Specs for a HTPC

Sneaky Peaky · 28 Mar 2008 at 15:31

Inherited an oldish shuttle system from my dad when I built a new one for him recently so thought I'd have a dabble in HTPC.

Aim is to reuse as much as possible from the SB75G2 but leave room to upgrade later if I want to..budget around £250..

Use is for general media stuff but would also like to play the odd game on it as well on the TV which is a Sony Bravia LCD 40" HDTV.

Shuttle
SB75G2
P4 2.8C
1GB PC3200 DDR400 Ram
500gb Sata HD
Radeon X1950 Pro 512mb AGP
DVDRW etc

So thinking about getting the following..

ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 PCI-E / AGP DDR2 (Socket 775) ATX Motherboard
Thermaltake Mozart SX Slim Media Centre Case with Media Lab
Hiper HPU-4S425 425W Mesh Body PSU
Intel Core 2 DUO E4700 2.60GHz 'Allendale' 2Mb Cache LGA775 (800 Mhz)

which comes to about £270 but could get a bit back from selling the SB75G2 and processor..

Grateful for any thoughts on improvements or better way to do it..

Cheers

redeye_uk · 28 Mar 2008 at 15:33

You will need to get some new RAM as the new mobo is DDR2 and your current memory is DDR..........

Sneaky Peaky · 28 Mar 2008 at 15:40

blimey - had to double check there as you had me worried but think I'm ok..

Supports Dual Channel DDRII667 (DDRII x 2 DIMM slots) and DDR400 (DDR x 2 DIMM slots)

ps can I play HD content to the TV via VGA ?

redeye_uk · 28 Mar 2008 at 15:48

Motherboard - £62.26

CPU - £41.11

Case - £123.36

PSU - £25.84

RAM - £28.19

TOTAL = £280.76

A little over budget, but as you said you could sell some of your old componenets to make up the difference.

The Mobo i have suggested has Ati Radeon 3200 on board graphics with HDMI output so you can hook it up to your TV. This will be powerful enough so you wont even need your current Graphics card, which you could sell to make more money and will reduce the overall temp of the HTPC.

The case is the most important part of a HTPC so you should spend the most on this; plus the Antec Fusion is a very good case.

Don't under estimate AMD their CPU's are low power and ideal for HTPC.

Sneaky Peaky · 28 Mar 2008 at 15:57

So that's basically a new PC then

Nice suggestions though I'll have a look..

How would your spec compare to mine for the odd game then, thinking core duo/x1950 vs AMD/on board 3200 gfx

redeye_uk · 28 Mar 2008 at 16:07

Obviously the 1950 is the better GPU, but you wanted a spec for a HTPC

But you could always buy a 3450 for £30 which would crossfire with the onboard graphics and prob give the 1950 a run for its money? Plus you would have newer tech, which better features for a HTPC, uses less power, and is cooler.

Dont get me wrong, you wont be playing Crysis on this setup! But it is slightly future proof, so you have the option to buy a better GPU in a few months for ~£80 which would give you a shot at playing some of the more 'demanding' games

redeye_uk · 28 Mar 2008 at 16:11

Take a look at this - Clicky

This compares the new AMD 780g chipset with a similar priced C2D setup for a HTPC. IMO the AMD setup beats it hands down and is definitely the path i will go down when i biuld a HTPC.