HTPC

bryanlaycock

bryanlaycock

bryanlaycock

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Joined
28 Feb 2007
Posts
479
Location
Newcastle
Ive want to convert my current setup to a HTCP. Currently ive got a water cooled setup with the following Specs:

C2D e6300
BFG 8800GTS
2GB Geil Ultra Low Latency blah blah.......
320GB SeaGate 7200 Barracuda.........
Gigabyte DS3P motherboard
its all water cooled
with a DTEK fusion CPU block and a EK GPU block

il need a new case and all the other bits and bobs i was just wondering using what ive got either to sell or use how much would it cos to make a low noise HTPC obviously not water cooled.

Many thanks Bryan
 
What would you be doing with the HTPC? If you won't be gaming on it you can get away with a much lower spec. If that was the case you could sell that rig and have quite a bit left over after the HTPC was built. :)
 
If you just want a HTPC for playback,

CPU - Keep
Mobo - Sell, get a cheap mATX one
GPU - Sell, use onboard GPU

then use the proceeds to buy a case, mobo, and ram. I'm not too au fait with mATX C2D boards, but you should be able to spend ~£40 on one. 1GB ram will do you fine (<£20). remote will set you back less than £15. Nice cases (in a small form factor) start at around £50 (I recommend Hiper's cases). That leaves a bit of cash to either get a bigger HDD or a DVDRW.
 
This would be very nice for HD media and such:
overclockersukyourbaskebq4.png

Add more storage to that spec as you feel is necessary.

1 GiB RAM would do just fine but since 2 GiB is so cheap I threw it in anyway. As usual in my HTPC specs I include this processor as a placeholder for an X2 3800+ "Energy Efficient" 35 W CPU. It is more than powerful enough for decoding 1080p with aggressive codecs and it will put out significantly less heat. The AMD part number for it is ADD3800CUBOX. Shop around. :)
 
So if i sell this as a whole system what do u rekon i could get then?

C2D E6300
2GB Ram Geil (Low Latency/6400)
EK Nvidia 8800GTS W/C Block
DTEK Fusion CPU Block
BFG NVIDIA 8800GTS 640MB
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB
DVD drive
Pump (not sure of make off hand)
5.25 Danger Den Drive bay resovoir
120mm Radiator
PCI Netgear Wireless Card
all the tubing etc
Cooler Master Centurion Case

i was thinking of saving cash by using Media Portal instead of buying vista or xp media centre does anyone rate it?
also will need a wireless keyboard with trackerball or pad whats the best one for the money out there?
 
Last edited:
BillytheImpaler said:
stuff
Click to expand...

I'd replace the Fusion with the cheaper NSK2400, at half the price for more or less identical case. Especially when it's a budget HTPC build.

buying vista or xp media centre does anyone rate it?
Click to expand...

I use Media Portal, it's a better front end that rubbish XP MCE and Vista MCE. There's the £30 RF Keysonic wireless/trackpad (looks like bottom half of a laptop)
 
That keysonic looks alright for the cash i wonder if the batteries last a good length of time or not.

Yeah i was looking around and there are plenty of cheap cases out there, and im sure they would be ok once the fans are replaced.

I might download media portal and have a bash and see what its like.
 
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