Budget HTPC (noob)

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navek8

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Jun 8, 2009
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I just graduated college so I don't have heavy cash to throw around and I've been trying to work on a budget PC. I have a nice 46" Sharp Aquos 1080p LCD HDTV and I'm working out a budget HTPC to match it. Here's what I'm thinking:



ASUS M3A76-CM AM2+/AM2 AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD $64.99

NZXT Beta Series CS-NT-BETA-B Black Steel / Plastic ATX $49.99

AMD Phenom 8650 Toliman 2.3GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Triple-Core $78.99

OCZ Vista Upgrade 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $44.99


Galaxy 95TFE8HUFEXX GeForce 9500 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready $49.99

-$15 for MOBO/RAM combo

And I picked up one of those $70 WD 1TB Green's that were on hot deals a couple days ago from ZZF.


Total: $350 or so with about $50 in random MIR that I will hopefully get. So I think I actually cut the entire thing under $300 if the MIR's go through.

That seem pretty reasonable? I'm looking to pick up a BLURay/DVD Burner combo soon as I see a good special on one too, for the mean time I'll just use the DVD burner in my old tower.
 
You're better off with this cheaper setup:
$60 - AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 CPU
$75 - Asus M3N78-VM GeForce 8200 HDMI mATX Motherboard
$47 - Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C5 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM
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Total: $182 plus tax and shipping.

For watching HD content, you do not need a seperate video card as the onboard video of the 8200 chipset (like the mobo above) is more than enough for HD content. What PSU were you planning to use?
 
my coworker has a nice Antec 500W PSU that hes selling me for $30. He just bought it off newegg for like $70 2 weeks ago.
 
navek8 said:
my coworker has a nice Antec 500W PSU that hes selling me for $30. He just bought it off newegg for like $70 2 weeks ago.
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Which Antec 500W PSU? Antec has good as well as very very crappy 500W PSUs.
 
Danny Bui said:
Which Antec 500W PSU? Antec has good as well as very very crappy 500W PSUs.
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you know I'm not 100% sure but im fairly confident its good because he knows much more about computers than I do and makes new PC builds all the time. i think he said it was earthwatts or something
 
navek8 said:
you know I'm not 100% sure but im fairly confident its good because he knows much more about computers than I do and makes new PC builds all the time. i think he said it was earthwatts or something
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Ahh cool. If it's the Earthwatts it's a quality PSU. If it's a Basiq, Smartpower, Trupower I and II, you're getting ripped off at $30.

Well I still recommend the same parts plus the case you chose plus the Earthwatts 500W.That'll be a far better setup than your chosen parts.
 
I would definitely be going the GF8200/GF8300 route if I didn't want to do any gaming as well - but I'd be going for the new Athlon II 250 over the 7750 (it's a 65W part, and faster than the 7750). I agree with the choice of motherboard (though would probably suggest spending a bit more and getting the GF8300 version).

The graphics is plenty for handling high-def (either via DxVA or CoreAVC with CUDA), and if you have any video that isn't encoded correctly for DxVA/CUDA the CPU is more than sufficient to handle 1080p in software with post-processing.

It's likely that you would need to disable the power saving features of the CPU until a new bios comes out for that board (though I'm not sure - haven't seen any reports of which boards need bios upgrades to handle the C1E support in the new CPU).

The EarthWatts 500W is an excellent PSU BTW.
 
Sweet. Thanks for the advice. I will change my cart around right now and fix things up. If I ever did want to do any gaming (I'd never play crysis or anything like that), would the onbaord mobo GPU handle some basic stuff.. like Counterstrike or possibly Call of Duty.

I doubt i'd play them, I never have time anymore. But who knows?
 
navek8 said:
Sweet. Thanks for the advice. I will change my cart around right now and fix things up. If I ever did want to do any gaming (I'd never play crysis or anything like that), would the onbaord mobo GPU handle some basic stuff.. like Counterstrike or possibly Call of Duty.

I doubt i'd play them, I never have time anymore. But who knows?
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For very low settings, the onboard video would be enough.
 
If you are really on a budget you could go with the 45 watt 4050e at 2.1GHz that is only $35 with free shipping. It should be plenty if you utilize your video card for video processing unless you need to do some really processor intensive things on it. With the money you save on the cpu, you could get a nice heatsink and fan. That would really reduce the heat, power and noise of your system over those 65 and 95 watt cpus.

If you are afraid that a 2.1GHz dual core won't be enough, you could get the 45 watt 5050e at 2.6GHz or the 45 watt 4850e at 2.5GHz.
 
in case anyone was wondering. all the parts arrived yesterday and fit together beautifully. it runs incredibly well. I benchmarked it and its running like a champ.

I watched Blue Planet in 1080p last night on the big screen and it was GORGEOUS.

The case was incredibly easy to work with (I went with the BETA case) and I'm really happy. Im sending in the mail in rebates now and hopefully theyll come through! and i should be out the door @ like $250 for a great HTPC

Thanks for all the tips.
 
No pics?? :)

Anyway, glad to see that the HTPC is working well for you. What parts did you end up buying?
 
Danny Bui said:
No pics?? :)

Anyway, glad to see that the HTPC is working well for you. What parts did you end up buying?
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I'll take some pics when I get home from work tonight :)

I got the MOBO/RAM/CPU you recommended, the PSU from my buddy. The WD Green from ZZF. I dropped the video card, and got the Beta NZXY case.

The case was REALLY easy to work on, lots of room for everything, it runs super cool and quiet, and the front fan/usb ports/esata/audio ports were all really easy to plug in to the MOBO.

I just picked up that blue LED case fan from Microcenter that was posted on Hot Deals today because I noticed my CPU area felt a little warm.


All in all, I think I'm well under $300. Assuming I get back some of the MIR's.

Thanks again for your help!
 
A 9400 board with an Intel chip would be better for lite gaming if that is what you want.

If you want the 8200/8300 but want to throw in a video card get the ATI 4670. It's about the best video quality you'll get from a card and you'll get audio too.
The 4650 is hit or miss on the hardware with video processing issues.

Of course the 8200/8300 is fine too. But a phenom is required for advanced deinterlacing with that board and no video card. If you care. If you are watching 720p or 1080p content then it doesn't matter.
 
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