Need a little advice!
#1
Hi Guys,

firstly thanks alot for all the forum posters as I have learnt some invaluable things over the last couple of days. I only came across the forum a couple of days ago but have enjoyed reading some of the posts. I am currently concidering building my own htpc, and whilst I have not got any experience doing such a thing I hope i can get through it! Price is a large factor for me, if i could stick to £200 - maybe £250 max all in I would be chuffed.

I am trying to spec everything up first so I can get an overall idea of price, however I am having some difficulties. This is what I have thought of so far...


Case: =Streacom F7C (http://www.quietpc.com/products/htpccases/st-f7c) [76.99] - i have to admit I have gone purley on looks for this!!


SSD = Corsair 60GB Force GT SSD ( http://www.ebuyer.com/273567-corsair-60g...f60gbgt-bk ) [64.98]


Motherboard = ASROCK H61M-ITX INTEL H61 MINI ITX 2 USB3 SATA2 DVI HDMI 7.1 AUDIO (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005F...VDK3D04ZPS) [63.29]



I am aware thats already over £200! so perhaps I am being abit unrealistic with my price expectations? I suppose my real questions are:

1. Can anyone spot anything wrong with my suggestions so far?

2. I dont really know what else I would need (I must be being really stupid!) - I assume memory (i suspect around £20?) and processor (maybe £30??) Would I require a seperate Graphics Card?

If any of you would be kind enough to glance at the spec and give any opinions I would be extreamly greatful. Please bare in mind that this is all complelty new to me, so if i have made i big mistake dont laugh about it!!

Regards

BoB x




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#2
The problem with doing a cheap build is that you have two things that are not cheap (case and SSD). Most builds around here do not include HDD in the price. You are also forgetting a picoPSU with this build since your case doesn't come with a PSU. That will probably add on another ~50.

I think to get to the price you want you will probably need to get a different case. The only processor for ~30 that is LGA1155 would be the Celeron G530 and that would be a pretty weak GPU (although you could add a separate GPU for ~20 probably).

If you want to keep that setup you are probably going to spend ~300 easy to get it to do everything you want.
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#3
Wow thanks alot for such a quick response cwide, it really is appriciated. Yeah i think i may need to change my budget abit, as i must be vain, i want a pretty case!! I have read that 32GB SSD will be enough to run windows 7, so may downgrade abit (all my files are on a NAS so dont expect to be storing anything on there - plus i also have some spare usb hdd if necessary).

would you think a 150w PicoPSU would be acceptable? Could you advise on a decent processor that would mean I wouldnt need a seperate GPU?
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#4
If you are going with a mini-itx case and a Celeron G530... you are probably good just getting a 80-90W picoPSU and saving yourself some money. You could probably also stick with a 120W GPU if you get a Radeon HD5450 or 6450 video card. Check this thread for those: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=119920 ... I've had luck getting them on eBay for cheaper.

If you are just using this HTPC to watch non-3D videos and nothing else you do not need a separate GPU. If you are going to do more than that (high bitrate Blurays, any kind of gaming, 3D videos) I would add the separate video card, but the CPU should be good enough for anything other than extreme gaming if combined with a separate GPU. The Celeron G530 by itself is probably good enough for most HD video.

If you don't want a separate GPU (and you are a gamer) I would go with AMD over Intel.

[mobo] http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASRock-A75M-ITX-...383&sr=1-1
[cpu] http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Tri-Core-Pro...426&sr=1-7

32 GB SSD is enough for Win 7, but I would stick to 60-64 GB SSD if the price isn't too much different. If you are a gamer I would also stick with 60+ GB SSD.

If budget is really a problem you could probably take one of those USB drives out of the enclosure and use it as the internal drive until you save up some money for an SSD.
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#5
You sir are a gent, I really appriciate your advice. I will do some more digging and see where I get too. I dont plan on doing any 3D videos, just HD films, maybe netflix and downloaded tvshows - i have an xbox for games so nay bother there and bluerays seem like a waste of time forme (they think they will die out soon enough unless 3d takes off) so wasnt going to bother.

I have tried reading alot of threads here, but thers so much information its hard to know where to start, Some of the topics are excellent, but for a mong like me, its hard to understand what the differences are between things like processors etc, so a big thanks for taking the time out to respond! I will try and post my findings and how i get on incase it helps other less technical people like me in the future!

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#6
How about this powerful 65W HTPC-

Case/PSU- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Antec-ISK-300-15...69&sr=1-13

CPU- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Sandybridg...927&sr=1-1

Mobo- http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005F...VDK3D04ZPS)

RAM- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMV4GX3M...05&sr=1-15

SSD- http://www.ebuyer.com/273567-corsair-60g...f60gbgt-bk

>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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#7
It sounds like you will be fine getting the items in your original post along with just a Celeron G530: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Celeron-Du...299&sr=1-1

I use a G530 in my build (with a separate GPU because I was dumb and bought a mobo without onboard video ports) and it works great.
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#8
It's funny that the site recommends a 150W picoPSU for that case but the case would need modification to mount the 4-pin mini-DIN jack needed for the full 150W. You'd be better of with a picoPSU 120-WI-25/19V AC adapter or picoPSU 90W/12V AC adapter kit, especially with your minimal list of components.

FWIW, this similar looking case: http://www.ecosmartpc.com/ei7.html is about £98 (US$154.98) shipped to the UK and would arrive in 6-10 days. It already comes with a 120W internal power supply and 84W AC adapter, plenty for an A6-3500 or G530 (even a i3-2100). You'd just need a UK plug for the AC adapter.

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#9
Hi Dougie fresh, thanks for the input. That is indeed a sexy case! i see it says 4 x 80mm fans? does it actually require all 4 (i have a feeling that that is an extreamly stupid question! sorry!)

It does suprise me how expensive cases are (i dont mean your site in particular, i just mean in general) I actually do CAD for a living so could draw something nice very quickly and its cheap enough to produce such things...infact thats give me an idea...maybe i should design one and see if one of my customers will make for me!
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#10
I have to admit this is rather tempting, :

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Acer_Aspi...54303.html

m sure you could build your own spec better for the price, would it have windows 7 and 3dblueray?? The spec I was suggesting, would that be comparable/far better/far worse etc?? thanks again
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#11
(2012-05-18, 21:42)bob_mcbob Wrote: I have to admit this is rather tempting, :

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Acer_Aspi...54303.html

m sure you could build your own spec better for the price, would it have windows 7 and 3dblueray?? The spec I was suggesting, would that be comparable/far better/far worse etc?? thanks again
I never see one like it.....and it looks very sleek indeed.....

>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply
#12
(2012-05-18, 20:12)bob_mcbob Wrote: Hi Dougie fresh, thanks for the input. That is indeed a sexy case! i see it says 4 x 80mm fans? does it actually require all 4 (i have a feeling that that is an extreamly stupid question! sorry!)

It does suprise me how expensive cases are (i dont mean your site in particular, i just mean in general) I actually do CAD for a living so could draw something nice very quickly and its cheap enough to produce such things...infact thats give me an idea...maybe i should design one and see if one of my customers will make for me!

I am using an E-I7 for my office PC with a i3-2100 and I don't use any fans. Temperatures are good < 50C and it's nice and quiet with a Silverstone NT07-1156 CPU cooler.

I am surprised too by prices. Even importing them myself from China the nice all-aluminum mini HTPC cases are not inexpensive at all. But, you pay for the quality which is what I am after. There are plenty of cheap ABS plastic and steel towers out there and plenty of people too who don't care what their PC looks like. When you care is when you pay Smile.

Cars are like that too. I know that little Honda will get me from point A to point B but I feel so much better do it in an Audi A4 Cabriolet Smile
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#13
I just read your blog with the build on, looks great and is the sort of thing I am after. I do wonder whether if i set my budget to be around £300 can i build myself (baring in mind i know little about such things as im sure you can tell!) a machine that matches the RL100 ??

I like the idea of a custom build and i like that case dougie fresh mentioned, but with what i assume to be a relativly small budget, would an out the box option suit me better? I would say im group 5 from this thread...http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?pid=843683%23pid843683 but unfortunatly the built suggestion doesnt seem available anymore for comparison
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#14
(2012-05-18, 21:55)Dougie Fresh Wrote: Cars are like that too. I know that little Honda will get me from point A to point B but I feel so much better do it in an Audi A4 Cabriolet Smile
This sentence remind me of my post #5........

>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply

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