[Bleikur]

Dear GortWillSaveUs, Beer40oz, Eskro and all fellow HTPC builders,

thank you very much for the generous contribution to the HTPC community.

I, like probably many others, am going to put together a build similar to GortWillSaveUs's build and aim to build a Group#7 HTPC that should be able to play EVERYTHING (3D, HD, 3D HD, Netflix HD etc.). I will not be using it to play games, but I might want to record TV on it sometime.

Now some time has passed and components have become more affordable which is why I thought I'd go for the ASRock A75 Pro4-M mainboard as it has four RAM slots (in case I need more RAM in the future) and an AMD A8-3870K (with HD 6550D) processor as it has more juice.
I think that going for the A8 and four RAM slots is a wise move for the future usage of the HTPC. I realize that the A6 is certainly enough for the time being. Don't get me wrong. I believe the A6 build is great. But when comparing the two there will come a time when multimedia tasks become to heavy for an A6 to deal with. Then a system with an A8 will still be usable for a few additional years. One could say that the price difference between the A6 and A8 is what you pay for those additional years of operation.
I will at least use an A8-3870K when building my HTPC. Question: If it's overkill for the time being it can be underclocked for now, to save power and produce less heat, right?

Given that the above is true I have decided on the following parts:

[Case, PSU] Antec New Solution NSK1480-EC (incl. 350W PSU)
[Mainboard] ASRock A75 Pro4-M
[CPU] AMD A8-3870K Boxed
[CPU cooler] Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev. B

What I still have to pick out is an SSD and RAM. As I wouldn't know how to pick an SSD I will either go for the same as GortWillSaveUs (Crucial 64 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT064M4SSD2) or an 128GB SSD, which he later recommended.

Regarding RAM. I was a little concerned that the Kingston HyperX (KHX1866C9D3K2/4GX) RAM might not be compatible with the ASRock A75M or ASRock A75 Pro4-M mainboards as it is not listed in the ASRock compatibility list. But obviously my concerns are not necessary as the build runs smoothly according to our beloved gurus.
Additionally according to an answer I got from ASRock support all of the following modules (which are the ones that are available at my favorite dealer) should be compatible with the ASRock A75M and ASRock A75 Pro4-M:

Crucial Ballistix Tactical, 4GB (2x2GB), 1.5V, CL9 (9-9-9-24), 1866 MHz (PC3-14900), BLT2CP2G3D1869DT1TX0CEU
Crucial Ballistix Elite, 4GB (2x2GB), 1.65V, CL9 (9-9-9-24), 1866 MHz (PC3-14900), BLE2CP2G3D1869CE1TX0CEU
Kingston HyperX T1, 4GB (2x2GB), 1.65V, CL9 (9-11-9-27), 1866 MHz (PC3-14900), KHX1866C9D3T1K2/4GX
Kingston HyperX, 4GB (2x2GB), 1.65V, CL9 ( 9-11-9-27), 1866 MHz (PC3-14900), KHX1866C9D3K2/4GX (GortWillSaveUs's choice)
G.Skill Ripjaws-X, 4GB (2x2GB), 1.5V, CL9 (9-10-9-28), 1866 MHz (PC3-14900), F3-14900CL9D-4GBXM
GeIL DDR3 EVO CORSA, 4GB (2x2GB), 1.5V, CL9 (9-10-9-28), 1866 MHz (PC3-14900), GOC34GB1866C9DC

Question: I guess if one only looks at timings, Crucial (9-9-9-24) is probably faster than both Kingston (9-11-9-27), G.Skill and GeIL(9-10-9-28), right?
Question: How about the voltage? Does it make a difference if it's 1.5V or 1.65V?
Question: According to an article I read @ Anandtech the G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB, 1.5V, 8-9-9-24, not the same as above) users have reported that it overclocks effortlessly to 2133MHz. As I do not want to go for 8GB quite yet, are you guys familiar with if any of the above can be overclocked to the same extent?

With thanks in advance,
Bleikur

[GortWillSaveUs]

Just wanted to mention that you must take pictures when you eventually build,..and post for all of us to see.
Wishing you much happiness when it's all done!

[Bleikur]

Just wanted to mention that you must take pictures when you eventually build,..and post for all of us to see.
Wishing you much happiness when it's all done!

I will.

[SSDD]

Crucial Ballistix Tactical, 4GB (2x2GB), 1.5V, CL9 (9-9-9-24), 1866 MHz (PC3-14900), BLT2CP2G3D1869DT1TX0CEU
Crucial Ballistix Elite, 4GB (2x2GB), 1.65V, CL9 (9-9-9-24), 1866 MHz (PC3-14900), BLE2CP2G3D1869CE1TX0CEU
Kingston HyperX T1, 4GB (2x2GB), 1.65V, CL9 (9-11-9-27), 1866 MHz (PC3-14900), KHX1866C9D3T1K2/4GX
Kingston HyperX, 4GB (2x2GB), 1.65V, CL9 ( 9-11-9-27), 1866 MHz (PC3-14900), KHX1866C9D3K2/4GX (GortWillSaveUs's choice)
G.Skill Ripjaws-X, 4GB (2x2GB), 1.5V, CL9 (9-10-9-28), 1866 MHz (PC3-14900), F3-14900CL9D-4GBXM
GeIL DDR3 EVO CORSA, 4GB (2x2GB), 1.5V, CL9 (9-10-9-28), 1866 MHz (PC3-14900), GOC34GB1866C9DC

Question: I guess if one only looks at timings, Crucial (9-9-9-24) is probably faster than both Kingston (9-11-9-27), G.Skill and GeIL(9-10-9-28), right?
Question: How about the voltage? Does it make a difference if it's 1.5V or 1.65V?
Question: According to an article I read @ Anandtech the G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB, 1.5V, 8-9-9-24, not the same as above) users have reported that it overclocks effortlessly to 2133MHz. As I do not want to go for 8GB quite yet, are you guys familiar with if any of the above can be overclocked to the same extent?

With thanks in advance,
Bleikur

Yes lower latency's at the same frequency will be faster, but unless you are folding or doing something similar you won't be able to tell the difference with the current generation of CPU's.

On Intel CPU's the limit is technically 1.5V, but AMD's are good to above 1.65V so other than for power and heat considerations it won't matter for your build.

Small sticks will often provide better overclocking results. Also, 2 sticks will usually overclock better than 4 sticks. With that said, again in this current generation of CPU's there is basically no day to day difference between 1600 and 2133+ memory.

[bluray]

Here is what AsRock suggested- Memory Support List.......

[Bleikur]

Here is what AsRock suggested- Memory Support List.......

Yes, I am familiar with the list, but as ASRock explained to me it is not complete and is thought as a guideline rather than an exhaustive source.
My problem is that the list does not contain any 1866 modules and my preferable dealer does not sell any of the modules at the top of the list.

---

Yes lower latency's at the same frequency will be faster, but unless you are folding or doing something similar you won't be able to tell the difference with the current generation of CPU's.
On Intel CPU's the limit is technically 1.5V, but AMD's are good to above 1.65V so other than for power and heat considerations it won't matter for your build.
Small sticks will often provide better overclocking results. Also, 2 sticks will usually overclock better than 4 sticks. With that said, again in this current generation of CPU's there is basically no day to day difference between 1600 and 2133+ memory.

Thank you for the reply.
So what you are basically saying is that in relation to performance or overclocking it doesn't matter at all which one of the above I go for, which leaves me with the conclusion that I should just as well put in modules with 1.5V for less heat/power consumption and of that lot pick the cheapest one?

[GortWillSaveUs]

....., but unless you are folding or doing something similar you won't be able to tell the difference........

As in folding space and time?
Sorry, couldn't help the Dune reference.

[_RT_]

Regarding RAM. I was a little concerned that the Kingston HyperX (KHX1866C9D3K2/4GX) RAM might not be compatible with the ASRock A75M or ASRock A75 Pro4-M mainboards as it is not listed in the ASRock compatibility list. But obviously my concerns are not necessary as the build runs smoothly according to our beloved gurus.
Additionally according to an answer I got from ASRock support all of the following modules (which are the ones that are available at my favorite dealer) should be compatible with the ASRock A75M and ASRock A75 Pro4-M:

FWIW, I'm using that ram with the A75m. Everything was recognized perfectly.

[Bleikur]

FWIW, I'm using that ram with the A75m. Everything was recognized perfectly.

Thanks for the info.

[Dougie Fresh]

Regarding RAM. I was a little concerned that the Kingston HyperX (KHX1866C9D3K2/4GX) RAM might not be compatible with the ASRock A75M or ASRock A75 Pro4-M mainboards as it is not listed in the ASRock compatibility list. But obviously my concerns are not necessary as the build runs smoothly according to our beloved gurus.
Additionally according to an answer I got from ASRock support all of the following modules (which are the ones that are available at my favorite dealer) should be compatible with the ASRock A75M and ASRock A75 Pro4-M:

FWIW, I'm using that ram with the A75m. Everything was recognized perfectly.

+1. KHX1866C9D3K2/4GX is the RAM standard for the A6-3500 barebones which uses the ASRock A75M and it works very well.

[SSDD]

Yes lower latency's at the same frequency will be faster, but unless you are folding or doing something similar you won't be able to tell the difference with the current generation of CPU's.
On Intel CPU's the limit is technically 1.5V, but AMD's are good to above 1.65V so other than for power and heat considerations it won't matter for your build.
Small sticks will often provide better overclocking results. Also, 2 sticks will usually overclock better than 4 sticks. With that said, again in this current generation of CPU's there is basically no day to day difference between 1600 and 2133+ memory.

Thank you for the reply.
So what you are basically saying is that in relation to performance or overclocking it doesn't matter at all which one of the above I go for, which leaves me with the conclusion that I should just as well put in modules with 1.5V for less heat/power consumption and of that lot pick the cheapest one?

That is my opinion. Choose the 1.5V modules from a company you like, with a good warranty, at a fair price.

To support what I said:
"I think we confirmed what we pretty much knew all along: Sandy Bridge's improved memory controller has all but eliminated the need for extreme memory bandwidth, at least for this architecture. It's only when you get down to DDR3-1333 that you see a minor performance penalty. The sweet spot appears to be at DDR3-1600, where you will see a minor performance increase over DDR3-1333 with only a slight increase in cost. The performance increase gained by going up to DDR3-1866 or DDR3-2133 isn't nearly as pronounced."

"Finally, although the effects of low latency memory can be seen in our bandwidth tests, they don't show any real world advantage over their higher latency (ahem, cheaper) counterparts. None of the real-world tests performed showed any reason to prefer low latency over raw speed"

Source. Every comparison review I have seen has said the same thing.

I would consider this memory as well Samsung Low Profile Eco. It's 1.35V, half height sticks with no heat sinks, cheap, and overclocks like crazy if you ever decide to go that way. They just don't look pretty.

[Dougie Fresh]

With respect to Llano, this article concludes about the same as the above: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1652/8/. 1866 vs 1600 comes down to whatever is on sale.

[Bleikur]

Very interesting stuff. Thank you guys very much.

And SSDD, I don't care how memory modules look. They are inside a closed case all the time anyway.

[Bleikur]

The memory discussion brings up one question. I think I read somewhere that one should preferably use two 2GB memory modules over one module with 4GB. Isn't this correct?

[SSDD]

The memory discussion brings up one question. I think I read somewhere that one should preferably use two 2GB memory modules over one module with 4GB. Isn't this correct?

Correct. To operate in dual channel mode (a way of doubling your speed) you need two sticks. Think one garden hose vs two garden hoses.