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[Solved] Building a New HTPC

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Best answer from shortstuff_mt.

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roadrunner75   11-09-2009 at 10:51:18 PM

I am building my first HTPC. I want to store and play dvd and blu ray movies. I also want to keep this build under $500. Any and all comments are welcome.

Current Total: $481.93

1 GIGABYTE GA-MA785GPMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
$94.99

1 PC Power and Cooling Silencer PPCS370X 370W ATX12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
$39.99

1 Western Digital Caviar Green WD15EADS 1.5TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" $109.99

1 LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray Reader SATA Model iHOS104-06
$59.99

1 APEX TX-381-C Black Steel Micro ATX Tower Computer Case
$24.99

1 OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model OCZ3OB1600LV4GK
$78.99

1 AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core $66.00


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Best answer from shortstuff_mt
The integrated graphics in the 785G are plenty for Blu Ray playback. It's actually a Radeon HD 4200 GPU, not 3350 as stated above. The 780G used a Radeon HD 3200 GPU.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/des [...] ipset.aspx

http://techreport.com/articles.x/17328

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2381.html

The build looks good and will make a nice HTPC.
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wsupduck   11-10-2009 at 12:29:52 AM

good build, i am assuming you have an os, and you are using onboard graphics?

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roadrunner75   11-10-2009 at 12:39:28 AM

Yes I have a copy of windows 7. I am not sure if I will use the 32 or 64 bit version. I was also planning on using the on board graphic hoping that with the side port memory it will be enough for blu Ray playback.

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redgarl   11-10-2009 at 12:43:18 AM

It is, there is an HDMI output so I wouldn't worry too much. The IGP is a Radeon 3350, easily strong enough to render a Blu-Ray. I could be wrong, but in the worst case scenario, you will need to buy a 4670, which isn't even 50$.

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Silver Home Brew badge shortstuff_mt   11-10-2009 at 12:56:01 AM
Best answer

The integrated graphics in the 785G are plenty for Blu Ray playback. It's actually a Radeon HD 4200 GPU, not 3350 as stated above. The 780G used a Radeon HD 3200 GPU.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/des [...] ipset.aspx

http://techreport.com/articles.x/17328

http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2381.html

The build looks good and will make a nice HTPC.

Reply to shortstuff_mt
roadrunner75   11-10-2009 at 01:43:49 AM

The only other thing I was thinking about was a faster CPU. The one that I was looking at was a 95 watt CPU. Do you think that would run too hot?

Message quoted 1 times
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Bronze Home Brew badge overshocks   11-10-2009 at 02:02:03 AM

roadrunner75 wrote :

The only other thing I was thinking about was a faster CPU. The one that I was looking at was a 95 watt CPU. Do you think that would run too hot?



no it's good, get a heatsink

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wsupduck   11-10-2009 at 04:24:07 AM

I cant remember the prices on them but you could try getting a 4 core athlon

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roadrunner75   11-10-2009 at 05:36:02 PM

I will be putting this guy in a media cabnet with everything else. It will not have good air flow so I was a little concerned about heat. What I am hearing now is that I was a little too worried about that? Should I go with something like a AMD Athlon II X3 425 2.7GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Processor?


Message edited by roadrunner75 on 11-10-2009 at 05:37:00 PM
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roadrunner75   11-11-2009 at 04:00:33 AM

Would I be able to unlock either of these?

Reply to roadrunner75
frandreev   11-12-2009 at 09:23:42 PM

With any three-core product, you may or may not be able to unlook the 4th. It's a gamble; take it only if you can live with three cores for the price.

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wsupduck   11-13-2009 at 03:58:36 AM

Thats funny that you mention that because i just unlocked mine today :)))))))))))

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] s-m4a785td

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roadrunner75   11-13-2009 at 03:46:52 PM

That is great. Is sound like the Phenom's and the only ones that can really be unlocked. Why do the Athlon's not have the same chances?

Reply to roadrunner75
wsupduck   11-13-2009 at 11:09:21 PM

Not sure, the reason the phenom's work is because a 2 core phenom is a 4 core with 2 miscut cores

the 2 and 3 core atholons may have not been made this way

Reply to wsupduck
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