• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

HTPC Build ~ $500

R

Rain-X

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 6, 2007
Messages
73
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
HTPC / Video Re-compressing / Usenet / Archiving / Home-server functions
The PC is currently hardwired to network.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
I would prefer to stay under or around $500, before a TV tuner card and please recommend one for PVR functions.
3) Where do you live?
Northern Alexandria (comcastic)
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Power Supply - Must fit the case (current PSU is loud and probably about to die, MPT-301)
Video Card
Motherboard
CPU
CPU Heatsink/Fan (if the retail one isn't good enough)
Audio (if the motherboard isn't good enough)
Hard Drive 2 TB
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Cooler Master Case CAV-T04-UWA
Live X Gamer Card - CT4760
Logitech Z-5500
Lenovo Mini Wireless Keyboard N5901
DVD Drive RW
6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Right now I have a 32" tube TV, plan to upgrade someday to a 1080i/p (whichever better) HD TV
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
HDMI for future use, unless video card can do it.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Windows 7 Home Premium


I'm not sure if I should go AMD or Intel on this build, I would like to keep it low noise fan cooled only. If the case doesn't work out I would like to go to smaller one if it can keep the full functions needed.
 
What connections does that 32" TV have? i.e Component, S-video, etc, etc.
 
$163 - AMD Athlon X4 635 CPU + MSI 770-G45 AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
$82 - G.Skill F3-10600CL9D-4GBNT 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$120 - Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB SATA HDD
$45 - XFX HD-455X-YAF2 Radeon HD 4550 512MB PCI-E Video Card
$50 - Corsair 400CX 400W PSU
---
Total: $460 plus shipping.

The above is actually a tad overkill but you had the budget for it. The quad-core PCU should help out immensely with your video re-compressing if I'm reading that right. The video card has S-Video out and supports HDMI as long as you get a DVI to HDMI adapted which can be had for cheap from Newegg or Monoprice.com. The PSU is more than enough power for that setup and should fit that case. You probably don't need 4GB of RAM so you should be ok with 2GB:
$43 - Patriot 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top