Second HTPC build - spec and advice please

FunkyMunkey

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I've been using an Antec Sonata/Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G combination for the last few years, and I've decided its time to upgrade.

It's going to be used for Mediaportal and browsing the internet. I may stick some emulators on it in the future, but there'll be no serious gaming. The HTPC will be connected to my stereo amp via a Beresford DAC, and I'll be getting a seperate surround receiver at some point.

I've come up with the following spec:

SilverStone Grandia GD06 - £105.67
400W PSU, Silverstone Strider SST-ST40F-ES - £38.88
ASRock A75 Pro4-M - £49.31
AMD A8-3850 2.90 GHz - £69.09
Scythe Shuriken CPU Cooler Rev.B - £24.83
Corsair Memory XMS3 Classic 4GB DDR3 1600 - £22.99
120GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD - £76.99

From my old HTPC:

Windows 7 Professional
Hauppauge Win-TV Nova-S2
Keysonic Keyboard
Optical Drive

Can anyone see any problems with this spec? Anywhere I could trim a bit off the £388 cost, or need to spend more?

Also, can anyone suggest an inexpensive but effective IR solution that'll allow me to take the HTPC out of standby using my Harmony 885 remote.

Thanks!
 
The only items I would change are;

Silverstone GD06 - The GD05 is just as good but come up on Scan "Today Only" quite often for £65.

A8-3850 - Overkill for what you plan to use it for, the A6-3500 is about £20 cheaper.

ASRock A75 PRO4 M - The standard version is a bit cheaper but only buy about £8.

David
 
Thanks for the advice, David. Very helpful.

Looking at the PassMark benchmarks, it does make sense to go with the A6-3500, as it's still much better than my current 4850e. Also, I don't relly need the extra features the A75 Pro4-M motherboard has over the standard A75M (crossfire/extra RAM/extra expansion card slots).

Regarding the case, I'll probably still stick to the GD06, simply because of looks: I really don't like the "un-stealthed" look of the optical drive on the GD05. I prefer the GD04, but I still think that, out of the 3, I'll go for the GD06.

I'm thinking of getting the Antec EZ remote. It uses the same iMon software I'm used to and I've never had any problems with it.

Also, is there any reason I wouldn't be able to exploit the full potential of the Agility 3 with the ASRock board? It's been a while since I rebuilt my gaming PC, and I seem to remember that some motherboards can't transfer at the proper speeds. Maybe because some boards aren't TRUE SATA 3?
 
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Hi Munkey, hope you don't mind me joining your thread I have a question that the guys over in the gaming PC thread haven't answered which is fair enough as they are into the gaming and I want a Gaming/HTPC so I thought I would ask here as you guys are into the HTPC side of things, the provisional rig below is for gaming and spinning Blu Rays.

I don't intend to stream/rip or burn discs but I want to out put the Audio/Video from the Blu Ray deck through 1 HDMI out to my Yammy to do the audio decoding and pass through the Video to the display. My question is will this be the case when I insert a Blu Ray in the drive ie Audio/video through a single HDMI out from the HTPC or do I need to add anything to my rig to enable this action? thanks for any help you can give me and sorry for the noob question.

SilverStone LASCALA LC17
Noctua NH-L12 Low Profile High Performance CPU Cooler
Pioneer BDR-S07XLT
Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650M High Performance 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply
KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [67NPH6DV6KVZ]
256GB Crucial M4 SSD SATA 6Gb/s 2.5inch Solid State Drive
Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4GHz Socket 1155 6MB
Corsair 8GB DDR3 1600MHz8GB DDR3 1600MHz8GB DDR3 1600MHz Low Profile Vengeance Memory
Asus P8Z77-V LE Motherboard (Socket 1155, 32GB DDR3 Support, ATX, Intel Z77 Express, USB 3.0, CrossFireX Support, Dual Intelligent Processors 3)
Cyberlink Power DVD 12 Ultra
Windows 7 System Builder
 
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Funkymonkey

I use a 60gb agility3 ssd on a ASRock mobo and can confirm it is way faster to boot than a hdd.

David
 
Thanks David

I think I might create a build thread when I do this, as I haven't seen many GD06 builds about

We love build threads. The build should be very similar to a GD04 or GD05 build other than the hot swapable drives.

My main HTPC is a GD05 with the same PSU and CPU cooler you have. I have modded the 3 supplied fans to run at 5 volts and they are whisper quiet, the PSU fan is silent but the CPU fan is too noisy for me YMMV.

David
 

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