spec check for HTPC components

rangor gubbins · 27 Aug 2013 at 17:34

I keep getting OS corruption on my old HTPC and I can't identify the problem, so going to upgrade all the components.
Planning on these:
CPU - AMD A-Series A4 4000 Trinity Socket FM2 3GHz 1MB L2 Cache
Mobo - Asus F2A55-M LK Socket FM2 VGA DVI 8 Channel Audio mATX
RAM - Crucial 4GB DDR3 1333MHz
PSU - Antec VP 350W PSU
SSD - Crucial 64GB V4 SSD

Housed in my old Antec Veris Fusion Remote case with old DVD drive.

Will be running XBMC in some form or other. Anyone know if the antec (i.e. Soundgraph imon) remote works better with XBMC these days?

rangor gubbins · 27 Aug 2013 at 23:40

Mods, could you move this to the SFF forum as probably more appropriate there.

andy_mk3 · 27 Aug 2013 at 23:49

I have this lot in my HTPC, bar a different SSD:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Force LS Series 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CSSD-F60GBLS) £54.95
1 x MSI A55M-E33 AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £39.95
1 x AMD A4-5300 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD5300OKHJBOX) £37.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/4GX) £37.99
Total : £211.87 (includes shipping : FREE).

Bit messy but works flawlessly.

rangor gubbins · 28 Aug 2013 at 09:30

Looks good.
I was also looking at that same motherboard, but had to discount it because there is no mention of S/PDIF headers. Are you just using HDMI to output your audio?

What case is that?

andy_mk3 · 28 Aug 2013 at 21:00

I used that motherboard as it has HDMI

I use HDMI to my TV, which feeds back to my surround via optical. Luckily my TV supports bitstreaming.

Case is this: Silverstone Milo ML03 HTPC Case - Black (SST-ML03B)

rangor gubbins · 30 Sep 2013 at 19:37

in the end went for:
intel G1610
ASRock H77 Pro4-M
Crucial 4GB DDR3 1333Hz
Antec 350 VP PSU
then added a nvidia EVGA G210 1GB DDR3 VGA DVI HDMI Passive PCI-E (as heard that intel graphics have a framerate glitch with linux / xbmc).
still putting it together. Boots into bios so thats a good start, but not installed an OS yet (job for next weekend).
not sure whether to stick with the 'iMon' remote control that came with the case, or buy an MCE remote.

champ222 · 2 Oct 2013 at 12:24

Ive recently moved to Openelec, i just use the generic version and its great.

used to use XBMC 10 on XP with no issues (but no hd audio) then went to windows 8 and frodo and had nothing but arse ache...

Ditched it and went with Openelec, needed to change gpu to nvidia 620 which is the one to have for hd audio etc.

I'll never go back to windows for htpc now.

andy_mk3 · 2 Oct 2013 at 13:11

I've been running W7 for a couple of years now which has been faultless. At least you're happy anyway

rangor gubbins · 2 Oct 2013 at 17:04

At moment I'm intending to install XBMCbuntu on my main media centre in the sitting room. Used it before and it was generally great (apart from repeated OS corruption but i think that was probably due to some hardware fault).

If i get round to having a Raspberry Pi media centre upstairs I will probably stick openelec on it. I assume it won't be too tricky to get the Rasp Pi + OpenElec to turn on the media centre downstairs via my network in order to stream media from it.
Anyway, that'll be a project for when I have a bit more free time.

andy_mk3 · 2 Oct 2013 at 23:08

I ran XBMCbunto on an older PC for downstairs at one point, it did the job quite nicely.