Cheapest ever HTPC that's decent. Proud of myself. - Page 4

Let's not be a negative Nancy, start googling!!!!

Cant do a Broadcom card in a ATV2. Only in the ATV1.

The ATV2 can play 1080 just fine but only outputs 720.

Err, you're right. I meant to say ATV1.

Where did you see this for $29? I get Newegg emails all the time. Maybe I look through them too quickly.

Thought it was free shipping. Still a great price.

BTW that's what I have in my server. Works great.

530 in the server. Doesn't take much CPU power at all for a server.

Speaking of the G530, what I can't find anywhere is the G530T. I was curious how it compared in price -- since it comes with the low-profile cooler already -- to a G530 + NT07-1156 or other low-profile HSF. I seem to be building quite the collection of regular stock Intel HSFs .

I just ordered the ECS H61H2-M2(1.0) from Newegg. They previously sent me a $10 coupon (linked to my account) which expires at the end of the month.
$59.00 -$10.00 +$2.99 shipping = $52.98 less $25.00 rebate = $27.98 final cost.

Now to pickup a G620 CPU from Micro Center. And the RAM from tigerdirect/CompUSA.

Thank you everyone for posting these great prices. I'll be piecing together this HTPC but I'm in no hurry.

Anyone ever use ECS motherboard? They have an Intel H61 socket 1155 for $34.99 after MIR with $2.99 shipping.

They emailed it to me back in March.

Their email said You've heard the buzz, you've read the glowing reviews, you've seen our jaw-droppingly fantastic product pricesso now it's time to give shopping at Newegg a try yourself! And there's no better timemake that next RAM or notebook or ink cartridge purchase from Newegg.com and we'll give you $10 OFF INSTANTLY!

Then it stated Exclusive New Customer Coupon. And NOTE: This is a unique promo code linked only to the Newegg.com account attached to this e-mail address. Promo code may only be used once per account. Available while funds last. Expires 4/30/2012.

I have no idea how it could be for a new customer & yet linked to an account. It's been a long time since I've purchased from them so they might be considering me a new customer. And maybe they consider an account just a person's email address.

I almost forgot that I had it. And when I checked the mobo rebate the purchase had to done by 4-15-2102. So I figured might as well jump on the this & combine the offers.

I did get the same Coupon Frenzy email that you linked to & I'll have to look at it closely.

It looks like the 4GB RAM is a single module. Since the H61 mobo is dual channel how will that affect performance if using only a single module? Would I be better off getting a pair of 2GB RAM modules?

I bought one for my llano build it was dead on arrival, pretty sure this can happen from any mobo company but it might be more frequent with some.

With the controller being dual-channel you will get better performance with 2x2Gb running dual-channel than 1x4Gb.

And for the price it would be silly not to run 2x4Gb on that dual-channel.

If you're just running something like XBMC, even in single channel mode the performance would not be noticeable. That said, with RAM as cheap as it is, no reason not to go dual channel.

Just curious what you think the performance boost single channel vs dual channel mode?

Take a guess...

While the boost is small dual-channel has been shown to do better for gaming and transcoding video as well as rendering. I agree that if the system is ONLY going to be used for XBMC then a single 4Gb stick will work just fine.

How about this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231396

$22.99 -15% Newegg sale = $19.54, free shipping.

Still say 2x4Gb for 13.99 a stick is a damn good deal.

Its still only 5% better at most.

Still I also prefer 2 channel a usually its the same cost or cheaper.

It's not huge, but it still looks better on paper RAM is pretty cheap though so I usually always throw two of the same sticks no matter what I get.

Agreed. Just trying to keep with the theme of the cheapest parts possible.