[Zon2020]

First post here. Just found this site and reading a lot of posts there seems to be a lot of helpful info and helpful posters. Suggestions and help are certainly appreciated.

I've been moving up slowly throught the HTPC world, having used for quite a while a trusty HDMI equipped Vaio laptop as a source for internet video. More recently as an experiment I slapped a Radeon HD5450, wireless keyboard, and Windows 7 Home Premium into an otherwise-retired small form factor Dell Optiplex Pentium D machine and hooked it up as an internet source for a different HDTV and it works great. I've planned on installing XBMC on that when I get a few hours to install and start to learn it (so I'm sure I'll be back with lots of questions.) Anyhow, I've been planning on building a new more complete HTPC to hook up on a permanent basis instead of the laptop with the first TV. I don't buy many disks, so I'm not looking for a lot of storage or to rip Blu Rays to a hard disk. Mostly it will be used as an internet content source device, a Blu Ray player, and to a lesser extent as a DVR, connected to an AV Receiver and through that to an HDTV. No gaming involved. I have my eye on a Sandy Bridge build after the i3-2105 is released (supposedly on May 22). I've built desktops before (though never an HTPC), so some of these component brands are personal preferences from the past. Anyhow, this is my initial shot at the components list, and I'd appreciate any thoughts.

BTW, I think this is probably somewhat overkill for the uses I described, but I do want a fair amount of headroom for future uses and growth as I learn more about HTPC software and as more uses come on line, so I'm not really considering an Atom or ITX build. I want enough disk space for a small amount of temporary storage, but will offload anything I want to keep more permanently, and if I want more internal storage in the future I'll stick in a 1 or 2 TB Hitachi Coolspin or Samsung Ecogreen hard disk. But if I don't need the storage, I'll try to avoid the power, heat and noise of a hard disk for now.

Also, BTW, are there quieter 80mm fans than the Silenx?

CPU – Intel i3-2105 - ?
MB - Intel DH67BLB3 - $113
Case - Silverstone ML03B - $60
PSU - SeaSonic S12II 380B 380W - $55
Ram - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 F3-10666CL9D-4GBXL - $44
Fans - SilenX IXP-54-14 80mm (2) - $24
SSD - Plextor PX-M2 Series PX-64M2S 64GB SATA III - $165
Blu Ray Burner - LG WH10LS30 - $80
Keyboard - IOGEAR GKM561R Wireless Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel - $48
Windows 7 Home Premium
Total - $589 + CPU

Thanks.

[nemek]

Did u ever considered having a NAS?
To say truth i don't see any point in having 64gb ssd (for movies/storage too small, for OS way too big). Btw there are mITX mobos for i3 and cases with enough space for 2x 3.5 hdd + ssd.

[thunderbunny]

I've just recently built my HTPC from scratch. I used Eskro and Poofyhairguys recommendations and tweaked them a little bit to my tastes. All in all great recommendations and my HTPC runs like a champ with anything I throw at it.

eskro
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=94199

Poofyhairguy
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=94268

[Zon2020]

You're right on the storage, and I may need to get a 128mb SSD, but really the only storage I envision right now would be an occasional broadcast sports event which, if I want to save it, will be offloaded to portable storage. I don't have enough content to be worth a NAS at the moment, but I also don't want any hard disks in this box if I can avoid it.

I'm sure I could build essentially the same unit in an ITX form factor, but I have enough room on the shelf for a microATX build, and it's just easier to work with than an ITX, and I don't need to mess with slim optical drives and the like. I (or my wife in particular) also don't want to deal with a power brick PSU, so a case that will handle a standard ATX PSU is easier to deal with.

Tradeoffs are unavoidable I guess.

[nemek]

I'm sure I could build essentially the same unit in an ITX form factor, but I have enough room on the shelf for a microATX build, and it's just easier to work with than an ITX, and I don't need to mess with slim optical drives and the like. I (or my wife in particular) also don't want to deal with a power brick PSU, so a case that will handle a standard ATX PSU is easier to deal with.

I didn't mean mITX case with picoPSU - they are probably too week for i3. There are mITX case with non slim ODD slot and with 150w (or more) internal PSU.

[tboooe]

CPU – Intel i3-2105 - ?
MB - Intel DH67BLB3 - $113
Case - Silverstone ML03B - $60
PSU - SeaSonic S12II 380B 380W - $55
Ram - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 F3-10666CL9D-4GBXL - $44
Fans - SilenX IXP-54-14 80mm (2) - $24
SSD - Plextor PX-M2 Series PX-64M2S 64GB SATA III - $165
Blu Ray Burner - LG WH10LS30 - $80
Keyboard - IOGEAR GKM561R Wireless Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel - $48
Windows 7 Home Premium
Total - $589 + CPU

Thanks.

I am also planning a build around the i3-2105. It should be a great chip with plenty of power and decoding capabilities with the HD3000 graphics chip. My only comment about your build is the SSD. I have a couple and frankly I am not sure it is worth the money. Startup is indeed faster but I keep both my HTPCs on 24/7. If you dont have a large library that you will be browsing through, I dont think you need one. Some some money and perhaps get more RAM and use RAMDISK to speed things up.

[KiSUAN]

From that prices I guess you are getting some items from amazon and newegg. Well, there are some problems, to begin with, there is no availability of that motherboard, if you look at the web it clearly says "usually ships within 1 to 2 months.", meaning "out of stock". Besides that, that's a really crapy overpriced motherboard. That SSD is also an overpriced piece of crap with a Marvell controller that doesn't live up to the specs published and a horrible RMA. Price but good PSU, better options available for less money. Are you sure you need a BR Burner not just Reader? Anyway that LG Drive can be cheap but sure seems like crap, it has 67 ratings of 1 point, a lot of them DOA.

I guess by your choices that you are an Intel towards, so I'll give you the Intel choice and the better choice.


Common parts to the build:

Silverstone ML03B $60 free shipping

Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D $40 free shipping

G.SKILL ECO Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 F3-10666CL9D-4GBECO $45 + $3 shipping

IOGEAR GKM561R Black 2.4GHz Wireless HTPC Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel $45 free shipping

SilenX IXP-54-14 80mm x2 $24 + $4 shipping

Subtotal: $221


2 Options in common parts:

Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1CCA 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $135 free shipping.
or
Kingston SSDNow V100 Series SV100S2/64GZ 2.5" 64GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $125 free shipping - $45 mail-in rebate (Expires on 4/24/11). It isn't as fast but sure is good enough and with the rebate is a pure win price/perf.

SAMSUNG Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-/+R 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive Model SH-B123L/RSBP LightScribe Support (Retail) $ 75 + $5 shipping. Best Reader in market for price, retail package with soft.
or
Pioneer Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 8X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Internal Blu-ray Burner Blu-ray Burner BDR-206DBKS $114 + $8 shipping + Optical Quantum 25GB 4X BD-R 5 Packs Disc Model OBBDR04LT-05 free which makes it something like free shipping. Best BR Burner in market for price, retail package, it comes with Cyberlink PowerDVD 10.

Subtotal: $180 / 257


Intel:

Intel i3-2105 $140/150

ASRock H67M-GE (B3) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $ 110 free shipping

Sub Total: $ 250/60


AMD:

AMD Athlon II X3 450 Rana 3.2GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor ADX450WFGMBOX $80 free shipping

MSI 880GMA-E53 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard $85 free shipping - $10 mail-in rebate.

SAPPHIRE 100321DDR5L Radeon HD 6450 512MB 64-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card $55

Sub Total: $210


Comments:

Sata 6Gbs & USB 3.0 are future proof, optical in motherboards also future proof.

64Gb SSD also future proof, what's okay today might not be tomorrow, every day things take more space not less.

Dedicated VGA always better, thats always more future proof, beside AMD & Nvidia drivers and image quality kicks the crap out of Intel and it's cheaper.

[Zon2020]

I don't leave my PCs on 24/7 so the quick boot is valuable to me. Even more so, the low power, low heat and low noise is even more important and allows fewer, slower fans. To me, the SSD choice isn't driven by faster access to data. I think a 5400 rpm hard disk like an EcoGreen or CoolSpin would be plenty fast for this application in terms of data access (although I guess I'd better pick up a couple of those for future use before the Hitachi --> WD and Samsung --> Seagate mergers are completed. I'm about to lose my two favorite HD manufacturers).

[Zon2020]

From that prices I guess you are getting some items from amazon and newegg. Well, there are some problems, to begin with, there is no availability of that motherboard, if you look at the web it clearly says "usually ships within 1 to 2 months.", meaning "out of stock". Besides that, that's a really crapy overpriced motherboard. That SSD is also an overpriced piece of crap with a Marvell controller that doesn't live up to the specs published and a horrible RMA. Price but good PSU, better options available for less money. Are you sure you need a BR Burner not just Reader? Anyway that LG Drive can be cheap but sure seems like crap, it has 67 ratings of 1 point, a lot of them DOA. . . .

Dedicated VGA always better, thats always more future proof, beside AMD & Nvidia drivers and image quality kicks the crap out of Intel and it's cheaper.

Do you have experience with the DH67BLB3 MB? I expect it will be readily available by the time the i3-2105 becomes available in late May or early June. And while Intel MBs are a little more expensive and are unpopular with overclockers, in my experience they are rock solid. So I wonder why you call it "crappy"? Can you explain?

I appreciate the advice regarding the Plextor SSD, and the Crucial or Corsair would work just as well, but as long as I'm going SSD, I do want a SATA 6 Gbit/s model.

Personally, I would choose the Seasonic over the Antec PSU even if the price gap was larger. I'd love to get a PC Power & Cooling PSU, but unfortunately they don't make anything that low wattage.

Yes, I want a Blu Ray burner in part for archival purposes, and the cost difference isn't worth only getting a BD-Rom. I'm pretty sure that LG model is the most widely used one, although if there's a better one that would be fine too and I expect the Pioneer would be perfectly suitable. Thanks for the suggestion. In my experience, though, anything on Newegg with over 500 reviews like that is going to have its share of lousy scores.

The point to me of using the i3-2105 is to avoid the heat and power of a dedicted GPU. From all I have read, the HD3000 gpu will be more than adequate for any HTPC requirement of mine, and this MB provides future-proofing by including a PCIE x16 slot in case I ever find the need to add a discrete card.

[AJP69]

This is just my two cents here but take it for what it is

[mobo] MSI H61M-E33 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $69.99
[psu] CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 $39.99 ($20 MIR)
[ssd] Kingston SSDNow 2.5" 30GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive $75.99 ($20 MIR)

Saves you $187 after the rebates.

[KiSUAN]

Do you have experience with the DH67BLB3 MB? I expect it will be readily available by the time the i3-2105 becomes available in late May or early June. And while Intel MBs are a little more expensive and are unpopular with overclockers, in my experience they are rock solid. So I wonder why you call it "crappy"? Can you explain?

I appreciate the advice regarding the Plextor SSD, and the Crucial or Corsair would work just as well, but as long as I'm going SSD, I do want a SATA 6 Gbit/s model.

Personally, I would choose the Seasonic over the Antec PSU even if the price gap was larger. I'd love to get a PC Power & Cooling PSU, but unfortunately they don't make anything that low wattage.

Yes, I want a Blu Ray burner in part for archival purposes, and the cost difference isn't worth only getting a BD-Rom. I'm pretty sure that LG model is the most widely used one, although if there's a better one that would be fine too. In my experience, anything on Newegg with over 500 reviews like that is going to have its share of lousy scores.

The point to me of using the i3-2105 is to avoid the heat and power of a dedicted GPU. From all I have read, the HD3000 gpu will be more than adequate for any HTPC requirement of mine, and this MB provides future-proofing by including a PCIE x16 slot in case I ever find the need to add a discrete card.

No, luckily I don't have any experience with that Intel branded mobo and I don't need to assure you they are all sub standard overpriced crap. For start the only thing that that mobo has from Intel per se is the sticker, they are manufacture by Foxconn. To continue for that price at least they could have all solid caps, at least 6 phases, 8 Pin connector, proper nb cooling solution not that piece of aluminum paper, they don't even specify other chips like sound or lan, wtf with that? and I could continue on and on and on top telling you that the RMA of this boards is one of the biggest among brands OEM or not.

The Crucial is 6Gb and is cheaper and better than the "plextor" that it's also a re branded (OEM) product, Samung if I'm not mistaken.

Just in case PC Power & Cooling was buyed by OCZ in 2007, I wouldn't recommend you to buy any PPC model now a day. Antec and Seasonic are both equally good brands in general, but I don't guide myself by brand but by model, and truly the S12II 380B isn't worth the extra $15.

BluRay Burner, I rather spend a few more bucks in a far superior product with software and retail package, but that's me.

As I pointed out Intel drivers/support in GPU is crap, this isn't a guess, is a fact, sure they improved a lot the soft and hard but they are far beyond Amd or Nvidia. Also if you are going to wait 1 moth for a crapy Intel GPU, I'll say wait 2 months for LLano.

Also, the heat from a dedicated GPU like the one I recommended won't affect the internal temps of the other components, so there's no need to worry, beside with that 2 fans the air flow will be more than enough for any Low prof GPU and clear any residual heat. Besides, the GPU inside the CPU also heats up, so you end with the same result. The 6450 GPU consumes 6w in idle, that's probably the biggest difference in power consumption with the GPU in the 2105, but as you said that you won't leave your pc on, that could be a factor that doesn't affect. In the other hand power consumption playing BR is 16W with the 6450, and the usage of CPU is lower than with any Intel GPU I've seen so far (HD2000), and I doubt the Intel HDX000 consumes less power when playing BR, so I suspect that you would end with more heat and power consumption probably. In the end, more parts doesn't mean more heat or more power consumption per se.

CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 $39.99 ($20 MIR)

Didn't realize/saw this offer, great one, scratch the Antec.

[AJP69]

Didn't realize/saw this offer, great one, scratch the Antec.

It's actually $35.99 to I missed the $4 off in the cart, hell of deal. I ordered one today just to have on hand.

[Zon2020]

This is just my two cents here but take it for what it is

[mobo] MSI H61M-E33 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $69.99
[psu] CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 $39.99 ($20 MIR)
[ssd] Kingston SSDNow 2.5" 30GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive $75.99 ($20 MIR)

Saves you $187 after the rebates.

The problem with the Corsair PSU (trust me, it was one of the first I checked) is that it's almost an inch longer than the Seasonic, and the space between the PSU and the OD in the ML03 case is at a premium.

Unless someone knows of a a shorter-than-normal Blu Ray burner? That would be greatly appreciated.

[Zon2020]

For start the only thing that that mobo has from Intel per se is the sticker, they are manufacture by Foxconn.

As are the iPad, iPod and iPhone, and most Dell and HP motherboards, among other things. Foxconn is the largest manufacturer of circuit boards in the world, almost all of it as contract manufacturer for the biggest brands in the world like Apple, Dell, HP, Sony, Cisco, Acer, Asus, etc. I guess it neither surprises or bothers me that they manufacture the Intel boards. They probably manufactured the boards in my Sony HDTV, Vaio laptops and HP desktops too. It's not a re-badged Foxconn design, it's an Intel design contract manufactured by Foxconn.

I'm curious, have you ever used an Intel MB, and if so, have you ever had one go bad on you?

I did not know that OCZ bought PCP&C. That's too bad. Those were great PSUs.

The Corsair is just too large. If I could afford the extra inch length, I'd use the fanless Seasonic SS-460FL which is the same length, but I can't. I have to use something shorter than that.

[KiSUAN]

As are the iPad, iPod and iPhone, and most Dell and HP motherboards, among other things. Foxconn is the largest manufacturer of circuit boards in the world, almost all of it as contract manufacturer for the biggest brands in the world like Apple, Dell, HP, Sony, Cisco, Acer, Asus, etc. I guess it neither surprises or bothers me that they manufacture the Intel boards. They probably manufactured the boards in my Sony HDTV, Vaio laptops and HP desktops too. It's not a re-badged Foxconn design, it's an Intel design contract manufactured by Foxconn.

I'm curious, have you ever used an Intel MB, and if so, have you ever had one go bad on you?

I did not know that OCZ bought PCP&C. That's too bad. Those were great PSUs.

The Corsair is just too large. If I could afford the extra inch length, I'd use the fanless Seasonic SS-460FL which is the same length, but I can't. I have to use something shorter than that.

Well, you put a lot of things on a single bag that isn't quite true.

For example ASUSTek until a couple of years ago had its own "facilities", the "company" split into three distinct operational units: ASUS, Pegatron and Unihan, all under ASUSTEK HOLDINGS LIMITED. Pegatron ended being the manufacturing facilities of components like motherboards and other and Unihan with cases and molding, leaving Asus as brand and R&D company and little manufacture facilities for R&D. Pegatron now manufactures for a large portfolio of OEMs, HP, Dell, Apple (recently hired to build the IPhone 5), other board brands like ASRock (created and owned by Asus to kill PCchips, partially succeeded, now ECS), MSI, .... and most of Asus being desktop of mobile parts.

Beside Foxconn there is a shit load of components manufactures in china, not as known and some quite big, the thing is Foxconn does a shit load of things not just motherboards for mobile, desktop, server, I would say that Foxconn doesn't even build 33% of all OEM components, still that's a lot of market share.

About re-badged Foxconn design, don't know and don't care, Intel motherboards are in general crap, I've used (myself) some Intel motherboards when they made them, like 15 years ago, and have the unpleasant experience to deal with some hundreds in person and RMA some thousands, being in OEM machines or retail server or desktop mobos, I work in computer hardware distributor, so to be more clear I've have several hundred go bad on me, but I've had several hundred motherboards from any manufacture go bad in me.

Anyway, if you wanna buy it, go ahead and buy it, it's your money, and for the looks it will make you happy just to buy an OEM substandard product as long as you think is good.