Mini ITX HTPC [Athlon 5350][Xigmatek Nebula]...

[robinspi]

Hello everybody 

 

So, I am looking at building a MiniITX HTPC for my grandparents, because they are using an extremely old toshiba satelite laptop (which was scrapped for parts and I salvaged) for a secondary computer. The funny thing is that they have a perfectly good 55" 1080p TV screen that they only use for the nightly news, and occasional other shows. I think that that would be something to take advantage of...

 

BTW, I am building in a Xigmatek Nebula (aluminum, not the plastic one) which I think is one of the sexiest looking MiniITX cases out there under $80.

 

Bought:

 

• [ $60 ] -- Xigmatek Nebula MiniITX Aluminium case
• [ $30 ] -- RAIDMAX XT 400W Power supply (a bit overkill for the rest of the below partlist)

 

To-Buy:

 

• [ $50 ] -- AMD Athlon 5350
• [ $20 ] -- (with rebate) MSI MiniITX AM1I Motherboard
• [ $23 ] -- G.Skill Ripjaws X 4GB 1866MHz CL9 DDR3 SDRAM
• [ $40 ] -- Silicon Power S60 128GB SSD

--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--

 

I am being funded by them for the rest of the system, and I have to keep those parts under $150 (preferably ~$125 by decree of mis abuelos).

 

As for an OS, I am going to be using Linux (Slackware/Arch Linux, which I have grown up on), and probably KDE Plasma 5 DE.

 

Do you think that the system can handle it? And in general, what do you all think of it?

 

 

^{(And if you offer an "refinements", then I would like it to be on newegg, as I have had the best experience with them, especially with RMAs)}

[dragoon20005]

oh no RAIDMAX!!!

 

 

kill it with fire!!!

 

no serious that PSU is a fire hazard

[robinspi]

oh no RAIDMAX!!!

 

 

kill it with fire!!!

 

no serious that PSU is a fire hazard

 

 

Really? Well, that was a bad idea... and I already got it... Oh well. I might be able to sell it off on ebay and get a better one later. I think it is low enugh wattage that it shouldn't affect anything as of now. I will keep an eye out for a good cheap one. Got any suggestions for a 30ish dollar PSU 350-400W?

[laquine]

Really? Well, that was a bad idea... and I already got it... Oh well. I might be able to sell it off on ebay and get a better one later. I think it is low enugh wattage that it shouldn't affect anything as of now. I will keep an eye out for a good cheap one. Got any suggestions for a 30ish dollar PSU 350-400W?

Well newegg has some seasonic psu from 300watt to 400watt ranges in the $35 - $50 range. Most of the cheaper ones are in grey in color but I'm sure you could paint it if it really bothered the look of the build.

[dragoon20005]

Really? Well, that was a bad idea... and I already got it... Oh well. I might be able to sell it off on ebay and get a better one later. I think it is low enugh wattage that it shouldn't affect anything as of now. I will keep an eye out for a good cheap one. Got any suggestions for a 30ish dollar PSU 350-400W?

for low power PC The EVGA 400 or the Corsair CX430M should do the trick

[_blackknight_]

you spend 60$ on the case and 74$ on cpu and board?

wow

[saab_gobbler]

you spend 60$ on the case and 74$ on cpu and board?

wow

Hey man, don't hate the budget tv build! 

 

@OP, as a fellow linux enthusiast, I must warn you from personal experience that it's never a good idea to setup family/friends with unfamiliar (to them) distros unless you're prepared to commit to yearsssss of free tech support ;] Toss something easy on there that they can't break (like an ubuntu LTS release or even *shudders* winblows). Unity is probably also more TV friendly. Either way, just glad to see a fellow Linux user =] [i used to be a hardcore Fedora user, but when awful gnome 3 & KDE 4 came around I switched to mint {cinnamon} & ubuntu depending on the needs of the system]

[jozza]

Hey, I've just built something like that for my Home Entertainment Center!

 

From my experience, you will need an additional GPU. I also tried to avoid investing in GPU, but APU couldn't handle HD by itself. My TV is also 55 inch 1080p (Samsung), and video quality was quite inconsistent. So I added ASUS GTX 750 2 Gb and it now works perfectly.

 

At first, I only wanted to watch movies on my rig, but now, when I bought additional graphics, I mainly use it as a console - I installed a bunch of split screen games to play against my kids and, let me tell you, for most of such games (NBA, PES, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, GriD2,...) frame rate is 60+ FPS even on high settings - so, we all now have great fun, for under 300 bucks...

 

My rig:

CPU: Athlon 5350 Box

MoBo: MSI AM1

GPU: ASUS GTX 750 2 Gb DDR5 RAM

SSD: Kingston V300, 120 Gb

External disk: Transcend 1 Tb usb 3.0

RAM: Kingston Hyper X Blu 8 Gb (2 x 4) DDR3 @ 1600 Mhz (you don't need more, cause APU and MoBo both support RAM speed of up to 1600 Mhz)

Case: Cooler Master Elite 110

PSU: Cooler Master 400 W

[robinspi]

you spend 60$ on the case and 74$ on cpu and board?

wow

 

It has to look good. If it was me, the case would have been nearer to $40... but as it is, my grandfather has a ton of other electronics down there that look nearly identical to this case, so... It is what it is...  -.-

 

 

for low power PC The EVGA 400 or the Corsair CX430M should do the trick

 

Thanks. I saw the Corsair one last night. I'll try and find a buyer for the RAIDMAX. I'd hate to tell them that I messed up in buying a part becuase they would freak out.   I'll use the RAIDMAX for now WITH CAUTION, and maybe get them to chip in an extra $35-ish for some higher-quality parts (I don't think they would disapprove of that.   )

 

 

Hey man, don't hate the budget tv build! 

 

@OP, as a fellow linux enthusiast, I must warn you from personal experience that it's never a good idea to setup family/friends with unfamiliar (to them) distros unless you're prepared to commit to yearsssss of free tech support ;] Toss something easy on there that they can't break (like an ubuntu LTS release or even *shudders* winblows). Unity is probably also more TV friendly. Either way, just glad to see a fellow Linux user =] [i used to be a hardcore Fedora user, but when awful gnome 3 & KDE 4 came around I switched to mint {cinnamon} & ubuntu depending on the needs of the system]

 

They were able to sign in from a Slackware 13 with Lilo with no issues (on the old toshiba satelite), and found XFCE rather easy to use... They were stuck on windows 2000, and their "new" main machine still uses vista (Augggghh!)    I think that KDE Plasma 5 won't be too horrible as all they want to do is stream youtube and maybe have a couple pictures/downloads. Provided I have firefox shortcut on the desktop and a file manager, I think they will be OK. And other than maybe Pantheon, I think that KDE 5 will be the best for them. They aren't exactly tehcnical idiots, either... But I will hang onto that advice.

 

Edit: I have installed full Slackware 14.0 on another ooooold computer and it worked like a breeze. It relieved it from the weight of XP and gave it a couple more years of use. I think slackware 14.1 will be sturdy enough. And if not, I can go to ArchLinux, as I find that one to be rock solid as well.

 

Edit 2: I have looked at a bunch of reviews and apparently KDE 5 is soooooo much more stable and nicer, so I will give it a shot. If not, I'll try the above mentioned pantheon and if not, Cinnamon/MATE. If it ends up being too heavy, XFCE might have to do... But, "that remains to be seen"   (The Hobbit reference ).

[robinspi]

Hey, I've just built something like that for my Home Entertainment Center!

 

From my experience, you will need an additional GPU. I also tried to avoid investing in GPU, but APU couldn't handle HD by itself. My TV is also 55 inch 1080p (Samsung), and video quality was quite inconsistent. So I added ASUS GTX 750 2 Gb and it now works perfectly.

 

At first, I only wanted to watch movies on my rig, but now, when I bought additional graphics, I mainly use it as a console - I installed a bunch of split screen games to play against my kids and, let me tell you, for most of such games (NBA, PES, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, GriD2,...) frame rate is 60+ FPS even on high settings - so, we all now have great fun, for under 300 bucks...

 

My rig:

CPU: Athlon 5350 Box

MoBo: MSI AM1

GPU: ASUS GTX 750 2 Gb DDR5 RAM

SSD: Kingston V300, 120 Gb

External disk: Transcend 1 Tb usb 3.0

RAM: Kingston Hyper X Blu 8 Gb (2 x 4) DDR3 @ 1600 Mhz (you don't need more, cause APU and MoBo both support RAM speed of up to 1600 Mhz)

Case: Cooler Master Elite 110

PSU: Cooler Master 400 W

 

Hmmm. I don't, but you are probably using Windows... From what I have heard/seen on the internet,the APU can push a youtube stream fine if you have the internet for it... I am also using Linux, not Windows, which I am 90% will improve performance. But I will keep that in mind. I think I can get my hands on an r7 250 for cheap, so I'll keep an eye out...

 

And just so you know, they never intend to play any sort of game other than maybe chess. (My grandfather still has a deck of cards he's been using for years, and he has a whole library of reader's digest books to keep him company.)

 

Oh and nice rig. Looks like somwthing I might have built for myself. 

 

Edit: You also were probably using Chrome, which is a resource hog and is much heavier in general that Firefox. I have seen the difference, and (funnily enough) so did my grandparents. They used to use Chrome, but it was way too slow, and lagged out way too much. Now they are using Firefox, and are having a better time, and less (though not entireley gone) lag.

 

And I since I grew up on linux, I also grew up with Firefox, and I am much better at helping people with Firefox than Chrome (the new menu is so much cleaner and nicer now too, especially with the customize button)

[robinspi]

PSUs for replacing the RAIDMAX  (wow, I still can't believe I bought it...):

 

 

 

Antec 450W :: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371045  $

EVGA 430W :: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438015 $$

Corsair 430WM :: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=17-139-049 $$$

 

The Antec had somewhat worse reviews than the EVGA,

The EVGA is 80+ non-modular continuous supply with the best reviews.

The Corsair has worst reviews of the three but is modular.

[robinspi]

Price update as per newegg price drops.

 

OP updated