2010-04-18, 17:27
My old HTPC is barely keeping up a lot of the time and I've gotten the OK from the wife to replace it (it's doing DXVA decoding on a PCI video card). The space in the TV stand where it would fit is only 4.5" high, so I'm fairly limited in what case I can get. I want the flexibility to do extra things on the system, although I don't plan on any gaming.
I'm trying to keep things around $300 total. This is my currently planned list (to be bought in ~3 weeks) and I am looking for improvements and caveats that I may have missed.
Of course, if I could find slim case that supported an ATX board, that'd give me many more options for the motherboard.
I'm trying to keep things around $300 total. This is my currently planned list (to be bought in ~3 weeks) and I am looking for improvements and caveats that I may have missed.
- Case -Antec Minuet 350 (A mere 3.8" high, and relatively open.)
- Video - Either Radeon 5450 or Geforce 210 (The Radeon supports a DirectX 11 and comes fanless, but the Geforce is dirt cheap.)
- Motherboard - ASUS P5G43T-M Pro (Not a lot of options for a Micro ATX with optical audio out and a more recent SATA controller)
- CPU - Celeron E3300 (Plenty fast and dirt cheap, plus all of the power saving options)
- RAM/HDD/etc - 2GB RAM, I'll probably use the existing HDD but I might get something recent, onboard audio)
Of course, if I could find slim case that supported an ATX board, that'd give me many more options for the motherboard.