i3 HTPC

Baboonanza

Baboonanza

Baboonanza

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I've been speccing up an i3 based HTPC. Using the H55 chipset the benchmarks suggest that the i3's Integrated GPU is good enough for normal HTPC stuff. Is also supports direct bitstreaming from Blu-Ray, which otherwise you'd need a Radeon 5xxx for.

Here's the spec:
baskete.png

I'd like to add the £35.99 mini-ninja, but it doesn't support the socket :(

It's a little pricey at the moment, but I would hope prices will come down a bit since both the i3 and H55 are still very new. I'd definitely jump for £450ish.

So, is this a sensible build? can it handle the HTPC load without an aditional GPU? Is 2GB RAM enough? This year will see the release of DVB-2 (Freeview HD) tuners, so it seems like an ideal time to go HTPC.

Edit: Changed to use cheaper mobo
 
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Looks good apart from the Antec Fusion, its a huge ugly beast thats need knocking around for years now.

DVB-T2 Tuners aint going to be cheap, I'd guess the first ones will be about £150 (going by how much DVB-S2 tuners costs when they first came out). Where as you can get a Quad DVB-S/DVB-T for under £100 that'll give you many more options if you have a Dish.

I think intel need a £60/£60 LGA1156 cpu/motherboard combo before they can dent AMD in the HTPC sector.
 
Thanks. I know the tuner will be pricey, but I don't have and don't want a dish so there aren't many options.

I must say I don't much like the Fusion either, but then I've had problems finding any mATX HTPC case that I like. I want one that supports full-size PCI cards and normal sized optical drives, but they're all ugly.

I also agreed abou the i3/H55 combo, they are more expensive than they should be IMO, but I think the price will go down. Many things are more expensive than they should be at the moment.
 
I have one of th fusion cases and its a bit big. Ive swapped mine for a mini pc which fits under the tv a lot better. Now what to do with the fusion case.......
 
of course its overkill, most new builds are nowdays, but being the sort of people we are, if you bought a cheap system, you'd only be itching to upgrade in a few months just for the hell of it.
 
Partly it's just more fun getting new tech but there are additional benefits. The idea behind the i3 system is that you can avoid having a GPU and get a nice low power consumption, plus there are defintiely things you can/may do with an HTPC that can use the extra umph.

So while an older AMD chip would be cheaper, I'd consider paying the extra for something a bit more exciting. And even then to get all the same functionality you'd have to add one of the unreleased low-end Ati 5xxxs which would mean that the price difference isn't *so* big.

As said though, I still think it's too expensive at the moment. I'll be looking to get one later in the year maybe, but really I just thought it would be an interesting approach to discuss.

And thanks for the case recommendations guys. I've found some Silverstone cases in particular that are really nice!
 
What are you on about?

I'm running blu-ray 1080p fine on my sempron 140 and nvidia 8200 based mainboard.

It also runs BBC HD great.

Why would I need an ATI 5 series?

Hell, it's your money to burn.
 
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Baboonanza said:
Attempting to justify my innate desire for new tech mainly :)
Click to expand...

lol sorry. I'm not in the best of moods today.

If you got the money go for it, I was just saying that a HTPC can be done much cheaper, either by buying new AMD stuff or going second hand socket 775 intel.

I guess I wanted to restore balance for people that will read this thread for the own HTPC setups.
 
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