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Ultra cheap HTPC - Printable Version

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Ultra cheap HTPC - no1john - 2011-11-19

Hi guy's

I am thinking of putting together a HTPC for as cheap as possible but I'm no expert when it comes to doing this sort of thing lol. All it will be doing is running XBMC from windows 7 ultimate and a bit of web surfing + some gaming but my most recent game is over 4 years old so nothing new or modern, stratergy games mostly Smile. Most of my films are 1080p and stored on a nas which the HTPC would be wired up to via cat5 cable. I have a spare licence for windows 7 and also I wont need a DVD/Bluray drive from the outset, but will probably add one in the future. Let me know what you think Big Grin

Here is my proposed build.

CASE: Novatech Opera Media Centre Case + PSU $61.50/£38.99
MOBO: Gigabyte LGA775 $51.73/£32.77
CPU: Core2Duo E4400 (2.0Ghz) $44/£28
GPU ATI Radeon HD 5450 (fan less) $31.55/£19.99
HDD 64GB Kingston SSD $103/£65.68
RAM Kingston 2GB DDRll $25.24/£15.99
CASE FAN Arctic cooling F 80mm $3.94/£2.50

Total cost is $321 in us dollars or £203.92 in the UK

- Mallet21 - 2011-11-19

That should work just fine.....you could probably get by with a smaller SSD if you wanted to save even more money.

- no1john - 2011-11-19

The SSD is a bit on the large size but I couldn't find a smaller one for a decent price lol.
I was thinking of using a Celeron D356 ($4.7/£3) instead of the core 2 Duo but I'm not sure if that would mean major slow down with some heavy XBMC skins

- eskro - 2011-11-19

why not go for 'recent' hardware?
i know your in UK,
but check out those:
Motherboard (£76.61 + Delivered FREE)
Case + Power Supply (£50.83 + Delivered FREE)
Case Fan (£12.50 + Delivered FREE)
Processor + Video (£99.99 + Delivered FREE)
Processor's Cooler (£31.37 + £5.45)
Memory (£21.50 + Delivered FREE)
Windows Drive (£84.99 + Delivered FREE)
TOTAL: £383.24 Delivered!!

- no1john - 2011-11-19

Thanks for the recommendation's esko.

I have been reading good things about the new AMD Llano APU's and they are very appealing for a HTPC.
I just can't help but think that even with using older hardware I would see better results with a separate dedicated CPU and GPU and probably save a few £ as well. I know the GPU card I listed in my build isn't as powerfull as the one in the A8-3850, but 'it does the job so to speak' and at a cheap price.

- Mallet21 - 2011-11-19

no1john Wrote:I was thinking of using a Celeron D356 ($4.7/£3) instead of the core 2 Duo but I'm not sure if that would mean major slow down with some heavy XBMC skins

No, you definitely want to get the dual core.

I've got a pretty similar setup (sans SSD) and have zero complaints.

- no1john - 2011-11-19

Thanks mallet, I'll stick with the dual core.

The two most important parts of this build is the SSD and the CPU, as I think if they are fairly good then the whole system should be quick and snappy with fan art and heavy skins.
The hardest part I find is not going overboard with the hardware as before you know it you're spending more on 'better' hardware that just isn't needed.

- eskro - 2011-11-19

no1john Wrote:Hi guy's
I am thinking of putting together a HTPC for as cheap as possible

Motherboard (£76.61 + Delivered FREE)
Case + Power Supply (£36.94 + Delivered FREE)
Processor + Video (£62.96 + Delivered FREE)
Memory (£21.50 + Delivered FREE)
Windows Drive (£59.98 + Delivered FREE)
TOTAL: £257.99 Delivered!!

Smile

- bluray - 2011-11-19

no1john Wrote:Thanks mallet, I'll stick with the dual core.

The two most important parts of this build is the SSD and the CPU, as I think if they are fairly good then the whole system should be quick and snappy with fan art and heavy skins.
The hardest part I find is not going overboard with the hardware as before you know it you're spending more on 'better' hardware that just isn't needed.
if it is me, i would save money on 32gb ssd and spend more money on this cpu (Intel Pentium Dual Core (E5800) 3.2GHz). since everything is stored on the network, 32gb is more than enough to run windows.

- eskro - 2011-11-19

http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=939542&postcount=8