Spec me a HTPC please

[Sniper123]

Hi not sure how much budget this would need but let's go for £800~ but more if its worth it.

I don't need a monitor, keyboard, mouse or OS.

Would like to be able to play newer games on our 1080p TV at decent settings but don't want to hear loud fan noise when using it to play movie or streaming from netflix

Ideally would like a cube case as would like it to fit on my TV stand but understand this may not be possible with my requirements, needs 2TB HDD space.

Also, is it possible for graphic cards to send sound over HDMI now as this is something I need or would need a sound card with optical out to connect to my 5.1 surround sound system.

Sorry for my lack of knowledge, I've been using my Dell XPS m1730 laptop for the last 6 years which is now sadly on its last legs so not kept up with hardware like I use to

Thanks in advance

 

[Devrij]

Hi not sure how much budget this would need but let's go for £800~ but more if its worth it.

I don't need a monitor, keyboard, mouse or OS.

Would like to be able to play newer games on our 1080p TV at decent settings but don't want to hear loud fan noise when using it to play movie or streaming from netflix

Ideally would like a cube case as would like it to fit on my TV stand but understand this may not be possible with my requirements, needs 2TB HDD space.

Also, is it possible for graphic cards to send sound over HDMI now as this is something I need or would need a sound card with optical out to connect to my 5.1 surround sound system.

Sorry for my lack of knowledge, I've been using my Dell XPS m1730 laptop for the last 6 years which is now sadly on its last legs so not kept up with hardware like I use to

Thanks in advance

I'll leave it to the other more experienced HTPC builders to suggest cases etc, but to answer some of your questions:

- fan noise even on a good gpu should be minimal at low loads like you'd encounter playing movies (you can set a fan profile that only ramps up at gaming temps and stays quiet at low-mid temps), but an aftermarket gpu with a non-reference cooler might help with this. My point is that you could have a beast of a graphics card to game with and not worry about noise. CPU cooler will be the main culprit for fan noise

- Audio over HDMI is supported by virtually all modern gpus, so this will save you some spaghetti behind your TV.

£800 will set you up with a nice build, so good luck with your HTPC!

 

[Tinders]

Why not save all your money and just get a media player like ATV2 or a Raspberry Pi.

Or theres a quite a few people using the Hp N40L/N54L microserver as HTPC's. You dont need a lot of power for media files nowadays.

 

[Genoma]

he wants to play games with a GPU, not only a HTPC. If it was just media focus, with that money I would recommend a NUC, loving mine for storage, playback, browsing, light gaming. Yes they work out expensive but are smashing 'puters!

 

[Tinders]

Ooops, missed the games bit sorry

 

[Tinders]

I assume you are looking at new gear? I use a Silverstone Grandia GD05 case, its compact but can fit a HD7850 without any hardship. Rest of the system is a I7 2600/SSD/GB H77 MB.

 

[altrewin]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 280 TurboDUO 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £179.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £167.99
1 x MSI Z87I AC Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ITX Motherboard £102.95
1 x Silverstone Strider SST-ST45SF SFX Series - 450 Watt £61.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SH103S3/120G) £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £59.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Silverstone SST-SG05BB-Lite Sugo USB 3.0 - Black £34.99
1 x Samsung SN-208DB/BEBE Slimline 8x DVD±RW SATA Drive - OEM £17.99
1 x Raijintek Zelos Low Profile CPU Cooler £15.95
Total : £767.41 (includes shipping : £8.00).


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Could up the PSU to the 80 Plus Gold rated version but I left it with the bronze one due to the gold being out of stock.