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.

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.

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?

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?