$800 HTPC - Maybe overkill?

mcravenufo

mcravenufo

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This is going to be used to watch DVD/Bluray movies and ripped DVD's.
Is this a bit overkill?

Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail
LIAN LI Black Aluminum PC-C37B Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case - Retail
ASUS M3N78-VM AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8200 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Windsor 2.6GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO5200CZBOX - Retail
Transcend TS32GSSD25-M 2.5" 32GB PATA MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD) - Retail
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ - Retail
Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EADS 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray Reader SATA Model iHOS104-06 - OEM
 
That doesn't look bad. You could of course save money on the case, power supply and the SSD. The SSD is the big thing. You really don't need one for a HTPC.
 
SC385 said:
That doesn't look bad. You could of course save money on the case, power supply and the SSD. The SSD is the big thing. You really don't need one for a HTPC.
Click to expand...

Especially with the sequential read and write speeds listed in the specifications. (25 MB/s reads and 8 MB/s writes)
 
Some people are running 5400rpm HDDs, so yea I'll agree on the SSD is a bit overkill.
 
The IDE SSD you chose is a ridiculously slow SSD that's not worth buying unless out of desperation.

The PSU you chose, while Delta made, is of meh quality. Not good nor bad.

The CPU you chose is a piss-poor choice for the money considering that you can get the significantly faster Athlon II X2 240+ CPU for the same price.
 
Danny Bui said:
The IDE SSD you chose is a ridiculously slow SSD that's not worth buying unless out of desperation.

The PSU you chose, while Delta made, is of meh quality. Not good nor bad.

The CPU you chose is a piss-poor choice for the money considering that you can get the significantly faster Athlon II X2 240+ CPU for the same price.
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He's right. It's the difference of 90nm and 45nm as well.

Plus it's $3 cheaper!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103688
 
Thanks for the suggestion. I will modify my list on Wednesday.
 
So I'm sure I'll stoke a fire here but...

why not consider the seagate 2tb HD at $140
 
Jester1550 said:
So I'm sure I'll stoke a fire here but...

why not consider the seagate 2tb HD at $140
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Wow, I can't believe newegg hiked the price of the WD 2tb drive from $140 to $200 once cyber monday was over...
 
Am I the only one here that is noticing that the OP has put a 90nm CPU in the list?

Edit: NM there are Sane people on this forum :p

Windsor sucks it took Windsor getting its butt kicked by Intel for AMD to go into the golden age of Brisbane cores. If you want older but good high binned cores.. Go with the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103279 where you can actually get 2.9ghz at 65W cheaper than the same 45nm Athlon II
 
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I don't know about other people, but I'd spend the extra $4 getting the 45nm proc that is only 100mhz slower.
 
I didn't even pay attention to what the specs were on the SSD. I'm grateful you guys pointed that out.

It was my assumption that an SSD would cut down the boot up time dramatically. I don't want to wait for the thing to boot up every time I want to watch a movie. Since the general thoughts are that it may be overkill, I am rethinking that.
 
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Danny Bui said:
The PSU you chose, while Delta made, is of meh quality. Not good nor bad.
Click to expand...

I want a good PSU for an HTPC. I was thinking that at a total of $800 was already overkill and if I added an expensive PSU it would put it close to $1000. I don't mind spending the money for a good PSU I just don't want it to be overkill.
 
mcravenufo said:
I want a good PSU for an HTPC. I was thinking that at a total of $800 was already overkill and if I added an expensive PSU it would put it close to $1000. I don't mind spending the money for a good PSU I just don't want it to be overkill.
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Well you don't need to add a 1kw PSU to a HTPC. In all honesty I think anything over 450w for the average user is overkill for a HTPC. I'm not a PSU expert so don't take what I say with 100% confidence, but I hear the 400w Corsair is a favorite, and it's quiet.

Plus it's only $50! (With a $10 MIR but those never work anyways)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008&Tpk=400w%20corsair
 
mcravenufo said:
I want a good PSU for an HTPC. I was thinking that at a total of $800 was already overkill and if I added an expensive PSU it would put it close to $1000. I don't mind spending the money for a good PSU I just don't want it to be overkill.
Click to expand...

Well as Sungaisu pointed out, you can get a good quality PSU for $50.
 
CrimandEvil said:
If he gets an NSK2480 he kind of gets one free. ;)
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Also true :D

OP, if you really want to spend $200 on a Lian Li case + Corsair PSU, go for it, If not, the Antec Earthwatts 380W PSU included in the ~$120 NSK 2480 case is of pretty decent quality. In fact, the Corsair 400CX and the Antec EA380 380W PSU are made by the same manufacturer: Seasonic
 
With a new HDTV on its way I've been looking to build a similar HTPC. For video playback, you really don't need much power since video can all be decoded in hardware now.

I think I've settled on making an xbmc box (gorgeous interface, plays almost anything, low power, silent, very small case). Some options are:
  • A $199 aspire revo - works great, but no optical drive. It would have to stream everything off of a network drive.
  • A custom built atom/ion box with optical drive. This would be about $350 from newegg, but would include its own Bluray drive and have a bit more power than the aspire.

I've been using xbmc on my regular pc. Its interface and ability to play iso's off of the network are impressive.
 
I've been impressed with the Antec psu in my htpc case.

go with that motherboard and the athlon ii 240, and you won't be disappointed. That AM3 chip worked with my MB with no bios update.

As far as boot times, you just set your htpc to sleep, and then wake it up when you need it. Boot times don't get much faster than that, and the price is right!

Also, what works well for me is i keep my files on a shared hdd in my desktop, and then just point the htpc to that. That way, you don't need to worry about stuffing hdds into a htpc case that is tucked into your entertainment center and generally cramped already.
 
Cool, thanks for the tip. I did change the CPU to the 240.

I just wish that case came in black. I don't go much for the silver.
 
I rattle canned mine black because I also hated the silver but couldn't find a media center case that I liked better. Came out really well. Now I just need to upgrade my DVD drive because it is like a dark gray instead of black and looks really out of place. I'd paint that too but it sounds like a jet taking off when it spools up so it's probably time for a new one anyway.
 
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