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Nice Setup jcato...the G630 is cheaper than the G620 in Amazon today, it's $68, that will save you some cash and give you a lil extra mhz.http://www.amazon.com/G630-Cpu-2-70-Ghz-Cache/dp/B005LLBJ9Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338229089&sr=8-1
The ram might down clock to 1066 when using Pentium or Celerons but can easily be adjusted manually in the bios. Can't comment on the IR receiver and remote, as I have never used them but all in all is a great setup.
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homewrek that looks like a pretty good solution for him. What is the performance of xbmc using that proc and mobo combo? Do they stay pretty cool in that case? any upgrades you would suggest fan wise?
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As far as performance goes with that proc and Xbmc it flies, especially with his SSD even a Sata2 SSD will be fine , the remote is great and has lots of buttons you could customize in Event Ghost...Netflix HD, Hulu HD work right out of the gate with no tweaks of any kind...all skins in Xbmc have a snappy feel to them including the heavier skins. I've use this case in a fanless build and temps where in the safe zone, yes it does get hot but well under the tdp rating of the cpu's, if you have a little more room in your budget, you can add an aftermarket cooler, not needed but always recommend it due too intel's shady heatsinks. You could go with a Thermaltake Slim X3...it's low profile, quiet, inexpensive and does the job.
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jcato
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Thanks all for the suggestions. I'm really liking the M350 case. I'm torn between that and having the future option of adding a BluRay player, but I think I'll go with the smaller case. Is the 80W picoPSU/60W adapter enough power? Would I need any other small items like short cables or anything? Do you think it would be possible to drill a hole where the blank area is on the front of the case and mount the IR receiver there? Other possible changes:
[MOBO] Also change to homewrek's suggestion. I'm not familiar with Biostar, though. I've mostly used GigaByte and Asus in the past. Is this a quality board? Am I giving up anything important moving from B75 to H61? Is my memory okay with this board? It's not on the recommended memory list, but not much is.
[CPU] Drop down to the G530? Saves $25, but is the performance hit noticeable my use? I'll just be consuming media, no encoding or such. But, I want XBMC and MCE to be smooth, regardless of skin.
These changes put the cost just under $300, which is nice. But, I could spend a little more if it's worth it.
Thanks
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2012-05-30, 04:45
(This post was last modified: 2012-05-30, 04:45 by Dougie Fresh.)
You'll spend the same for the M350 + picoPSU + AC adapter as the HT80 and the HT80 comes with a 120W DC / 84W PSU and has a place for an IR receiver. It can also be had with an IR receiver / remote too.
I am not a Biostar fan so YMMV. If you want a good H61 motherboard the Gigabyte GA-H61N-USB3 is a strong contender. It is stable and best of all it does not blink the LED in S3 sleep. You have no idea how key this feature is for a bedroom HTPC.
For HTPC duties, the G530 will perform no different than the G620 or G630. The CPU is way more than powerful enough and is not going to be the bottleneck. The SSD is what is going to make XBMC and MCE navigation smooth by removing the I/O bottleneck.
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2012-05-30, 05:13
(This post was last modified: 2012-05-30, 05:18 by homewrek.)
The 80w picoPSU is enough for your set-up, no additional cables are needed since you will only be running an SSD and no optical...You might not even need to drill a whole depending on your likes, but it is possible...I've drilled or removed HDD activity lights on cases before and set up the ir sensor like that(just another option). Biostar is a great Value motherboard just like Asrock and offer the same features and build qualities like Asus and Gigabyte motherboards...yes some Asus boards are beautiful too look at and may come with extra goodies in the box but a Biostar or an Asrock can do the same job for less $$$$. Now let's talk about b75 and H61...B75 is the new H61....H77 is the new H67...and Z77 is the new Z68. B75 offers native usb 3.0 support, Sata 3, Pci Express 3.0, but to take advantage of the PCI Xpress3.0 an Ivy Bridge processor needs to be installed, not important for now since we are building an Htpc, Some H61 motherboards support Usb 3.0 and Sata3 also....this Biostar motherboard supports Usb 3.0 but not Sata 3, only Sata 2...that can also save you some money by getting a Sata 2 SSD instead of Sata3.....it will still be fast. Dropping down to the G530 is also a great idea, will save you some $$$ without taking a performance hit, it will still be smooth regardless of skins. Like I mentioned before, you have a great upgrade path with this motherboard. All in all, it's your choice jcato, it will be your htpc and be in your home, my suggestion is to keep researching until you can finally put something together that makes sense to you and your wallet. There are also great MCE remotes on Amazon and Newegg $20-$30 that come with an external usb recievesr, if you wanna go that route (MediaGate Rosewill) instead of internal IR, and another motherboard like the B75....but that will be more $$$. Btw this Motherboard Light does not blink in sleep mode, I actually owned it for a whole week and this was not an issue.
