Please check my HTPC build before I buy

[evandyk]

After much hemming and hawing about AMD v. Intel, and then G620 v. i3-2100 (thanks to rwpritchett for advice), I've come down on the following.

If I could have your advice as to whether everything will work together, that would be great. Everything is from newegg.ca except for the processor, which they don't have in stock right now, so I will order from ncix.

Antec ISK 300-65 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case

ASUS P8H61-M LX (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Intel Pentium Dual Core G620T Low Power Processor LGA1155 2.20GHZ 3MB Cache

G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBNS

Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

SAMSUNG Spinpoint M8 HN-M750MBB 750GB 5400 RPM 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive

SAMSUNG 8X Slim Internal DVD Burner, OEM Package Without Software Black SATA Model SN-208BB - OEM

The total package is about $520 before taxes and shipping.

If I have never built a computer before (although I have on a few occasions installed parts into them) is it crazy to start in this tiny case?

 

[Outlander_04]

depends how small your fingers are

and what else you might add ... like a tv card or graphics card

 

[rwpritchett]

The motherboard you've selected is micro-ATX. You'll need a mini-ITX board to fit in that ITX case. Like this one:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131727

 

[megadelayed]

no point in getting the 620t, get the standard g620 instead and if you really need the lower power simply set the multiplier to 22, the only thing you will be missing out on is the 620t cooler which is tiny but the the standard g620 cooler will fit in your case.

 

[Dougie Fresh]

Your motherboard also doesn't have an HDMI port. I have the motherboard rwpritchett recommends and it's excellent. Make sure you use the graphics driver that comes with the motherboard. You might get lucky, but in both the ASUS H61 motherboards I have, with a G620 and i3-2100, the latest drivers BSOD.

Consider too the new G530 CPU that just came out. Same HD 1000 iGPU as the G620 but clocked at 2.4GHz instead of 2.6GHz with a slightly smalled cache but still more than enough for media playback.

 

[itxgamer]

Make sure you order the ITX version of that board, the P8H61-I.

The 65w power makes me nervous. I know your trying for a low power build, but a 65w PSU is meant for Atom or maybe Brazos. Not H61 and Pentiums. Maybe try the Antek ISK 300-150 instead? Its only $10 more.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129080

Same case, bit more power. The system will draw the same amount of power with the larger PSU but there's a bit more wiggle room.

 

[megadelayed]

Make sure you order the ITX version of that board, the P8H61-I.

The 65w power makes me nervous. I know your trying for a low power build, but a 65w PSU is meant for Atom or maybe Brazos. Not H61 and Pentiums. Maybe try the Antek ISK 300-150 instead? Its only $10 more.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129080

Same case, bit more power. The system will draw the same amount of power with the larger PSU but there's a bit more wiggle room.

the 65w psu should be fine as i have a build like this, specs are:
pentium g620
4gb ddr3
biostar TH61ITX
kingston 30gb ssd
liteon 24x dvd drive
i have a crappy unknown brand 300w psu that came with the case and at full load it uses 59.8w furmark (from the plug), 57w while running prime95 and 35w idle

 

[evandyk]

I wanted this case (and the low power CPU) to keep the heat and noise down. I'll check out the G530.

I did notice I had the wrong motherboard, and was going to get the Asus m-ITX H61 version.

What is involved in "reducing the multiplier" on these things?

 

[megadelayed]

I wanted this case (and the low power CPU) to keep the heat and noise down. I'll check out the G530.

I did notice I had the wrong motherboard, and was going to get the Asus m-ITX H61 version.

What is involved in "reducing the multiplier" on these things?

trust me there is hardly any difference between the t and the non t versions, i have a link somewhere that shows a review but i cant find it now, i will post it when i find it. but really intel does not sell the "cream of the crop" chips as the low power chips now, all it is just they lowered the clock speed and lowered the stock v core while packing a smaller cooler, thats all so if you are really desperate for that few watts then just get the g620 and go into your bios and set the clock multi to 22 (22x100=2200mhz=2.2ghz) and there is pretty much no difference to the 620t in terms of power consumption and getting a sightly bigger heatsink. plus there is the option to set it back to 2.6ghz when you really need the performance