potential HTPC/steamlink build

dmobbjr

Honorable
Oct 2, 2012
16
0
10,510
Hello,

I am planning on building a living room PC and wanted to get a second opinion on whether the hardware I picked out will suffice. The PC will be used to stream video from a local server as well as possibly netflix and other online services. It will also be used for steam streaming from my PC. The steam streaming is what concerns me as I know there are some hardware requirements. This is my build so far.

CPU: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113371&ignorebbr=1
Mobo: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1N858S3725&ignorebbr=1
Memory: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428&ignorebbr=1
Case: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163239&ignorebbr=1
PSU: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151124&ignorebbr=1
Disk: a 7200rpm from my basement
Bluetooth: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6PF4837790&ignorebbr=1

Any advice on the build would be much appreciated. I'm pretty sure this will be fine but I don't have any experience with APUs so let me know if the CPU/ram combo won't be good enough for steam streaming.
 
Solution
about the same price overall but a much better system with room for upgrading in the future.
The gd09 is worth the extra $10 ,comes with 3x120mm fans & takes full size gpus.
Still low 320mm depth & will fit in an av rack or under the tv.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock B250M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($61.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($57.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 2GB Mini Video Card...
You might get more results in partpicker, as we won't have to open 7 different links and check between them.

What I would say is that I wouldn't touch an APU with a bargepole.

I used an I3-3220T (the 35W version) with no GPU for everything above except the steam streaming and it was fine, full HD MKV playing over the network, no problems.

Your mobo doesn't have HDMI2.0 (or any other combined video and audio output) so that's a really poor choice. HDMI 2.0 lets you do 4k in the future so is crucial for your purposes.
 

dmobbjr

Honorable
Oct 2, 2012
16
0
10,510
Thanks for the input. Yeah I'm gonna be using a 4k tv so I'll need the hdmi, didn't even think about it as 1440 is the highest I've gone so far. Any particular reason you don't like the APU, I feel the same way for an actual gaming machine but this one is just for streaming.
 
I just feel that they are underpowered for everything, they are neither one thing or another. As a CPU they hold back most GPUs and as a GPU they aren't much better than intels iGPU (which has a better CPU). A few years ago they had their place, AMD didn't grow them (they were working on Ryzen I assume).

And there is no upgrade path to follow. Currently BR+ plus discs need ivy + pascal to decode 4k (for licensing reasons not power reasons), what if some useful feature that needed more power came along, you're stuck.
 

dmobbjr

Honorable
Oct 2, 2012
16
0
10,510
Basically it just cost the minimum to do what I want and do it well. I guess I would max out at $500 because I don't see any reason why a streaming only pc should be more than that. I'm skeptical that a solid machine can't be built for sub 350 though given that the tasks are so basic.

edit: also about the intel integrated graphics, yeah its probably just as good but the chip is like twice the cost so if its the same graphics performance that doesn't really seem worth it to me
 

dmobbjr

Honorable
Oct 2, 2012
16
0
10,510
So I was hoping to do this for sub $300 but it looks like more of a $450 build. Here's what I am thinking now.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jMPvCy
and these two parts that partpicker didn't have.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137079&ignorebbr=1
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820242399&ignorebbr=1

I'm pretty confident that this build will handle any HTPC task I throw at it as well as steam streaming.

If anyone has any ideas how I could do this for cheaper, please let me know

edit: also I am assuming this board has UEFI but if anyone knows that it doesn't let me know as that's something I would like.
 
about the same price overall but a much better system with room for upgrading in the future.
The gd09 is worth the extra $10 ,comes with 3x120mm fans & takes full size gpus.
Still low 320mm depth & will fit in an av rack or under the tv.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock B250M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($61.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($57.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 2GB Mini Video Card ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Silverstone GD09B HTPC Case ($72.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $452.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-29 13:47 EDT-0400
 
Solution