Engadget: How-to: Build a multi-talented HTPC for (roughly) $1,000

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Well, the proc and memory are way overkill for an HTPC unless gaming is going to be done on it--ditto for the PSU. $130 also seems awful expensive for an older Z68 motherboard. I realize they said up front that they didn't want to limit options, but it's just not at all the way I would go for an HTPC. The HT3000 GPU is not better than HT2000 for anything you're going to do media-wise, and it's not powerful enough to run any recent games at 1080P. If gaming is the goal, don't beat around the bush - just put a proper GPU in it.
 
Very imbalanced and all sorts of wrong for a HTPC. They're basically spending a lot of money on the off chance that they MIGHT want to do something more with the HTPC.
 
Danny Bui said:
Very imbalanced and all sorts of wrong for a HTPC. They're basically spending a lot of money on the off chance that they MIGHT want to do something more with the HTPC.
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True. Most tuner programs are only single-threaded to begin with. And during recording, none of the cores or threads get loaded much if at all. Therefore, I would have took out the i5-2500K and instead put in an i3-2120 or even a Pentium G620 if this were to be strictly an HTPC. Then, an H67 or an H77 motherboard should be used in place of the Z68 used in the article. And since neither chipset supports DDR3 RAM higher than DDR3-1333, DDR3-1600 RAM is unnecessary in this revised build (with my substitute suggestions, of course).

With all that, I'd still recommend two separate disks - one (an SSD or a smaller-capacity HDD) for the OS and programs plus a much bigger drive (go with a less expensive but good quality and good-performing 2TB hard drive) for recorded TV programs.
 
im trying to understand whats remarkable about this build. is it that they managed to spend that much money on an htpc? that they managed to build very average computer and call it something its not? that they put a "k" processor in a computer that will never be overclocked? that they spent $130 on a 400W psu?
 
Danny Bui said:
Very imbalanced and all sorts of wrong for a HTPC. They're basically spending a lot of money on the off chance that they MIGHT want to do something more with the HTPC.
Click to expand...

That's almost the same machine as my brothers htpc, he just has a Silverstone htpc case and a gtx260, everything else is pretty much the same.
Overkill just to play 720mkv rips.

My htpc in my sig plays all of my media just fine and that's all I use it for.
 
buy an i5 laptop with intergrated graphics and large hdd and call it a day...even by the time you add a tuner, you are well under a grand and can take your entertainment with you if needed.. I use a Dell Studio 1558 for my HTPC and it has internal BD-Rom drive.....
 
Here I am thinking that that htpc is kinda pricey but I'm sitting here in the garage posting this message on my $900 iPad 3. I personally wouldn't pay $900 for an iPad, warranty, and case. it was a gift from a friend.
 
Zepher said:
Here I am thinking that that htpc is kinda pricey but I'm sitting here in the garage posting this message on my $900 iPad 3. I personally wouldn't pay $900 for an iPad, warranty, and case. it was a gift from a friend.
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What's an iPad got to do with an HTPC? That iPad can travel with you, sit on the couch with you, and can even be used to do work on.
 
AQ_OC said:
What's an iPad got to do with an HTPC? That iPad can travel with you, sit on the couch with you, and can even be used to do work on.
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If I were to get an Apple TV, I guess you could consider it an htpc, or an htt (home theater tablet) lol
 
Get a cheaper 1155 board ($50-$75) $40 case with psu, I-5 2120 ($175 ish) 4 gigs of ddr3 ($50 ish) Gt430 $50 2tb hard drive ($150 ish) and maybe even a 64-128gig ssd ($100 ish)
$600= DONE and that is even overkill to some extent.
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
buy an i5 laptop with intergrated graphics and large hdd and call it a day...even by the time you add a tuner, you are well under a grand and can take your entertainment with you if needed.. I use a Dell Studio 1558 for my HTPC and it has internal BD-Rom drive.....
Click to expand...

What kind of tuner do you guys recommend?
 
agent8 said:
Get a cheaper 1155 board ($50-$75) $40 case with psu, I-5 2120 ($175 ish) 4 gigs of ddr3 ($50 ish) Gt430 $50 2tb hard drive ($150 ish) and maybe even a 64-128gig ssd ($100 ish)
$600= DONE and that is even overkill to some extent.
Click to expand...

A Celeron G530 is more than enough CPU and GPU for this at $50. Including drives, around $400-$450 should be sufficient. Actually..

Not counting the OS or a tuner:

$120 - WD Green 2TB
$21 - Pareema 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-1333
$55 - ECS H61H2-M3 1335 H61 HDMI Mobo
$50 - Celeron G530 (2.4GHz DC)
$80 - Samsung 830 64GB
$37 - APEX DM-318 Micro ATX Case w/ 275W PSU

Total: $363 + shipping

Add a Ceton InfiniTV 4 for $200 and a copy of Windows 7 for $100, and you've got a complete HTPC that will handle any media you throw at it and serve up TV content all day long, including to extenders. All for way less than that silly $1000 system Engadget was hawking.
 
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