HTPC - Advice

[Eddyyz]

Hey guys,

Looking at building an HTPC for watching movies and watching streams/Youtube. I've listed the parts that I am interested in below, please let me know what you guys think of it. When you're going through the hardware please take note of: hardware that I've gone too cheap on; hardware that is too expensive and I wouldn't really utilize it and most of all that everything is compatible. I am not keen on spending more than the total amount of the parts below, so if you recommend anything else please try keep it either the same price or cheaper. (Please stick to Intel and Nvidia - because - fan boy ).

Chassis: Corsair Obsidian 250D - http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Obsidian-250D-Mini-CC-9011047-WW/dp/B00HFRTF5W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438821829&sr=8-1&keywords=Corsair+250D
Processor: Intel Haswell Pentium G3470 - http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Pentium-G3470-Dual-core-Processor/dp/B00VDWJZJQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438821863&sr=8-1&keywords=BX80646G3470
Motherboard: MSI B85M-E45 - http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Computer-MicroATX-Motherboard-B85M-E45/dp/B00IZHHBR0

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LP, 4GB, DDR3-1600, CL9 X 2 (8GB in total) - http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance-Desktop-Memory-CML4GX3M1A1600C9/dp/B005W2A5M4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438865066&sr=8-1&keywords=CML4GX3M1A1600C9
GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 750 Ti - http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GDDR5-2GB-2xHDMI-Graphics-GV-N75TOC-2GI/dp/B00IGQ4UX8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438865159&sr=8-1&keywords=GV-N75TOC-2GI
HDD: Western Digital Black 1TB (Already own this, so not considered in the price total) - http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-WD1002FAEX-Internal-Desktop/dp/B0036Q7MV0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438822134&sr=8-1&keywords=Western+Digital+Black+1+t
PSU: Corsair CX430M - http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-CX430M-supply-internal-100-240/dp/B00ALYOYMU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438866734&sr=8-1&keywords=CP-9020058-EU
 
Any recommendations/opinions would be appreciated.

Cheers
eddyyz

 

[LIGISTX]

Well, if its just an HTPC, there is no real "need" for a gtx 750... at all... I would use the integrated Intel graphics, save a bunch of money as well as cut down on the electricity and heat of the system. The rest is pretty good, possibly don't need 8 gigs of RAM, but I would do 8 myself so I can't really argue with that. I think overall that is a pretty bad ass little HTPC.

 

Remember, if you have a main computer you use for gaming, you can always stream games via steam game streaming or nvidia game streaming, so no need for that 750 ti....

[LIGISTX]

ALSO, that mobo isn't itx.... its m atx. That mobo will not fit in the 250d. Need to find a itx mobo (there are plenty of them out there).

[Eddyyz]

Well, if its just an HTPC, there is no real "need" for a gtx 750... at all... I would use the integrated Intel graphics, save a bunch of money as well as cut down on the electricity and heat of the system. The rest is pretty good, possibly don't need 8 gigs of RAM, but I would do 8 myself so I can't really argue with that. I think overall that is a pretty bad ass little HTPC.

 

Remember, if you have a main computer you use for gaming, you can always stream games via steam game streaming or nvidia game streaming, so no need for that 750 ti....

 

Interesting, didn't really think of excluding the GPU. I also just realized that the original mobo I included wouldn't fit into the chassis. So I changed it above (URL didn't change for some reason). So do you think this motherboard would work for what I need to use the PC for?

RE 8 gigs of ram, yea same here. Just got 8 just because

I don't think I'll do any game streaming - more watching gaming streams.

[LIGISTX]

Interesting, didn't really think of excluding the GPU. I also just realized that the original mobo I included wouldn't fit into the chassis. So I changed it above (URL didn't change for some reason). So do you think this motherboard would work for what I need to use the PC for?

RE 8 gigs of ram, yea same here. Just got 8 just because

I don't think I'll do any game streaming - more watching gaming streams.

The mobo link is still wrong lol. But the "MSI B85M-E45" that you have listed will work.

 

As far as streaming went I meant stream to yourself from you main PC (Assuming you have a main PC with a more powerful GPU). But if you don't plan on that, the gtx 750 really isn't required... Unless you do want to game on this PC and don't want to stream from steam on your other computer for instance.

[Eddyyz]

The mobo link is still wrong lol. But the "MSI B85M-E45" that you have listed will work.

 

As far as streaming went I meant stream to yourself from you main PC (Assuming you have a main PC with a more powerful GPU). But if you don't plan on that, the gtx 750 really isn't required... Unless you do want to game on this PC and don't want to stream from steam on your other computer for instance.

Yeah not sure why it didn't change  

I am 99% sure I won't play games or stream games to it. So I do think you have a very valid point of excluding the GPU. As you said, I won't really utilize it with desktop applications. I'd rather put that money else where, like an SSD.

[Prysin]

just make a APU setup. For realz, that is MUCH stronger then most intel setups, and you CAN set one up for like... 350 USD, if you do not plan to OC it

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-7850K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($118.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A68M-DG3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($40.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($22.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($30.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $266.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-06 09:52 EDT-0400

 

 

AND, if you want to OC it to play games

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-7850K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($118.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120V 86.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($48.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($22.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($30.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $309.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-06 09:53 EDT-0400


  Didnt include HDD since you already got one

 

 

yes, a 120mm Rad and a $10 more expensive mobo is ALL you need, seriously... this thing can do BF4, 1080p at around 30FPS with low settings. That may not sound impressive, but running purely off intergrated graphics, that is more then enough.

 

Prices before rebates:

Non OC setup: $$281.95

OC Setup: $342.94

 

Enjoy

 

EDIT.

Even if you are a diehard fanboy. Intel and Nvidia has nothing in the APU pricerange that is worth it. It costs too much, and the whole point of a HTPC is silence and form factor. If you are truly willing to flesh out money, you can get this setup into a tiny tiny ITX setup, size wont matter for these kinds of builds.

The performance is real, i own one of these setups myself, ive built 2 more like it. They play games incredibly well, for everything else, they are super, no issues.

 

AMD vs Nvidia drivers - no difference. Nvidia got a slight bonus with their CPU overhead, but quality wise, as a 3+ year long AMD user (Nvidia prior to that), i can say that there is no real day to day issues with AMD. They do hiccup in some older titles, but their most horrible defect so far is in Age of Empires 2, where the seawater turns purple instead of blue. That is the only major driver error i got from AMD for years now.

[Eddyyz]

just make a APU setup. For realz, that is MUCH stronger then most intel setups, and you CAN set one up for like... 350 USD, if you do not plan to OC it

Yeah, I think I am going to go that route. I did update some of the parts. What do you think?

 

Chassis: Corsair Obsidian 250D - http://www.amazon.co...ds=Corsair 250D

Processor: Intel Haswell Pentium G3470 - http://www.amazon.co...ds=BX80646G3470

Motherboard: MSI B85M-E45 - http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Computer-MicroATX-Motherboard-B85M-E45/dp/B00IZHHBR0

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LP, 4GB, DDR3-1600, CL9 X 2 (8GB in total) - http://www.amazon.co...ML4GX3M1A1600C9

SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 120GB - http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E120B-AM/dp/B00OAJ5N6I/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1438868772&sr=1-4&keywords=850+EVo

PSU: Corsair CX430M - http://www.amazon.co...s=CP-9020058-EU

HDD: Western Digital Black 1TB (Already own this, so not considered in the price total) - http://www.amazon.co...gital Black 1 t

[Prysin]

Yeah, I think I am going to go that route. I did update some of the parts. What do you think?

 

Chassis: Corsair Obsidian 250D - http://www.amazon.co...ds=Corsair 250D

Processor: Intel Haswell Pentium G3470 - http://www.amazon.co...ds=BX80646G3470

Motherboard: MSI B85M-E45 - http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Computer-MicroATX-Motherboard-B85M-E45/dp/B00IZHHBR0

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LP, 4GB, DDR3-1600, CL9 X 2 (8GB in total) - http://www.amazon.co...ML4GX3M1A1600C9

SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 120GB - http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E120B-AM/dp/B00OAJ5N6I/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1438868772&sr=1-4&keywords=850+EVo

PSU: Corsair CX430M - http://www.amazon.co...s=CP-9020058-EU

HDD: Western Digital Black 1TB (Already own this, so not considered in the price total) - http://www.amazon.co...gital Black 1 t

Its not bad, but its still more expensive then both the builds i posted....

 and its lacking some performance

.

AMD do have a benefit with their APUs due to having onboard video decoders, something that current gen (skylake do have these) intel products do not have. The APU also got a benefit other then the powerful onboard GPU... its a quad core vs the dual core you posted.

 

If you want to go intel, get a I3 minimum, the pentium CPUs wont do very well if you try to multitask, and they may struggle with 4k video playback as video players use A LOT of resources for 4k.

 

Remember, media players dumps sound onto the CPU. Higher bitrate sound REALLY wrecks the CPU if you do not have neough cores to deal with all the stuff going on.

[Eddyyz]

just make a APU setup. For realz, that is MUCH stronger then most intel setups, and you CAN set one up for like... 350 USD, if you do not plan to OC it

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-7850K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($118.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: ASRock FM2A68M-DG3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($40.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  ($52.99 @ Newegg)

Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($22.99 @ NCIX US)

Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($30.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $266.95

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-06 09:52 EDT-0400

 

 

AND, if you want to OC it to play games

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-7850K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($118.99 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120V 86.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($34.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($48.98 @ Newegg)

Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  ($52.99 @ Newegg)

Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($22.99 @ NCIX US)

Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($30.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $309.93

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-06 09:53 EDT-0400

  Didnt include HDD since you already got one

 

 

yes, a 120mm Rad and a $10 more expensive mobo is ALL you need, seriously... this thing can do BF4, 1080p at around 30FPS with low settings. That may not sound impressive, but running purely off intergrated graphics, that is more then enough.

 

Prices before rebates:

Non OC setup: $$281.95

OC Setup: $342.94

 

Enjoy

 

EDIT.

Even if you are a diehard fanboy. Intel and Nvidia has nothing in the APU pricerange that is worth it. It costs too much, and the whole point of a HTPC is silence and form factor. If you are truly willing to flesh out money, you can get this setup into a tiny tiny ITX setup, size wont matter for these kinds of builds.

The performance is real, i own one of these setups myself, ive built 2 more like it. They play games incredibly well, for everything else, they are super, no issues.

 

AMD vs Nvidia drivers - no difference. Nvidia got a slight bonus with their CPU overhead, but quality wise, as a 3+ year long AMD user (Nvidia prior to that), i can say that there is no real day to day issues with AMD. They do hiccup in some older titles, but their most horrible defect so far is in Age of Empires 2, where the seawater turns purple instead of blue. That is the only major driver error i got from AMD for years now.

Odd, only saw the other half to your post now

I understand what you mean. I think I am going to exclude the GPU entirely and as you guys said just use on-board GFX. So that excludes the Nvidia vs AMD scenario As for the CPU and Mobo, I've not had much experience with this kind of setup so I think the only reason I'd prefer not to do it is because my lack of knowledge however If you say its definitely worth it then I'll consider it.

The only thing I really want to stick with is the chassis, I have the 750D and I'd just like them to look the same (I like the look of the obsidian series).

I will look at my local store now and see what parts I can and can't get from your list.

So would you recommend going the AMD router or get a better Intel CPU?

[LIGISTX]

The only thing I have against AMD, and I can't 100% say it is true, I use an AMD cpu at work, and god its just slow as balls. The thing with intel, the architecture is just so much better which makes things feel snappier and all around quicker feeling. To be fair, I am on a 4770k with some SSd's n shit on my main rig, and, well, not that at all on my work PC. So sure, that is a huge difference, but to make my point more valid, an i3 is way faster feeling than what I have at work. I have no real evidence besides this, but I just feel like Intel CPU's are just superior at this point in time. Sure, back in Athlon 64 days I had me an AMD and it was great, but these days, I don't know, nothing wrong with that little Pentium CPU you originally had.

[Prysin]

Odd, only saw the other half to your post now

I understand what you mean. I think I am going to exclude the GPU entirely and as you guys said just use on-board GFX. So that excludes the Nvidia vs AMD scenario As for the CPU and Mobo, I've not had much experience with this kind of setup so I think the only reason I'd prefer not to do it is because my lack of knowledge however If you say its definitely worth it then I'll consider it.

The only thing I really want to stick with is the chassis, I have the 750D and I'd just like them to look the same (I like the look of the obsidian series).

I will look at my local store now and see what parts I can and can't get from your list.

So would you recommend going the AMD router or get a better Intel CPU?

The only Intel product with better onboard graphics is the Broadwell series. They cost 275 USD and 350+ USD for the i5 and i7 respectively. Even the new skylake chips flat out loses to AMD in intergrated graphics performance. Not to mention that there is no Skylake I3 out yet.

 

 

Sub 500 USD, AMD has tremendous value for money. The quad core in the APU is a Athlon x4 860k. which is inbetween the Intel Pentium G3258 and Intel Core i3 4330 in performance. It is truly a budget "monster" that is really capable.

The intergrated graphics used is a R7 250. Nothing over the top, but enough to play BF4 at 1920x1080p at low settings with around 30 FPS.

 

For more performance graphs, look here.

http://anandtech.com/show/9307/the-kaveri-refresh-godavari-review-testing-amds-a10-7870k

[Eddyyz]

I think the Intel and AMD thing is extremely subjective. 

I'll check out the pricing of the setup you gave me and see from there what is viable.

[Prysin]

The only thing I have against AMD, and I can't 100% say it is true, I use an AMD cpu at work, and god its just slow as balls. The thing with intel, the architecture is just so much better which makes things feel snappier and all around quicker feeling. To be fair, I am on a 4770k with some SSd's n shit on my main rig, and, well, not that at all on my work PC. So sure, that is a huge difference, but to make my point more valid, an i3 is way faster feeling than what I have at work. I have no real evidence besides this, but I just feel like Intel CPU's are just superior at this point in time. Sure, back in Athlon 64 days I had me an AMD and it was great, but these days, I don't know, nothing wrong with that little Pentium CPU you originally had.

Gotta ask, what CPUs do you use at work?

Athlon X4? Phenom? FX? A8? A10?