Cheap and little 1080P box

do u need your HTPC to be 3D ready?
meaning, ability to watch 3D movies on your 3D HDTV?

Also would you recommend any other cases? That case looks really ugly IMHO

i suggest you look on Newegg for all available cases...
i cant decide for you

eskro Wrote:i suggest you look on Newegg for all available cases...
i cant decide for you

Damn! lol I was hoping to not have to do any of the work!!! lol.

acesup_11 Wrote:Damn! lol I was hoping to not have to do any of the work!!! lol.

oh my.... lol

Newegg has a deal on this Micro-ATX mobo right now

http://tinyurl.com/4x586yt

I like this build, what should I go with on CPU for the mobo in this configuration?

Thanks for the kick-ass guide, BTW. It's extremely helpful for us HTPC first-timers.

BTW- I like this mobo specifically for it's optical/toslink out.
I have a surround sound system with limite inputs, so using optical is my best option.

EDIT: Here is what I've added to my cart so far

[Case] - $59.99 - http://tinyurl.com/5vr7uxq - SILVERSTONE Black Aluminum ML03B
[MOBO]- $59.99 - http://tinyurl.com/4yghfj6 - GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-S2P AM3+ AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
[CPU] - $119.99 - http://tinyurl.com/ybr6ncr - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB
[RAM] - $34.99 - http://tinyurl.com/49bjbb3 - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB)
[PSU] - $44.99 - http://tinyurl.com/ybywmxf - Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W PSU
[Fan] - $9.49 - http://tinyurl.com/ytnrpa - ENERMAX UC-8EB 80mm Case Fan
---------------
Total - $329.44






INTEL

[cpu] Intel Core I3-2100 3.1GHz LGA-1155 Dual-Core 65W ($123 + $0)
[mobo] MSI H61M-E33 (B3) LGA-1155 μATX ($70 + $0)
[gpu] EVGA GT210 512MB DDR3 32-bit Fanless Low Profile ($35 + $0)
[case] SILVERSTONE ML03B μATX ($60 + $0)
[psu] Antec EarthWatts 380W ATX12V ($40 + $0)
TOTAL: ($328)[/quote]

ARCHA1C, strong build, but do u need it that strong?

Thanks for the info, and the hard work compiling it etc, Eskro.

I'm looking at this build with a 2100, and I'm looking at the motherboard. As far as I can see there's not really any motherboard features that I need - my storage will be elsewhere, so a micro ATX board will do the job, and I should just go for whatever I feel is cheapest/decent manufacturer.

Was there anything specific about the GIGABYTE GA-H61M-S2-B3 that made you select it, or is it really just the manufacturer, form factor and chipset that you went for?

GIGABYTE motherboards are the BEst on the market in my opinion,,,,
Like ASUS once was,,,,

eskro Wrote:INTEL

[CPU] Intel Core I3-2100 Dual-Core 3.1GHz LGA-1155 65W ($118 + $0)
[mobo] ASUS P8H61-M LX (REV 3.0) LGA-1155 UEFI μATX ($70 + $0)
[GPU] ZOTAC GT210 512MB DDR3 64-bit Fanless Low Profile ($36 + $4)
[case] SILVERSTONE ML03B μATX ($60 + $0)
[PSU] SeaSonic SS-400ET 80+ Bronze 400W ATX12V ($43 + $9)
TOTAL: ($340)

any reason why you went with such a low powered GPU with an i3 cpu?
I mean you could of easily went with a high powered gpu and made this thing play pretty much any game you threw at it?