magdalencox
Standard Member
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2009
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Hi,
Having read lots of quality information here I think I'm ready to take the plunge & put together my own HTPC, but would love some advice on the components. I'm planning on running XBMC on top of Ubuntu (to keep everything free / OSS), and mainly want to be able to play:
Case: Minuet 350 (small footprint, excellent cooling)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M85M-US2H
Processor: AMD Athlon X3 triple-core 2.9GHz
HDD: 1TB Western Digital AV-GP Green
Memory: 2gb
(No TV card / optical drive required)
Does this set-up sound as though it will do everything I need? I haven't included a separate video / sound card as I'm assuming the on-board components will be sufficient - should I downgrade the motherboard & include these?
Also, complete newbie question - will I need additional cooling for the CPU? I assume so - does anyone have any recommendations for a good near-silent CPU cooler?
I was planning on keeping a photo-log as I put it together / get it working, so any help at this stage is much appreciated!
Cheers
Dave
Having read lots of quality information here I think I'm ready to take the plunge & put together my own HTPC, but would love some advice on the components. I'm planning on running XBMC on top of Ubuntu (to keep everything free / OSS), and mainly want to be able to play:
- HD content over HDMI (no blu-ray support unfortunately)
- 5.1 Dolby surround
- iPlayer over the home network
- youtube / TED talks etc every so often
Case: Minuet 350 (small footprint, excellent cooling)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M85M-US2H
Processor: AMD Athlon X3 triple-core 2.9GHz
HDD: 1TB Western Digital AV-GP Green
Memory: 2gb
(No TV card / optical drive required)
Does this set-up sound as though it will do everything I need? I haven't included a separate video / sound card as I'm assuming the on-board components will be sufficient - should I downgrade the motherboard & include these?
Also, complete newbie question - will I need additional cooling for the CPU? I assume so - does anyone have any recommendations for a good near-silent CPU cooler?
I was planning on keeping a photo-log as I put it together / get it working, so any help at this stage is much appreciated!
Cheers
Dave