HTPC build help?

superneat

Just to put a spanner in the works.....i don't want to make your decision any harder but if i was in your shoes i'd spend a little more and get this zotac motherboard http://www.ebuyer.com/product/236956.
It has a proper culv cpu, Celeron SU2300 Dual Core 1.2GHz, wifi, pci x 16, VGA DVI HDMI Out 6 Channel Audio and an nvidia ion.

IrishMetalhead

hi
i think you should go with a matx or atx rather than a itx for expasnsion and cost reasons i can design you one out right now if you want but how much of a budget are we talking about here and does the cpu have to be intel? cause amd are usually the best way to go when your on a budget because of there price to perfomance ratio

zuroph

see the reason Im pushing intel is I think I may be able to get a special price on intel components from someone I know. However I'm open to shopping around. what expansion are you allowing for? I can't really see what more I'd like to add to it..


regards price the cheaper the better, i'm on a ridic tight budget.

zuroph

so where will the case fan draw power from if I went with the original board with the integrated DC power? could i split off from teh sata power slot?

zuroph

that maxinpower case is micro ATX, not itx..

marco_polo

zuroph wrote: »

that maxinpower case is micro ATX, not itx..

You can fit an mITX board in a mATX case as the screw mounts are compatible, but as I was saying the integrated PSU will be no good to you if you go with the board with the integrated DC power adapter.

Ideally you would want a mITX case with no PSU.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-ITX
The four mounting holes in a mini-ITX board line up with four of the holes in ATX-specification motherboards, and the locations of the backplate and expansion slot are the same (though one of the holes used was optional in earlier versions of the ATX spec). Mini-ITX boards can therefore often be used in cases designed for ATX, micro-ATX and other ATX variants if desired.

zuroph

ugh, start again so

Motherboard
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=34892&agid=1292
€76 ex shipping

Case
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/3703154/art/maxinpower/b299cal000-desktop-pc-tow.html
€49.90 ex shipping

Processor
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/237554
€46.83 ex shipping


Wireless adaptor
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/155641
£13 ex shipping

TV card
blackgold BGT3595
~£140 inc shipping

my head is fried.


would the PSU with the case do the job?

Solitaire

That lot has €65 shipping! :eek: Not including the Blackgold :eek:

zuroph

:eek: wheres the cheapest to ship from? If I bought all from ebuyer maybe?

the pixmania shipping is disgusting!

zuroph

could I get away with a cheaper board now I'm looking at mATX?

zuroph

I'm on the verge of giving up! I thought I had it worked out!

Solitaire

Pixmania usually charge crazy shipping around Christmas then slowly go back to normal again. Only problem is that they forgot to do the second part this year :eek:

eBuyer has the cheapest shipping but their selection is variable. HWVS is €30 flat-fee but they usually have the best prices on parts. Pixmania's shipping is crazy and goes up at a strange rate when buying multiple items. Sometimes it can be less than HWVS for a whole system... and sometimes more

mATX is often cheaper but you'll find you're paying nearly as much for a mobo that has good onboard sound and a TOSLink output. A RealTek 7.1 chip minus TOSLink compatibility isn't as much. I'm not sure how well an entry-level CPU will deal with a high-end TV card like the BlackGold or an EyeSat as they're surprisingly bandwidth-intensive if they're handling more than one source/LNB Atom and possibly even Zacate or the aforementioned ULV Core2 might groan under the strain; a mobo supporting a discrete dual- or tri-core Athlon is a better idea as 3GHz is better than ~1.2! Alas, it pushes the price up.

Annoyingly, HWVS have rubbish low-end mATX cases (you'd be fine for gaming or workstation-class mATX cases there though ) so you're limited to mITX. An ECS H55H-I + i3-550 combo is a bit too pricey (albeit very powerful compared to even an Athlon2), AM2/AM3 mITX mobos are nowhere to be found, and while grabbing this and buying an old E6600/E5200/Q8200 second-hand for peanuts sounded like an epic trick, I suddenly realised that with no spare slot for a graphics card (the BlackGold would be taking up the single PCIe slot) you'd be stuck with the old onboard GPU, which is horrid and not really up to dealing with 1080p acceleration on its own

Solitaire

Argh! Second attempted build scuppered on eBuyer by the lack of decent mATX cases that cost less than elevrnty-seven quid :mad: Looks like its only Pixmania left!

Solitaire

...And Pixmania have no mATX mobos with decent onboard sound...

One... Two... Three...

zuroph

well i might pick the case up seperately elsewhere, if I can get a decent mATX/mini ITX build all from one place...

xcases in uk have some cheap options that arent totally offensive to the eye.

Also, I quite like the look of this one. next to no room for expansion, riser card used on the PCIe but would be very clean and tidy under tv. pricey shipping again.
http://cgi.ebay.ie/Black-UV-e-Mini-Slim-PC-Case-HTCP-Micro-ATX-Mini-ITX-/120679130182?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopComponents_RL&hash=item1c19096446#ht_6094wt_1070

tempted to build a case myself at this stage, been eyeing up that NES instructable

zuroph

hell, this guy is around the corner from me, could grab this for €20
http://www.adverts.ie/hardware/htpc-case-w-h-250w-psu/427042

zuroph

I can always replace the case with something nicer once the budget allows for it like?

Solitaire

marco - Atom will croak under the load of a modern OS. Zacate or the ULV C2Ds would fare far, far better, but might struggle with both a heavy OS and the BlackGold or similar taking up CPU cycles

zuroph

how can the acer aspire revo handle it all so effectively? If I could just add the tv card to that i'd just go that route!

AlmightyCushion

zuroph wrote: »

how can the acer aspire revo handle it all so effectively? If I could just add the tv card to that i'd just go that route!

You could get a usb tv card.

zuroph

not with dual dvbs and dual dvbt?

zuroph

please please please someone tell me what I'm meant to do!!! I was almost set on the first one.

IrishMetalhead

just looking up some components now should have them posted in about 30 minutes

AlmightyCushion

You could get a shuttle barebones kit. The one I have has built in graphics and audio and has space for a full size graphics card and a pci card.

IrishMetalhead

Ok I specced out 2 pc's one AMD and the other Intel,
They both have onboard HDMI but I couldn't find a decent matx motherboard with 5.1 audio on pixmania but you can always add a dedicated sound card, plus the shipping only costs like 18 quid I dn't think thats bad at all =/

AMD:


Intel:


BTW I picked all high quality components aswell =]

IrishMetalhead

only noticed the case comes with a power supply so just subtract the psu =/
altho the one i chose is way more reliable and efficent
(sorry for the bad spelling dyslexia is a bitch =/)

marco_polo

Solitaire wrote: »

marco - Atom will croak under the load of a modern OS. Zacate or the ULV C2Ds would fare far, far better, but might struggle with both a heavy OS and the BlackGold or similar taking up CPU cycles

In case anyone is wondering I ninja deleted an ill concieved post just before this, thought I had got away with it too but the great eye sees all .

Anything against a cube mATX case zuroph?

zuroph

i'm open to all suggestions at the moment!

zuroph

posting from phone so can't see those specs. Thanks for doing that will have a look soon

zuroph

both look good, only thing, does the sapphire board actually have HDMI? It doesnt state it on the spec list but i think I can see it in pic.