wake from any state - i.e. even when the machine is switched off. It will cost more, but worth bearing in mind...
 
You could save 10 quid on the CPU and go with the A4-3300 - really won't see any difference with the A6 for media playback. If you're planning on doing anything productive (or light gaming) on the machine then stick with the A6.

Maybe scrap the 3rd-party CPU cooler? The stock AMD cooler isn't that bad.

Cheaper RAM maybe?
 
Retail cooler should be fine if your running the CPU at stock.

Your main outlay to be honest is the case and PSU. You can find other HTPC cases at decent prices such as the CiT but you do run the risk of using a potentially iffy PSU. However I've read a lot of the PSU's only run to risk when pushed to their maximum output where a a6-3500 on the asus board should only pull 150(ish) on max load with a single 3.5 and blu-ray player.
see: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18360592

Regards to the IR benefit of some cases, you can grab a cheapo MCE remote from places which fit the IR to a USB slot, a friend of mine butchered the IR to fit in the place of a front USB port with a bit of effort
(basically pulled the usb port to bits, chopped it about a bit, snipped off the usb male off the IR, stripped back the 4 wires, soldered them to the USB header and gaffa taped the IR unit behind the case front so that the remote could reach it through the now empty USB hole.
You would still have 3 usb3 ports (1 at front 2 at back) and 4 usb2 slots at the back which is more than enough connectivity.
 
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For a PSU I'd go for a Pico in a HTPC build, keeps the heat out of the case, looses lots of cabling and no noise. The same thread as above has quite a discussion on it and gives a few hints as to where to pick them up.

What fan size? 80 or 120mm?
 
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