I’m going to be moving soon and need to put together some sort of entertainment system, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to build my first HTPC. Money isn’t a big concern, but I’d still like it to be reasonably priced.
Approximate Purchase Date: A month or two
Budget Range: Under $1,000ish
System Usage: Blu Ray, streaming Netflix and other HD video, recording HD television
Parts Not Required: Mouse, Keyboard, Monitor, Speakers
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: N/A, any site with free shipping
Country of Origin: U.S.A.
Parts Preferences: N/A
Overclocking: No
SLI or Crossfire: No
Monitor Resolution: 42" 1080p TV
Additional Comments: Needs to run as cool and quietly as possible, needs to be able to run for days at a time
Some parts I've picked out. Though I don't really know what I am doing, so I'm completely open to swapping out a part for something different
Case: SILVERSTONE Crown CW02B-MXR ATX Media Center
Although it's pricey, it looks pretty big for an HTPC case, has a LCD screen, volume and function knob, and comes with a remote
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500
I thought about the Intel 2600, but that's probably overkill even if I do encode videos and stuff
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67-M PRO
Don't know much about mobos, this one looks good and has optical audio out
RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
4 GBs of DDR3 should be enough for an HTPC, right?
OS HDD: Intel 320 Series 2.5" 40GB SATA II MLC SSD
An SSD might be a bit over the top, but I'd really like it to boot up quickly and speed up the applications
Storage HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache
I hear good things about the Spinpoint, I'll probably add more HDDs if they fill up
Blu Ray Drive: LG 10X Blu-ray Burner OEM
Don't know anything about Blu Ray drives, I picked this one almost at random
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
I have an extra copy of the OS
GPU: Unknown
Should be cool and quiet(by cpu standards), but that provides enough performance to easily meet my needs and have HDMI, I'm leaning towards the SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5570 1GB
TV Tuner Card: Unknown
I've never used one before, so I don't know what to look for in one other than HD capabilities
Sound Card: Unknown
I don't think I need one, but it might be a good idea if I'm connecting to a 7.1 surround system
PSU: Unknown
I don't know much about PSUs, but I wanted to make sure it's got enough watts to power all the parts, I could use some help picking out a quality PSU
I hope the post wasn't too long, I could really use some advice and suggestions from people who actually know what they're talking about. Thanks.
Approximate Purchase Date: A month or two
Budget Range: Under $1,000ish
System Usage: Blu Ray, streaming Netflix and other HD video, recording HD television
Parts Not Required: Mouse, Keyboard, Monitor, Speakers
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: N/A, any site with free shipping
Country of Origin: U.S.A.
Parts Preferences: N/A
Overclocking: No
SLI or Crossfire: No
Monitor Resolution: 42" 1080p TV
Additional Comments: Needs to run as cool and quietly as possible, needs to be able to run for days at a time
Some parts I've picked out. Though I don't really know what I am doing, so I'm completely open to swapping out a part for something different
Case: SILVERSTONE Crown CW02B-MXR ATX Media Center
Although it's pricey, it looks pretty big for an HTPC case, has a LCD screen, volume and function knob, and comes with a remote
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500
I thought about the Intel 2600, but that's probably overkill even if I do encode videos and stuff
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67-M PRO
Don't know much about mobos, this one looks good and has optical audio out
RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
4 GBs of DDR3 should be enough for an HTPC, right?
OS HDD: Intel 320 Series 2.5" 40GB SATA II MLC SSD
An SSD might be a bit over the top, but I'd really like it to boot up quickly and speed up the applications
Storage HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache
I hear good things about the Spinpoint, I'll probably add more HDDs if they fill up
Blu Ray Drive: LG 10X Blu-ray Burner OEM
Don't know anything about Blu Ray drives, I picked this one almost at random
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
I have an extra copy of the OS
GPU: Unknown
Should be cool and quiet(by cpu standards), but that provides enough performance to easily meet my needs and have HDMI, I'm leaning towards the SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5570 1GB
TV Tuner Card: Unknown
I've never used one before, so I don't know what to look for in one other than HD capabilities
Sound Card: Unknown
I don't think I need one, but it might be a good idea if I'm connecting to a 7.1 surround system
PSU: Unknown
I don't know much about PSUs, but I wanted to make sure it's got enough watts to power all the parts, I could use some help picking out a quality PSU
I hope the post wasn't too long, I could really use some advice and suggestions from people who actually know what they're talking about. Thanks.