Making a new HTPC

[Tridec]

Hi everyone,

I've got a reasonably straight foward question. I would like to make an HTPC system for use in my new home, but it has to be quite cheap as buying a new house is nowhere near cheap. I was thinking somewhere around €600, which when buying products here in europe is worth around 600 dollars.

I would like an extremly quite and "energy efficient" system. I'll be connecting it to my logitech Z5500 sound system, but might upgrade to something from Bose and a Philips HD TV through HDMI.

The system will need to play HD videos at whatever bitrate a want, music, get on the internet, bittorrent, and all in all your average Media PC usages. I would also like to be able to watch and record TV. (Both analog and digital). I doubt I'll do any gaming on it, but I would like have a PSU that allows a few upgrades including a decent gaming graphics card.

Please help me find something. Energy efficiency is probably the most important aspect of the build. I need something with very low idle power usage, as I doubt I'll be loading the system much.

I don't have any hardware prefrences, all I want is the best bang for buck.
I found a nice HTPC case (Nox live 2), but it will only fit a mATX MoBo.

Also my budget is not final, if you can think of something amazing that costs a bit more, don't hesitate on letting me know, I'm grateful for any and all help.


PS. I can cannabilize my current gaming rig and take out a 1 TB harddrive, soundcard and DVD rewriter if needed!


THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!

 

[ScrewySqrl]

ok, here's my suggestion:

i3-2100
a dual core sandy bridge, will be low-power (65W) and fast enough for any task.

this motherboard has traditional RJ-45 jacks and an optical out
AS Rock H67M

a basic 4GB DDR3-1333 (G.Skill, Mushkin, Kingston, Crucial, whatever is cheapest. get a 2x2GB kit)

a 1 TB or 2 TB hard drive (Samsung, Seagate are good choices)

Blue ray reader

HD6570 (a very solid GPU, that can handle light gaming at 720P)

Antec EarthWatts 380W (You'll have to cannibalize a power cord)

Keep that Nox Live 2 case if you like it, I'd suggest maximizing your fans however. (2 80mm and 2 120mm fans), get a couple with noise levels around 20dB

 

[Tridec]

Thanks for your reply.
I was thinking something along the same lines. But I was considering the i5 2300 as it didn't really dent my budget, but I was worried about power draw, being a quad core.

Do you know if it's possible to build a computer based on notebook hardware?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

it is, sorta. Sandy Bridge was originally designed as a notebook chip, its usually more expensive