After weeks of research, I'm just about to order the components for my first HTPC and would like some feedback. Please let me know if you see any problems, bottlenecks, etc., with my potential build. I'm looking for a build that will run XBMC with some nice eye candy, streaming / downloading video, and DVR capabilities, with some light gaming included.
I'm also posting this because I know it can be daunting for new users who want to build their own system, so I'm sharing my build in case anyone wants to put together the same system. (note the links below may not reflect the best prices and all point to the same site for easy reference)
[CPU]
AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core
[MOBO]
GIGABYTE GA-MA78LMT-S2 AM3 AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD
[GPU]
PNY VCGGT4301XPB GeForce GT 430 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Low Profile
[RAM]
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
[SSD (Win7 64-bit)]
Corsair Nova CSSD-V32GB2-BRKT 2.5" 32GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
[CASE+PSU]
[B-R/DVD]
[HDD (external)]
Western Digital AV-GP WD20EURS 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
[TUNER]
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Media Center Kit Dual TV Tuner 1213 PCI-Express x1 Interface
You will find that a lot of inspiration came from user eskro's build (thanks!) As you can see in the list, I'm still looking for a case+psu solution and an optical drive (probably with blu-ray since I'm guessing the price difference isn't much more). Any suggestions for a case in the $100 range and an optical drive in the $50 range? Also, I'm not attached to the tuner, so any alternatives for that are welcome as well.
Thanks!
seems perfect so far!
CPU is great!
but i paid $10 more and got an X3 since it had a price drop...
$10 for another core, im in!!
but thats me
As Bluray player, i suggest the
SAMSUNG Black 12X BD-ROM Combo ($69)
And what games do you intend to play?
Do you have a 3D HDTV? Do you need 3D playback?
Do you need to BitStream True-HD & DTS-HD to your Audio-Receiver to decode?
Thanks eskro! I did originally have an X3 in the build, but then someone told me it was overkill so I went down to two... your opinion may sway me back in the other direction
The answer is 'No' to both the 3D and BitStream questions. Just want lots of pretty graphics, smooth playback / performance, and a bit of future proofing (probably not any ripping or encoding other than what is captured through the tuner.) Games will probably be on the low end, nothing too graphically intensive.
So if you are going with WIN7 and on top of that you are looking to some gaming, I highly recommend you to change that 430 for the
MSI R5670-PMD1G OC that's $10 more expensive with shipment and rebate. Even if the games are in the low end, it's far more future proof than a 430. The 5670 isn't low profile, but if you are looking to mATX most likely you will by a case that can fit it.
Also if I'm not mistaken the chipset X3 is $ 80, that would be $ 20 more, not $10, anyway I also find it worth it, you are not only getting one more core, you are also getting 200Mhz.
Beside that I would recommend you this
combo of the X3 450 and BIOSTAR TA880GB+. That mobo has better specs all over, better chipset, 2 more satas, 2 more memory slots (16Gb and 1600 compatibility), all solid caps, HDMI.
The total of this changes is $232 vs $201 of your original choice, shipping $9 vs $8 and rebate to single company for $30 vs 2 companies $30, so you are looking to a $30 difference, but if we take into consideration that you take the x2 250 form the original and replace with the x3 450 it's only $ 10 in reality for a much better and future proof machine.
Also if you hurry you might catch the rebate for the
Kingston SSDNow V100 Series SV100S2/64GZ 2.5" 64GB that's $125 but as you can see has a $45 rebate which leaves it at the same price of the Nova with higher read & write and twice capacity, which is better future proof again.
Finally the case and PSU, taking into consideration the VGA (and not knowing your taste) I recommend you the
SilverStone GD05B $ 90 with SSS and the
Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D $ 40 (the rebate is almost over so really bad luck there). It's $30 more than you asked but I can't find anything better price/quality.
well, Honestly, since you dont need 3D or BitStream HD-Audio,
you could go with a GT210 GPU....
thats what i currently have and it plays even the meanest 1080P movies Flawlessly!!
Something Like this
SPARKLE GT210 DDR3 512MB 64-Bit ($19.99 after mail-in rebate)
with the saved money,
u could change the SSD for the [url=]Corsair Force 40GB[/url] ($110) if u want...
Sequential Access - Read up to 280MB/s
Sequential Access - Write up to 270MB/s
The specs speaks for themselves
and windows7, once installed, takes ~16GB so, you'd have ~24GB of free disk space!
thats great for installing games!
KiSUAN gave great options too...
the Triple-Core CPU i was referring to was the X3 435 2.9GHz...
it was $70 free shipping when i bought it...
now newegg doesnt carry it anymore i guess...
you can keep the X2 250, its a great CPU!
The Combo X3 + Biostar Mobo is not bad,
but as for me, im just a Gigabyte fan, i really consider them top noch
and i rarely see some getting RMA'ed...
Those boards are so stable, im very impressed!
now, does this means all other mobos arent good? well no, of course...
but i cant put my name next to a mobo recommendation if its not a Gigabyte one...
but overall, this could be it:
X2 250 CPU is
$61 (newegg.com)
Gigabyte MOBO is
$50 after mail in rebate (newegg.com)
SPARKLE GT210 is
$20 after mail-in rebate (newegg.com)
Corsair SSD is
$110 (newegg.com)
Antec 380W PSU is
$25 after mail-in rebate (newegg.com)
SilverStone ML03B is
$60 (amazon.com)
Working in computer hardware distributor and pretty big addict to oc, meaning I've seen and know quite some things and done some pretty nasty things to hardware myself, I can tell you that I have no brand loyalty and will never have, all motherboards fail eventually, all brands have RMA and in most of the cases now a days is almost the same for x or y brand, sometimes x motherboard from y brand has z flaw that makes that model RMA higher, that happens with every brand and you can be sure of it, not Giga, Asus, Evga or whatever brand is exempt.
You have what you pay, and biostar my friend is great motherboard manufacture, they had the world record FSB for more than a year, their motherboards are in the top charts of any socket fighting among Asus, Giga, Evga, MSI and they continuously innovate, they were the first brand to unlock a Phenom II, and they give great value for your money, they just don't have as much money to spend in marketing as others and don't put too much focus in the bling.
Don't bother with the 250, it's identical to the 240. Save a few bucks and overclock if you want. My 245 came with a combo, and I currently have it running @3.6 GHz with the stock HSF
i still think its worth it to put $15 more and get a SAMSUNG 12X BDROM Combo!
12x is a great speed if your into ripping Blurays!
And also, if u still need to burn DVDs from time to time, well, you can!
-peace-
AVOID THE LITEON BD-ROM!!!!! Unless of course you never want to play an audio CD... then its fine. I put that LiteOn drive in a system for a friend only to find out that if you put in an audio CD it will crash xbmc!!!!
Here is the thread:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=93254
BTW I have the Samsung drive that eskro is recommending and it works flawlessly.
Wow! You guys are awesome - I can't thank you enough! My setup now looks dramatically different, more power for just a little more money (At work and can't type it all out right now, but it currently can be viewed
here - {along with the SilverStone GD05B case that KiSUAN recommended.})
A few more questions for the experts:
1. On the Hauppauge 2250, is it worth the extra ~$20 for the remove/IR combo, or am I better off getting it separately? I have a Tivo remote that I want to re-purpose - so I am guessing that there is some kind of IR 'learning' plugin that will allow me to use the old Tivo remote instead. I suppose I will still need an IR receiver, though - and I don't see a whole lot of IR receivers to purchase.
2. Is there really any advantage to a hard drive that is specifically meant for HTPC's, such as
this one? Or can I get away with a cheaper HD such as
this one? Is the ~$40 difference worth it?
Thanks again!
i cant view your newegg shopping list... ?
remote stuff i cant say as i dont use them,, sorry :/
i bought that $80 Western Digital Caviar Green and its flawless so far!! get it!!