New HTPC - How does this spec look?

kamm

kamm

kamm

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Joined
5 Mar 2006
Posts
6
Hi all,

It's several years since I last built a PC, now I'm ready for a new HTPC.

I found this spec which suits my budget. How does it look? Anything I should change?

I'm planning on running Ubuntu on it and will mainly use it with Kodi and some catch-up TV through a browser and Spotify - that's about it (simple needs). :)

Motherboard:
Gigabyte B450 AORUS M

Processor:
AMD Ryzen R5 2400G 3.6GHZ

PSU:
Seasonic Focus 450 Gold 450W 80 Plus Gold Semi Modular

RAM:
Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 2666 PC4-21300 8GB 2X4GB CL15

SSD:
Western Digital Blue 3D Nand SATA SSD M.2 2280 250GB

HDD:
Taking this from an old PC...
Western Digital WD20EZRX 2TB Internal Hard Drive

Case:
SilverStone Milo ML03B Negra

Fan:
Enermax T.B.Silence PWM 80x80x25
 
Only the CPU is perhaps overkill, however with this you are future proofing for a good few years.

I run 8GB on my HTPC, and I can easy see 4GB+ in use after Google/Kodi, so again 8GB gives you the comfort.

The Seasonic Focus Gold is a good choice as it should run passive with your wattage, either that or the fan hardly spin. Either way it's a good PSU as it will keep the noise down in your room.

The Silverstone cases are good quality and fit in well with other Hi-Fi units/components, the Gigabyte motherboard, Kingston memory and Western Digital SSD are trusted makes.

Try and get the biggest CPU cooler you can that fits in the case, I like Arctic Cooling CPU coolers they are reliable and good value.

Put the WD Green drive in path of some air to help cool, however those WD Greens ran pretty cool and shut down often when not in use.

Only concern I have is with the Silverstone case, as looking at it's specs there are no fan filters other then the PSU fan. I would be looking at another Silverstone HTPC case that has full fan filtering.
 
Yeah, being a bit lazy I just want to build it and use for several years, so it's OK if it's a bit over engineered. ;)

Many thanks for all the feedback, especially JasonM - it's much appreciated!
 
kamm said:
Many thanks for all the feedback, especially JasonM - it's much appreciated!
Click to expand...

One final thing, once the system is running and stable. You can under-volt the system, everything under-volts including CPU, memory and chipset voltages. It's worth doing as you have a very stable PSU, also it saves quite a bit of heat/noise this is important with a HTPC that's in a compact space that your trying to keep cool. You be amazed how much heat under-volting saves, just take your time and change thing slowly one stage at a time.
 
Deffo not overkill for HTPC... But for your needs maybe. Just get an i5 2500k, it'll play TV for decades! Go for about £40-£60 on ebay with a board... Have one here if you're interested :D

#longlivesandy!
 
Also I'd look at the Node 605 by Fractal... It's gorgeous. IMO (aesthetically) the Silverstone you're looking at looks like garbage in comparison... The Fractal has a brushed aluminium front, which, if like me you're putting it next to some expensive hi-fi kit, it'll blend right in.

If it's just a cheapo unit being chucked in a cupbaord I guess that won't matter though!

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