HTPC Build (another one, yay!)

[aisle9]

I've got a couple of prebuilt PCs lying around, and I'm looking to take the best of each and merge them into a single MicroATX HTPC using the Core V21 case. This will be used primarily for movies, entertainment, maybe some light gaming, you know...HTPC stuff. I'll be going on US$, and budget? Well, let's put it like this: every dollar I spend on this is one more day that my wife will refuse sex, so keeping it as low as possible without stooping into garbage components is a must. No overclocking in the picture for this one, and I'm trying to limit it to items I can walk into either Micro Center or Fry's Electronics over the next couple of days and get, which is where most of the prices are coming from.

 

Anything here that looks like a total crap waste of time? Or have I managed to blend price and performance pretty well? Thanks!

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  (Purchased For $0.00) 
CPU Cooler: SilenX EFZ-92HA3 48.0 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Motherboard: Asus B85M-E/CSM Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($79.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($61.18) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked ACX Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case: Thermaltake Core V21 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Micro Center) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($49.99) 
Total: $236.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-19 20:28 EDT-0400

[Starelementpoke]

13 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

I've got a couple of prebuilt PCs lying around, and I'm looking to take the best of each and merge them into a single MicroATX HTPC using the Core V21 case. This will be used primarily for movies, entertainment, maybe some light gaming, you know...HTPC stuff. I'll be going on US$, and budget? Well, let's put it like this: every dollar I spend on this is one more day that my wife will refuse sex, so keeping it as low as possible without stooping into garbage components is a must. No overclocking in the picture for this one, and I'm trying to limit it to items I can walk into either Micro Center or Fry's Electronics over the next couple of days and get, which is where most of the prices are coming from.

 

Anything here that looks like a total crap waste of time? Or have I managed to blend price and performance pretty well? Thanks!

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  (Purchased For $0.00) 
CPU Cooler: SilenX EFZ-92HA3 48.0 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Motherboard: Asus B85M-E/CSM Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($79.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($61.18) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked ACX Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case: Thermaltake Core V21 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Micro Center) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($49.99) 
Total: $236.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-19 20:28 EDT-0400

Can I have this?

[Wiflare]

Micro center and fry's? you are blessed.

 

Anyway, I'd change that motherboard for a less expensive gigabyte board, they should have them at micro center for around 45 bucks. I've done 1 build with the ga-h81m-hd2 and another with the ga-h81m-h, and they all work flawlessly.

[aisle9]

1 minute ago, Starelementpoke said:

Can I have this?

The part list, or the PC itself? lol

[Starelementpoke]

Just now, aisle9 said:

The part list, or the PC itself? lol

The pc itself.

[aisle9]

1 minute ago, Wiflare said:

Micro center and fry's? you are blessed.

 

Anyway, I'd change that motherboard for a less expensive gigabyte board, they should have them at micro center for around 45 bucks. I've done 1 build with the ga-h81m-hd2 and another with the ga-h81m-h, and they all work flawlessly.

Glad you brought those up! I looked at a couple of Gigabyte H81M boards, as well as an AsRock one, and the reports of defective boards or DOAs seemed to be fairly numerous across the Amazonia wilderness. That kind of scared me back towards an ASUS board, which I just instinctively trust, as they've never sold me a turd component or laptop.

 

And yeah, this whole thing is basically to take advantage of Fry's and MC while I have them. We're moving in two weeks to a small town with a company that wants to pay me a lot of money, but I'm a day's drive from either chain.

[aisle9]

3 minutes ago, Starelementpoke said:

The pc itself.

Every man has his price, I suppose, but no. This one comes with me and gets plugged in alongside our TV, hooked into a surround system and turned into my own personal slice of Heaven.

[Wiflare]

3 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Glad you brought those up! I looked at a couple of Gigabyte H81M boards, as well as an AsRock one, and the reports of defective boards or DOAs seemed to be fairly numerous across the Amazonia wilderness. That kind of scared me back towards an ASUS board, which I just instinctively trust, as they've never sold me a turd component or laptop.

 

And yeah, this whole thing is basically to take advantage of Fry's and MC while I have them. We're moving in two weeks to a small town with a company that wants to pay me a lot of money, but I'm a day's drive from either chain.

I also have the h81m-hd2 systems both with g3258 chips in them, overclocked to a cool 4 ghz at stock voltage.

 

I feel your pain a little, no fry's around here and the closest micro center is the only one in the state, so it's packed constantly. even on Sunday mornings.

[brob]

SSD is not really needed in an HTPC. Gigabyte builds pretty good motherboards, I would go with one of their H81.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  (Purchased For $0.00)
CPU Cooler: SilenX EFZ-92HA3 48.0 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  (Purchased For $0.00)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked ACX Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: Thermaltake Core V21 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($42.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $141.97
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-19 20:56 EDT-0400

[aisle9]

1 minute ago, Wiflare said:

I also have the h81m-hd2 systems both with g3258 chips in them, overclocked to a cool 4 ghz at stock voltage.

 

I feel your pain a little, no fry's around here and the closest micro center is the only one in the state, so it's packed constantly. even on Sunday mornings.

I'll check and see what they've got in the way of cheap Gigabyte H81's. This was originally going to be a Mini ITX build until I realized what a pain finding a decent mITX mobo for a Haswell chip was shaping up to be, especially if avoiding online orders as much as possible. Thanks!

[aisle9]

2 hours ago, Wiflare said:

I also have the h81m-hd2 systems both with g3258 chips in them, overclocked to a cool 4 ghz at stock voltage.

 

I feel your pain a little, no fry's around here and the closest micro center is the only one in the state, so it's packed constantly. even on Sunday mornings.

One more question, if I may: do you still have to have a Z97 board to run Windows 10 on an OC'ed G3258, or is there a fix allowing you to run 10 with an OC'ed G3258 on an H81 or B85 chipset?

 

*Edit: Oh yeah, I'm considering whether to drop in the i3 or roll my G3258 back out OC'ed to 4.4.

[Wiflare]

11 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

One more question, if I may: do you still have to have a Z97 board to run Windows 10 on an OC'ed G3258, or is there a fix allowing you to run 10 with an OC'ed G3258 on an H81 or B85 chipset?

 

*Edit: Oh yeah, I'm considering whether to drop in the i3 or roll my G3258 back out OC'ed to 4.4.

I'm not familiar with the issue, it never occurred with either system.

[aisle9]

So here's what I ended up with (tentatively):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($56.98 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($61.18) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked ACX Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($34.99 @ Micro Center) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($34.99 @ NCIX US) 
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($36.88 @ OutletPC) 
Case Fan: Cooler Master Blade Master 54.8 CFM 92mm  Fan  ($6.37 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $231.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-21 00:13 EDT-0400

 

My wife saw the V21 and laughed, pointing out that it was the same volume as a tower, just shorter and fatter, and that she'd just as soon slide a small tower in behind a TV. Hence, we ended up with the Fractal Core 1000, which saved us some cash. I also took @Wiflare's advice and went with an H81M mobo, after being reassured by the Micro Center employee that he's currently using an AsRock H81M board in a G3258 overclock (sounds familiar).

 

Unfortunately, my SilenX cooler won't fit on the AsRock motherboard without either breaking off a capacitor or taking over both RAM slots. Oops. It's all for the best, I suppose, given the the top fins of the heatsink literally started popping off when I swapped the side the fan was on. Stock is on there for now, but knowing how loud that stock cooler gets and knowing that we're probably headed back to Fry's tomorrow anyway to swap out a wifi card that sure as hell looks like it won't fit beneath the GPU, I will own a new cooler tomorrow. No idea which one, though. None of the cheaper coolers look all that attractive aside from, possibly, the Zalman CNPS7000V(AL)-1-PWM, but even that looks iffy. Might just stay with stock and see how much noise it actually makes with a nice, low PWM curve.

 

I'll boot it up for the first time tomorrow after I finish building. Need to get some sleep so I can work in the morning lol. I'm really excited to see how this build turns out.

[Wiflare]

4 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

So here's what I ended up with (tentatively):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

-snip-

 

My wife saw the V21 and laughed, pointing out that it was the same volume as a tower, just shorter and fatter, and that she'd just as soon slide a small tower in behind a TV. Hence, we ended up with the Fractal Core 1000, which saved us some cash. I also took @Wiflare's advice and went with an H81M mobo, after being reassured by the Micro Center employee that he's currently using an AsRock H81M board in a G3258 overclock (sounds familiar).

 

Unfortunately, my SilenX cooler won't fit on the AsRock motherboard without either breaking off a capacitor or taking over both RAM slots. Oops. It's all for the best, I suppose, given the the top fins of the heatsink literally started popping off when I swapped the side the fan was on. Stock is on there for now, but knowing how loud that stock cooler gets and knowing that we're probably headed back to Fry's tomorrow anyway to swap out a wifi card that sure as hell looks like it won't fit beneath the GPU, I will own a new cooler tomorrow. No idea which one, though. None of the cheaper coolers look all that attractive aside from, possibly, the Zalman CNPS7000V(AL)-1-PWM, but even that looks iffy. Might just stay with stock and see how much noise it actually makes with a nice, low PWM curve.

 

I'll boot it up for the first time tomorrow after I finish building. Need to get some sleep so I can work in the morning lol. I'm really excited to see how this build turns out.

That's awesome, I love the fractal core series. They're just so much better than any other case in their price range.

[aisle9]

Just now, Wiflare said:

That's awesome, I love the fractal core series. They're just so much better than any other case in their price range.

Indeed, but the non-modular power supply mixed with the relatively tiny amount of cable management space the Core 1000 gives you will test my limits.

[Wiflare]

Just now, aisle9 said:

Indeed, but the non-modular power supply mixed with the relatively tiny amount of cable management space the Core 1000 gives you will test my limits.

The space it gives you is misleading, the hard drive mounts differently than most other cases I've seen. One option is the more obvious one:

 

 

which adds a lot of room on its own. There's another way, you can opt to remove that metal strut and have the drive mount in a cd drive bay, like this:

 

 

Which makes all of the room below open season for wild cables.

[aisle9]

5 minutes ago, Wiflare said:

The space it gives you is misleading, the hard drive mounts differently than most other cases I've seen. One option is the more obvious one:

I had considered mouting an HDD on the sled and the SSD along the side, or vice versa. It's an interesting challenge if nothing else. Even though there's no window, it's going to be stuffed behind a TV (making me question if I actually need anything more than the stock cooler, or if I just want a sexy Cryorig C7) and LTT has proven that cable management is overrated, I'm still not the type to just shove it behind the fan and seal it up.

[aisle9]

Crap on a stick. The mobo has the front panel ports directly behind the PCIe x16 slot. If I were using a short GPU, it wouldn't be an issue...but I'm not. I'm using a full size. So now we have a wonderful choice to make: drive 45 minutes one-way back to Micro Center to exchange the board for a Gigabyte that wasn't designed by a guy who thinks workstations are the only H81M PCs after I take the PC apart again, or go to Fry's and spend $90 (after MIR) on a PNY 750 Ti short card.

[brob]

2 hours ago, aisle9 said:

Crap on a stick. The mobo has the front panel ports directly behind the PCIe x16 slot. If I were using a short GPU, it wouldn't be an issue...but I'm not. I'm using a full size. So now we have a wonderful choice to make: drive 45 minutes one-way back to Micro Center to exchange the board for a Gigabyte that wasn't designed by a guy who thinks workstations are the only H81M PCs after I take the PC apart again, or go to Fry's and spend $90 (after MIR) on a PNY 750 Ti short card.

Which mobo?

[aisle9]

4 minutes ago, brob said:

Which mobo?

AsRock H81M-HDS. Micro Center has a Gigabyte board, GA-H81M-H, that looks like it solves the problem, but the reviews show a frightening number of DOAs. I might be back to the ASUS. I'll have to look later today.

[brob]

26 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

AsRock H81M-HDS. Micro Center has a Gigabyte board, GA-H81M-H, that looks like it solves the problem, but the reviews show a frightening number of DOAs. I might be back to the ASUS. I'll have to look later today.

According to the pictures and manual at the Asrock site, the connector near the leading edge just to the right of the x16 connector is the USB 3.0 header. Unless there is a back plate on the gpu, there should be no problem.

 

The front panel power, led, etc. connectors are pictured near the leading edge in line with the chipset heat sink. A tight squeeze with a dual width gpu, but should fit.

Spoiler

From http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-budget-gaming-pc,4065-4.html

 

Not the best design.

[aisle9]

1 hour ago, brob said:

According to the pictures and manual at the Asrock site, the connector near the leading edge just to the right of the x16 connector is the USB 3.0 header. Unless there is a back plate on the gpu, there should be no problem.

 

The front panel power, led, etc. connectors are pictured near the leading edge in line with the chipset heat sink. A tight squeeze with a dual width gpu, but should fit.

  Hide contents

From http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-budget-gaming-pc,4065-4.html

Not the best design.

I actually gave it a try this morning and no, it's not the best design. Putting the GPU in first, it felt like I was going to bend pins getting the plugs on. Doing it the other way around, it felt like I was going to break a pin putting the GPU into place. Considering that any GPU would block the only PWM fan header aside from the CPU, leaving only a single system fan header open, it just feels like the board is designed poorly enough that it'll be a headache, even in a HTPC.