2011-12-27, 15:02
Hi everyone,
Having scheduled two weeks off from work in the beginning of January, I've decided that this is a good time to build my first HTPC. I'm currently using a pair of cheap WDTV's (Gen 1) to do all my viewing on, but I'm getting seriously fed up with the bugs and the poor performance in general.
Goals:
Price range
Preliminary hardware list
[CHASSIS] Zalman HD-160 Plus Silver. Matches the look of our AVR's, is all metal and has a nice asthetics/price ratio. Not really cheap but it looks good. Costs around €250.
http://www.boston.co.uk/products/hd160-p...ilver.aspx
[MOTHERBOARD] Asus M4A88T-M. I'm currently eying the Asus M4A88T-M motherboard (AM3 socket, I will probably go with an AMD + NVidia combo). This motherboard was recommended in a thread somewhere on the forum. I'm reluctant to go with more bleeding edge architectures because I want the stability in Linux that comes from older hardware. It has a built in Radeon HD GPU, but I'm no fan of AMD GPU's in general so that part will sit unused. Besides VDPAU for Nvidia seems more stable that the AMD offering from what I've read, and Nvidia is better at OpenGL.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A88TM_LE/
[CPU] AMD Athlon X2 245e. While it's not a performance monster it is pretty power efficient and good enough for an HTPC I guess?
[GPU] Sparkle SXT430. This is a passively cooled low-profile Nvidia 430 card. If possible I'd like to reduce the number of fans in my system to avoid them getting messed up from dust after a while. Except for fans that are easily replaced that is.
http://www.sparkle.com.tw/product_detail.asp?id=114&sub_id=404
[RAM] Corsair XMS3 TW3X4G1333C9 (4GB). Generic Corsair RAM.
[PSU] Seasonic X-400 Fanless. This is an interesting one. It's expensive, but it's fanless and modular. I'm not sure if I should save a few euros and go for a regular PSU with a fan. The current price is around €120.
[COOLER] Silverstone NT01-E. Another interesting piece of hardware because it can be used as a passive CPU cooler. The case will have fans, one placed over the CPU and two small ones in the back which I believe will be enough.
Those are pretty much the main component. I'll add a 40GB SSD and a 1TB regular HDD as well. I'll swap out any stock fans with better ones and I might throw in a Bluray drive. One concern that I have is if the heat will be a problem with passive cooling on the three main components: CPU, GPU and PSU. I'm totally up for swapping all component in my list except for the case.
Comments, feedback and recommendations would be much appreciated
Having scheduled two weeks off from work in the beginning of January, I've decided that this is a good time to build my first HTPC. I'm currently using a pair of cheap WDTV's (Gen 1) to do all my viewing on, but I'm getting seriously fed up with the bugs and the poor performance in general.
Goals:
- It should blend in with the style of my AVR.
- XBMC running on Linux with VDPAU. Bit-streamed audio to AVR.
- I will possibly dual-boot Windows for some gaming (and for Bluray support).
- It should be as silent as possible.
- It shouldn have decent power efficiency.
Price range
- Currently the total price is around 700€ for all the parts in my list. Cheaper is better of course but not really an issue in the end. The expensive parts are the chassis and the PSU.
Preliminary hardware list
[CHASSIS] Zalman HD-160 Plus Silver. Matches the look of our AVR's, is all metal and has a nice asthetics/price ratio. Not really cheap but it looks good. Costs around €250.
http://www.boston.co.uk/products/hd160-p...ilver.aspx
[MOTHERBOARD] Asus M4A88T-M. I'm currently eying the Asus M4A88T-M motherboard (AM3 socket, I will probably go with an AMD + NVidia combo). This motherboard was recommended in a thread somewhere on the forum. I'm reluctant to go with more bleeding edge architectures because I want the stability in Linux that comes from older hardware. It has a built in Radeon HD GPU, but I'm no fan of AMD GPU's in general so that part will sit unused. Besides VDPAU for Nvidia seems more stable that the AMD offering from what I've read, and Nvidia is better at OpenGL.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A88TM_LE/
[CPU] AMD Athlon X2 245e. While it's not a performance monster it is pretty power efficient and good enough for an HTPC I guess?
[GPU] Sparkle SXT430. This is a passively cooled low-profile Nvidia 430 card. If possible I'd like to reduce the number of fans in my system to avoid them getting messed up from dust after a while. Except for fans that are easily replaced that is.
http://www.sparkle.com.tw/product_detail.asp?id=114&sub_id=404
[RAM] Corsair XMS3 TW3X4G1333C9 (4GB). Generic Corsair RAM.
[PSU] Seasonic X-400 Fanless. This is an interesting one. It's expensive, but it's fanless and modular. I'm not sure if I should save a few euros and go for a regular PSU with a fan. The current price is around €120.
[COOLER] Silverstone NT01-E. Another interesting piece of hardware because it can be used as a passive CPU cooler. The case will have fans, one placed over the CPU and two small ones in the back which I believe will be enough.
Those are pretty much the main component. I'll add a 40GB SSD and a 1TB regular HDD as well. I'll swap out any stock fans with better ones and I might throw in a Bluray drive. One concern that I have is if the heat will be a problem with passive cooling on the three main components: CPU, GPU and PSU. I'm totally up for swapping all component in my list except for the case.
Comments, feedback and recommendations would be much appreciated