[Lancer033]

I've been making due with a PS3 and movies ripped to an external hard drive for a while, but i'm finally getting around to planning out a real HTPC. I've been playing with XBMC on my laptop for a couple days and really like it. My plan is to start small, but have something that i can grow into over time and improve as feel the need to.

This is what I'm planning to start with.

Silverstone SST-GD08B (Black) HTPC Case
Antec EarthWatts EA-380D Green 380 Watt 80 PLUS BRONZE Power Supply
AMD A6-6400K 3.9GHz Dual-Core Processor
Asus F2A85-V ATX FM2 Motherboard
Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333 MHz (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory (CMV4GX3M2A133​3C9)
Crucial m4 64GB 2.5-Inch (9.5mm) SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive CT064M4SSD2
Lite-On ihes112-04 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer
Windows 7

To start out with, i'll just leave my movie collection on the external HD like they are now, but at some point, i'll add several hard drives to the case to store my media collection. I'd want this computer to function as a media server for XMBC on other HTPCs (if/when i have a 2nd TV) or my laptop/tablet/ect. I'd also like to add a cable card and use it as a DVR too.

The biggest question mark for me is did I pick a good motherboard? I don't want to have to swap it out when i want to add a cable card. I'm comfortable with the case. The power supply should be fine. I can upgrade the processor later if i need to. There's room for more RAM. The hard drive just has to hold windows and XBMC for now and i'll eventually swap it out for an SSD. The blue ray player won't see much use, but it's there for when i need it.

That's my thoughts, rip it apart, I've got thick skin.
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edit #1 swapped in a SSD (this is for OS and Software only, media will be stored on other drives)
I'll spend some time looking for a better power supply tomorrow
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edit #2 swapped out the power supply. Looked on Amazon again for under 400 watts, low noise, from either FPS, Seasonic, or Antec and found that one.

[Odrax]

you can add a cable card either with this and it wont matter what motherboard you have or with this and as long as you have a PCIe slot on your mobo (which yours does) then you'll be good to go. I'd recommend a bigger HDD because that 250GB is going to fill up fast, at least 1TB to start off and it'll last you much longer until you're ready to add more. Also investing in an SSD at the start of your build instead of later, imo is worth it. Good luck.

[Dougie Fresh]

If you're going to keep your media on the external drive and later add some hard drives, instead of the 250GB HDD I would get a 64GB or 128GB SSD for your Windows 7 install. It will improve performance more than any extra memory or processor upgrade will.

Also, I would get a lower wattage (300W) and better quality power supply such as a Seasonic, FSP or Antec.

[Lancer033]

Silverstone SST-GD08B (Black) HTPC Case
Antec EarthWatts EA-380D Green 380 Watt 80 PLUS BRONZE Power Supply
AMD A6-6400K 3.9GHz Dual-Core Processor
Asus F2A85-V ATX FM2 Motherboard
Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333 MHz (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory (CMV4GX3M2A133​3C9)
Crucial m4 64GB 2.5-Inch (9.5mm) SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive CT064M4SSD2
Samsung DVD-Writer Optical Drives 14700365 SHB123L/RSBP
Gigabyte GC-WB300D 1Mbps/2Mbps/3Mbps Data Rate Exclusive Bluetooth 4.0/Wi-Fi Expansion Card Motherboard
Logitech Wireless Touch Keyboard K400 with Built-In Multi-Touch Touchpad (920-003070)

Parts ordered today, should be here by Friday (possibly Monday for 1 thing). Changed the DVD drive for something nicer, added a wifi & bluetooth card (need the wifi, bluetooth could be useful) and a wireless keyboard. My phone is going to be my remote. With a little luck, I'll spend the weekend building and setting everything up.

The more I get into this software, the more i like it.

[Lancer033]

well, it's all together and it works.....mostly

My TV is a Samsung 720p DLP TV connected by HDMI. The display show is windows 7 as "Generic PnP Monitor on Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" and the only resolution option is 640x480. Is there a driver or something that i'm missing?

[tboggie]

Download AMD Driver Autodetect software
The auto-detect tool gives you the option to download the latest official driver

[Lancer033]

I'm betting that fixes it, but it's turning into a comedy of errors, the resolution is set so low that the install window doesn't fit on the screen so when i get to the screen that pics to pick the language, i can't see what's below that to continue. I'm trying to find the driver somewhere else so i don't have to use their installer

[Lancer033]

got it. about a half hour of random Tabs and Enters finally got the right combo to install it blind. Thanks tboggie

[Lancer033]

Well, I'm up and running and watching a movie. I thought i'd add a few notes

Case: I picked the case because it looked in nice and has room for a lot of 3.5" hard drives. To be honest, it's almost comical how empty it is with a single 2.5" SSD and blue-ray drive. The only complaint i have is that the button outside the case for the optical drive doesn't line up with the button on my blue-ray drive. It's not to big of a deal since I can just hit the load/eject button in XBMC. There is some room to adjust it, so i'll have to play with that some more. The other thing is that it's big. Not something i was concerned with, but i don't have room for it in my media center, so it's just sitting on the floor beside it. I'll have to factor it in when i replace that. I've thought about custom building one anyways. Maybe this will push me to do that.

Motherboard: I still have to get USB 3.0 working (not sure what's going on there) and I'm a little short of places to plug in my fans. I've got the CPU fan plugged in obviously, but my case came with 3 other fans. As of now, I've only got 2 plugged in. Not a big deal now, but it's something I'd like to figure out before i start adding more drives or a graphics card or anything like that.

SSD: Getting a SSD was a good move and 64GB is plenty for the operating system and software. Right now, I've got 40GB of empty space.

WiFi/Bluetooth card: I would rather have wired internet, but that's not going to happen right now. I don't have any need for Bluetooth that i can think of, but the card wasn't much more expensive than wifi only cards and the reviews were good, so it doesn't hurt and gives me a few more options later.

Wireless keyboard: A remote is better for day to day use, but for setup, I've got a nice keyboard with a built in touch pad

CPU/RAM/PSU/blue-ray: nothing really to say. It all works

What's next: For hardware, getting 2 3.5" internal drives in Raid 1 and moving all of my media over to them is my biggest priority. I'm thinking either a pair of 3TB or 4 TB drives last me for a while. Currently my movie collection is a a bit shy of 1TB, but all of them are ripped DVDs and I want to replace some of them with ripped copies from blue-ray. After that, i should start putting some money aside for a new TV. On the software side of the house, I still have to figure out how to share media from this computer to other computers on my network so i don't have to move that external HD around all the time. I'm also going to have to install something to rip blue-ray disks b/c this is the only computer i have with a blue-ray drive. I've also found some directions for using MySQL to host a common media library for every computer running XBMC on your network, so you can stop watching on 1 box and pick up where you left off somewhere else. Once i get some external drives, I'm also going to look into using some of the extra space as backup for my laptop. I need to get the XBMC remote app on my phone or maybe buy a remote.

What's really got me excited about this is that I have so much room to expand and build. This is my 1st time building a PC, so it's probably nothing to some of you guys, but I'm all smiles today.