Hello, looking to build a HTPC that will be used for movies, music streaming (iTunes airplay features etc.), storage and general use, Spent a bit more time doing some research and came up with this build ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe Mini ITX Motherboard B3 $159.00 Intel Core i3 2100 $145.00 HIS ATI Radeon HD5450 Silence 1GB $49.00 Corsair CMSO4GX3M1A1333C9 4GB PC-10600 SODIMM $55.00 Lian Li PC-Q11 Black Aluminium HTPC Case USB3.0 $135.00 Western Digital Green 2TB WD20EARS $99.00 Samsung SH-B123A 12X Blu-ray DVD Combo Drive $99.00 Corsair CX-430 Power Supply $65.00 TOTAL: $806.00 Thoughts ? *Older post*
The Lian Li PC-Q11 is a mini ITX case, it will only accept Motherboards 17x17 cm. The 880GM-USB3 is a Micro ATX (24.4 x 24.4cm). Apart from that everything is a good choice. I doubt that the on board graphics will cope with 1080p, they usually mention it if it does.
Not planning to use a CPU in that system? Onboard graphics will be fine if you get something like a dual/quad 3.0ghz Phenom II or better. Don't skimp on the CPU, as not all video codecs can be offloaded to the GPU (even with the best cards). My Phenom II 555 works fine with 1080p on an old-ish geforce 6200 AM3 board.
Maybe get the Lian Li Q08. Don't wanna hijack the thread put what MB would be best suited to the two cases? http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/produc...480&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=64&g=spec
There is not much available in AMD with ITX. http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=138_1019 Expect to see a lot of LGA 1155 Sandy Bridge ITX boards very soon.
Damn was too tired didn't notice the missing CPU haha, thank you Was thinking of the energy saving quad cores, 600e ? Any suggestions on a motherboard ? Looking at the E350N from that list I'll look into it myself when I get home later on Cheers
The 350N contains its own Fusion processor, AMDs answer to the Atom. For a HTPC something like an X2-255 is all you need teamed with a suitable graphics card.
+1 to this. I'm running the X2 255 and using the onboard graphics from a GA-880GM-UD2H. No problems at all with video content. But i'm going to an Nvidia GT220 as i hate CCC, too bloody hard to setup on my TV and get good colours. TV tuner card ?
Yeah TV tuner cards an option aswell, have no idea when it comes to them tho, what are the ones to look for ?
Digital Now have a good range and aussie to boot. I'm using the Tiny Twin usb tuner, they also have a quad tuner which can record up to 4 channels at once. http://www.digitalnow.com.au/
The On-board video of the Sandy Bridge i3 should be fine for what you need. I'd try it and save the cost of the 5450.
There is still the same issue with 23.97 fps playback. However it won't worry everybody, most people wouldn't notice it unless it was pointed out to them. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/7
I recently re-cased my htpc and at the same time put in a Corsair F60 SSD as the boot drive and its quite worthwhile - it makes going through the menus and rendering thumbnails in Media Center and My Movies *much* better. For some inspiration this is what I have - Intel E8200 C2D* Silverstone GD05 Black HTPC Case Asus P5G41T-M-LX S775 G41 mATX board 2 x 2GB DDR3 DIMMs Inno3D GTX460 SE 1GB -> HDMI to panasonic plasma TV Samsung Blu-ray Drive* 2 x WD 1TB Green drives striped with Windows Disk Management* Corsair F60 60GB SSD Thermaltake 430W PSU* Hauppauge TD500 dual PCI DTV tuner* Avermedia Dual PCIe DTV tuner* Ye-Olde Microsoft USB IR receiver* Logitech Harmony One and Dinovo Edge* * Carried over from old system It's a pretty good setup. Seems to sleep and recover a bit more reliably than my old P5E-based system did and is a lot punchier to use thanks to the SSD.