$1000 HTPC - Need Advice

[josie13]

Hi Everyone,

Can you look over my system build and give me your thoughts. I will be using this HTPC for movies (DVD/Blu-Ray). Most of my movies are stored on an HP MediaSmart Server that I will access from this pc. Other things I will use this pc for: Music, Television/Hulu and eventually connecting into DirectTV HD. I am not planning on using this for gaming, just media. I currently use Xbox 360s around the house as media center extenders and will continue to do that so streaming movies and music via ethernet connections is another use that I have tried to give myself extra processing power for.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: I am ready to buy

BUDGET RANGE: around $1000

Here is what I have come up with:

Case: Silverstone LC10B-E ATX Media Center HTPC case

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0 ghz socket AM3 95w Quad-core

Motherboard: ASUS M4A79T Deluxe AM3 DDR3 AMD 790FX ATX

Sound Card: ASUS Xonar HDAV 1.3 Slim PCI interface Audio card with True Blu-ray Audio

PSU: Thermaltake Purepower W0100RU 500W ATX 12V 2.0 power supply

Memory: G.Skill 4 Gb (2 x 2GB) 240-pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

Hard drive: seagate Barracude 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0 GB (I will eventually add in 2 more hard drives for additional storage)

Blu-Ray Burner: Pioneer Black BX Blu-Ray DVD Burner Model BDR-203BKS

** Future purchase: Dual Tuner TV cards (need to do more research on this so if you have any suggestions I would appreciate it. They have to connect into DirectTV HD tuner.

I will be running this in a Windows 7 environment.

Thanks for your help!!

 

[hunter315]

That build cannot work, get the M4A78T so you get the 790GX chipset with an IGP that the FX does not have. Stay clear of the 11 series they had firmware issues, get one of the 12 series drives. The 945 is a pretty strong processor if you arent going to be transcoding, a 545 would do just fine and save a ton.

 

[josie13]

Thanks Hunter for your suggestions. I am going to be doing trans coding, it is part of the reason I am upgrading so the quad core will be great for that. It is not uncommon for 2 movies to be trans coding and going to different locations at the same time - so the extra processing power is a must! I appreciate you catching the capability issue with the M4A79T - I guess I have been looking at these a bit too long!

 

[rwpritchett]

+1 hunter

You may also want to consider one of the newer 785G motherboards. From what I gather they run a bit cooler than the 790GX.

 

[hunter315]

They are also clocked a bit lower, they are the 780g board with dx10.1 support and smaller manufacturing so they really should run cooler, but really with a 945 the heat generated by the motherboard is going to be fairly minor.

Woah, i just took a look at that PSU you have listed, first rule of PSU, red switch BAD. The corsair 450vx is the same price on newegg, more powerful, and 80+ certified meaning it is quite efficient so it wont generate as much heat and it passed a 100% load test, the thermaltake is only listed as 70% efficient.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003&Tpk=450vx

 

[josie13]

Thanks for all of your suggestions, I really appreciate it!!