Spec me HTPC

s96024

s96024

s96024

Associate
Joined
31 May 2006
Posts
133
Location
Orpington, Kent
Just bought myself a projector and looking to add a easy way to play all my films through it. Including HD mkv content. At the moment I use tversity to play content on lcd through my ps3, but this isn't ideal and I have numerous problems playing some content, especially HD. Never built one of these myself and I want it now, so don't want to spend a couple of months reasearching every possibility, once I start I don't stop. I like the media portal software, so would want to use that or something similiar. I have around 1.5tb of films/music at the moment. These are on external hard drives and I would want to transfer all this over. Therefore 2tb is the minimum space needed and would atleast need to be able to expand in the future. If not stick another tb in now. Can everyone who knows about this sort of project put together some specs please. Budget is around the 300-400 pound mark. Want to get this sorted before christmas, so need to order asap. Thanks in advance.
 
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD10EACS) £65.99
(£75.89) £65.99
(£75.89)
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H AMD 780G Micro-ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99
(£68.99) £59.99
(£68.99)
LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM Serial ATA Drive - Retail £54.99
(£63.24) £54.99
(£63.24)
Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) £41.99
(£48.29) £41.99
(£48.29)
Zalman CNPS7500-CU CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £26.99
(£31.04) £26.99
(£31.04)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ 2.20GHz (Socket AM2) - OEM £24.99
(£28.74) £24.99
(£28.74)
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £21.99
(£25.29) £21.99
(£25.29)
Sub Total : £296.93
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DHL @ Home Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.99
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £45.89
Total : £351.81

needs case

if blu-ray/HDDVD drive isn't needed ,you could drop it in favor for your 2nd TB of storage, otherwise that spec only gives 1TB, you will still need a DVD drive though

drop the corsair PSU for a antec case and PSU combo if needed

went for the zalman cooler to help make the PC as silent as possible, the fanmate 2 should help to further reduce noise
 
Ok, how does this look. Little over but think that will be ok. Don't need the blu ray player as I can use my ps3.

spec.jpg
 
Any reason for changing it? Why is that one better? Also can someone confirm it's all compatible so I can put the order in tomorrow. Cheers.
 
Deffo go with with a 780G AM2 mobo mate. I've got one its fantastic. Paired it with an AMD 4850e 2.5ghz energy efficient chip.

The advantage of the 780G's is that they have a built in ATI 3200 GPU which gives you all the advantages of a having a seperate card (a 3450 for example) but without the power usage and as long as you dont plan on gaming I cant see a better S775 alternative. The S775 boards are vastly more expensive than the AM2 boards. (I'm not using OcUK as a reference)

Also are you intending to stream the content from your main comp? If yes then dont buy a huge drive. I've just put an 80gb in mine and stream the content from my NAS. If you are wireless though you might struggle with 1080p content.

I managed to pick both the chip and mobo up for £98 brand new so in my eyes it was a bargain.

And the 780G will fit in that case mate.
 
Last edited:
you dont need this
Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) £41.99
(£48.29) £41.99
(£48.29)
Zalman CNPS7500-CU CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £26.99
(£31.04) £26.99
(£31.04)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ 2.20GHz (Socket AM2) - OEM £24.99
(£28.74) £24.99

buy a retail chip and drop the seperate heatsink, buy a bluetooth wireless keyboard #
KeySonic 2.4Ghz Wireless Compact Keyboard
GA-MA78G-DS*H
 
Last edited:
ManCuBuS said:
Deffo go with with a 780G AM2 mobo mate. I've got one its fantastic. Paired it with an AMD 4850e 2.5ghz energy efficient chip.

The advantage of the 780G's is that they have a built in ATI 3200 GPU which gives you all the advantages of a having a seperate card (a 3450 for example) but without the power usage and as long as you dont plan on gaming I cant see a better S775 alternative. The S775 boards are vastly more expensive than the AM2 boards. (I'm not using OcUK as a reference)

Also are you intending to stream the content from your main comp? If yes then dont buy a huge drive. I've just put an 80gb in mine and stream the content from my NAS. If you are wireless though you might struggle with 1080p content.

I managed to pick both the chip and mobo up for £98 brand new so in my eyes it was a bargain.

And the 780G will fit in that case mate.
Click to expand...

I've been using this mobo and I've also got to say I'm over the moon with it, it gets the thumbs up every time from me for HTPC usage, pop it in the Antec case and you've got a great HTPC.
 
ManCuBuS said:
Deffo go with with a 780G AM2 mobo mate. I've got one its fantastic. Paired it with an AMD 4850e 2.5ghz energy efficient chip.

The advantage of the 780G's is that they have a built in ATI 3200 GPU which gives you all the advantages of a having a seperate card (a 3450 for example) but without the power usage and as long as you dont plan on gaming I cant see a better S775 alternative. The S775 boards are vastly more expensive than the AM2 boards. (I'm not using OcUK as a reference)

Also are you intending to stream the content from your main comp? If yes then dont buy a huge drive. I've just put an 80gb in mine and stream the content from my NAS. If you are wireless though you might struggle with 1080p content.

I managed to pick both the chip and mobo up for £98 brand new so in my eyes it was a bargain.

And the 780G will fit in that case mate.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mancubus. I did think about streaming the content, but I think I'd rather have it on the htpc because that's the only place I will watch it from. Also the pc I use at the moment is old and won't last long I don't think. Also I'd like to get it all off the numerous external hard drives and get it all in one place. Then I can transfer new content every now and then using an external hard disk.

If I drop the cooler and just use the stock one, will that make much difference noise wise?

Thanks for the help from everyone it has been much appreciated.
 
Right I think this is it. I'll add the second drive at a later date. Only worry is if I want to expand furthur, hard drive wise, i.e sticking in a third TB.

spec2.jpg
 
Right I put this system together yesterday and today. Finally got most of it sorted after making a couple of stupid mistakes. I have just one problem, I can't seem to get the sound to work properly. I have this hooked up to my projector via hdmi. Then for sound I am trying to connect to stereo. Only thing is it is only playing through one speaker, the left one. Can anyone throw any light on why this might be. I have spent so many hours working the other problems out. I just can't be bothered.
 
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