Need a bit of help specing an 'HTPC'

[GoogalyMoogaly]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of putting together an HTPC. Well sort of, it's probably not truely considered an HTPC in that it probably wont be that small, but it will be a PC used mostly for web surfing, e-mail and watching DVD/Blu-rays and video files.

I'm thinking of using this case:
Cooler Master Elite 360 Mini Tower Case

Because it looks like it can nicely be laid on its side and it seems like you can use fairly standard components in it rather than requiring low profile this and a short one of that. Plus it's cheap.
Has anyone used one of these cases before? Are they any good? Can anyone suggest anything better for similar money?

Now I've got an old AM3 motherboard (GA-880GM-UD2H), 4GB DDR3 RAM, 750W XClio PSU (overkill I suspect, but I've got it lying around), DVD drive, SSD & HDD.

What I need is a CPU, a CPU cooler and an OS.

Phenom II chips seem quite hard to get hold of these days. The 960T seems to be a good chip, but seems a little overkill for a HTPC? Would an Athlon II X3 be ok? Is that a little pricey compared to the 960T?

I'm also not sure what to do about the CPU cooler. I doubt I'll be overclocking the PC, but I would like it running quiet. The Antec Kuhler 620 seems to be a decent enough price, but is it quiet? Also is it adding unnecessary complication? If I go air cooling I imagine I'll need a cooler where the fan is parallel to the motherboard. Any suggestions?

I'm assuming the onboard graphics will be good enough for HTPC duties?

As far as an OS goes, how viable is Linux as a HTPC OS? Do all linux flavours support TRIM? I'm guessing 64-bit Win7 would be best?

What about WiFi cards? Will I be ok with a nice cheap OcUK or TP-Link PCI-e card?

Any suggestions for a wireless keyboard and mouse? (I think keyboard and mouse might be better than keyboard with built in trackpad as I hate trackpads. Although a trackpad would be nice if I had a mouse as well.)

Is there a better option than getting a cpu for the AM3 board? I imagine I'd struggle to get a decent cpu and motherboard for the price of the 960T?

Also, if connecting to the TV via HDMI do I need any special connectors to get the sound from the onboard sound to the HDMI port? Also interested if this would be different if I bought a dedicated graphics card with HDMI.

Thanks for any help and advice.

 

[R088ieS86]

SETUP
Spending £95+ on a Quad core CPU just to play videos and surf the web could be classed as a bit OTT.

You can grab a Pentium G620 and a H61 motherboard for that kind of price.
Pro's: lower power consumtion and heat produced.
Con's: Obviosuly less powerful
You could look on a popular auction site or post a wanted thread in the members market for something a little less powerful.

X2/X3 Athlons would suffice

Noise/Cooling:
The stock AMD cooler isn't exactly what i would call quiet, the Antec 620 can be quiet but, as with all water loops, you get a slight whine from the pump.

If you went with the intel G620 you should be able to fit a Scythe Ninja 3. Because that thing is so big (i have one in my server) you can run it without fans and it will keep the processor cool and silent.
The AMDs might produce too much heat to run it fanless, I'm not sure.

OS
Linux will run a htpc nicely as it is very light weight. My favourites at the mo are Mint 12 and Ubuntu which i think is upto 11. something.
Both support TRIM for your SSD.
You just have to becareful about hardware. Intel/nVidia are still the best supported hardware for linux systems.

HDMI

I believe your current motherboard has HDMI, it is as easy as connecting the 2. you can set the sound options in your OS / media program to tell it to play sounds through HDMI.
Along with that the inbuilt HD4250 supports HD decoding and will output ok.


I think I have covered everything. Let me know if you have any questions. phew

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

OK, been having a re-think. Since it looks like the case can take a full size motherboard I could put an old S775 Core2Duo setup in there, which might work out better for a media centre PC.
The thing is, then I'll need a graphics card with HDMI.
Any recommendation on a graphics card?
I'm tempted by running Linux on there so an Nvidia card would probably best. Obviously would need an HDMI connector and ideally be as quiet as possible. But I've nothing against an AMD card if it'll work well under Linux.

Also, I'm not sure if the Scythe Ninja 3 will fit in that case as I believe its only 147mm wide.

 

[shadow_boxer]

A skt775 dual core will be more appropriate I think rather than getting a phenom ii x4 for example which is a bit ott. I previously used an athlon ii x2 240 and a radeon hd5450 in my htpc but found it ran too warm. Have since swapped to a passive Asus AMD Zacate board. I've also used that case in the past. Was ok for the money but it does definitely feel cheap and there isn't much room to work especially with a full sized atx. A basic graphics card with a hdmi output will be perfectly fine. You can get something like a passive radeon hd5450 for just over £20.

 

[Magic_x_uk]

Also if you put this case on its side, you wont be able to use a optical drive will you as the disc will not seat correctly and fall out.

(unless I am unaware of some clever dvd drive out there?)

 

[spenncerr]

Also if you put this case on its side, you wont be able to use a optical drive will you as the disc will not seat correctly and fall out.

(unless I am unaware of some clever dvd drive out there?)

The slimline DVD-RW drives have the little clippy in bit which allow you to use them sideways from what I remember.

Thanks for posting this thread though, I'm also in the market for building a HTPC so there's some nice tips here.

 

[Jay794]

I'm doing the exact same thing as you, well different internals but the same case, I've got a Micro-ATX board and a Quadcore processor going spare, unfortunately Micro-ATX is too big to go in the smallest cases (thats why mini-ATX exist I guesS)

But I'm in the same boat as you, lots of old parts laying around. Going to do a build log on this too.

Want to see how Angry Birds plays on a 42" TV lol