Spec me an HTPC

Dayzed&Confused · 22 Dec 2012 at 20:11

Hello clever people,
I need your advice on as the title suggests, a spec for an HTPC, I was thinking of using trinity but am open to other suggestions, Not sure what sort of cost, but as cheap as possible really, must be silent though, as otherwise it will drive my dad mental. Will also need a screen, as our ancient tv is slowly dying, minimum 24", preferably 27" or more if it doesn't cost ridiculous amounts. Sorry for lack of info, but I am really new to this sort of thing, especially the idea of silence coming before power.
Thanks for any help you can give me.

honosuseri · 22 Dec 2012 at 20:14

What's it for bud, just media playback? He might be better off just getting a new smartTV in the long run.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus VN247H 24"Widescreen Super Narrow Bezel LED Monitor - Black £149.99
1 x ASRock FM2A75M-ITX AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £73.99
1 x Intel 330 Series 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £59.99
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) £49.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G186C9K) £35.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £457.52 (includes shipping : £10.50).

There is this FM2 build. If the cooler is too loud it's not hard to replace with a low profile cooler later

Dayzed&Confused · 22 Dec 2012 at 20:40

Media playback, web browsing, skype, and some gaming - which is why I thought trinity's onboard graphics would be good, given that it's only going to be minecraft, torchlight (1/2), HL2 and black mesa, none of which are particularly demanding. Might need an additional HDD for music and iplayer downloads. Also, would a dual core be enough, could probably stretch at least to an A8.

honosuseri · 22 Dec 2012 at 20:41

Dayzed&Confused said:
Media playback, web browsing, skype, and some gaming - which is why I thought trinity's onboard graphics would be good, given that it's only going to be minecraft, torchlight (1/2), HL2 and black mesa, none of which are particularly demanding. Might need an additional HDD for music and iplayer downloads. Also, would a dual core be enough, could probably stretch at least to an A8.

The dual core A6 gaming demo

The A10 is currently on offer for practically the same price as the A8

Might be worth upping the RAM to a 2133Mhz kit for £5 more.....the IGP will thank you for it.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus VN247H 24"Widescreen Super Narrow Bezel LED Monitor - Black £149.99
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £86.99
1 x ASRock FM2A75M-ITX AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £73.99
1 x Intel 330 Series 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £59.99
1 x Thermaltake Element Q mini-ITX HTPC Case - 220W Power Supply £56.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) £54.98
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G213C1K) £39.95
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24B5ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £553.46 (includes shipping : £10.50).

Dayzed&Confused · 22 Dec 2012 at 21:00

Fair enough, will have to wait a little while to get paid, any idea what the quietest cooler is for FM2?
Also, for an extra £20, would it be worth getting this over the 330?

honosuseri · 22 Dec 2012 at 21:03

Dayzed&Confused said:
Fair enough, will have to wait a little while to get paid, any idea what the quietest cooler is for FM2?
Also, for an extra £20, would it be worth getting this over the 330?

In that case it would have to be low profile, you'd have to google about a cooler I've never used a LP one. Your link doesn't work btw, I shall assume it's a larger SSD. If its the samsung 840 then the 830 is actually better and has a slightly larger capacity with better write speeds than the basic 840

Mitzy · 22 Dec 2012 at 21:04

Case for a HTPC, I would recommend a Lian Li C50B, I have one and it blends well with AV equipment/sits in a rack.

honosuseri · 22 Dec 2012 at 21:13

Now the link works. Yes that's basically the same drive (both have the sandforce controller) with a larger capacity. At £80ish I would lean to the samsung 830 though which has a better controller.

Dayzed&Confused · 22 Dec 2012 at 21:17

honosuseri said:
In that case it would have to be low profile, you'd have to google about a cooler I've never used a LP one. Your link doesn't work btw, I shall assume it's a larger SSD. If its the samsung 840 then the 830 is actually better and has a slightly larger capacity with better write speeds than the basic 840

Fixed the link, it was to the SanDisk Extreme SSD 120gb
The Lian Li seems a bit costly for my purposes, will mostly be tucked away behind/below the monitor.

Dayzed&Confused · 22 Dec 2012 at 21:59

The Sandisk claims better read/write speeds, and if they both have the Sandforce controller, what makes the 830 better?