small htpc build thoughts

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aambumann

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Jul 14, 2011
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I am putting together a parts list for a barebones small htpc. Would like some of your thoughts. It will be placed next to ps3 and tv, so kids can view internet to find game cheats,Netflix etc. while playing ps3 games. It would also possibly be used to play movie dvd's and that is about it. Thinking micro or mini atx. I know it will not need the type of the equipment I just used for a gaming pc build, but I was wondering what minimum specs I should look for. What size Psu ( watts and form), what kind and size of cpu, mobo, amount and speed of ram, would integrated graphics work, etc .I am not familiar with AMD and I have never built an AMD rig before so that might be a possibility as well as Intel. So any thoughts would help narrow down the search, think small. Thanks.
 
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Nuclear101

Nuclear101

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Jun 11, 2012
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I will use an A10-6800k as the CPU+GPU as you don't need a dedicated GPU for HTPC's. Use a Corsair H75 (if you can afford it, otherwise the stock cooler is fine) to cool it. Use a Western Digital 1-2Tb (depending on how much you want) Blue for everything (OS, movies, etc.), a Corsair RM 550 Watt for the PSU, 2x4Gb of Corsair Vengeance Pro at DDR3-1866MHz CAS 9 for the RAM, and mount everything inside of a Bitfenix Prodigy :)
 
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PEJUman

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Apr 27, 2008
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cheaper / smaller still would be MSI baytrail D (intel's atom) ITX that is coming out this month, or ECS KBN-I/5200 (AMD's kabini), both are sub 15W systems (CPU+GPU+Chipset). Caveats: these things can't really do 3D gaming. While the A10 above will get you somewhat bearable levels.
the MSI baytrail supposed to be priced around 60-80, while the KBN-I/5200 is ~140 at amazon. both are capable of 1080p accelerations for movies, and roughly comparable computing wise. you can put them inside antec ISK-150 or smaller.

if you want to go cheaper still, KBN-I/2100 can touch 30-40 range at newegg sometimes (i've see it at $35 after rebate earlier this week).
Problem is, this thing is quite slow CPU wise, although still 1080p capable. I wouldn't recommend this one due to the slow processor, but if you only going to have the kids browse on it, along with movies and DVD, it would do just fine.

note that at these level of performance, you will need to have the drivers and media players properly setup for hardware acceleration, otherwise you would end up with slideshows. If you're on windows 8.1 or 7, it should be fairly painless to setup.

Personally, I own a laptop with slightly slower processor than the KBN-I/5200 (A6-1450); I am very happy with its performance/price for daily computing needs. 1080p movies streams just fine, as well as amazon prime movies. Haven't tried netflix HD since I don't have it. I imagine if you use a HTML 5 Netflix (avoid silverlight for now) it would be accelerated by the GPU just fine.
 
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