Need advice on a budget home theater pc build.

[fitch303]

Hey guys/gals I need advice on a home theater pc build that's in the planning stages. I tend to over-analyze EVERYTHING and without your input could spend WAY too much time figuring this out. I'm not looking for anyone to offer advice on a complete build, more so to point me in the right direction.

I use my sony laptop daily and I have a feeling it's about to crap out considering how old it is although it's never given me a single problem (god bless Sony). Essentially the thing sits on my desk and hasn't moved in years so I'd like to replace it with a small desktop build.

Here are some things to consider. I'm not a gamer....period. Before I describe my dislikes of the current setup you should know what I'm working with to have a solid frame of reference.
Sony laptop with a pentium t2080, 3 gigs of ram with onboard graphics and 250gig hard drive.
Yes it's old and unimpressive but the positive side is that it wont take much to blow it out of the water.

On to what I'm looking for.
I'd like a home theater pc but I'm also using it for school work and internet browsing (usually have 10-15 tabs open), I watch HD content 90% of the time and my laptop freezes if I have too many youtube tabs open

What I'm looking for.....

-As small of a case as possible that looks good.
-Able to watch 1080p on a full size tv 40-50 inches without any snags.
-I rarely turn off my computer so power consumption is to be considered.
-A motherboard with high quality soundoutput would be great, optical output.
-Blue ray disc player.
-I'm on a budget so Intel processors are a no go unless I can get a decent i5 processor with 4000hd onborad graphics, either an A series or FX with a video card that has hmdi out.
-Wifi
-not sure how I feel about overclocking so it wouldn't be a deal breaker.

All for around $400-450.

Any input would be greatly appriciated and if you have any questions or think I may be missing anything feel free to ask/suggest. Thanks guys/gals. Have a good Turkey day!

 

[fitch303]

Also I'd like to stay under $400.

Example of overanalyzing. I would also consider an intel dual/quadcore with intel 4000hd onboard graphics.

 

[NormH]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/28ZmV this is your build

 

[fitch303]

Thanks for the build and great price point but that case is a little big, i'd like for something more along the lines of a vhs tape deck or large shoe box. That a10 should have no problems with 1080p on such a large tv screen right? Thanks again.

 

[NormH]

i wouldnt go smaller than a mid tower but if you want there is this

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/290jv

 

[shortstuff_mt]

The builds above aren't bad, but don't fully satisfy the needs/wants from the OP. There is no Blu Ray player or WIFI included. Windows 8 doesn't support Windows Media Center or DVD playback out of the box. I also would strongly advise avoiding anything with a Raidmax PSU if you want a stable, long-living system.

There really needs to be a little wiggle room in the budget to get everything you have listed in the OP. Here's a build that includes a Blu Ray player (OEM, so it doesn't include playback software), built-in WIFI, an Antec PSU, and Windows 7 (Windows Media Center/DVD playback out of the box). It's a little over budget, but it includes everything you said you wanted for a fair price. You could save a little on a different hard drive, but I don't know what other corners you can cut and still get everything you're looking for.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/296hT

 

[NormH]

only 2 core and out of budget. going to be hard to stay within budget with all he wants. plus the 150w built in psu wont last in that build.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

only 2 core and out of budget. going to be hard to stay within budget with all he wants. plus the 150w built in psu wont last in that build.

I'm not going to get in a specs war here. He doesn't need anything more than a dual core for a HTPC and I would take a 150W Antec PSU over a Raidmax PSU any day. A quality PSU makes all the difference in having a stable system. I'll leave it up to the OP to decide what is most important in a build. I'm just simply giving more options and letting him know that the budget is too low for all that he wants...

 

[PepitoTV]

Here's my take, I think it has everything OP needs on his budget:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 6670 1GB Video Card ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill RNX-N150HG 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($22.97 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq 350W ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: LG UH12NS30 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $455.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-26 16:20 EST-0500)

 

[NormH]

6670 is a terrible card might as well go with an a10-5600k and onboard gpu

 

[shortstuff_mt]

6670 is a terrible card might as well go with an a10-5600k and onboard gpu

There's no need to shoot down everyone's builds because you don't agree with them. The 6670 is just fine for a HTPC. He did a good job putting a build together that came in right at the upper end of the budget and will do everything the OP requested. I decided to go with the smallest case possible which limited my optical drive and hard drive options, but the OP stated he wanted a very small case. Again, more options for the OP to consider...

 

[NormH]

im not im just saying that if you are going with that gpu the a10-5600k has the same gpu and you can lower the psu needs