Powerful HTPC system

ssmacc · 22 Sep 2008 at 13:34

I’m thinking of building a powerful HTPC system, the hope is to add a PSU and 4870 at a later date. Would the spec below bottle neck a 4870? I’m not clued up regarding AMD chips…

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H AMD 780G Micro-ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £51.99
(£61.09) £51.99
(£61.09)
AMD Phenom X4 Quad Core 9850 2.50GHz Black Edition (Socket AM2) - Retail £104.99
(£123.36) £104.99
(£123.36)
Antec NSK 2480 Desktop Case - 380W Earth Watts PSU £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Black Dragon EVO ONE DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GE24GB1066C5DC) £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) £74.99
(£88.11) £74.99
(£88.11)

£422

fobose · 22 Sep 2008 at 17:12

Do you really need a quad for a HTPC? What are you planning on using it for?

ssmacc · 22 Sep 2008 at 17:37

For HD films, un-raring files a little video encoding, I’d possible add a 4870 a little latter and hope to run games at high setting at 1080p. I know it might be overkill initially but as it’s a AMD board the Phenom X4 seems a good buy, I’d just like to know if the Phenom X4 is powerful enough for the 4870?
The microATX intel boards seem a little think on the ground...

PhoenixUK · 23 Sep 2008 at 00:10

the motherboard is a bit crap for this spec. and it will be pain to fit any bigger GPU on it as well.

To be honest with you 4850 will be more than fine on that res unless you like to slap in max AA/AF and other extra stuff. But then you should be looking at something like E8600/Q9450 +100 quid mobo + cooling +4850/70x2 and not htpc ;-)

.

Other than that system looks fine, just grab 4850 and PC6400 ram instead 8500.

ssmacc · 23 Sep 2008 at 08:25

Thanks for the advice i'll go back to the drawing board! i suppose i'm after the best of both worlds a quite HTPC that can play Crysis at 1080p on high (no AA etc)

Cheers