2014-02-19, 19:25
Hiyo.
I'm planning on building a new PC that will serve as my standard desktop and HTPC.
I'm assuming (possibly wrongly) that most people build a HTPC for the dedicated (or at least signficantly prime) purpose of home cinema, whereas mine might need to be a bit more general-purpose. I'm not too worried if this necessitates a tower rather than a nice compact box, or if it might be a little noisier than a proper HTPC (though obviously still aiming for a quiet machine).
- I have a budget of around £350.
- Its primary usage will be surfing web, xbmc, MS Office stuff, iTunes. Various other general PC stuff, but little to no gaming.
- Intend on connecting it to the main TV, of which I'll also be getting a new one soon, so hopefully I won't need a seperate monitor.
The only things I have at present are an ext HD (WD Elements 2TB) for movies, which I used to plug directly into my old Samsung TV, and latterly (& much betterly) into a Raspberry Pi. Plus I have an internal HD (500GB SATA) containing my iTunes library, which I installed into an external case and USB'ed to, cos my last PC couldn't deal with it internally...
Having looked at the likes of Ebuyer, Overclockers, JW Enterprise's Ebay listings, AVForums, Tom's Hardware etc etc, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the array of available components (it's been a few years since I built a PC).
I'm thinking my new machine should consist of:
- A 2TB HD or better. It may also be wise for me to install the 500GB SATA internally as a secondary drive.
- 8Gb RAM
- All the usual connectivity, but certainly HDMI out, perhaps a couple of USB 3 as well as the USB 2s
- Graphics card that can happily handle 1080p
- (Quad-core ?) AMD processor
- Appropriate motherboard & PSU
- Wireless keyboard & mouse
- Nice quiet case - doesn't have to be compact
- Win7 Home Prem 64bit
To get me started, please can anyone suggest some components? What would you say is the essential starting point?
Thanks!
I'm planning on building a new PC that will serve as my standard desktop and HTPC.
I'm assuming (possibly wrongly) that most people build a HTPC for the dedicated (or at least signficantly prime) purpose of home cinema, whereas mine might need to be a bit more general-purpose. I'm not too worried if this necessitates a tower rather than a nice compact box, or if it might be a little noisier than a proper HTPC (though obviously still aiming for a quiet machine).
- I have a budget of around £350.
- Its primary usage will be surfing web, xbmc, MS Office stuff, iTunes. Various other general PC stuff, but little to no gaming.
- Intend on connecting it to the main TV, of which I'll also be getting a new one soon, so hopefully I won't need a seperate monitor.
The only things I have at present are an ext HD (WD Elements 2TB) for movies, which I used to plug directly into my old Samsung TV, and latterly (& much betterly) into a Raspberry Pi. Plus I have an internal HD (500GB SATA) containing my iTunes library, which I installed into an external case and USB'ed to, cos my last PC couldn't deal with it internally...
Having looked at the likes of Ebuyer, Overclockers, JW Enterprise's Ebay listings, AVForums, Tom's Hardware etc etc, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the array of available components (it's been a few years since I built a PC).
I'm thinking my new machine should consist of:
- A 2TB HD or better. It may also be wise for me to install the 500GB SATA internally as a secondary drive.
- 8Gb RAM
- All the usual connectivity, but certainly HDMI out, perhaps a couple of USB 3 as well as the USB 2s
- Graphics card that can happily handle 1080p
- (Quad-core ?) AMD processor
- Appropriate motherboard & PSU
- Wireless keyboard & mouse
- Nice quiet case - doesn't have to be compact
- Win7 Home Prem 64bit
To get me started, please can anyone suggest some components? What would you say is the essential starting point?
Thanks!