[Venomm]

Hey Guys,
Looking to do my first HTPC build after having run XBMC on an ATV2 and missing out on all the possibilities!

Here's what I have put together - looking for feedback, suggestions and recommendations.

Case - nMediapc HTPC 6000 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811204037 - $69.99

CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 840 - http://www.microcenter.com/single_produc...id=0371961 - $59.99

MB - ASRock 890GX PRO3 AM3+ AMD - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813157244 - $99.99

PSU - Thermaltake TR2 Series 500 Watt - http://www.microcenter.com/single_produc...id=0365237 - $44.99

Video Card - Zotac ZT-40604-10L NVIDIA GeForce GT 430 - http://www.microcenter.com/single_produc...id=0371739 - $67.99

RAM - Crucial Ballistix Sport Series 8GB DDR3-1600 - http://www.microcenter.com/single_produc...id=0364400 - $49.99

SSD - OCZ Agility 3 60GB - http://www.microcenter.com/single_produc...id=0364779 - $109.99

HD - WD Caviar Green 2TB - http://www.microcenter.com/single_produc...id=0347237 - $79.99

BD - Samsung SH-B123L 12X BD Combo Drive - http://www.microcenter.com/single_produc...id=0348952 - $69.99

TV Recorder - Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1250 Hybrid Video Recorder - http://www.microcenter.com/single_produc...id=0283767 - $64.99

TOTAL = $717.90
Rebates = $70.00

Total Cost AR = $647.90

[Shaika-Dzari]

Hello,

If you are not planning any game on this PC, you could probably cut the RAM to 4 go.

[xbs08]

... and the CPU.

[Mallet21]

Rock solid....very good price considering considering the inclusion of an SSD and Tuner card.

[eskro]

8GB's of ram is total OVerKiLL,,,
heck even 4GB's is for a HTPC 'only' machine...

OCZ SSD's... oh boy,,,
theyr notorious for having the highest SSD failure rates on the market,,,
i'd stir away...

CPU COOLER on those AMD's are noisy alot,,,

[Kirky99]

Agreed...

SH*t can the 8 memory (4 is enough even if you intend on going with a PVR backend on this), drop that CPU to a dual core, and look at maybe a Corsair SSD instead. With the saved money, think about upgrading that Hauppauge 1250 to a 2250.

[outatouch0]

agreed with what has been said already
I think the video card price is a bit high there. For that kind of money you should be getting a better (IMO) brand. Newegg has the same card for $30 after rebate. Check all your prices against amazon.com too.

500 watt PSU? Going to power a small village? lol jk You wont need that much but it is fine to leave it if you want. You don't need to connect your video card to an additional PSU power cable.

You do not need an SSD that size for a dedicated htpc. Drop down to about a 30ish Gig SSD and put the money toward a WD caviar black rather than the slower green. If you are going to go with overkill put the money where it would do some good

[bluray]

venom- if you ask me, will the stuffs in the list work? it'll work great with w7+xbmc.

[rufrothy]

8GB's of ram is total OVerKiLL,,,
heck even 4GB's is for a HTPC 'only' machine...

OCZ SSD's... oh boy,,,
theyr notorious for having the highest SSD failure rates on the market,,,
i'd stir away...

CPU COOLER on those AMD's are noisy alot,,,

Agree on the OCZ or any of the Current Sandforce Controller drives. Its hit or miss. 2 rigs I tried mine in had serious BSOD that went away with Hard drives and an intel X-25M. replaced with micron M4 BTW. OCZ 2.11 firmware made the BSOD go from every 18-24hrs to every 3-4 days but it still failed like clockwork. MS AHCI worked better than Intel AHCI. Micron stayed up for 2 weeks before I rebooted to install stuff. with the micron M4 I re-installed the intel AHCI drivers and again rock solid.

Then we built 3 HTPC's using a variety of mobos and sandy bridge CPU's and 2 of the 3 seem to work where the 3rd BSOD's. No when I say BSOD I mean figureaively. What would happen is the SSD completely hangs, eventuall windows hoses and reboots because the SSD is hung. The BIOS wont even detect the SSD after a warm reset. I have to cold reset the box to get it to properly enumerate/detect the drive. Its like the drive does n't exist. Again a seagate HDD, an intel X25M, and a Micron M4 dont have these issues in my setups. the OCZ fails miserably in 3 of 5 boxes.

buyer beware of the current sandforce OCZ SSD' until they figure this mess out.

my only previous SSD was an intel X-25M which I had in my main laptop and still do for 2.5 years with 0 issues.

[Venomm]

Thanks for all the info and feedback everyone. After reading what Eskro and Rufrothy said about the OCZ SSDs, I'm going to have to look at other manufacturers for a more reliable SSD solution. W7 only needs 16GB of disk space for install and XBMC needs 4GB...so I might be able to get away with a 32GB one. If any of you have a recommendation for a good SSD, please let me know.

I can save about $20, by reducing the RAM down to 4GB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820148325

On the CPU front, I thought it was a good buy for only $59.99! The dual cores I looked at were all more money so I figured why not just get this quad core since its on sale for $60 bucks.

Thanks again for all your help! This forum has been extremely helpful.

[bluray]

If any of you have a recommendation for a good SSD, please let me know.

i have one of this- Patriot Torqx 2 PT232GS25SSDR 2.5" 32GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD), and it work fine in my htpc. it has plenty of space for 7mce and xbmc.

[Kirky99]

On the CPU front, I thought it was a good buy for only $59.99! The dual cores I looked at were all more money so I figured why not just get this quad core since its on sale for $60 bucks.

Power usage mostly I figure... I way overbuilt my TV Server recently. My Quad Core barely broke 25% during a FlexRAID Snapshot Raid update on a 6TB RAID configuration. So, it's burning energy most of the time sitting idle.

It's not bad, but more power means more energy = more heat = more noise...

[rufrothy]

i have one of this- Patriot Torqx 2 PT232GS25SSDR 2.5" 32GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD), and it work fine in my htpc. it has plenty of space for 7mce and xbmc.

cool just bought one of those myself for an old ION rig...

Sean

[eskro]

nice to see the Torqx2 works for you bluray!!