first budget htpc build. what do we think?

woody0111

Honorable
Apr 26, 2013
55
0
10,630
Hi all,

I want to build a budget htpc as a bit of a project. I only really want to use it for blu rays/ streaming and some light gaming. I've made up a list and just wanted to know if anyone thinks its ok or has any alternatives.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/woody0111/saved/1wXa

I think the cpu will be fine for blu rays and such but i guess i'll need to add a discrete graphics for games later.

What do we think?
 
socket fm1 platform is dead end. you'd be s.o.l. if you want to upgrade in the future. since it's amd, you might need to upgrade. that's why socket fm2 is better, with amd a10-5800k and a socket fm2 motherboard with preferably a85x chipset from asus, gigabyte or asrock. if you wait a while, who knows, you might even catch one of the new richland apus (amd a10 6800k).
 

woody0111

Honorable
Apr 26, 2013
55
0
10,630
OK well I've updated the list. I'm really Trying to do this on a budget and it doesn't need to be massively powerful as I won't be doing any video editing or anything like that. I just don't want to keep plugging my laptop into the TV!
 

Aristotelian

Distinguished
Jun 21, 2012
579
0
19,160
My recommendation would depend somewhat on how much (and what kind) of gaming you intend to do. If you want that capacity, you should build the specs to the most intensive thing you want to do. Essentially you would be building a gaming PC in an HTPC case. If you really won't be doing much gaming, then with the current build you will be wasting a lot of power and your specs will be overkill. You could get a much cheaper and more efficient system if you would build this strictly as HTPC, e.g. around i3 or Pentium/Celeron. It seems like the build that you have now is trying to split the difference, but you have specs that will not be all that great for gaming, but will be wasting a lot of energy if it is being used mostly as HTPC.

Also keep in mind, for the HTPC case you will be limited to "slim" video cards.

This would save you about 40 pounds and increase your efficiency by about 45 watts, but you would not be able to do much, if any, gaming.

Alternatively, if you really wanted to do gaming, I would build a gaming PC and connect it to your TV.

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/TOHV
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/TOHV/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/TOHV/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Celeron G1610 2.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£32.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£61.49 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£20.43 @ Dabs)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£43.13 @ Aria PC)
Case: Silverstone ML03B HTPC Case
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£34.50 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHOS104-06 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Drive (£21.99 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £214.53
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-29 16:49 BST+0100)