Spec plz

BUDFORCE

BUDFORCE

BUDFORCE

Soldato
Joined
3 May 2012
Posts
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Location
Wetherspoons
Hi guys, use a PC as HTPC and we use it all the time but the thing has died and whilst I am able to revive it each time, it's a hassle of draining the bios and pulling it apart etc, it's a mix of 5-20 year old hardware and I have tried but think it's time to let the old girl go.

I am after new hardware, but low end, so I will need motherboard, CPU, RAM and I'm going to change the power supply so a PSU as well.

It's just for streaming 1080p and some light web browsing, thinking a CPU with inbuilt graphics rather than a dedicated graphics card.

PSU I guess wouldn't need to be anywhere north of 400w I guess, probably less, but good efficiency would be a bonus.
 
My basket at OcUK:

Total: £402.91 (includes delivery: £7.99)​



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£400 on the nose, thinking something like this, to be honest its complete overkill but I guess it'll cover any potential furture uses.
 
My only other thing I am possibly thinking about is going micro ATX, so different board and PSU but would then also need a new case, but the smaller size would be beneficial not going to lie, I also have a low profile CPU cooler that should still fit.
 
 
Last edited:
BUDFORCE said:
Hi guys, use a PC as HTPC and we use it all the time but the thing has died and whilst I am able to revive it each time, it's a hassle of draining the bios and pulling it apart etc, it's a mix of 5-20 year old hardware and I have tried but think it's time to let the old girl go.

I am after new hardware, but low end, so I will need motherboard, CPU, RAM and I'm going to change the power supply so a PSU as well.

It's just for streaming 1080p and some light web browsing, thinking a CPU with inbuilt graphics rather than a dedicated graphics card.

PSU I guess wouldn't need to be anywhere north of 400w I guess, probably less, but good efficiency would be a bonus.
Click to expand...
If that's all it is doing, a Raspberry Pi or similar will do all of that pretty well to be honest and be a lot more efficient while you are at it.
 
IntMD said:
If that's all it is doing, a Raspberry Pi or similar will do all of that pretty well to be honest and be a lot more efficient while you are at it.
Click to expand...

Yeah but are you able to install windows or a brower like Bracve and the various plugins?

One of the things that is vital is that we use all the adblock plugings so can watch things like ITV/C4 catch up services and YouTube add free, which is a massive bonus.
 
mickyflinn said:
Have you looked at mini pc ?

My micro atx spec

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £352.87 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

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Click to expand...

Hi thanks for this.

To be honest, I have been contemplating this, the current setup is standard ATX and I have a jonsbo HTPC case but drespite that it's still quite a lump, if I could build a PC I could fit into a m-ATX size case to make the overall thing smaller that would be quite an advantage, it would mean I would have to then fork out for a case on top, but I could live with that to be honest, your list looks really good actually. Just need to look for an m-atx case to take advantage of the overall smaller size, but I reckon I might go for this.
 
Intel option:

Intel Core i3-12100 3.30GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail - £128.99
Gigabyte B660 DS3H AX - Intel B660 DDR4 ATX Motherboard - £124.99
Lexar Hades 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C18 3600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit - £39.95
Phanteks AMP 550W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply - £89.99

Grand Total: £391.91

For the record, the 12100 IGP is a fair chunk slower in games than the 5600G, but it does have AV1 decode, which I don't believe the 5600G does.

The B660 DS3H has DP, HDMI and USB Type C on the rear I/O, but only three audio jacks and no spdif.

PSU is really pricey, but is Seasonic built, has a hybrid passive mode, fluid bearing fan and a 10 year warranty.
 
Something like this:
Tetras said:
Intel option:

Intel Core i3-12100 3.30GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail - £128.99
Gigabyte B660 DS3H AX - Intel B660 DDR4 ATX Motherboard - £124.99
Lexar Hades 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C18 3600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit - £39.95
Phanteks AMP 550W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply - £89.99

Grand Total: £391.91

For the record, the 12100 IGP is a fair chunk slower in games than the 5600G, but it does have AV1 decode, which I don't believe the 5600G does.

The B660 DS3H has DP, HDMI and USB Type C on the rear I/O, but only three audio jacks and no spdif.

PSU is really pricey, but is Seasonic built, has a hybrid passive mode, fluid bearing fan and a 10 year warranty.
Click to expand...

Hi thanks.

Probably stick with an AMD platform, but I certainly will take your suggestion of PSU, I like the look of that one, modular is a bonus but really I want this PC to last a looooong time, so getting a really good high quality PSU is key.

I have come up with something like this include the case:

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £516.90 (includes delivery: £11.99)​



​

For the sake of £10 i'll stick with the Corsair branded RAM only as I have used that Corsair Vegence in several builds over the years and never had any issues. Not to say the other stuff is bad, I'm just not familiar.
 
BUDFORCE said:
Yeah but are you able to install windows or a brower like Bracve and the various plugins?

One of the things that is vital is that we use all the adblock plugings so can watch things like ITV/C4 catch up services and YouTube add free, which is a massive bonus.
Click to expand...
My Pi 4B will happily stream 4K content. I will point out though, there are in short supply at the minute so getting one may not be particularly easy (however I got mine back when the 4B released for about £50-60 or so) & I will preface this with me not being a massive Linux guy but still found it easy to set up and even dual boot with LibreElec for Kodi, there are however many many many similar products to it available now which I imagine would work perfectly fine (although I personally have only used the Pi3 and Pi4 that I have).

You can install a flavour of Linux easily (others are available, but Raspbian is based on Debian & is supported by the Raspberry Pi foundation), https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/

Also https://brave.com/linux/ I assume you meant the Brave browser? If so, then yes, with regards to plugins, no idea as my streaming tends to be more via the high seas, but I would imagine they would all work, or there would be alternative versions
 
All built and working.

Not gonna lie had a bit of a brown pants moment as the very first boot took ages.

Not sure if it was cycling through the display outputs or what being an in built graphics CPU, but anyway seems to be fine now.

Running really cool and almost completely silent I cannot hear it anyway.

Used a noctua low profile CPU fan salvaged from the old one.

Just finishing setting it all up, but yea, always one of those moments when you first boot up a new build for the very first time, even though I have built many over the years, it's still a tense moment.
 
BUDFORCE said:
All built and working.

Not gonna lie had a bit of a brown pants moment as the very first boot took ages.

Not sure if it was cycling through the display outputs or what being an in built graphics CPU, but anyway seems to be fine now.

Running really cool and almost completely silent I cannot hear it anyway.

Used a noctua low profile CPU fan salvaged from the old one.

Just finishing setting it all up, but yea, always one of those moments when you first boot up a new build for the very first time, even though I have built many over the years, it's still a tense moment.
Click to expand...
Make sure ram speed is set to correct frequency, then you should be able to game at 720p :D
 
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