Possible HTPC upgrade

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Soldato
Joined
10 May 2004
Posts
5,206
Location
Middlesex
Hey guys,

My parents have an old PC which they would like upgraded to a HTPC *if possible*. I've got a couple of questions.

This is basically all I will be carrying over:

Pentium E2200
Acer - F672cr-R01-A4 mobo
OCZ Vertex 2

I guess my first questions is, on win 8 will this be ok for 1080p video (I will be buying a gfx card)?

This is the case they would like:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-163-SV

I'm finding it very difficult to find documentation on the motherboard, I think it should fit in the case but could anyone confirm?

The other problem I have is there are only 2 sata ports. I will have a vertex 2 and a storage drive but they will also need a DVDRW in there. I have seen sata>IDE converters cheap on the bay. Do these work?

Right, if everything there checks out and will work together can you guys help me spec the rest up please?

I'll basically need everything else to go along with the above (excluding keyboard, mouse, speakers). They will need a GFX card that fits in that case which has an HDMI out and a wifi card or USB wifi dongle and it will need to be as quiet as possible at about 7 feet. It's currently using the intel CPU cooler (will this be quiet enough?)

Budget is as cheap as possible really.

I know it's quite a lot to ask but any help will be much appreciated. :)
 
honosuseri said:
Check the PSU limitations on that case

Might be best just to do a trinity build

YOUR BASKET
1 x ASRock FM2A75M-ITX AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £73.99
1 x Thermaltake Element Q mini-ITX HTPC Case - 220W Power Supply £56.99
1 x AMD A6-5400K Black Edition 3.60GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD540KOKHJBOX) £53.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C11 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1866C11D3P1K2/8G) £39.95
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless-N USB Adapter (TL-WN821N) £12.98
Total : £249.90 (includes shipping : £10.00).

Click to expand...


Thanks a lot for that. I have been thinking it may be better to go down the Trinity route but that puts an extra £130ish onto the budget which could be spent on the storage drive and Media keyboard etc.

The case I linked above supports standard ATX PSUs.

The other option as far as only having 2 ports is concerned I suppose is to just go for the HDD and leave the SSD out. If it's left in hibernate the whole time I guess boot up time may not be much of an issue.
 
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If all is ok I am looking at ordering this today:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £54.98
1 x Silverstone Milo ML03 HTPC Case - Black (SST-ML03B) £52.99
1 x Seasonic S12II 380W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £42.98
1 x Xebec HTPC/Console Handheld Keyboard £34.99
1 x Asus HD 5450 SILENT 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Low Profile Graphics Card £22.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless-N USB Adapter (TL-WN821N) £12.98
Total : £249.42 (includes shipping : £11.25).



I believe the size of the mobo is 224mmx221mm (I have found some documentation on the desktop it is coming out of, it states that is the size of the micro atx 'PCB'. I assume they are referring to the mobo).

Will that fit in the case?
 
honosuseri said:
Yes the case takes mATX. Look at THIS HDD which has double the storage, you were happy to pay close to that in an earlier spec
Click to expand...

Yes, I know. They are still weighing up the extra cost for the 2tb.

They are basically going to be using it for netflix and the odd 1080p film which will be deleted after it's been watched. I doubt they will benefit from the extra storage.

Thanks a lot for all your help guys!
 
gt_junkie said:
Particularly like the fact it takes an ATX PSU - just be careful to get a PSU and optical drive shallow enough to fit without squashing one another. I didn't have to worry about this as I don't use an optical drive. Is used as a TV and online on-demand box.
Click to expand...

The depth of the PSU and DVD drive together is 310mm. The depth of the case is 340mm. Hopefully this should be ok?
 
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