Budget HTPC

margincall

January 7, 2010 5:34:25 AM

Before I pull the trigger on this AMD CPU and 785G MB build, can anyone verify that these components are compatible and offer any suggestions for improvement?

(combo) ASUS M4A785-M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard + AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.315818

(combo) APEVIA Black SECC Steel / Aluminum X-MASTER-BK/500 ATX Media Center / HTPC Case + IOGEAR GKM561R Black 2.4GHz Wireless Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.312636

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098

Western Digital Caviar Green WD6400AACS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" HDD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136298

LITE-ON Black 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS424-98 LightScribe Support
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106335

after the tax and shipping costs (ugh), the total comes out to $461.43

Does everything look good? I will be using this for the basic HTPC functions: 1080p HD playback, movies, music, light data storage, casual gaming (nothing more intensive than WoW or CoD:MW2).

I'd like to get the price down even further if possible.

More about : budget htpc

| E-mail me updates
| Report abuse

Dougie Fresh

January 7, 2010 12:11:03 PM

Seems like the only complaint about that case is the PSU. Personally, I am not a big fan (no pun intended) of the huge fan on the front of the case. But, that's a personal choice for sure. If you do decide to go with that case, make sure the PSU is a standard size in case you need to swap it out. You can't beat the price though, can you?

| Report abuse

margincall

January 7, 2010 11:42:15 PM

Dougie Fresh said:

Seems like the only complaint about that case is the PSU. Personally, I am not a big fan (no pun intended) of the huge fan on the front of the case. But, that's a personal choice for sure. If you do decide to go with that case, make sure the PSU is a standard size in case you need to swap it out. You can't beat the price though, can you?

You mean because of noise concerns or looks? I'm okay with the aesthetics of the case, but I don't want too much noise from the system. If anyone has any experience with this particular case/psu, I'd love to find out how loud it is.

Regarding the PSU size, how exactly do I tell if it's standard size or not?

| Report abuse