So after several weeks of using reading Assassin's beginner HTPC buying guide and Renethx's HTPC buying guide, wading through reviews and forums, and checking part cost and availability in Australia, I've finally reached my proposed HTPC specs.
One of the most frustrating things about the whole process is that a lot of the recommended parts simply aren't available in Australia, or have been discontinued. This hasn't helped the process.
This is my first HTPC, and my first PC build since 1997 so I'm a bit rusty on where technology sits at the moment. I must have changed my specs nearly 50 times with systems varying from $1000 to $2000. My initial aim was to complete the build for under $1000, but given the specs I want this changed to $1500 later.
My intent is to use this as my main HTPC in our lounge room and therefore have aimed to try and make it as silent as possible (within reason), selecting components to have noise levels lower than 20dB where possible, but up to 30dB as acceptable. Our existing HDTV only has an analogue tuner so it will be primarily used as a replacement for my existing digital set-top box/PVR, and will therefore be our main platform for watching and recording free-to-air TV. Its secondary functions will be to act as a Blu-ray player, watch TV catch-up services (ABC iView, Plus7, SBS, etc), watch downloaded media, act as a NAS for my network, and serve media to portable devices (iTunes, calibre, WMP, DVDs, Bluray). Ultimately it must be very wife friendly otherwise I'll never hear the end of it and it will defeat the purpose of building it. I will not be gaming with the machine as I intend to build a separate PC for that. I won't be using for music as we already use Sonos, but it will host the music library. I also intend to rip our current DVD (and future Bluray) collection to the drive. I will need to use the HTPC for this as our current PC is 6 years old and lacks the horsepower.
As a media server I will be connecting 2 laptop pcs, a barebones bedroom HTPC (future build), iPod touch and a tablet. At most I will be streaming to 2 of those concurrently at any time, and will only need to do real-time transcoding for the iPods and tablet. My ultimate intent is to build a separate NAS server to act as a DVR and media server in 6-12 months' time after we've done some renovations and I've have the room for a dedicated a/v cabinet.
I want this machine to last for at least 6 years with the ability to undertake upgrades of components such as CPU, GPU, etc to keep pace with changes in technology.
So now to the intended build.
Case - nMedia HTPC 7000B - US$65(case) + US$16(VFD) +US$125 for shipping = US$206 = A$190 (Gotta love the current exchange rate)
I want a microATX case that looks good, is quiet, less than 140mm tall, will accommodate a reasonably sized GPU (for future upgrades), has front USB, eSATA, VFD (I know a lot of people think this is useless, but I like it fo the looks) and preferably internal IR. It also had to accommodate a Blu-ray, 2.5 SSD and two 3.5 HDD (for running RAID0), as well as a big heat sink as I was planning to use an i5-2600K at the time. There was nothing available in Australia that met the height constraint with the options I wanted. I then found the nMedia HTPC 1000B which had good reviews and met most of my requirements (particularly the height and VFD). I liked the in-built multi-card reader and also the front connectivity. I struggled to find a vendor who would ship to Australia until I found this one on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Brand-new...item2302e4e4fd
I was all set until I thought about having a front USB3 as well. I examined a number of options to convert the front USB ports on the 1000B to USB3, but there wasn't really much around that was suitable or didn't require me to put holes in the case. It was then that I noticed the newly released 7000B. While it lacked a front eSATA port and the multi-card reader, it had slightly more headroom and internal space, but most importantly a front USB3 and the ability to mount the IR receiver inside. I decided that in reality I would never use the multi-card reader as all the downloading from my digital camera will occur on my other PC. I wanted front eSATA so that I can plug my existing external HDD in and easily move it between computers. Then I figured I won't really be doing that a lot, and I've just bought a new 1.5TB portable HDD with USB3 anyway.
CPU - Intel i3-2100 - A$118
I started out with this CPU in mind and then changed to an i5-2600K as I tend to always overspec things (mine is bigger than yours type ego at times). I thought given that I'd be doing some transcoding and ripping it would be better to have a little more horse power. I also thought it would add to the longevity of the system. This of course meant that I needed a custom CPU fan rather than the stock fan to cool it, which meant I needed a case with more headroom (I've discussed the CPU fan below). After a week, I realised an i5 was probably more than I needed and that the i3 would serve me well and should be able to handle the transcoding and ripping in the interim until I build my media server and gaming PC.
I then deliberated between an i3-2100 and i3-2105 for the intel HD3000 as I was also not sure whether to go with a dedicated or integrated GPU. Unfortunately I couldn't find the i3-2105 in Brisbane. The cheapest I could find was A$162 delivered from Megabuy, $34 more than the 2100. In the end I settled on a dedicated GPU and chose the i3-2100.
CPU Fan - Stock
While I was considering the i5, the CPU fan proved quite troublesome to narrow down. Most of the recommended quiet models were not available in Australia, had been superseded with newer models which were rated worse than their predecessors, had conflicting reviews, were too tall to fit in the case, or would more than likely clash with the RAM on a microATX board. These included the Scythe Big Shuriken CPU Cooler V2 (original rated highly but V2 had poor reviews), Scythe Shuriken Low Profile Cooler Rev B (original rated highly but Rev B had poor reviews) and Cooler Master Vortex Plus Universal Cooler RR-VTPS-28PK-R1 (mixed reviews). In the end I narrowed it down to the Noctua NH-C12P SE14 CPU Cooler which had great reviews and most importantly would fit without clashing.
When I changed back to the i3, the reviews and guides all indicated that the stock fan was sufficiently quiet so I'm going to stick with that. If it doesn't work well I can always replace it with the Noctua later.
GPU - Gigabyte GV-N440D3-1 GT440 PCI-E 2.0 1GB DDR3 - A$75
The GPU proved the most difficult thing to decide on and the most frustrating. Every single GPU that is recommended by the various HTPC guides isn't available in Australia. The first decision was NVidia vs ATI which from reading through forums seems to be a religious war. In the end I settled on NVidia, primarily as I've had them in the laptops I've owned, have been quite happy with them, and there seemed to be more posts leaning in favour of NVidia.
I started out wanting a basic GPU and then couldn't find the recommended Sparkle NVidia GT440 1GB DDR5 in Australia, and all of the others I could find were reviewed as being quite loud. I could have imported one but the shipping costs made it comparable with one of the higher spec GPUs. So I went to a GTS450 and the same thing, and then finally found one in a GTX460. I then saw the GTX560Ti which was only another $50 and thought, why not its not that much more. Then most of the units available in Australia were all reviewed as being quite noisy, except for some of the MSI units, which were too big to fit inside my case. Finally I found the Gainward GTX560Ti phantoms, which had really good reviews, but were nearly $300. My ego kicked in and I thought, why not make this machine a beast, which then had a knock on effect and started pushing up the build price to $2000.
After some reflection and a quick reality check I decided to try harder to find a cheaper GPU. Re-examining the GT440, I came across the Gigabyte GV-N440D3-1 GT440 which was available at a relatively cheap price (compared to what I'd been previously looking at). It also has good reviews and forum comments for noise. Only downside is DDR3 rather than DDR5 onboard RAM, but from what I've been reading this doesn't seem to be too critical for HTPC use.
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 - $165
As I want the ability to upgrade the CPU in the future to extend the life of the system, I decided to go with the Z68 chipset as it the latest chipsets and supports the next generation of intel i-core ivy bridge processors and 1600MHz DDR3 RAM. As I was running an NVidia GPU I also wanted them to be SLI compatible in case I ever needed to add some serious GPU horsepower in the future. Asus, Gigabyte and Asrock motherboards all seemed to come highly recommended. Out of the three manufacturers, the only one available with both rear USB3 ports and an internal USB3 header for the front case ports, and SLI compatibility was the Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3.
RAM - G Skill 8G(2x4G) DDR3 1600Mhz PC12800 RL 9-9-9-24(CL9D-8GBRL) - $59
DDR3 memory was recommended in everything I read. I would have gotten away with 1333MHz as that is the maximum the CPU supports, however the cost to go to 1600MHz was only $5 more. As a minimum, I wanted 4GB and the price difference for 8GB was marginal and given I was intending to -run a few servers on the HTPC I thought it was better off to go with 8GB. The G.Skill Ripjaws X hadve good reviews and are also compatible with the Gigabyte Z68MX motherboard.
SSD - Crucial RealSSD C400 64G SATA3 M4 Series - $109
Again there are mixed recommendations around whether to go with an SSD for a HTPC. Some say it's not worth it as most of the time the HTPC is left on, while others say that they wouldn't live without it. I decided that to be wife friendly it needed to be quick and an SSD would be best. It also had the advantage of lower noise, heat and power. 60GB seemed to be the right balance for size. 30GB is barely enough for Windows 7, and 120GB was just getting too expensive.
The OCZ Vertex 3, OCZ Agility 3, Corsair 3, Corsair GT and Crucial M4 series drives were the only one available locally in the sub $150 price range. Both the OCZ Agility 3 and Corsair 3 were slower than the OCZ Vertex 3, Crucial M4 and Corsair GT, with a price difference of only $20, so it was really a no brainer to go for the faster models. That now left the choice of which one.
After hunting through various reviews and forums, the OCZ and Corsair seem to have faster transfer speeds specified, but the Crucial seemed to have faster real world speeds, and the Crucial was recommended more by most posts. Also, there seemed to be a lot of conjecture about whether some BDOS issues with the SandForce chipsets used by OCZ and Corsair had been resolved. Both Assassin's and Renethx's guides recommended the Coarsair, and it was also cheaper as well so I selected it in the end.
HDD - Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB 64MB SATA 3 WD2000EARX - $138
Having made the decision to use an SSD, I needed a HDD to store my media on as it simply wasn't feasible to purchase an SSD of the necessary size. As my intent was to build a separate NAS media server in the future I wanted to use the same drives that I intended to put in it so that I could simply pull the existing one out of my HTPC to put in the NAS and save some money in the future. 3TB drives were far too expensive and for a NAS, 2TB drives were really the way to go. As the HTPC was to be my interim media server and I was going to start ripping DVDs and Blu-Ray, I needed at least 2TB.
The Samsung Spinpoint F3 recommended in both Assassin's and Renethx's guides was not available in 2TB locally. I've always liked Seagate and have owned a number of their drives which always performed well. I wanted SATA3 6GB/s compatibility so I went straight for the top, and started off looking at the Barracuda XT's as I liked the speed and performance, but they were a little too pricy. I then went to the Barracuda ST2000DM001 and ST2000DL003, which are 7200 rpm and 5400rpm respectively. While I liked the higher speed the ST2000DM003, most comparisons with the slower DL003 indicated the real world difference was marginal, and the DL003 had lower power consumption and noise. Since the HTPC was likely to be running 24/7 I decided to be green and go for the slightly slower drive. However, I also found out that Seagate intends to stop making their line of green drives, which meant I could have mismatched drives when building my NAS server, which could cause some problems for setting up RAID. So I started looking elsewhere and the WD Caviar Green drives are highly recommended as well. These drives have good acoustic ratings and also some of the lowest energy consumption figures. The difference between the 6GB/s WD20EARX and 3GB/s WD20EARS was only $16 so I decided to go with the faster interface of the WD20EARX.
I did consider buying two drives to run in RAID0 for additional speed, but then changed my mind and now will only go with a single drive. If the performance of the single drive proves to be a problem, I can always buy a second drive later on and switch them over to RAID0. The nMedia HTPC 7000B case has sufficient room for this.
Blu-Ray - Liteon IHBS212 12x Black BlueRay SATA LightScribe - $88
Out of the recommended Blu-Ray drives, none were available locally. The Liteon IHBS212 was the closest to the IHBS112 recommended in Assassin's guide, and I assume is the same as the 112, except it is a retail rather than OEM model. It was only $10 more than the Liteon IHES212, which is not a Blu-Ray writer.
PSU - SeaSonic M12II Bronze 520W - $108
The SeaSonic range of PSUs seem to be highly recommended, and the reviews of the M12II Bronze 520W praise it's performance and efficiency. According to most reviews noise doesn't seem to be an issue if the demand is kept below 300W, and it is still very efficient when running at 20% load. I like the idea of the modular system to keep the case internals neat. The S12IIwasn't available locally but I could have ordered it online from interstate, but the shipping put it at the same price as the M12II. I did consider the SeaSonic X-560 80Plus Gold Modular PSU, as it is a little quieter than the M12II, but there was quite a lot of good feedback on the M12II posted on various sites and it is much cheaper. The SeaSonic X-Series Fanless 460W 80Plus Gold PSU would be great but it is quite pricey and I don't think my build warrants it.
TV Tuner - DigitalNow Quad DVB-T Receiver - $199
I wanted to have 4 tuners as on Monday nights there are 3 shows spread across 3 separate channels that we like to watch at the same time. Occasionally something else also pops up and we need to decide which show gets dropped. Four tuners will solve this. My preference is to have everything on a single PCI-e card with one antenna connection to allow room for additional PCI cards in the future. The DigitalNow has reasonably good reports on the forums and is compatible with Australian HDTV signals. It also comes with an MCE compatible IR remote and receiver. I don't have cable and have no intention of getting it, so there is no need for a cable tuner.
OS - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM - $93
I had a look around at the various media centre OS builds around. XBMC and WMC seem to be the two most recommended systems. I'm comfortable with Windows 7 and my partner knows how to navigate around it, so if things go wrong she should be able to at least muddle her way through or make it easier for me to talk her through something over the phone. XBMC is linux based, which while I'm familiar with the basics, I would need to delve more deeply into it. Windows 7 also has a lot more other software available, better compatibility with my desired TV tuner, and will work with my other Windows 7 PCs without too much tinkering. WMC is also generally recommended more than XBMC. As I am getting 8GB of RAM, 64-bit is required.
Keyboard - Enermax Wireless Aluminum Keyboard with laser Trackball Black (En-KB008W-Black) - $89
I want a keyboard with an integrated trackball as it will be easier than using a separate wireless mouse. I will use the remote supplied with the TV tuner for most things. I was after a bigger keyboard rather than something like the Logitech diNovo Mini. The two integrated wireless keyboards available locally to choose from are the Enermax and Shintaro wireless keyboards with integrated track wheels, and the Shintaro wireless media centre keyboard. The Enermax had better reviews and comments than the Shintaro. The Shintaro also had a few negative comments about its track wheel. The Shintaro wireless media centre keyboard had a lot of poor comments.
Remote - $0
As a remote comes with the TV tuner I'll give that a try and look at something else later if it doesn't work. I may also look at one of the MCE remote apps for an iPod touch, however I prefer buttons to touch screens.
Final anticipated build cost - $1468
Well I've come in under my revised budget and am reasonably comfortable with what I've selected. If I were to choose different components and drop the SSD I could easily get an i5 build for the same price. However in doing so I think I would sacrifice some future expansion capability. An extra $50 here and there does add up quite quickly.
I'm going to reflect over my components for a week before ordering to make sure I'm happy. I'd appreciate any feedback or comments that anyone might have on my choices.
One of the most frustrating things about the whole process is that a lot of the recommended parts simply aren't available in Australia, or have been discontinued. This hasn't helped the process.
This is my first HTPC, and my first PC build since 1997 so I'm a bit rusty on where technology sits at the moment. I must have changed my specs nearly 50 times with systems varying from $1000 to $2000. My initial aim was to complete the build for under $1000, but given the specs I want this changed to $1500 later.
My intent is to use this as my main HTPC in our lounge room and therefore have aimed to try and make it as silent as possible (within reason), selecting components to have noise levels lower than 20dB where possible, but up to 30dB as acceptable. Our existing HDTV only has an analogue tuner so it will be primarily used as a replacement for my existing digital set-top box/PVR, and will therefore be our main platform for watching and recording free-to-air TV. Its secondary functions will be to act as a Blu-ray player, watch TV catch-up services (ABC iView, Plus7, SBS, etc), watch downloaded media, act as a NAS for my network, and serve media to portable devices (iTunes, calibre, WMP, DVDs, Bluray). Ultimately it must be very wife friendly otherwise I'll never hear the end of it and it will defeat the purpose of building it. I will not be gaming with the machine as I intend to build a separate PC for that. I won't be using for music as we already use Sonos, but it will host the music library. I also intend to rip our current DVD (and future Bluray) collection to the drive. I will need to use the HTPC for this as our current PC is 6 years old and lacks the horsepower.
As a media server I will be connecting 2 laptop pcs, a barebones bedroom HTPC (future build), iPod touch and a tablet. At most I will be streaming to 2 of those concurrently at any time, and will only need to do real-time transcoding for the iPods and tablet. My ultimate intent is to build a separate NAS server to act as a DVR and media server in 6-12 months' time after we've done some renovations and I've have the room for a dedicated a/v cabinet.
I want this machine to last for at least 6 years with the ability to undertake upgrades of components such as CPU, GPU, etc to keep pace with changes in technology.
So now to the intended build.
Case - nMedia HTPC 7000B - US$65(case) + US$16(VFD) +US$125 for shipping = US$206 = A$190 (Gotta love the current exchange rate)
I want a microATX case that looks good, is quiet, less than 140mm tall, will accommodate a reasonably sized GPU (for future upgrades), has front USB, eSATA, VFD (I know a lot of people think this is useless, but I like it fo the looks) and preferably internal IR. It also had to accommodate a Blu-ray, 2.5 SSD and two 3.5 HDD (for running RAID0), as well as a big heat sink as I was planning to use an i5-2600K at the time. There was nothing available in Australia that met the height constraint with the options I wanted. I then found the nMedia HTPC 1000B which had good reviews and met most of my requirements (particularly the height and VFD). I liked the in-built multi-card reader and also the front connectivity. I struggled to find a vendor who would ship to Australia until I found this one on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Brand-new...item2302e4e4fd
I was all set until I thought about having a front USB3 as well. I examined a number of options to convert the front USB ports on the 1000B to USB3, but there wasn't really much around that was suitable or didn't require me to put holes in the case. It was then that I noticed the newly released 7000B. While it lacked a front eSATA port and the multi-card reader, it had slightly more headroom and internal space, but most importantly a front USB3 and the ability to mount the IR receiver inside. I decided that in reality I would never use the multi-card reader as all the downloading from my digital camera will occur on my other PC. I wanted front eSATA so that I can plug my existing external HDD in and easily move it between computers. Then I figured I won't really be doing that a lot, and I've just bought a new 1.5TB portable HDD with USB3 anyway.
CPU - Intel i3-2100 - A$118
I started out with this CPU in mind and then changed to an i5-2600K as I tend to always overspec things (mine is bigger than yours type ego at times). I thought given that I'd be doing some transcoding and ripping it would be better to have a little more horse power. I also thought it would add to the longevity of the system. This of course meant that I needed a custom CPU fan rather than the stock fan to cool it, which meant I needed a case with more headroom (I've discussed the CPU fan below). After a week, I realised an i5 was probably more than I needed and that the i3 would serve me well and should be able to handle the transcoding and ripping in the interim until I build my media server and gaming PC.
I then deliberated between an i3-2100 and i3-2105 for the intel HD3000 as I was also not sure whether to go with a dedicated or integrated GPU. Unfortunately I couldn't find the i3-2105 in Brisbane. The cheapest I could find was A$162 delivered from Megabuy, $34 more than the 2100. In the end I settled on a dedicated GPU and chose the i3-2100.
CPU Fan - Stock
While I was considering the i5, the CPU fan proved quite troublesome to narrow down. Most of the recommended quiet models were not available in Australia, had been superseded with newer models which were rated worse than their predecessors, had conflicting reviews, were too tall to fit in the case, or would more than likely clash with the RAM on a microATX board. These included the Scythe Big Shuriken CPU Cooler V2 (original rated highly but V2 had poor reviews), Scythe Shuriken Low Profile Cooler Rev B (original rated highly but Rev B had poor reviews) and Cooler Master Vortex Plus Universal Cooler RR-VTPS-28PK-R1 (mixed reviews). In the end I narrowed it down to the Noctua NH-C12P SE14 CPU Cooler which had great reviews and most importantly would fit without clashing.
When I changed back to the i3, the reviews and guides all indicated that the stock fan was sufficiently quiet so I'm going to stick with that. If it doesn't work well I can always replace it with the Noctua later.
GPU - Gigabyte GV-N440D3-1 GT440 PCI-E 2.0 1GB DDR3 - A$75
The GPU proved the most difficult thing to decide on and the most frustrating. Every single GPU that is recommended by the various HTPC guides isn't available in Australia. The first decision was NVidia vs ATI which from reading through forums seems to be a religious war. In the end I settled on NVidia, primarily as I've had them in the laptops I've owned, have been quite happy with them, and there seemed to be more posts leaning in favour of NVidia.
I started out wanting a basic GPU and then couldn't find the recommended Sparkle NVidia GT440 1GB DDR5 in Australia, and all of the others I could find were reviewed as being quite loud. I could have imported one but the shipping costs made it comparable with one of the higher spec GPUs. So I went to a GTS450 and the same thing, and then finally found one in a GTX460. I then saw the GTX560Ti which was only another $50 and thought, why not its not that much more. Then most of the units available in Australia were all reviewed as being quite noisy, except for some of the MSI units, which were too big to fit inside my case. Finally I found the Gainward GTX560Ti phantoms, which had really good reviews, but were nearly $300. My ego kicked in and I thought, why not make this machine a beast, which then had a knock on effect and started pushing up the build price to $2000.
After some reflection and a quick reality check I decided to try harder to find a cheaper GPU. Re-examining the GT440, I came across the Gigabyte GV-N440D3-1 GT440 which was available at a relatively cheap price (compared to what I'd been previously looking at). It also has good reviews and forum comments for noise. Only downside is DDR3 rather than DDR5 onboard RAM, but from what I've been reading this doesn't seem to be too critical for HTPC use.
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3 - $165
As I want the ability to upgrade the CPU in the future to extend the life of the system, I decided to go with the Z68 chipset as it the latest chipsets and supports the next generation of intel i-core ivy bridge processors and 1600MHz DDR3 RAM. As I was running an NVidia GPU I also wanted them to be SLI compatible in case I ever needed to add some serious GPU horsepower in the future. Asus, Gigabyte and Asrock motherboards all seemed to come highly recommended. Out of the three manufacturers, the only one available with both rear USB3 ports and an internal USB3 header for the front case ports, and SLI compatibility was the Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3.
RAM - G Skill 8G(2x4G) DDR3 1600Mhz PC12800 RL 9-9-9-24(CL9D-8GBRL) - $59
DDR3 memory was recommended in everything I read. I would have gotten away with 1333MHz as that is the maximum the CPU supports, however the cost to go to 1600MHz was only $5 more. As a minimum, I wanted 4GB and the price difference for 8GB was marginal and given I was intending to -run a few servers on the HTPC I thought it was better off to go with 8GB. The G.Skill Ripjaws X hadve good reviews and are also compatible with the Gigabyte Z68MX motherboard.
SSD - Crucial RealSSD C400 64G SATA3 M4 Series - $109
Again there are mixed recommendations around whether to go with an SSD for a HTPC. Some say it's not worth it as most of the time the HTPC is left on, while others say that they wouldn't live without it. I decided that to be wife friendly it needed to be quick and an SSD would be best. It also had the advantage of lower noise, heat and power. 60GB seemed to be the right balance for size. 30GB is barely enough for Windows 7, and 120GB was just getting too expensive.
The OCZ Vertex 3, OCZ Agility 3, Corsair 3, Corsair GT and Crucial M4 series drives were the only one available locally in the sub $150 price range. Both the OCZ Agility 3 and Corsair 3 were slower than the OCZ Vertex 3, Crucial M4 and Corsair GT, with a price difference of only $20, so it was really a no brainer to go for the faster models. That now left the choice of which one.
After hunting through various reviews and forums, the OCZ and Corsair seem to have faster transfer speeds specified, but the Crucial seemed to have faster real world speeds, and the Crucial was recommended more by most posts. Also, there seemed to be a lot of conjecture about whether some BDOS issues with the SandForce chipsets used by OCZ and Corsair had been resolved. Both Assassin's and Renethx's guides recommended the Coarsair, and it was also cheaper as well so I selected it in the end.
HDD - Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB 64MB SATA 3 WD2000EARX - $138
Having made the decision to use an SSD, I needed a HDD to store my media on as it simply wasn't feasible to purchase an SSD of the necessary size. As my intent was to build a separate NAS media server in the future I wanted to use the same drives that I intended to put in it so that I could simply pull the existing one out of my HTPC to put in the NAS and save some money in the future. 3TB drives were far too expensive and for a NAS, 2TB drives were really the way to go. As the HTPC was to be my interim media server and I was going to start ripping DVDs and Blu-Ray, I needed at least 2TB.
The Samsung Spinpoint F3 recommended in both Assassin's and Renethx's guides was not available in 2TB locally. I've always liked Seagate and have owned a number of their drives which always performed well. I wanted SATA3 6GB/s compatibility so I went straight for the top, and started off looking at the Barracuda XT's as I liked the speed and performance, but they were a little too pricy. I then went to the Barracuda ST2000DM001 and ST2000DL003, which are 7200 rpm and 5400rpm respectively. While I liked the higher speed the ST2000DM003, most comparisons with the slower DL003 indicated the real world difference was marginal, and the DL003 had lower power consumption and noise. Since the HTPC was likely to be running 24/7 I decided to be green and go for the slightly slower drive. However, I also found out that Seagate intends to stop making their line of green drives, which meant I could have mismatched drives when building my NAS server, which could cause some problems for setting up RAID. So I started looking elsewhere and the WD Caviar Green drives are highly recommended as well. These drives have good acoustic ratings and also some of the lowest energy consumption figures. The difference between the 6GB/s WD20EARX and 3GB/s WD20EARS was only $16 so I decided to go with the faster interface of the WD20EARX.
I did consider buying two drives to run in RAID0 for additional speed, but then changed my mind and now will only go with a single drive. If the performance of the single drive proves to be a problem, I can always buy a second drive later on and switch them over to RAID0. The nMedia HTPC 7000B case has sufficient room for this.
Blu-Ray - Liteon IHBS212 12x Black BlueRay SATA LightScribe - $88
Out of the recommended Blu-Ray drives, none were available locally. The Liteon IHBS212 was the closest to the IHBS112 recommended in Assassin's guide, and I assume is the same as the 112, except it is a retail rather than OEM model. It was only $10 more than the Liteon IHES212, which is not a Blu-Ray writer.
PSU - SeaSonic M12II Bronze 520W - $108
The SeaSonic range of PSUs seem to be highly recommended, and the reviews of the M12II Bronze 520W praise it's performance and efficiency. According to most reviews noise doesn't seem to be an issue if the demand is kept below 300W, and it is still very efficient when running at 20% load. I like the idea of the modular system to keep the case internals neat. The S12IIwasn't available locally but I could have ordered it online from interstate, but the shipping put it at the same price as the M12II. I did consider the SeaSonic X-560 80Plus Gold Modular PSU, as it is a little quieter than the M12II, but there was quite a lot of good feedback on the M12II posted on various sites and it is much cheaper. The SeaSonic X-Series Fanless 460W 80Plus Gold PSU would be great but it is quite pricey and I don't think my build warrants it.
TV Tuner - DigitalNow Quad DVB-T Receiver - $199
I wanted to have 4 tuners as on Monday nights there are 3 shows spread across 3 separate channels that we like to watch at the same time. Occasionally something else also pops up and we need to decide which show gets dropped. Four tuners will solve this. My preference is to have everything on a single PCI-e card with one antenna connection to allow room for additional PCI cards in the future. The DigitalNow has reasonably good reports on the forums and is compatible with Australian HDTV signals. It also comes with an MCE compatible IR remote and receiver. I don't have cable and have no intention of getting it, so there is no need for a cable tuner.
OS - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM - $93
I had a look around at the various media centre OS builds around. XBMC and WMC seem to be the two most recommended systems. I'm comfortable with Windows 7 and my partner knows how to navigate around it, so if things go wrong she should be able to at least muddle her way through or make it easier for me to talk her through something over the phone. XBMC is linux based, which while I'm familiar with the basics, I would need to delve more deeply into it. Windows 7 also has a lot more other software available, better compatibility with my desired TV tuner, and will work with my other Windows 7 PCs without too much tinkering. WMC is also generally recommended more than XBMC. As I am getting 8GB of RAM, 64-bit is required.
Keyboard - Enermax Wireless Aluminum Keyboard with laser Trackball Black (En-KB008W-Black) - $89
I want a keyboard with an integrated trackball as it will be easier than using a separate wireless mouse. I will use the remote supplied with the TV tuner for most things. I was after a bigger keyboard rather than something like the Logitech diNovo Mini. The two integrated wireless keyboards available locally to choose from are the Enermax and Shintaro wireless keyboards with integrated track wheels, and the Shintaro wireless media centre keyboard. The Enermax had better reviews and comments than the Shintaro. The Shintaro also had a few negative comments about its track wheel. The Shintaro wireless media centre keyboard had a lot of poor comments.
Remote - $0
As a remote comes with the TV tuner I'll give that a try and look at something else later if it doesn't work. I may also look at one of the MCE remote apps for an iPod touch, however I prefer buttons to touch screens.
Final anticipated build cost - $1468
Well I've come in under my revised budget and am reasonably comfortable with what I've selected. If I were to choose different components and drop the SSD I could easily get an i5 build for the same price. However in doing so I think I would sacrifice some future expansion capability. An extra $50 here and there does add up quite quickly.
I'm going to reflect over my components for a week before ordering to make sure I'm happy. I'd appreciate any feedback or comments that anyone might have on my choices.
