Mini ITX HTPC build

My build is:

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
MEMORY: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P10664GK
$133.98
CASE: Winsis Wi-02 Black SGCC / ABS Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 200W Power Supply
$40.99
DVD DRIVE: Sony Optiarc Slim Combo Black SATA Model CRX890S-10
$34.99

Tell me whats better:

#1 CPU & MOBO: Zotac IONITX-A-U Atom N330 Dual Core 90-Watt PSU WiFi ITX Intel Motherboard (9400M integrated graphic with dual core 1.6)
$189.99
or

#2 CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor
MOBO: ZOTAC GF8200-C-E AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8200 Mini ITX AMD Motherboard
$157.98

I know that the CPU on #2 is a lot better, but the graphics are worse than #1 that has a 9400M

This build is mainly for a HTPC, but I want to game too.

My budget is $400, but I can go a bit over

Please help, Thank you

on board graphics are marginal at best, if you are going to game you'll need a good card get ready to go over the budget

Look for the Gelid low profile cooler for the above build. (I built something similar, and had no room to install the HSF) Make sure to get all SATA drives, as that board has no IDE or Floppy (not really needed anyway) here's the cooler:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835426022
$25 Gelid Solutions Slim Silence 775 (still works better than the stock one, and has a backplate)

*EDIT* This is the case I used: http://www.amazon.com/Apex-Mi-100- [...] 424&sr=8-5
$70 Apex Mi-100, has a 250W PSU.

Neither, the Zotac GF9300-D-E is the best solution that I can see. A word of warning, Zotac boards have issues about Wake on USB. You can save a bit by getting a 500GB HDD instead of the suggested 1TB.

*EDIT* drop the OCZ 1066, it's just too expensive for my taste. If you insist on 1066 look at the G.Skill instead
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231166
$55 G.Skill DDR2 1066 2x2GB

on the case review they say it can fit a stock cooler

the NVIDEA cards under the 9500 are not high performance, you need 9600 at least to game with, and a single card will be better for you, even a 8600 would work with most games

From what I've been able to glean using Google, only the 9800GTX/GX2, 8400GS, and 8500GT are capable of Hybrid SLI and maybe not all of those with the 9300.

-Wolf sends

Hi,

I built my htpc with intel D945GCLF2.

It plays 720p videos no problem with coreavc under xp/vista.

Recently, I added a Sparkle 9400GT PCI to it and installed vista x64.

Plays 1080p mkv no problems with MPC HC (with dxva).

However, forget the atom to play any decent game.

You need a good amd/intel dual-core for this.

Even at 1024x768, TF2 is lagging.

Brad