I've made this thread to show that you can make a powerful HTPC with great capabilities on a pretty low budget. My main requirements were as follows:
1. Recieve Sky HD with full PVR functionality (Minimum dual tuners)
2. Act as a server for TV, Films and Music for the whole house
3. Optical and HDMI connections (Preferabily 1.4a)
4. Playback any media file
5. Fast startup and channel changes
6. Low Power consumption
Like many people in the current climate, I'm on a very tight budget, so to fund this required a bit of creativity. I sold my FreeSat PVR box and a few old PC parts which generated a surprisingly large amount of cash, and then did some serious shopping around on ebay and google! I bought the CPU and motherboard second hand on ebay which saved me a significant amount of money - if you're careful then it's reasonably safe to do this and you can get some real bargains. I also had a spare DVD drive and CPU cooler, plus an old Antec Sonata Case which I was happy to use as the system is out of view.
Athlon II X3 420e - £40 (Uses just 45w)
ASUS M4A89GTD/USB3 Motherboard - £30 (Includes the most powerful IGP available)
4GB Corsair 1600MHz RAM - £15
300w Generic 80+ PSU - £10 (Removed from a new HP media PC)
1.5TB Seagate Barracuda HDD - £60 (I removed this from an new external drive)
TBS 6981 Dual DVB-S2 Card - £75 (Includes remote)
Sony Optiarc DVD Drive - Free, but cost around £15 new
Corsair HX3 Cooler - Free, but cost around £15 new (this part isn't totally necessary)
Antac Sonata Case - Free, but cases cost around £20 new
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 OS - Free, but could be expensive depending on source
£230
The above is all that I really needed, but the items I sold on ebay generated so much cash, that I splashed out on the following extras:
ATI HD 6450 1GB GFX Card - £30 (HDMI 1.4a and 3D capable)
64GB Crucial M4 SSD - £70
£100
Total cost of the build:
£330 (Not allowing for a few cheap parts that I already had)
1. Recieve Sky HD with full PVR functionality (Minimum dual tuners)
2. Act as a server for TV, Films and Music for the whole house
3. Optical and HDMI connections (Preferabily 1.4a)
4. Playback any media file
5. Fast startup and channel changes
6. Low Power consumption
Like many people in the current climate, I'm on a very tight budget, so to fund this required a bit of creativity. I sold my FreeSat PVR box and a few old PC parts which generated a surprisingly large amount of cash, and then did some serious shopping around on ebay and google! I bought the CPU and motherboard second hand on ebay which saved me a significant amount of money - if you're careful then it's reasonably safe to do this and you can get some real bargains. I also had a spare DVD drive and CPU cooler, plus an old Antec Sonata Case which I was happy to use as the system is out of view.
Athlon II X3 420e - £40 (Uses just 45w)
ASUS M4A89GTD/USB3 Motherboard - £30 (Includes the most powerful IGP available)
4GB Corsair 1600MHz RAM - £15
300w Generic 80+ PSU - £10 (Removed from a new HP media PC)
1.5TB Seagate Barracuda HDD - £60 (I removed this from an new external drive)
TBS 6981 Dual DVB-S2 Card - £75 (Includes remote)
Sony Optiarc DVD Drive - Free, but cost around £15 new
Corsair HX3 Cooler - Free, but cost around £15 new (this part isn't totally necessary)
Antac Sonata Case - Free, but cases cost around £20 new
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 OS - Free, but could be expensive depending on source
£230
The above is all that I really needed, but the items I sold on ebay generated so much cash, that I splashed out on the following extras:
ATI HD 6450 1GB GFX Card - £30 (HDMI 1.4a and 3D capable)
64GB Crucial M4 SSD - £70
£100
Total cost of the build:
£330 (Not allowing for a few cheap parts that I already had)
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