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First HTPC Build.Thread revised might just want a media server if it will save $$$

post #1 of 27
12/23/12 at 9:57pm
Thread Starter 
Updated post at bottom of thread.
Edited by Chriscorv58 - 12/26/12 at 4:08pm
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post #2 of 27
12/23/12 at 10:26pm
DDR3-1600 4GB x 2 is enough, like this (or DDR3-1866 4GB x 2 like this for AMD).

You'd better go with a microATX motherboard (supporting more expansion cards).

Check also AMD A10-5800K Trinity, its graphics is much more powerful than Intel. It's also cheaper.

LG BH14NS40 (retail with CyberLink suite) or WH14NS40 (OEM) is better (newer, faster, cheaper).

Check non-Sand Force SSD like OCZ Vertex 4.

I am not sure why people prefer seeing ugly optical drive bezel in their HTPCs. GD04 or GD06 looks a lot better to me.
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post #3 of 27
12/24/12 at 7:52am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the quick response, Also what is a non-sand force SSD mean. I just want to use the SSD to cache my main drive.
Edited by Chriscorv58 - 12/24/12 at 8:07am
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post #4 of 27
12/24/12 at 8:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by renethx View Post

DDR3-1600 4GB x 2 is enough, like this (or DDR3-1866 4GB x 2 like this for AMD).
You'd better go with a microATX motherboard (supporting more expansion cards).
Check also AMD A10-5800K Trinity, its graphics is much more powerful than Intel. It's also cheaper.
LG BH14NS40 (retail with CyberLink suite) or WH14NS40 (OEM) is better (newer, faster, cheaper).
Check non-Sand Force SSD like OCZ Vertex 4.
I am not sure why people prefer seeing ugly optical drive bezel in their HTPCs. GD04 or GD06 looks a lot better to me.

renethx: any rec on a mb for the AMD A10-5800K Trinity ?
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post #5 of 27
12/24/12 at 8:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chriscorv58 View Post

Thanks for the quick response, Also what is a non-sand force SSD mean. I just want to use the SSD to cache my main drive.

SandForce is the SSD controller, many people have had reliablility issues with this controller. Many manufactures use this controller, for example the Corsair you have listed.
You can check what controller the SSD uses on Newegg, go to the 'Details tab' and the controller is listed there.
Samsung and Intel use their own controller on most of their drives, which seems to have a good track record, although usually at a premium price.
Edited by acejh1987 - 12/24/12 at 8:37am
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post #6 of 27
12/24/12 at 9:58am
Thread Starter 
I just changed the configuration with the recommended processor ssd and rom and low and behold it's 689 bucks now! Cool thanks for all the advice. Just going to wait till tonight to order.
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post #7 of 27
12/24/12 at 10:14am
My thoughts...

- For SSD you should be able to get a 128GB for $80 or less. Look for deals on the OCZ Vertex 4, Samsung 830 etc
- HDD is expensive. You should pay no more than $50/TB and 3TB drives can be found for even cheaper.
- As mentioned previously, 8GB RAM is more than enough
- For mobo, you could save some $$ getting the Asrock H77M. I use this board and it works very well, is easy to configure etc
- BluRay burner? Are you ever going to use the burning capability? External HDDs are a much better backup solution.
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post #8 of 27
12/25/12 at 7:42am
Antec neo 400 watt $29 today.
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post #9 of 27
12/26/12 at 3:34pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chriscorv58 View Post

I have copied and pasted my shopping cart from newegg.com I am hoping to hear some advice from fellow members before I place the order. Any overly weak links in this build or any different components I should be looking at? Thanks In advance. BTW will be using Windows 7 64bit.
Seagate Barracuda Green ST1500DL003 1.5TB 5900 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822148725
$99.99

PC Power and Cooling Silencer MK III 400W Modular 80PLUS Bronze Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5
Item #: N82E16817703034
$69.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL10D-16GBXL
Item #: N82E16820231489
$79.99

ASUS P8H77-I LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813131841
$99.99

Intel Core i3-3225 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I33225
Item #: N82E16819116774
$144.99

LITE-ON Blu-ray Burner with 3D Playback SATA iHBS212-08 LightScribe Support
Item #: N82E16827106348
$109.99

Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F60GBGT-BK 2.5" 60GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Item #: N82E16820233193
$84.99

SILVERSTONE Black Aluminum skin over plastic front panel, 0.8mm SECC body Grandia Series SST-GD05B-USB3.0 Micro ATX Media
Item #: N82E16811163205
$105.99

OKGEAR 10" SATA 6 Gbps Cable, Straight to Straight W/ Metal Latch, UV Blue, Backward Compatible 3 Gbps and 1.5 Gbps
Item #: N82E16812123107
$7.98
Subtotal:$803.90

Ive been really thinking about purchasing this HTPC, but I do have a really powerful computer that i use for gaming and ripping the movies to and streaming them through serviio and to be honest i don't mind streaming to my tv. I just hate to leave this main computer on all the time when i want to watch a movie or listen to music. Can I build a cheap computer to just run windows 7 on and use as a media server to be left on 24/7 Could something like this work for streaming 1080p? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Refurbished+Pavilion+Slimline+Desktop+-+6GB+Memory+-+750GB+Hard+Drive/6667864.p?id=1218770738774&skuId=6667864
Edited by Chriscorv58 - 12/26/12 at 3:48pm
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post #10 of 27
12/28/12 at 1:08pm
PC Power and Cooling Silencer MK III 400W Modular 80PLUS Bronze Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5
Item #: N82E16817703034
$69.99


Expensive. Get Antec Neo 400 watt for $29 I mentioned above. Or another variant for under $40. MKIII is good but $69 is expensive.


G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL10D-16GBXL
Item #: N82E16820231489
$79.99

8GB is more than enough. Save your cash. Downgrade from 16GB to 8GB

ASUS P8H77-I LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813131841
$99.99

Mini ITX board in a GD05 ????

Why not get a cheaper M-ATX Asrock motherboard??? Make more sense. They restart faster making them great for HTPC.


Intel Core i3-3225 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I33225
Item #: N82E16819116774
$144.99

Kinda expensive and uneccessary. Are you doing the $119 at Microcenter minus $40 making it $80 ??? I would pay $80 for the 3225 i3 but I would not pay $144. Not when you can get a 3.0ghz G860 (basically i3 2100 with quicksync turned off) for $55
There is going to be zero real world difference in speed or video quality playback between the $144 and $55 CPU. Save your cash. If you need a link for a deal on it let me know. I would do either $55 G860 or like / or / $79 i3 or $129 i5 3570k. Those are the sweet spot in value and performance. GOOD..BETTER... BEST. Even the $55 CPU will do just fine for a basic HTPC and it's as fast as a i3 at CPU power. Adding a video card with the difference saved would also blow away in video performance if you really needed it for gaming. For basic 1080p playback you won't notice a thing unless your doing SVP or MadVR, in which case your still better with the cheap CPU and better GPU card.


LITE-ON Blu-ray Burner with 3D Playback SATA iHBS212-08 LightScribe Support
Item #: N82E16827106348
$109.99

A Bit Expensive. $60 is a better deal. You sure your going to burn ??? I have two burners in my desktop. Both Bluray. I never burned a disc yet.
Get a basic reader and you can always add or replace later if you need to burn.


Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F60GBGT-BK 2.5" 60GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Item #: N82E16820233193
$84.99

$85 for 60GB is a terrible deal. Think $79 for 120GB. Samsung or Vertex4 is the popular performance choice. They are the best performers. Cheaper drives like the Vertex3/Mushkin/Crucial M4 can be had even cheaper.

SILVERSTONE Black Aluminum skin over plastic front panel, 0.8mm SECC body Grandia Series SST-GD05B-USB3.0 Micro ATX Media
Item #: N82E16811163205
$105.99


Full height case is nice if you want a GPU later. Nice case.


OKGEAR 10" SATA 6 Gbps Cable, Straight to Straight W/ Metal Latch, UV Blue, Backward Compatible 3 Gbps and 1.5 Gbps
Item #: N82E16812123107
$7.98

Your Motherboard probably came with SATA cable or two. Probably skip this.
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post #11 of 27
12/28/12 at 1:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chriscorv58 View Post

Ive been really thinking about purchasing this HTPC, but I do have a really powerful computer that i use for gaming and ripping the movies to and streaming them through serviio and to be honest i don't mind streaming to my tv. I just hate to leave this main computer on all the time when i want to watch a movie or listen to music. Can I build a cheap computer to just run windows 7 on and use as a media server to be left on 24/7 Could something like this work for streaming 1080p? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Refurbished+Pavilion+Slimline+Desktop+-+6GB+Memory+-+750GB+Hard+Drive/6667864.p?id=1218770738774&skuId=6667864

Don't buy a premade.


I could make a better HTPC for half your proposed cost above if that is the issue.

MOBO
Asrock M-ATX 77 board- $69
CPU
G860 -$55
or
i3 3225 microcenter bundle $100 ($20 more for a better Z77 mobo there but CPU is only $80)
RAM
DDR3 8GB $35
Case -
GD05 $105
PSU
NEO/MKIII/Rosewill/Seasonic $39


Your looking at like $310 for that build. It's on par with your $800 build. With 120GB SSD @ $89 it's still less than half your build cost above.
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post #12 of 27
12/28/12 at 1:17pm
Seagate Barracuda Green ST1500DL003 1.5TB 5900 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822148725
$99.99


Almost forgot.... you can get 2TB or even 3TB for that price. Spend up to get a Seagate 3TB, or spend down and get a $89 2TB WD green ....
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post #13 of 27
12/29/12 at 3:26pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks , I like what you brought to the table. Almost bought an Acer rl70 today but this sounds better.
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post #14 of 27
12/29/12 at 9:46pm
There is actually a big difference between a Penitum G850/60 and an i3 3220/5:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/404?vs=677

Its noticeably faster. Don't cheap out on the CPU.
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post #15 of 27
12/29/12 at 10:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiddles88 View Post

There is actually a big difference between a Penitum G850/60 and an i3 3220/5:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/404?vs=677
Its noticeably faster. Don't cheap out on the CPU.
But are the differences visible while watching DVD, Blu-Ray, or Recorded TV? If not, then it makes sense to save the money to spend on software or storage.
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post #16 of 27
12/29/12 at 10:29pm
Ignore what Tiddles88 says. In his mind, faster CPU = better PQ (or whatever that's beyond my imagination), that's plain wrong.

As far as PQ is concerned, Celeron = Pentium = Core i3/i5/i7. Core i3 or higher is necessary to play back BR 3D (Intel artificially disabled HDMI 1.4a 3D output in Celeron/Pentium).
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post #17 of 27
12/29/12 at 10:48pm
I am about to upgrade my old Asus P5E-VM HDMI, with E6300 Wolfsdale 2.8 chip, with an HIS 5670 vid card. It currently does everything I want it to do, but it is getting long in the tooth. The hard drive is showing some signs of failure (os only), and I get occasional artifacting. Plus it does consume much more power than a more modern solution. I am seriously thinking of going with a Trinity this time around, and of course an SSD for the OS. It will be staying in the same Silverstone GD05B. No gaming, (although possible Dolphin Emulator for WII in the future). Use Ceton InfiniTV4 for DVR, also stream Blu-Ray and DVD from home server. Occasional Netflix or Hulu. Which Trinity would you suggest?
Thanks, John
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post #18 of 27
12/29/12 at 11:09pm
A6-5400K (2 core) is enough for almost every video playback. The max power consumption is < 70W, that's comparable with Celeron/Pentium/Core i3 (GPU is more powerful than them). There are a couple of cases where you will want A8 or A10 (4 core). A10-5800K is the best choice, of course.

- 2D-3D conversion. I tested with TriDef 3D Media Player (bundled with many 3D HDTVs) and CPU usage of A6-5400K was > 80% for 1080p24 movies with occasional stuttering.
- Real-time transcoding for, e.g. XBox 360 or a mobile device (depending the video format and the DLNA server you use).
- Dolphin (as you mentioned). My son is using it with Core i3-2105 and CPU usage is ~60% (I checked his PC when he was playing Mario Kart). So you will want A8/A10.
Edited by renethx - 12/29/12 at 11:31pm
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post #19 of 27
12/31/12 at 8:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by renethx View Post

A6-5400K (2 core) is enough for almost every video playback. The max power consumption is < 70W, that's comparable with Celeron/Pentium/Core i3 (GPU is more powerful than them). There are a couple of cases where you will want A8 or A10 (4 core). A10-5800K is the best choice, of course.
- 2D-3D conversion. I tested with TriDef 3D Media Player (bundled with many 3D HDTVs) and CPU usage of A6-5400K was > 80% for 1080p24 movies with occasional stuttering.
- Real-time transcoding for, e.g. XBox 360 or a mobile device (depending the video format and the DLNA server you use).
- Dolphin (as you mentioned). My son is using it with Core i3-2105 and CPU usage is ~60% (I checked his PC when he was playing Mario Kart). So you will want A8/A10.

Any reason to buy higher memory then 1866 Mhz, like the 2400Mhz for video/tv and no gaming?
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post #20 of 27
12/31/12 at 9:22am
1866 is fine. Lower might not be. I think the value is in 1600 and 1866 based on price- as they sell for the best prices and work well. You get a point of diminishing returns on the higher memory- meaning you pay more and get a smaller extra performance improvement.

Whatever your budget has is fine- If your concerned most about performance of coarse get the faster/better RAM.

If your concerned about value your fine with 1600/1866
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post #21 of 27
12/31/12 at 1:23pm
I built my rig just over a month ago and while I can't recommend what you should buy I can tell you that I overbuilt the heck out of mine, it doesn't even blink when I try to load test it.
ASrock Z77 Pro4-M
Intel Core I5-3570k
8 gigs DDR3 1600
SSD for OS
2TB WD drive for storage (cheapest one on Newegg at the time with decent reviews)
Ceton Infinitv4

When recording 4 programs and watching a 5th pre recorded show my CPU hits about 5%. While doing all that and watching another large MKV file in addition it jumped to about 15%. The only time I have seen it max out was when using MakeMKV to rip a Blu-ray. Memory, CPU are complete overkill, I could have saved a bunch of money and still have a machine that can do everything I want it to.
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post #22 of 27
12/31/12 at 6:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bokis View Post

Any reason to buy higher memory then 1866 Mhz, like the 2400Mhz for video/tv and no gaming?

Even DDR3-1600 is enough for video playback. With DDR3-1866, madVR's rendering time is slightly shorter. A10-6800K Richland in 2013 supports up to DDR3-2133 (Richland should work with the current FM2 mbs). But Trinity may not support DDR3-2133 stably (of course it runs stably at 933MHz = 1866 MT/s). The price difference between them is very small anyway.

- G.SKILL F3-1600C9D-8GAB Ares DDR3-1600 CL9 2 x 4GB Kit, $46
- G.SKILL F3-1866C9D-8GAB Ares DDR3-1866 CL9 2 x 4GB Kit, $50
- G.SKILL F3-2133C11D-8GAO Ares DDR3-2133 CL11 2 x 4GB Kit, $50
- G.SKILL F3-2133C9D-8GAB Ares DDR3-2133 CL9 2 x 4GB Kit, $61

Among them F3-2133C11D-8GAO may be the best in performance / price / future-proofness.
Edited by renethx - 1/1/13 at 12:08am
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post #23 of 27
12/31/12 at 6:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bokis View Post

Any reason to buy higher memory then 1866 Mhz, like the 2400Mhz for video/tv and no gaming?

Check your rendering times in MadVR.

CTRL-J will bring up the diagnostic screen, for 60fps playback anything below 12ms is OK and for 50fps anything under 16ms.
On 24fps movies there is plenty of time, anything under 36ms.

If you are below the limit your MadVR instance is doing well.
Edited by Tong Chia - 12/31/12 at 6:53pm
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post #24 of 27
12/31/12 at 11:12pm
Thanks folks !

I´m going for the FM2A85X Extreme4-M MB, A6-5400K and DDR3-2133
memorymaker depending where I can buy it all at the same time

MB peoples review at Newegg
Edited by bokis - 12/31/12 at 11:49pm
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post #25 of 27
1/1/13 at 7:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bokis View Post

Thanks folks !
I´m going for the FM2A85X Extreme4-M MB, A6-5400K and DDR3-2133
memorymaker depending where I can buy it all at the same time
MB peoples review at Newegg

You may want to check out microcenter they were running a deal on motherboard + chip combo's.
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post #26 of 27
1/1/13 at 8:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yunus View Post

You may want to check out microcenter they were running a deal on motherboard + chip combo's.

I live in Sweden so I buy my components in EU thanks anyhow smile.gif
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post #27 of 27
1/1/13 at 6:14pm
Guess I need to learn to read a little better. smile.gif
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