New Media Centre wattage

oceaness · 14 Jan 2007 at 15:50

I would like to use the following components to build a Media Centre:

Intel E6300
Gigabyte GA 965G-DS3
400GB SATAII
GeIL 2x1GB 800MHz Dual Channel
NEC 8x DVD±RW Dual Layer Slimline
Hauppauge WinTV-Nova-T-500 MCE/Dual

The real question is how much power do you think that lot will use unoverclocked and overclocked?

BoomAM · 14 Jan 2007 at 16:41

A good quality 400W should run it fine. But to be safe, i'd say a good quality 500W.

oceaness · 14 Jan 2007 at 21:21

BoomAM said:
A good quality 400W should run it fine. But to be safe, i'd say a good quality 500W.

The only HTPC cases I can find with a reasonable PSUs are the Antec ones. Theres the Antec NSK2400 Desktop Case - 380W SmartPower PSU and the Antec Fusion HTPC Case - 430HE Watt PSU.

I'm not sure wether to go for the Antec Fusion or a full size ATX desktop case and put a standard ATX PSU in, at least that would mean I can overclock it somewhat depending on how noisy it gets.

If I went for the Antec I'd have to go for a Micro ATX board as well of course.

FrostedNipple · 14 Jan 2007 at 21:25

buy the case and psu seperate, or dont you want to do that. most case supplied psu arnt that economical or good tbh

Trigger · 14 Jan 2007 at 21:29

FrostedNipple said:
most case supplied psu arnt that economical or good tbh

Nope, the PSUs that come with the Antec cases are fine, as you would expect from Antec

If you want to buy separate then look at a Silverstone Media Case with a Corsair 520W PSU. That aside though, that machine is way over-specced for a media centre PC- a cheap AM2 or 939 setup would be fine and save you a lot of money in the process

FrostedNipple · 14 Jan 2007 at 21:32

Trigger said:
Nope, the PSUs that come with the Antec cases are fine, as you would expect from Antec If you want to buy separate then look at a Silverstone Media Case with a Corsair 520W PSU. That aside though, that machine is way over-specced for a media centre PC- a cheap AM2 or 939 setup would be fine and save you a lot of money in the process

still not as good as my hiper type r

Trigger · 14 Jan 2007 at 21:33

FrostedNipple said:
still not as good as my hiper type r

You mean those Hiper type R PSUs which have had recent reports about randomly going 'pop' for no apparant reason?

Guigsy · 14 Jan 2007 at 21:43

You don't need more than 500w. All the Core 2 Duos require very little power (65w???) and you aren't running a powerful 3d card which can suck well over 100w each. I'm willing to bet that machine would be fine on 350w. Shuttles can manage it with a powerful 3d card.

Overclocking on the otherhand is a good way to eat some more power, and worst of all for a HTPC, make it hotter. They tend to run very warm anyway (unless you like them noisy), so overclocking is normally a bad idea. Do you need that much more power anyway? Who cares if a DVD rip takes 10% longer, it's not like deathmatch where every frame can count.

Also, do you need 2GB?

oceaness · 14 Jan 2007 at 21:47

FrostedNipple said:
buy the case and psu seperate, or dont you want to do that. most case supplied psu arnt that economical or good tbh

The Antec PSU is perfectly ok, not the best, but a long way from the worst.

Trigger said:
Nope, the PSUs that come with the Antec cases are fine, as you would expect from Antec If you want to buy separate then look at a Silverstone Media Case with a Corsair 520W PSU. That aside though, that machine is way over-specced for a media centre PC- a cheap AM2 or 939 setup would be fine and save you a lot of money in the process

Guigsy said:
Overclocking on the otherhand is a good way to eat some more power, and worst of all for a HTPC, make it hotter. They tend to run very warm anyway (unless you like them noisy), so overclocking is normally a bad idea. Do you need that much more power anyway? Who cares if a DVD rip takes 10% longer, it's not like deathmatch where every frame can count.

Also, do you need 2GB?

Yeah I know it's a folding rig as well. The overclocking is just going to be an experiment thats all. It will help with the folding but is entirely dependant on the noise.

Trigger said:
You mean those Hiper type R PSUs which have had recent reports about randomly going 'pop' for no apparant reason?

I love my Hiper Type R 580. I can't hear it at all and have had no problems.

I'm not gonna jump straight in I'm going to think about it some more yet.

FrostedNipple · 14 Jan 2007 at 21:47

Trigger said:
You mean those Hiper type R PSUs which have had recent reports about randomly going 'pop' for no apparant reason?

i saw those reports but mine is running fine atm, had it since like october and should be good for a while longer (touch wood)