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1st time HTPC build - serving two rooms

Forum Homebuilt Systems : New System Build - 1st time HTPC build - serving two rooms

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juandiablo   01-22-2009 at 07:30:26 AM

Looking to use this build for serving up audio and video to two rooms on a $750 budget:

MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2HP AMD 780G HDMI mATX Motherboard - $79.99
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor - $53.99
MEM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 - $74.00
HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 1TB 3.5" 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $94.99
HDD: Seagate Momentus 7200.3 250GB 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Notebook Hard Drive - $79.99
BD: LG Black Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner SATA Model GGC-H20L - $119.99
Case: Antec Fusion Remote Black - $169.95
PSU: SILVERSTONE ST400 400W Power Supply - $44.99
Cost: $760 with shipping

Can this spec keep up with two HD displays or do you think it will need a second GPU to keep up?

Would the extra $60 for a 790GX/SB7500/3300 mobo be worth it?

I was planning on using the laptop drive for the OS, audio files and download cache. Will that help keep my heat/noise down or is it a waste of money?

Thanks in advance for any opinions . . .

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Silver Home Brew badge shortstuff_mt   01-22-2009 at 05:26:17 PM
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I'd ditch the 2.5" HD and get this for the same price:

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136319 $79.99

The new 640GB drives are pretty quiet and very fast. I don't think using a slow notebook drive is really going to cut down the heat/noise much at all.

That build should do what you need as-is. You can always add a GPU later if you need to.

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rwpritchett   01-22-2009 at 05:40:45 PM
- 0 +

I personally like the idea of the notebook drive. My HTPC has the WD 1TB green drive and I think its still too loud. I've considered getting a notebook drive or SSD for the OS/apps and use the 1TB drive exclusively for media. The 7200 rpm notebook drives aren't too sluggish IMO. Have you considered SSD's?

Also, theres a 45W Athlon 5050e out there that's a little faster than the 4850e. For some reason newegg doesn't carry it, but other sites (mwave, directron, tigerdirect) do.

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juandiablo   01-22-2009 at 09:33:17 PM
- 0 +

My hope was to find a balance between power consumption, size, cost and noise. A comparably priced SSD only gets me 32GB of storage from a no-name mfg so that didn't seem like a good route yet.

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