Assassin's Simple/Beginner HTPC Buying Guide - Page 455

Most folks use the Z68 due to the fact that it supports the i3 AND with a bios revision ( so we are told that is) can support the Ivy Bridge cpu as well . The current issue with Ivy Bridge is that the i5 is the lowest available cpu right now as no i3 Ivy is out yet and most htpc folks feel that the i5 Ivy for the money is overkill for htpc use . This will be cured shortly when the i3 Ivy comes out . Intel always releases there highest performing chips first down to the lowest .

Hope that helps a bit

I hear your point too and seems as though you have specifically targeted price toward intended use . Fair enough !

Ok. First build attempt from what I'm reading, do I have all this correct:

OS - Windows 7
CPU - Sandy Bridge LGA1155 3D Intel I3-2100
M. Board - gigabyte GA-H67MA-UD2H-B3
RAM - G Skill 4GB 2x2GB DDR3 1600
HDD - Samsung F4 2TB
PSU - Roswell Green Series RG530-S12 530W
Case - N Media 1000B
Wi Fi - Roswell PCI Express
Drive - Lite-On Blu/Dvd/Cd Burner
SSD - Plextor64GB SATAIII
Video Card -Nvidia GT440
Cable Card ?

I need a suggestion for TV Tuner.

Is the Nvidia GT440 necessary? I just want to run emulators. No heavy gaming.

I want to mainly watch movies (3D), surf internet, play music, watch TV (eventually get rid of cable).

I believe that #2 above applies only to the home screen, landscape works fine on other screens (playing a movie for example).

Bump will this all fit in case?

Apparently the MB will fit in the specs of this case . I have had good success with Giga boards ..... others have not in recent months . YMMV . Good board though.

Good choice of cpu

Ramm looks good to . As cheap as ramm is right now ( seems to be a bit back on the rise though) you could go to 8 giggs but by no means is it required and the 4 giigs you have chossen is good

GREAT hard drive you have chosen in the Sammy

Power supply is a bit on the stout side for your intended use and personally I am not a Roswell fan of any thing . There are some great Antec 320 watt psu that would be more suited with a better track record. This psu is my personnel favorite. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703034

I have no experience with that case but visually did not see any issues . Look it up on New Egg and check the specs .

Most folks around here like the Crucial M4 or the Samsung 830 for ssd . They have a huge track record around here as opposed to the Plextor. Not sayin the Plex is bad though by no means . I try not to be different than what other folks do in this area in case I need help later people will know my drive because they use it to Also . Not needed but nice to have the head room would be to bump that up to 128 gig as sale prices right now can get you under a $1 per gig . In fact the M4 is on sale at new egg if you subscribe to there email sales and use the promo codes .

You have the built in Intel 3000 graphics on that cpu so for your intended use it would be better to ditch the vid card and see if you need it later . Most folks get by very well with out discrete video .

I use a Ceton Infinity 4 pci/e tv tuner card and LOVE IT ! It can be a bit tricky to set up but really just about any tuner card is .

You have a kick ass build going here with just a few tweaks to be made . Sure hope you would take some pics and post them in this thread

Have you taken a look at Assassins HTPC guides ? You really should . Really the best info on the net for htpc to be found ..... hands down .

Good luck and post back

SnaggStuff offers the OEM Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-User, model no. FQC-00765, for $77.99 with free shipping.

 

Also, Core i5 3450 3.1GHz LGA 1155 Processor $150 at Micro Center (in store only): http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0388579

 

While I'm at it: Amazon offers the Seagate Barracuda 2TB Serial ATA 6Gb/s Internal Hard Drive, model no. ST2000DM001, for $99.99 with free shipping ($0.05/GB).

Edited by LastButNotLeast - 7/4/12 at 7:00am

Crucial M4 128 gigg ssd . Not to bad at just under a $1 per gig


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148448&Tpk=20-148-448&nm_mc=EMC-GD070312&cm_mmc=EMC-GD070312-_-index-_-Item-_-20-148-448


Use promo code EMCYTZT1851

Thanks for your replies. I will look into your suggestions. And i joined assassins blog. Great guides alot of info to go through.

Or you could go with this one:

 

OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps SSD for $70 after rebate + free shipping Buy.com offers the OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" Serial ATA 6Gb/s Internal SSD, model no. AGT3-25SAT3-120G, for $84.99. This $15 mail-in rebate cuts it to $69.99. With free shipping, that's $0.58/GB and tied with our mention from two weeks ago as the lowest total price we've ever seen for this drive. (It's a current price low by $20.) This drive features read speeds of up to 525MB/s and write speeds of up to 500MB/s. Rebate expires July 31.

This is all so tempting I wish I had a use (or excuse) for another HTPC.

What do you think of the i5-2400 for $120 compared to the i5-3450 you mentioned for $150? My new HTPC build will need to handle some non-HTPC tasks and mild/medium gaming such as Minecraft, better than my current i3-2100 HTPC which sometimes struggles with the HD2000 graphics. So I am leaning away from using the originally intended G530 for the new build, and towards the i5-2400, with eventual medium duty discrete graphics card.

At first I thought about using another i3 with eventual discrete graphics card. But jumping from a $90 i3-2100 to the i5-2400 for $30 extra seems reasonable to me. On the other hand, paying an additional $30 to jump from i5-2400 to i5-3450 seems less clear in terms of the benefit, and suddenly I find myself facing total mission creep well over the $35 G530 price. Some of you might know how that goes, a little here and a little there and suddenly we are talking real money, so at some point you got to draw the line and say not one more dollar on a particular component.

The build will be using the ECS H61 $15 board from a deal last month. So for total $135 (i5-2400 and ECS board) maybe that is reasonable for my usage, without totally blowing out of the water my original intention of a very low budget HTPC?

Where did you find the 2400 for $120? I'd get one of those in an instant.

Microcenter has them for $120 in-store, although all stores might not have stock.

I should also mention for anyone who had wanted the Celeron G530 before it went out of stock last month, MC also now has (in-store) the G540 (slight clock bump) for the same earlier price of $35. I recall Assassin and others mentioning that a G530 is fine for a basic HTPC, so the slight uprated G540 should be as well.

Funny you should ask (me, about the i5). My build uses the G530, bought in January for about $45. I've been wondering if it would pay some day to "upgrade" to an i3. I've noticed some jerkiness very occasionally on playback. I thought it was only when it started recording at the same time, but I notice it sometimes when it isn't. Even though SSD prices have plummeted lately, I see no advantage to one for my particular application, but I could see spending the same $100 (or so) on the faster processor if that will help. 

Sorry I can't help with advice on the i5; your computing needs for your build are obviously far greater than mine.

But I'm sure someone else will chip in. 

(Ouch, pun not intended)

Michael

I'm often guilty myself of "processor overkill" so I'm not going to try to talk you out of that, but I bet you'd see more difference in performance by adding an SSD, and that I would encourage.

I didn't think to check in the store. I noticed they have dropped the 2400 from their website.

Easy enough to talk me into, but I don't think I understand (so help me spend a couple of bucks). I put the computer to sleep, so waiting for it to start up is not a problem. I don't find the time it takes TMT to load and start playing onerous. I'm using less than 40GB on my OS disc (which is why, though the $70 OCZ offer is tempting, I'm wondering what I would do with the other 80GB). TV shows would still get recorded on the HDs, and Comskip would still do its thing there (again, probably negligibly faster with a "better" processor, but that's still not an issue).

So sell me on an SSD, guys.

Michael

And changing to an i3 2105 wouldn't do much?

Okay. See, I didn't need that much convincing, did I.

Ordered from Buy.com, used up $1.20 of Rakuten points (most of which, in the past, have expired), $15 rebate, 4% back from Extrabux, 1% back from my credit card.

I'll let you know how it goes.

 

As to the other question: What to use the "extra" 80GB for?

I am selling a 10" ToshibaThrive for $375 if anyone is interested! ;-)

A bit of a random question on a build I'll probably put together tomorrow. Will either of the following two scenarios work? And if both, which is smarter? Here's the short of it:

I'm building a basic HTPC (g620) and have an existing gaming computer with significantly more power. I understand that Windows 7 can share an optical drive across the network, which is all wired. With my one blu-ray drive, I could either...

• 1) put it in the HTPC, and via sharing, rip blu-rays on the gaming computer, or
• 2) put it in the gaming computer, and via sharing, occasionally watch the content of the blu-ray on the HTPC.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Well apparently yes , you can share the drive across the wired network . http://www.howtogeek.com/114254/how-to-share-cd-dvd-drives-over-the-network-on-windows/

I don't think it is really a matter of "smarter" . I think it is a matter of which PC will be used the most . Do you buy your games on DVD and play them that way and this is what your primary intrest is or will you be ripping tha crap out of an endless DVD movie collection to the new htpc . If that later , then I would put the dvd drive in the htpc and occasionally rip to the gaming pc . Obviously , if your a huge gamer with tons of dvd games then I would put the dvd in the gaming pc and rip the occasional movie dvd to the htpc. You get my point . "Whom ever" is the most used gets the physical dvd player.

Ripping across a network share works just fine. Sharing the drive to the htpc will work okay, but a little less polished in my opinion. MakeMKV has a "stream" option where you navigate to http : / / localhost : 51000 (w/o spaces) but it doesn't look as slick as mediabrowser or xbmc will with a ripped version.

Having the drive in the more powerful gaming system won't get you faster rips, but if that's where you want the bulk of your hard drive storage to be then by all means make it the destination folder. Your wired network will be perfectly suited for this. If later on you decide to go the powerdvd or total media theatre route for blu-rays on your htpc, then you'll need the drive in the htpc

I've had mine shared like that for a while now. From there I can rip to a shared and mapped drive on my HTPC. The Blu-ray drive sits in an eSATA enclosure on my desk in my office for ease of use. Although it is shared to my HTPC in my family room, I have never used it as a shared drive there.

At least give me a chance to GET the SSD! Pics to follow (and questions, no doubt).