[jitaroo]

Thank's to eskro's amazing guide I came up with the following list of parts I decided to go with for my htpc.

CPU: Intel Core i5 Processor i5-2500 3.3GHz 6MB LGA1155
MoBo: Intel H61 Micro ATX DDR3 1333 Motherboards
GPU: EVGA GT430
The rest of the parts are all local so i'm not sure what the brands are but they are:
4GB RAM
64GB SATAII SSD
Samsung BD rd/wrte drive

OS: Yet to be determined.

So what do you guys think? I know the i5 wasn't necessary and I would have been just fine with an i3, but it was just to tempting . Right now the plan is to install Windows 7 and run xbmc off of that. I have a zotac ion box for another room, and that one has ubuntu on it, but the headache of getting hdmi surround sound working on it is what is pushing me to windows for this box. This pc is only going to be used for xbmc, but do you guys think overclocking would be useful or should I just leave it the way it is?

Oh and for those curious about storage we have around 10TB around our network through various nas-es so thats not an issue

[eskro]

overkill,,,,
you plan on doing intense heavy gaming??
you plan on doing massive video encoding jobs??

[darkscout]

Once again I'd like to point out my setup.

Intel Celeron 430 @ 1.80 Ghz w/1GB of RAM.
Nvidia GT220.
Which does 1080p no problem.
It's actually ever failed to do ... anything. DDS images. Plays anything I throw at it. Dual Audio out over HDMI and SPDIF.

CPU benchmarks at 515.
Your CPU benchmarks at 6456.

Some people want to turn their HTPC into ripping boxes, transcoders, etc. You flat out said it's just going to be an XBMC box.

I'll sell you my setup for $250 and you can set half of the difference in cost on fire and still end up ahead.

[eskro]

you need 3D playback??
you need to Bitstream HD-Audio to a A/V receiver to decode??

[jitaroo]

hehe well actually the reason I got the bluray drive was to rip my collection of blurays, since I dont have a bd drive on my main computer. But thats still overkill isn't it? I guess i'll just justify it by calling it 'future proof'. So will I be fine with xbmc on windows or should I still go with ubuntu? How's setting up audio on the 430?

[jitaroo]

you need 3D playback??
you need to Bitstream HD-Audio to a A/V receiver to decode??

Yes and yes. This is all getting hooked up to a new home theatre system with a denon avr 3311 and 3d tv.

[eskro]

you plan on doing intense heavy gaming??
you plan on doing massive video encoding jobs??

[jitaroo]

you plan on doing intense heavy gaming??
you plan on doing massive video encoding jobs??

If its powerful enough, it'd be great to have it running as a on the fly transcoder for iDevices that have specific format requirments. That could be something that runs in the background

[eskro]

Honestly, here's the build im recommending for you....


[mobo] Intel BOXDG43RK LGA-775 Micro-ATX ($61 + $5)
[cpu] Intel Pentium E5700 3.0GHz Dual-Core LGA-775 65W ($66 + $0)
[gpu] ASUS GeForce GT430 1GB DDR3 128-bit Low Profile ($70 + $0)
[case] SILVERSTONE ML03B Micro-ATX ($60 + $0)
[psu] Antec EarthWatts 380W ATX12V ($40 + $0)
TOTAL: ($302)

Since you'll use Windows, just add at least 2GB of RAM & a 30Gb SSD....
check my guide for suggestion on these parts...

that build will play 1080P,
Bitstream HD-Audio,
play HD Web Content (netflix...)
can rip your bd collection
and you'll be well served!!

[xecutionx]

What are the specs of your main rig? I mean, if that's your HTPC, your main computer must be running dual i7 extreme's or something

[>>X<<]

You wont need to overclock a 3.3GHz - 3.7 GHz 4 Core 4 threaded processor

Yes its major overkill so I guess this falls into the category of do you want it can you afford it

Mines overkill with a C2D E8400 but I love the fact I can cached my thumbs at a height of 1080 and it still flies

I would have to disagree with eskro on the SSD I would definitely get bigger than a 30Gb even if its just a 40GB just because of the size of win7 especially 64bit I have a 30GB and wish I had gone larger taking into account its recommended to keep them below 80% capacity

Nice choice of amp BTW that's what I'm looking to upgrade to

[jitaroo]

Honestly, here's the build im recommending for you....


[mobo] Intel BOXDG43RK LGA-775 Micro-ATX ($61 + $5)
[cpu] Intel Pentium E5700 3.0GHz Dual-Core LGA-775 65W ($66 + $0)
[gpu] ASUS GeForce GT430 1GB DDR3 128-bit Low Profile ($70 + $0)
[case] SILVERSTONE ML03B Micro-ATX ($60 + $0)
[psu] Antec EarthWatts 380W ATX12V ($40 + $0)
TOTAL: ($302)

Since you'll use Windows, just add at least 2GB of RAM & a 30Gb SSD....
check my guide for suggestion on these parts...

that build will play 1080P,
Bitstream HD-Audio,
play HD Web Content (netflix...)
can rip your bd collection
and you'll be well served!!

That looks like a great and efficient build but I went ahead with the parts I mentioned because this way I guess it can last me for many years if none of the parts fail on me. I made a mistake with the processor, I actually got the 2300 and not the 2500, its still quad core but its at 2.8ghz. I booted up the system today and it was AMAZINGly fast and xbmc ran without a hitch on windows. If it keeps on running like this I guess i'll stick with windows and not run ubuntu.

You wont need to overclock a 3.3GHz - 3.7 GHz 4 Core 4 threaded processor

Yes its major overkill so I guess this falls into the category of do you want it can you afford it

Mines overkill with a C2D E8400 but I love the fact I can cached my thumbs at a height of 1080 and it still flies

I would have to disagree with eskro on the SSD I would definitely get bigger than a 30Gb even if its just a 40GB just because of the size of win7 especially 64bit I have a 30GB and wish I had gone larger taking into account its recommended to keep them below 80% capacity

Nice choice of amp BTW that's what I'm looking to upgrade to

The amp is great, highly recommend it. The only thing they had available at the store was a 64gb ssd so I had no choice with that.

All my parts were bought locally which also limits what I can go with since I don't live in the UK/US

[>>X<<]

That processor has turbo boost to 3.1GHz anyway

With that system and if you have a large screen I would definitely cache your thumbnails at a larger size than the default you don't have to go crazy like me but it will look better, I use two skins with particularly large thumbs which is why I do on a ion system I cache them at a height of 768 on my other system I use 1080 assuming the poster is originally 1000x1500

Taking a screen shot of the difference between those sizes and comparing the two there was a difference in quality even when they are displayed at a smaller size

This gives me a height of 768

Code:

thumbsize>628</thumbsize>

This gives me a height of 1080

Code:

thumbsize>883</thumbsize>

[eskro]

I would have to disagree with eskro on the SSD I would definitely get bigger than a 30Gb even if its just a 40GB just because of the size of win7 especially 64bit

after installing win7 x64 on my 32GB Corsair Nove,
i went ahead an followed these steps to optimise my SSD --> Here!
after doing all of those and installing all my apps too,
i have 18GB of free space!! i'm very happy wth my SSD!

[branlr]

Regarding the SSD, it just depends.

My SSD is 30 gigs, and I wish it was larger--but my htpc doubles as my main machine/light gaming machine/encoding machine, and I like to have a lot of the large bulky programs on there, such as photoshop, because you never know when you'll need to photoshop something, and when the time comes you don't want to have anything in your way!

I also wish I had room to run a few OS's off the hard drive, but windows ate too much for that to be true.