My Final Build, Thoughts? Intel i3-2105 Build
#1
I have been discussing which options to get for my HTPC for the past week and have not been able to make up my mind. I believe that this is my final build and hopefully what I will purchase:

Motherboard: Biostar TH61 ITX 1155 Mini ITX Mother Board
Case: Apex Mi-008 w\ 250w PSU
CPU: Intel Core i3-2105 with Intel Graphics 3000 (will purchase a better card in time)

For an htpc, this seems expensive. the cost of these 3 items came to $317. Is there any reason to doubt this machine? The cheapest I could get the A6-3500 build for was only $40 cheaper. That is a lot of money to save, but the i3 with a new gpu card would give me more options for some light gaming.

If anyone is willing to critique this build, I thank you ahead of time.

I should note that I have no seen anyone else using this motherboard, and that gave me some doubts
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#2
You only listed the 3 parts as being expensive (and not that they aren't relatively speaking) but,...
What about the other parts you'll need? RAM, Keyboard, Mouse, OS, GPU (if needed)....and will you buy an aftermarket CPU cooler?

Seems to me that a lot of people focus entirely on the cost of the CASE, MOBO, and CPU,...but then forget to add in everything else.
That "everything else" can quickly double the initial estimate of the build,....and shockingly so.
Not ranking on you,....just giving a warning to other 1st time builders.

I think you'll like your build and hope you post pictures once you complete the build.
Good luck!
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#3
A Windows machine, if built from the ground up is really expensive. Yeah it's "just" a HTPC but if you want to game forget about it, you're buying a gaming computer.

Research what you need and want and spend the money for that. If you go half assed like I did you will probably end up spending more money in the long run.

When I first decided to get an XBMC I tried I started with an inexpensive e350 running openelec. I wasn’t happy not being able to bitstream so I switched to Windows 7, had to buy an SSD and a gfx card to bitstream with.

I wasn’t happy with the slow performance and the inability to run Aeon Nox on the E350 so I upgraded to a G860. I didn’t want to spend the $100.00 on an Asrock MB so I got a $60.00 Foxconn instead. Well I wasn’t happy with not being able to power on the system so I spend another $30.00 getting an IR sensor that would power on machine from off and then spent an afternoon splicing and soldering wires into the power supply.

If I could do it all over again I'd get an A6 setup and spend the extra money for a nice Asrock MB that supported powering on via remote and it would have worked out of the box.
XBMC specs: MINIX U9-H LibreELEC 4K all day

Home Theater - Samsung 65KS8000 - Denon 3200- Ascend Acoustics speakers - Maelstrom 18in sealed sub 7cu ft - Behringer EP2500

UNraid Server – Pentium G3258 – MSI - H81M-P33 – Antec HCG-400M PS - 8Gb RAM
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#4
I didn't add the HDD or ram because ram is fairly cheap and obtainable. For hard drive, I just would boot off a USB until next pay. I just want the best high performance htpc at the best price. This i3 is 317, for an asrock motherboard and a6 it is 40 cheaper, but the i3 is much better in benchmarks.

When I say games, I really just mean a few games like StarCraft 2 very rarely. Low setting.
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#5
Do you have a Microcenter in the area? They'll give you $50 off an i3-3225 and motherboard combination. Their prices are already lower than Newegg to start with, so you end up with a pretty good deal. You can get the i3-3225 with the ASRock H77M-ITX for a total of $165 plus tax. I just built an XBMC machine with this combination and I've been loving it.
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#6
No Microcenter here in Ontario, can't get half the parts in the suggested builds without paying lots of duty. Tried to order some stuff from amazon and it refused.
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#7
I think you can pick up a core i5 3750k for a couple buck more and get better integrated graphics. Good enough you would not have to purchase a card later. Usually micro enter will give you the same combo deal off at least in the states.
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