Home Office PC, Storage, HTPC, All-in-One

[1ndian]

Dear Contributors,

I would like to setup a system. My requirements are:

1. Case - must be able to host at least SIX 3.5" hard disks, One Blu-Ray Drive and One or Two SSD (other than HDD). Cheap. I don't care about looks or bit of noise.
2. Motherboard - minimum 4 memory slots, slots for PCI-X RAID card and TV-Tuner, HDMI out, 5.1 or 7.1 sound, Gigabit Ethernet
3. Processor - Any cheap processor that's sufficient for running windows, office, and browsers, YouTube, HD 1080p videos without jitter. Don't mind if the GPU is integrated.
4. Memory - ?
5. Power Supply - ?
6. RAID - High Point, Intel, 3Ware. If you know any other cheap PCI-X RAID controller that can support upto 8 SATA HDDs
7. Media Management Software and Remote (long distance wireless keyboards are also welcome)
8. Hard Disks, SSD - ?

The system shall be cheap 🙂

Please share your experiences.

Thank you.
Shereef

 

[TheBigTroll]

for basic raid setups (2 drives), the onboard controller is enough

but otherwise get a raid card

get this build. im guessing 6tb of total storage is enough for you
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/t3Av

 

[1ndian]

Thank you BigTroll for introducing me to pcpartpicker. please see if the below configuration suffice my requirements. Your build seemed bit expensive for me right now ;-) For example, I'm planning to increase storage later.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75 Pro4 ATX FM2 Motherboard ($86.97 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($42.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($42.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Red 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: CoolMax 500W ATX Power Supply ($23.98 @ Amazon)
Total: $506.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-18 11:43 EST-0500)

Thanking you again,
Shereef

 

[TheBigTroll]

well, i got you want you required. a ssd, a blu-ray drive, and a proper storage system. if you are using this for work, a apu wouldnt be a good choice since they are designed for budget gaming builds, not budget work builds

also i didnt use a crap power supply

id rather get this if you were trying to save some money. used a dvd drive. blu-rays and dvds are about dead
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/t7B0

 

[Aristotelian]

If you want this to be cheap, I would cut costs on memory and CPU. You can get by with much less for office and media applications.

CPU Intel Pentium G630 64.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116406&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

MB AsRock H77M 69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157303&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Memory Crucial Ballistik Sport 2X2GB 16.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148542&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

This would save you about $150 over 1ndian's build and I think it would do just fine for what you describe.

 

[TheBigTroll]

the g630 is kinda weak when you want to do some tasks like basic photoshop. but it will still beat your old rig

 

[1ndian]

Thank you Guys,

I want to cut prices wherever I can. My only real concern is the system's ability to output Full HD over HDMI and Internal Storage Expansion (Why I Like Fractal Design R3/R4). So if there is a cheap APU that can do Full HD, I'm OK with it. I'm not worried about power consumption. I will not do Photoshop or Premiere or Gaming; ACDSee, perhaps. The only Game I play is Luxor's Amun Rising 🙂 I'm OK to increase memory if that can help media playback performance. My current 720p movies are around average 6GB in size.

Which Media Player Software Do you recommend and Remote? Do you recommend a wireless keyboard/trackpad over remote?

Thanking you,
Shereef

 

[TheBigTroll]

all boards have hdmi.

if you are not to do much on this pc, why the need of a raid controller?

 

[1ndian]

Hi BigTroll,

I already have RAID Controller with me. I'm planning to increase the storage by next year Q1 if the prices decreases. Then I would RAID5 8 hard disks and keep the OS on SSD (already have) I need storage to store my movies and throw away physical disks once and for all. It's taking too much space.

all boards have hdmi.

if you are not to do much on this pc, why the need of a raid controller?

 

[Aristotelian]

I would think Pentium G630 would do just fine for your purposes. If you want to go AMD, either A4 or A6 should work and save you about $60-70 over A10.

 

[1ndian]

Thank you Guys,

I will keep this post updated if something doesn't work out. I'm in UAE. So I'm not sure whether I can get all the items you've recommended. So I might need to make adjustments 🙂

Thanking you and wishing you happy holidays!

regards,
Shereef