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Another i3 HTPC Build - What do you think of this one?

post #1 of 17
8/9/10 at 7:34pm
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Building this for a friend as a surprise by his wife for his 30th birthday.

Uses will be mainly watching movies and listening to music - no need for a tuner.

Its going to fit in a TV stand inside a cabinet (only 10 inches wide) to the right of a 61" TV and there wasn't any room for the traditional desktop case which is why I chose the mid tower (which should easily fit in the cabinet).

Case: Rosewill R101-P-BK 120mm Fan MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case Model #:R101-P-BK Item #:N82E16811147112 $29.99

PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified $64.99-$15.00 Instant $49.99

CPU: Intel Core i3-530 Clarkdale 2.93GHz LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80616I3530 $124.99 -$10.00 Instant $114.99

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-H57M-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel H57 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $119.99

RAM: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-2GBNQ $50.99

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $139.99-$20.00 Instant $119.99

Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM $19.99

Wireless card: Zonet ZEW1642 PCI Wireless Adapter $29.99-$12.99 Instant $17.00

Subtotal: $522.93
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post #2 of 17
8/9/10 at 7:51pm
Will you be using the WD drive for your OS too? I've heard lots of bad things about those green drives being used for an OS drive, being 5400rpm drives.

Other than that, looks pretty identical to my build in the works. I'm going with this motherboard to save some money (Newegg #: N82E16813128420), don't see myself needing USB 3.0 although future-proofing is never a bad thing.
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post #3 of 17
8/9/10 at 8:15pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by trginter View Post

Will you be using the WD drive for your OS too? I've heard lots of bad things about those green drives being used for an OS drive, being 5400rpm drives.

Not true at all.

This is my 5th system build using Green drives and all of them perform superbly. My HTPC has 2 green drives --- a 640GB for the OS + music and a 2nd 2TB for movies.

I wouldn't use anything else (other than a SSD) for a HTPC personally. They are quiet, cool and will likely last longer than a blue or black --- all while being plenty fast for a HTPC. What more could you ask for?
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post #4 of 17
8/9/10 at 8:18pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by trginter View Post

Other than that, looks pretty identical to my build in the works. I'm going with this motherboard to save some money (Newegg #: N82E16813128420), don't see myself needing USB 3.0 although future-proofing is never a bad thing.

You never know what is going to come out that might need usb 3.0.

I'm a big Gigabyte fan, btw.
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post #5 of 17
8/9/10 at 8:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

Not true at all.

This is my 5th system build using Green drives and all of them perform superbly. My HTPC has 2 green drives --- a 640GB for the OS + music and a 2nd 2TB for movies.

I wouldn't use anything else (other than a SSD) for a HTPC personally. They are quiet, cool and will likely last longer than a blue or black --- all while being plenty fast for a HTPC. What more could you ask for?

Don't shoot the messenger. Just relaying what I've heard several times around these forums and others. If you don't notice a difference then by all means go green. I've got a 1TB model for my media drive and I absolutely love it. Will be buying a 2 TB when there's a good sale on it.

Oh, and you can't go wrong with Gigabyte, that's for sure.
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post #6 of 17
8/9/10 at 9:06pm
If you don`t plan on sticking a tuner or multiple internal harddrives in it you can go for a smaller mini-ITX build, something like the Antec ISK300 or Silverstone models.
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post #7 of 17
8/9/10 at 9:52pm
I'm using the same CPU, mobo and a similar (G-Skill, 4 GB) RAM combo. I'm super happy with the system. Anyway, I think you chose a good combo of components. I'm pretty happy with Clarkdale in MPC-HC, but I would have probably elected for a 32 bit OS if I were to do it again, for simplicity and compatibility. I'm using Win7 Home Premium.
Going into and out of S3 sleep is a breeze and very rapid; I've got an SSD for the system drive, and all the media is on an unRAID server elsewhere in the house.
I also have a 61" TV, but the HTPC sits under it in a wide component stand. Just to keep things cool and allow for future expansion I bought a big ATX case (Silverstome LC-10) which kinda matches my Onkyo NR-5007 receiver.
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post #8 of 17
8/9/10 at 10:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

RAM: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-2GBNQ $50.99

Just a thought, but would it be better to get faster ram (even if at the cost of higher latency)?

I know DDR3 1600 or 1333 ram is about the same price.
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post #9 of 17
8/10/10 at 12:59am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by gunbunnysoulja View Post

Just a thought, but would it be better to get faster ram (even if at the cost of higher latency)?

I know DDR3 1600 or 1333 ram is about the same price.

Great catch. I didn't even realize that I picked the slower RAM.

Thanks!
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post #10 of 17
8/10/10 at 5:16am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by trginter View Post

Don't shoot the messenger. Just relaying what I've heard several times around these forums and others. If you don't notice a difference then by all means go green. I've got a 1TB model for my media drive and I absolutely love it. Will be buying a 2 TB when there's a good sale on it.

Oh, and you can't go wrong with Gigabyte, that's for sure.

I've decided that I am going to try something different with this build.

I am using a 160GB WD Blue drive for the OS and a 1TB Green drive for data storage. I'm still below my budget of $550 on this build.

I'll see if I notice any differences in "real world" usability.
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post #11 of 17
8/10/10 at 8:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by fitbrit View Post

I'm using the same CPU, mobo and RAM combo. I'm super happy with the system. Anyway, I think you chose a good combo of components. I'm pretty happy with Clarkdale in MPC-HC, but I would have probably elected for a 32 bit OS if I were to do it again, for simplicity and compatibility. I'm using Win7 Home Premium.
Going into and out of S3 sleep is a breeze and very rapid; I've got an SSD for the system drive, and all the media is on an unRAID server elsewhere in the house.
I also have a 61" TV, but the HTPC sits under it in a wide component stand. Just to keep things cool and allow for future expansion I bought a big ATX case (Silverstome LC-10) which kinda matches my Onkyo NR-5007 receiver.

I just looked and saw I had 4GB of G.Skill and not 2GB in my wishlist. Are you happy with 2GB of memory? I know you have a SSD so things are already pretty snappy but do you ever feel like you need 4 GB?
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post #12 of 17
8/10/10 at 12:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by trginter View Post

I just looked and saw I had 4GB of G.Skill and not 2GB in my wishlist. Are you happy with 2GB of memory? I know you have a SSD so things are already pretty snappy but do you ever feel like you need 4 GB?

Haha! That's funny, 'cos I misread the original post. I actually have 4 GB of the faster RAM. I had just edited my post when I saw your message.
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post #13 of 17
8/10/10 at 1:26pm
Thread Starter 
4GB is overkill. I rarely go over 1GB playing 1080p.
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post #14 of 17
8/10/10 at 3:59pm
Thread Starter 
Ordered the parts. I am actually really excited about this build as I will be comparing a...

C2D running the OS off a 640GB WD Green drive (mine)

-vs-

i3 running the OS off a 160GB WD Blue drive (his)

Should be interesting.
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post #15 of 17
8/11/10 at 2:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by fitbrit View Post

I'm pretty happy with Clarkdale in MPC-HC, but I would have probably elected for a 32 bit OS if I were to do it again, for simplicity and compatibility. I'm using Win7 Home Premium.

What were the simplicity and compatibility issues you had with Win 7 Home Premium?
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post #16 of 17
8/14/10 at 5:47pm
Thread Starter 
Finished this build today.

What a fantastic case for the money --- probably the nicest case I have ever seen under $50 and this one was $30. Excellent air flow and low temps.

Parts purchased were virtually silent.

Perhaps a little faster with the Blue OS vs the Green OS drive but not really noticeable. Very snappy overall even with "only" 2GB RAM.

Everything is compatible and working well.

Lastly, Gigabyte makes some nice motherboards. I think I am a repeat customer for a long time (after formally being an ASUS fan).
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post #17 of 17
8/15/10 at 12:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenThumb View Post

What were the simplicity and compatibility issues you had with Win 7 Home Premium?

I would probably take back my original statement; some issues I had, I had attributed to using a 32 bit application (with 32 bit filters) in a 64bit OS. In fact the issues were with the absence of EVR custom presenter in the 32 bit application I was using.
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