HTPC BUILD

[Meckymeck]

Just bought a new Haswell computer and wanting to turn my old one into a HTPC.

I would prefer it to be in a media center case if at all possible.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

HTPC

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

300-400$ USD The less the better

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Chicago, IL I have Fry's and Microcenter close by.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts

CASE, HardDrive, ?? what else??

you'll need.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

CPU - Q6600
MotherBoard - DFI LANPARTY DK P35-T2RS LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX
Graphics Card -EVGA GeForce GTX460 SE 1 GB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card 01G-P3-1366-TR
Power Supply - Corsair HW520W modular power supply
Heatsink- Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Heatsink ( Its been on forever and I do not have stock cooler anymore. I hope this is not a problem.)
Ram- 2 x G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000

6) Will you be overclocking?

Probably not.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

50inch 1920x1080


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? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.

Already have Motherboard.


10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

I need new OS.

This will be my first HTPC build i'm really not sure what it needs. Just throw me ideas of what you would do with 300-400$ worth of upgrades I guess :/

-Thanks

 

[tiraides]

For the OS, you need to choose between Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 8. Make sure you buy the 64-bit OEM (or System Builder) version. That's about $100 before tax (though you could save some money by purchasing the OS online).

However, you may want to consider possibly grabbing the HTPC case online. Micro Center only has two cases in its online store, and they're both designed for micro ATX motherboards. The only HTPC case I can recommend from Fry's is the Silverstone Lascala LC13B-E, but I don't know whether or not your local store has it in stock.

The hard drive is simple: the Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD.

If you insist on an HTPC case, you will need to replace your CPU cooler. Most HTPC cases can't handle a tower-based CPU cooler like the TRUE 120. The best replacement CPU cooler I can recommend is the Cooler Master GeminII S524.

Do you plan on watching movies from DVDs or Blu-ray discs? I didn't see an optical drive listed anywhere.

 

[timta2]

If you don't want to buy Windows you can always install a free Linux distro and use XBMC as your main HTPC application. Unless of course you need Windows to do some specific stuff. If it wasn't for my need to run Windows Media Center my HTPC would be running Linux. One of these days I will get MythTV installed and figured out

 

[Meckymeck]

For the OS, you need to choose between Windows 7 Home
If you insist on an HTPC case, you will need to replace your CPU cooler. Most HTPC cases can't handle a tower-based CPU cooler like the TRUE 120. The best replacement CPU cooler I can recommend is the Cooler Master GeminII S524.

You said most cases can not handle a cooler like that. Do you have any idea what can?

I've been using this cpu overclocked at 3ghz for a couple years with out a fan on this heatsink with no problems. I like that it makes no noise.

But hey..

No problem buying a new heatsink if the prices of the HTPC cases that can accommodate my old one are greater then a new heatsink and regular HTPC case.

Do you plan on watching movies from DVDs or Blu-ray discs? I didn't see an optical drive listed anywhere.

Ah I knew I forgot somethiing Mostly DVDs but Blu-Ray drive is not out of the question.

 

[tiraides]

I can't tell you which HTPC cases, if any, can support the TRUE 120. I don't know enough about HTPC cases in general nor have I conducted a lot of research on these cases since I first reviewed this thread.

Without factor in the cost of the case -- more on that in a moment -- you'd spend nearly $300 before taxes for the following (at Micro Center):

$100 - Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 8 (64-bit OEM)
$95 - Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD
$40 - Cooler Master GeminII S524
$60 - Asus BC-12B1ST Blu-ray combo drive (retail package)

If you really want an HTPC case, you pretty much have two options. You can grab a cheap case like the nMEDIAPC 6000B, but the shipping pushes it closer to $100. Or, you could go for the aforementioned Silverstone Lascala, but the cheapest retailer has it available for over $100. (I don't count the Apevia HTPC cases available on NewEgg as viable options due to their shitty bundled PSUs. I wouldn't even trust them as doorstops; they may set the doors on fire!)

Then again, a cheap case like the NZXT Source 210 Elite would replace the GeminII S524 in the above list (and the HTPC case) yet allow you to keep using your TRUE 120.

Do you really need to use an HTPC case?

 

[Dangman]

You said most cases can not handle a cooler like that. Do you have any idea what can?

I've been using this cpu overclocked at 3ghz for a couple years with out a fan on this heatsink with no problems. I like that it makes no noise.

But hey..

No problem buying a new heatsink if the prices of the HTPC cases that can accommodate my old one are greater then a new heatsink and regular HTPC case.

The height of the Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 is 160.5mm. Even if we went as high as this $200 Lian LI HTPC case, it's still not enough as the max CPU HSF height of that Lian Li case is 140mm. Most of Silverstone' HTPC cases have a max HSF height of 135mm (one has a max HSF height of 70mm or 120mm with or without a DVD drive respectively). So basically, there really isn't any HTPC style case that can accommodate your HSF.

So yeah, you're definitely looking at a new HSF.

However, I concur with Tiraides that maybe you should think about just using a regular ATX case? Even a $60 ATX case like the Corsair 200R (It looks better than the NZXT Source 210 Elite ) will have better cooling, far better cable management, can accomodate far more drives, and is capable of fitting your TRUE 120 HSF. The only advantage the $90+ Silverstone Lascala cases have over the Corsair 200R is HTPC aesthetics and possibly easier fitting inside cabinets.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

I don't know about you, but my 400 Series GTX card gets LOUD when it's in use. Not sure I would transplant that card into my HTPC without replacing the stock cooling solution on it.