First Dedicated HTPC Build, am I on the right track?

So I just fried my Asus P5W DH Deluxe mother board that I was going to build around to make a HTPC. Too bad it was still decent.

Anyway, decided to start from scratch and here is what I have come up with.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-2105 3.1GHz Dual-Core Processor ($144.59 @ NCIX)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9B SE2 37.9 CFM CPU Cooler ($39.88 @ Canada Computers)
Motherboard: Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z/GEN3 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($109.88 @ Canada Computers)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($73.49 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Mushkin Chronos 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($84.99 @ NCIX)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($219.99 @ Canada Computers)
Case: nMEDIAPC HTPC 5000B HTPC Case ($59.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer MK III 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($48.08 @ DirectCanada)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($59.99 @ Memory Express)
Total: $840.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

For the OS I have the choice of W7 Home Premium or XP Media Center, or upgrade to W8 tomorrow.
The storage HD will come out of the old pc 2 x 2TB black
Have a media remote and ir keyboad.

I may do some gaming on this as well but not likely that's what the PS3 is for.



Anything missing?
Not compatible?
Known issues?

Thanks in advance for any and all input
Edited by Ryked - 10/26/12 at 11:28am

This is the final build, going to pick up the parts tonight.

Any thoughts?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-2105 3.1GHz Dual-Core Processor ($134.98 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60 74.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($132.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Mushkin Chronos 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone LC20-B HTPC Case ($104.62 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer MK III 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($71.74 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($59.20 @ NCIX US)
Total: $728.37
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-20 12:13 EST-0500)

Thanks also changed the case to support front usb 3 and this version comes with a remote. Not sure if I will ever use the remote though?

Replacing the stock fan on the Corsair liquid cooler, same rpm and cfm just 20 dba quieter.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-2105 3.1GHz Dual-Core Processor ($134.98 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60 74.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($132.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Mushkin Chronos 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone LC20B-M-USB3.0 (Black) HTPC Case ($165.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer MK III 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($71.74 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($59.20 @ NCIX US)
Other: XIGMATEK eXTREME SILENT Series XSF-F1252 120mm Case Fan ($7.99)
Other: XIGMATEK eXTREME SILENT Series XSF-F1252 120mm Case Fan ($7.99)
Total: $780.72
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-20 13:26 EST-0500)

Liquid cooler is becoming an issue since the case needs to have a 120mm fan mount. If I was to use the Lian-li PC-C32B it has two 120mm fans that hang in the middle of the case, would these work?




PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-2105 3.1GHz Dual-Core Processor ($134.98 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H60 74.4 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($132.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Mushkin Chronos 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Lian-Li PC-C32B USB3.0 HTPC Case ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer MK III 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($71.74 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($59.20 @ NCIX US)
Other: XIGMATEK eXTREME SILENT Series XSF-F1252 120mm Case Fan ($7.99)
Other: XIGMATEK eXTREME SILENT Series XSF-F1252 120mm Case Fan ($7.99)
Total: $774.72
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-20 14:08 EST-0500)

Okay, keep in mind I am from Canada so not to many Black Friday deals up here.

Changed the case, upgraded the SSD to Deluxe, changed MB from Z68 to Z77, changed I3 from 2105 to 3225 and went from ATX to micro ATX.

Removed extra fans and liquid cooler.

These tweeks saved $140 and increased the performance.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3225 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($129.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H-MVP Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($102.00 @ NCIX US)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone SST-GD05B-USB3.0 (Black) HTPC Case ($112.56 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer MK III 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($71.74 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($59.20 @ NCIX US)
Total: $630.47
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-20 16:30 EST-0500)

Is this it?

Here is the final parts list. Picked up everything last night except the CPU, going for that this afternoon.

http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/oAuC


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3225 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($146.88 @ NCIX)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H-MVP Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($97.33 @ Canada Computers)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($43.00 @ DirectCanada)
Storage: A-Data XPG SX900 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($114.28 @ NCIX)
Case: Silverstone SST-GD05B-USB3.0 (Black) HTPC Case ($112.98 @ Canada Computers)
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer MK III 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($66.93 @ DirectCanada)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($70.38 @ NCIX)
Total: $651.78
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-21 00:45 EST-0500)

Now, which OS do I install?

Okay, next slight issue with OS installation I need assistance with.

Last year I purchased the W7 Home Premium family upgrade pack, license for 3 systems. I installed it on one system that was already up and running with no issue. Last night I assisted my son with his AND gaming system and ran into some issues.

Tried to install and activate XP but couldn't get past the "installing drivers", BSOD several times in a row. I have 2 XP key's, one pro and one MCE to allow the upgrade to W7.
Couldn't find the W7 Ultimate Upgrade disk and really didn't expect it to work.

So I though I would install W7 off of a W7 Pro 64 bit install and when I put the key in it would downgrade to W7 Home Premium (wasn't confident about this but thought I would try). It installed fully, updated and works great but I can not activate it.

I can only assume that the XP installer doesn't support the SSD drives and the chip set's, hence the crash during install? Is there any way to get the drivers on the system for the XP installer to use? Or is there a way to do more of a manual XP install?


Any other suggestions short of going out and buying the W7 HP full install for 2 systems?

David,

I did try something like that last night.

Did clean install W7 Pro 64, no key, installed MB drivers and then windows did update. Then I put the upgrade key in the easy upgrade option which then said the current operating system must be activated first.

Do you think I will have different results with the upgrade software I downloaded?


Are key's specific to upgrades or can they be used on new systems with an old xp key or disk?

Thanks!

Tried the Upgrade option but it wouldn't let me go from W7 pro to W7 Home Premium. So I tried a fresh full install of W7 Home Premium (from windows 7) and it worked with my upgrade key

Thanks for the advice!!!

Picked up the processor for my system so that is going to be built later tonight.
Edited by Ryked - 11/22/12 at 7:24am

Thanks for all the input, here it is,

The parts.



The interior of the Silverstone SST-GD05B-USB3.0 case was different than what I ma used to. Came with 3 120mm fan's?



Interior with the with the drive holders removed.



Starting to come together.



All done, now time to get the OS installed.




The "Windows Experience" has a rating of 6.5 due to using the HD4000 graphics otherwise it would be 7.2. So now I just need to see how it perform's under normal use.

Was amazed at all of the updates, thought there were allot for XP!