thundercat

Hello all, as I received some useful help on my first post I thought I would put another up!

Anyone who read my last post would see that the pc im using as a media centre is long overdue replacement. I want to build a HTPC especially after looking on youtube and seeing a video by someone called ZeeBOBNZ, but don't want to spend an absolute fortune on it.

I need something fairly small in size, as its got to fit on my tv stand along with the surround sound etc, I will need a fair bit of storage as my drives are filling up fast (around 1.5TB) .

Mainly will be using the HTPC for typing letters etc, watching videos, listening to music, the internet of course, and I play games like dungeon keeper, AOE etc on it every now and then, so I want something that will last should I want to start gaming again on the pc as apposed to the 360. I quite like the idea of recording TV shows direct to the HDD, but im undecided on that at the moment.

To get to the point, I found one on ebay I quite liked the look of, but I wanted to upgrade it a bit, so I started to look on ebuyer.

Below is my list I have made so far of parts am thinking of buying from ebuyer, Id appreciate any advise or suggestions, some items are duplicated as I dont know what to go for. As mentioned before, this list is not final, so suggestions are welcome

*******************************************************
CPU:

*Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz Socket 775 1333FSB 4MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor



MOTHERBOARD:

*Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H GeForce 9400 Socket 775 onboard VGA DVI HDMI 7.1 channel audio mATX Motherboard

or

* Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H GeForce 7100 Socket 775 onboard VGA 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard



CASE:

*Extra Value Black Opera ATX Desktop Case 500W PSU (20+4 pin)

or

*Silver MATX Media Center Case With Brushed Aluminium Front Panel - No PSU



PSU:

*Extra Value 550W ATX Silent Neon PSU - 12cm Fan/PPFC (no power cord)



HDD:

*Samsung EcoGreen F2 1.5TB Hard Drive SATAII 32MB Cache - OEM



DVD/BLURAY:

*LG Electronics Blu-Ray & HD-DVD-Rom Combo 16x DVDRW Black SATA - Retail Box With Software

or

* LG GBW-T10N Blu-ray recorder SATA Slimline Bare Drive - OEM

or

*LiteOn 20x DVD±RW Dual Layer & Ram + Lightscribe IDE Black Bare Drive - OEM



RAM:

4GB minimum id like 6GB+







Thanks again for any help!

Phædrus2401

If you're going to be playing any games at all on a large monitor/TV then I would suggest getting a separate graphics card. The built-in 7100 on the second motherboard will barely suffice for any games or HD movies (I used a mobo with that for a while, couldn't even play old games on decent settings). The 9400 on the first mobo is alright, but will still give you lower video quality than a game console, the Xbox 360 has a GPU comparable to the GeForce 9600GT. I would recommend maybe a 9800GTX+ or Radeon 4850. A 9800GT or 9600GT at minimum (AVOID the GS models).

The power supply listed is not good... I would suggest a Corsair 650tx, probably adequate for your needs unless you go for a higher-end graphics card (Radeon 4890 and up, GeForce GTX275 and up), in which case get a Corsair 750tx.

Western Digital and Seagate are the best brands for hard drives. I'd recommend one (or two) of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136284
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148433

Processor is good, though you could get away with a dual core. You only really need 4GB of RAM; running Fallout 3, Spore, several Firefox windows, GIMP 2.6, and OpenOffice Word, I once saw my RAM usage hit 3.6GB. Unless you're going to be doing all that, and more, all the time, 4GB is plenty. I recommend DDR2 800 or 1066, from a brand like OCZ, G.Skill, or Corsair.

Hope that helps some.

Tyree

For a HTCP build your needs are pretty minimal. You said you were looking something small. A mATX case would be fine to go along with the mATX Mobo. purchase a quality PSU. If you intend on gaming you will need larger case w/good air movement. Antes 300's are tough to beat for the quality/price ratio.
If you intend on gaming get a Dual Core CPU. The Intel E8500 is the sweet spot.
4GB of RAM is all you will require.
I'd suggest WD Black series Hdd's....they have a 5 yr. warranty. Seagate has has some issues recently so I'm staying away from them for now.
I've built a couple of strictly HTPC's and I've used the POWERCOLOR Radeon HD 3450 ($37) for the absolutely quiet ones and the SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 3650 for the others.
If you decide to go with a gaming graphics card, I'd suggest the SeaSonic SS-650JT 650W PSU. $85
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151036

thundercat

Thank you for all the info!! I was thinking of getting a separate graphics card, but then I wasnt sure about the PSU being up to it. I tend to have alot of things running in the background, I Run vista ultimate on all the top settings to make it look nice, and with all the other things going on the computer I use at the moment is very slow.

Gaming wise, I dont think I would play anything like that as I use the xbox, but I dont want to rule that out for the future.

I will take all of that on board, but all this advise is really useful, thank you for taking the time to post all of that, going to have a look at those bits in a bit

thundercat

Thank you very much, I will have a look at the powercooler etc, as for the HDD you suggested, I have always gone for WD and never had a problem with them, I saw that the samsung was meant to be quite good on the power, but I think I will go with your idea and stick with WD.

As for the processor, why would you suggest a duel core over a quad core?

Thanks again

thundercat

Also, do you think this PSU would be any good? Antec EarthWatts 650W PSU - 80Plus Certified 12cm Fan 3x 12V Rails

Tyree

There are no games than can take advantage of a Quad Core CPU and an HTPC certainly couldn't. A Dual Core offers more bang for the buck.
I used to use a lot of Antec PSU's but they keep changing their manufacturer's and you can't rely on their quality. I'm using nothing but Seasonics for myself and my customers.

Phædrus2401

Not quite true, there are a few. GTA4 comes to mind. But you're right that you're really not getting the most for your money when you get a quad core for a gaming machine.

But if you're going for an HTPC and you're only going to be doing minimal gaming, then you're going to need at least an adequate video card, preferably with HDMI/S-video/whatever output. Good choices for your needs:
EVGA GeForce 9500GT 512MB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130378
Sapphire Radeon HD4670 512MB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102820

I don't know much about HTPC cases (the ones that go on their side or whatever), so I can't help there, but if you're fine with a standard desktop (floortop, really) case, then the Antec 300 is very good. I have the Antec 900, which is basically a 300 with lighted fans, a few cubic inches more space, and a couple other goodies, and I'm very satisfied.

For motherboards, go with Asus or Gigabyte, they're the best brands, though MSI isn't bad, they just have iffy customer support. The Gigabyte board you listed with the GeForce 9400 is probably pretty good, but if you're going to be getting a separate graphics card it's better to get a board without one. Well, not better, but no sense having extra worthless non-functioning video ports on your mobo, right?

If you have 2.1, 4.1, or 5.1 speakers then you don't need a sound card, you can use the motherboard's onboard output, but generally if you have 7.1, or if your motherboard is low-end and you have 5.1, it's best to get a separate card. I'm not an expert on sound cards, but Creative's Sound Blaster series is pretty good, just make sure to read the reviews before buying one.

For your needs I would suggest either a mid-high end dual core processor or low-end quad core. If you multitask a lot and do a lot of video editing then I'd say go for an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 2.66GHz: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115057
But if you're only going to be doing a moderate amount of multitasking (multiple firefox tabs don't count!) you might as well save some money and get an Intel Core 2 Duo E7600 3.06GHz: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115059

Power supplies are one of the most important, yet most neglected, parts of a PC. There's a lot of material out there about just what makes a good power supply and why that's important, but I'll not bore you with that here. Here are recommended brands:
PC Power & Cooling (any model)
Corsair (any model)
Seasonic (any model)
Thermaltake (ToughPower series only)
OCZ (some models)
Silverstone (some models)
Antec (some models)

For your needs, if you go with the integrated video or a lower end (the ones I listed or less) card the Corsair 550vx is probably best for the price. If you go for a higher end card then the Corsair 650tx is probably the best choice.

Phædrus2401

In case you're interested, and sorry if this is against forum rules (I didn't see anything about this, if it isn't allowed feel free to delete the post), I have a motherboard and graphics card I'm thinking of selling that match your needs.

The motherboard came inside an HP Pavilion a6600 desktop, so I'm not 100% positive what it is, but it has a Foxconn logo and from the specs and pictures I'm pretty sure (99%) it's this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813186140
The board is microATX, has an LGA775 socket and supports Core 2 Duo/Core 2 Quad/Pentium Dual Core CPUs, supports up to 4GB DDR2 800/1066 RAM, has a PCIe x16 slot, two PCI slots, and a PCIe x1 slot. It has four SATA ports and one IDE slot. Onboard GeForce 7100SE graphics chipset and Realtek sound and network. BIOS is unfortunately mostly locked by HP, but you can replace it with a non-locked version if you want. Foxconn isn't a top-notch brand, but they aren't junk either.

The graphics card is a BFG GeForce 9500GT 1GB, specifically this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=BFG%209500GT
BFG is a good brand for Nvidia graphics cards, though their support isn't quite as good as EVGA's. 1GB GDDR2 is a little more than the card can really use, but that isn't a bad thing. The 9500 is right in the range you want for being able to do high-resolution on a large TV without being an actual high-end gaming card. It will still manage most 2008 games on medium settings on an average resolution, and will play earlier games on high or ultra high settings (Doom 3 on 1280x800 maxed out with AA and AF, 63fps).

The motherboard was used for about three years in an HP Pavilion, and the graphics card was used for about six months with it. I've moved since then, but they're packed and stored securely in anti-static bags wrapped in packing paper and bubblewrap, in a box with all empty space filled with packing paper, so no rattling around. They've been in climate controlled conditions the whole time, even during the move (they were in the back of the van) and have been handled with care. I haven't tested them recently, so I can't guarantee they work, but they should, and I'll do a visual inspection before shipping.

I'll sell them to you for a total of $100+shipping. If one of the parts are defective just ship it back (I'll pay) and I'll refund you $50. If they're both defective (unlikely) send them both back and I'll refund you, shipping and all (though I'll test them myself to be sure). No warranty outside of that, sorry, though if they fail after a week or two of use I can be reasonable.

If you're interested send me a private message through the board.

thundercat

Hello again everyone,

Sorry for the delay in my reply to all of your messages, been busy with work + I had to format my PC so I lost all of my bookmarks.

Anyway, just as an update, I am about o place an order for the below, I know quite a few people mentioned the processor I picked, reason being is I wanted something that will last me a good few years... but if someone could suggest a better alternative for the same price then please let me know, does nto have to be a quad core (I am in the UK so can only buy from UK sites)

At the moment as you can see the parts will be going in a HTPC case, but once I have some more space I will transfer into a full case and upgrade bits over time, eventually I will more than likely do some video/audio editing and maybe run some CAD programs etc.

But before this gets too long, here is my new list from ebuyer.com


CPU - 1 of

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz Socket 775 1333FSB 4MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor


MOTHERBOARD - 1 of

Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H GeForce 9400 Socket 775 onboard VGA DVI HDMI 7.1 channel audio mATX Motherboard


HDD - 1 of

Samsung EcoGreen F2 1.5TB Hard Drive SATAII 32MB Cache - OEM (A friend has one of a smaller size and says it has been very good, id go for maxtor if I could find one similar price as I have always used them)


RAM - 1 of

Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Kit CL5 1.8v


CASE - 1 of


Black Aluminium ATX Media Center Case with iMon LCD Display - No PSU (Standard ATX PSU)


80mm FANS - 2 of

AKASA 80mm Amber series 3 pin Ultra quiet case fan


CPU FAN - 1 of

Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 Processor Cooler


PSU - 1 of

Cooler Master Real Power M700 Modular ATX 700W PSU Power Supply Unit

(buying from play.com, was going to get the Corsair 650W TX Series PSU - 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12V Rail, but it sold out)

MISC

Will buy a blu-ray drive and a TV card at a later date. For the moment will install my LG dvd RW



Any comments, its never too late!!


Thanks all

**********
EDIT

Changed the HDD to a WD 1TB black edition as suggested, it had a better review. I will also be running Windows 7 64bit when it comes out, but for now Vista 32

CPU


I have taken onboard what people have said about the quad core, would something like this be better? its only about £4 more

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Socket 775 (3.0GHz) 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor



I really do need help with this, thanks

wrench97

I like Tyree use Seasonic PSU in all HTPC builds the main reason is they are quiet you don't want to have to listen to PSU fan ramp up and down while watching a movie.

The E8400/E8500 will do fine in that setup.