Kodi Community Forum

Hello everyone, cheers for reading this. I'm planning on building a new machine in 2 weeks time (once my exams are over) and would greatly appreciate it if some of the knowledgeable folk on these boards could cast their eye over my bits and pieces, letting me know if I've overlooked anything. I'm studying software engineering but have never put together a full system before, and I'd rather learn now than when I open the boxes and it doesn't work :p


The plan:

Build a server/HTPC that is quiet enough to run overnight in my room without annoying me, housing several HDDs to store my media and sharing it to other XBMC clients (Xboxes currently) throughout the house via a cat5e network. The machine should also be able to run XBMC on the TV (via HDMI) that will sit next to it. It might also require to do some occasional transcoding, etc, so the processor should be semi-decent.


The build so far:

CASE - Casecom 6788 Black Mid Tower Case - £28.71
MB - Asus P5G41T-M LX G41 Socket 775 DDR3 VGA Out 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard - £37.50
CPU - Intel Pentium E6600 Socket 775 3.06GHz 1066FSB 2MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £56.33
or - Intel Pentium E5800 Socket 775 3.20Ghz 800FSB 2MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £56.74
RAM - EXTRA VALUE 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz Memory Kit 1.5V CL9 - £30.76
PSU - Corsair 430W CX PSU 4x SATA 1x PCI-E - £34.95
GPU - Asus GeForce G210 SILENT 512MB DDR2 DVI VGA HDMI Out DirectX 10.1 Low Profile PCI-E Graphics Card - £23.98
or - EVGA G210 512MB DDR3 Passive DVI VGA HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card - £28.07
OS - Ubuntu, but possibly WHS
PLUS - Extra 120mm fans (maybe a fan controller?), a cheap DVDRW, etc...

Total - £212-216, plus HDDs, fans and any other bits and bobs I need.


So, a few things that I'm still not quite sure about:

For the CPU, both are the same price, but one is slightly faster with a lower FSB, and vice versa. The MB can cope with both, which am I better choosing? Which will give me the best real-world performance?
For the GPU, the Asus is on special just now and is slightly cheaper, but has DDR2 memory vs the EVGA's DDR3. Does it matter that my system memory is DDR3 if the graphics card is DDR2?


Cheers for taking the time to read down this far
Any criticism sought, all opinions welcome.

Is there any reason you've gone with C2D CPUs instead of something like an i3? The i3s tend to run cooler and quieter, while still having enough punch for occasional encoding. I suggest you look into it.

No, the different graphics RAM will not affect playback of HD content, so you can get the cheaper one!

That's good to know about the GPU, thought as much but wasn't sure

The main reason for looking at the C2D CPUs is the price tbh.
Even a basic i3 would be ~£30 more than the C2Ds, plus the 1156 socket MBs are generally more pricey as well (~£15 extra).

£93 to £138 for CPU + MB is a fairly big jump in relation to the total build cost, do you think it would be worth the extra money?

If this box is going to be left on for long periods, I think you'll be saving money in the long run as it will use less power. As I said, it'll also be easier to keep cool and quiet.

I take it there's more to CPU power consumption than just the stated wattage then? The C2Ds are rated at 65W while the i3s are 73W. I'm sure figuring out the actual consumption is more complicated than for normal electronic components though, probably a bit beyond my basic physics knowledge

Even if the i3 did use, say, 10W less than the C2D on average, that's only about £7-8 a year, even less if it's not running 24/7 or if I can get a decent WOL solution working with the clients.

Oh, apologies. I forgot about the 'energy efficient' series. Carry on

No worries, I must have just got lucky, didn't know there were different versions when it came to power...

Any ideas about the fsb difference? I'm not sure which is more important, bandwidth or clock speed :S

Unfortunately comparing different CPUs is a bit more complicated than just looking at the numbers, but I don't think you will notice the difference in a HTPC.

If I understand right, it's probably easier to overclock a 3.06Ghz to a 3.2Ghz than increase the FSB from 800Mhz to 1066Mhz (if it's even possible...).

Not that I'll be doing any overclocking for my HTPC anyway, but having the option to play with it at a future date is always good.

I guess you're right though, it probably won't make much of a difference since the GPU should be doing most of the work.