HTPC advice needed m-ITX "Kaveri" build

[Ace_demo2]

My first build and i think I've spec'd up a decent machine only thing that worries me is supported RAM

Budget was set to £500 max but managed to come in under £400

G-Skill 8GB Ripjaws X DDR3 2133 Dual Kit - Red - GSKILL

Corsair CP-9020076-UK Builder Series 550W CS550M ATX/EPS Semi-Modular 80 Plus Gold Power Supply Unit - Corsair

Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced USB 3.0 Mini ITX Case - Coolermaster

ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+ Motherboard (Socket FM2+, AMD A88X, DDR3, S-ATA 600, Mini ITX, 1x PCI Express 3.0 x16, A-Style) - ASROCK

AMD A10 AD785KXBJABOX 7850K Black Edition with Radeon R7 Series New FM2+ Kaveri HSA CPU - AMD

The only issue is the ripjaws Ive sourced are XMP capable not AMP. seeing as im not going for a discrete as of yet (but will get a Radeon 750? one that is good for crossfire with the apu), i spec'd a decent speed set of dimms that should help the APU along.

the mobos listed supported ram only has dimms that can be sourced stateside. Perhaps theyre sold under different names in the UK, but that's a thought.

going by the fact that they're 240pin and approaching the max speed for the board 2400 (OC) i would think that they'll work.

Any thoughts on the build would be appreciated the objective was to save money and energy and still have the power needed for HD media.

n.b SSD will be sourced from a htpc i have that's using an 120Gb m500 i bought for £35

 

[Valentin_N]

you should try to get a ram stick that has dual rank (somewhere 2R should be displayed), latences that are as low as possible, have as hight frequency as possible and if possible two or more. XMP is a profile optimized for intel cpu and if you don't have that then it won't be activated, so no need to worry about it. and the ram that you have selected will be supported thus maximal default frequency. for 2.4 GHz you will need to manually overclocking.

I will take a look once again and give proper feedback

 

[Ace_demo2]

you should try to get a ram stick that has dual rank (somewhere 2R should be displayed), latences that are as low as possible, have as hight frequency as possible and if possible two or more. XMP is a profile optimized for intel cpu and if you don't have that then it won't be activated, so no need to worry about it. and the ram that you have selected will be supported thus maximal default frequency. for 2.4 GHz you will need to manually overclocking.

I will take a look once again and give proper feedback

Thanks for the info.

from the gskills website ive checked their list of supported dimms for the board at the top end 2133MHz its the following


[Sniper]
DDR3-2133 (PC3-17000)
8GB (4GBx2)
CL9-11-10-28
1.65 Volt

[RipjawsX] F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM
DDR3-2133 (PC3-17000)
8GB (4GBx2)
CL9-11-10-28
1.65 Volt

[Ares] F3-2133C10D-16GAB
DDR3-2133 (PC3-17000)
16GB (8GBx2)
CL10-12-12-31
1.6 Volt

[Sniper] F3-2133C10D-16GSR
DDR3-2133 (PC3-17000 / 2133)
16GB (8GBx2)
CL10-12-12-31
1.6 Volts

[RipjawsX] F3-2133C10D-16GXM
DDR3-2311 (PC3-17000)
16GB (8GBx2)
CL10-12-12-31
1.6 Volt

[Ares] F3-2133C10D-8GAB
DDR3-2133 (PC3-17000)
8GB (4GBx2)
CL10-12-12-31
1.6 Volt

[Sniper] F3-2133C10D-8GSR
DDR3-2133 (PC3-17000 / 2133)
8GB (4GBx2)
CL10-12-12-31
1.6 Volts

[RipjawsX] F3-2133C10D-8GXM
DDR3-2133 (PC3-17000)
8GB (4GBx2)
CL10-12-12-31
1.6 Volt

[TridentX] F3-2133C9D-16GTX
DDR3-2133 (PC3-17000)
16GB (8GBx2)
CL9-11-11-31
1.6 Volt

[RipjawsX] F3-2133C9D-16GXH
DDR3-2133 (PC3-17000)
16GB (8GBx2)
CL9-11-11-31
1.60 Volt

[Ares] F3-2133C9D-8GAB
DDR3-2133 (PC3-17000)
8GB (4GBx2)
CL9-11-10-28
1.65 Volt

[RipjawsX] F3-2133C9D-8GXL
DDR3-2133 (PC3-17000)
8GB (4GBx2)
CL9-11-11-31
1.60v~1.65 Volt

 

[Ace_demo2]

following the supported list and availability iv'e selected the following build

AMD A10 7850K Black Edition Quad Core CPU + Integrated Radeon R7 Series Graphics

ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+

Corsair CS450M CS Modular 80 Plus GOLD-RATE 450W 12V Power Supply or Corsair CS550M CS Modular 80 Plus GOLD-RATE 550W 12V Power Supply £12 difference for 100w extra

Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced USB 3.0 Mini ITX Case

G.Skill Ripjaws-X Main Memory 8 GB 2,133 MHz 240-Pin 2x 4GB CL9 DIMM DDR3 RAM Kit

 

[Ace_demo2]

opted for the 550 build and total cost £375.69 inc next day delivery

 

[Valentin_N]

Sorry for a late response. May I ask what you plan to do with the computer?

the setup is good for it's price.

Tahiti LE - with 40 more you can get an i5 (goes 20£ over your budget). The same config with 750 TI you will stay within your budget.

 

[Ace_demo2]

Sorry for a late response. May I ask what you plan to do with the computer?

the setup is good for it's price.

Tahiti LE - with 40 more you can get an i5 (goes 20£ over your budget). The same config with 750 TI you will stay within your budget.

I plan on using the machine as a Media player (Varying video formats SD-HD content on local play) i decided to go overkill as the machine will be a day to day one but wanted a SFF machine with low power draw. APUs struck a decent balance for it all. i was willing to spend £500 so as to match an i5 fully loaded intel NUC but this build came in far cheaper. and with the A10 siting comfortably between i3 -i5 and with all the new processing features set to be utilized it seems to be a good machine to last a few years. only issue left is with cooling (i dont plan to OC but i dont want another radiator). I was planing stock cooling with the case fan 120mm and side 80mm with the PSUs fan assisting extraction. The bulk of the kit should be delivered today and i plan on assembly tonight.

 

[bahnstormer]

How did the build go?

Any regrets / amendments that you've made since the last update? e.g. Recommended alternative cooler?

I'm looking for something similar - main usage will be as a low power media PC, but I'd like a bit of extra CPU grunt as I'm probably going to run Plex media server and host it alongside my Synology NAS (which has a dual 2Ghz Atom, so not enough grunt for transcoding) - I've got ~50Mbps upstream bandwidth, so seems a shame not to use Plex a bit more.

What OS are you running? I was thinking of putting ESXI (USB-based VM host) and I have 2 old spare SSD's (60Gb Vertex 2E and 120Gb Crucial M5)... so I was thinking of a completely separate build of each HDD: an Ubuntu/other Linux VM for Plex server and also a Win7/Win8.1 build for the media centre (or possibly Linux/XBMC)...

I'm guessing 8Gb RAM should be plenty for running those two VM's as neither will need a HUGE amount of RAM... I might get a single 8Gb stick and keep the 2nd slot free for another 8Gb later (lose bandwidth, but increases expansion options later and I won't be gaming, so the bandwiddth hopefully won't be an issue).

 

[Ace_demo2]

How did the build go?

Any regrets / amendments that you've made since the last update? e.g. Recommended alternative cooler?

I'm looking for something similar - main usage will be as a low power media PC, but I'd like a bit of extra CPU grunt as I'm probably going to run Plex media server and host it alongside my Synology NAS (which has a dual 2Ghz Atom, so not enough grunt for transcoding) - I've got ~50Mbps upstream bandwidth, so seems a shame not to use Plex a bit more.

What OS are you running? I was thinking of putting ESXI (USB-based VM host) and I have 2 old spare SSD's (60Gb Vertex 2E and 120Gb Crucial M5)... so I was thinking of a completely separate build of each HDD: an Ubuntu/other Linux VM for Plex server and also a Win7/Win8.1 build for the media centre (or possibly Linux/XBMC)...

I'm guessing 8Gb RAM should be plenty for running those two VM's as neither will need a HUGE amount of RAM... I might get a single 8Gb stick and keep the 2nd slot free for another 8Gb later (lose bandwidth, but increases expansion options later and I won't be gaming, so the bandwiddth hopefully won't be an issue).

The Asrock M-itx board has a bend issue due to the thin PCB. what i'd suggest it checking the QVL for any board you choose to go with. Kaveri refresh is expected (though there are no improvements to be had). the 7850k is a solid chip and for HTPCs APUs fit the bill. Ive moved to a A88x pro but plan to build out on the mitx again (once the 7850k drops in price). i'd suggest if you go for a mitx case look for one with AIO cooling space. as its saves the hassle and allows you to use ram with high heat spreaders. A thing to suggest would be aim for 2133 or 2400Mhz if you plan on just an APU. i'm now on windows 8.1 which isn't too bad. wish you luck.

 

[bahnstormer]

I was thinking of an Antec ISK 300-150 case, due to the size, but I thought the half-height optical drive slot seemed like it would just end up costing me £120 for a Blueray writer (which I'll probably add at some stage)... so I quite liked your Coolermaster (Elite 120 Advanced) alternative with the full height optical options.

mITX was always the intention - which motherboard would you recommend instead of the ASRock A88X+? That one seemed ideal, with the added bonus of HDMI-in, in case I wanted to try to create a PVR...

What was the issue with motherboard flex? if there's no add-on cards and a well mounted CPU cooler, then what other load is there on the board?

 

[Ace_demo2]

I was thinking of an Antec ISK 300-150 case, due to the size, but I thought the half-height optical drive slot seemed like it would just end up costing me £120 for a Blueray writer (which I'll probably add at some stage)... so I quite liked your Coolermaster (Elite 120 Advanced) alternative with the full height optical options.

mITX was always the intention - which motherboard would you recommend instead of the ASRock A88X+? That one seemed ideal, with the added bonus of HDMI-in, in case I wanted to try to create a PVR...

What was the issue with motherboard flex? if there's no add-on cards and a well mounted CPU cooler, then what other load is there on the board?

personally i'd say go for the CM130 as its got a mesh front panel and a removable hdd tray (easy fit for AIO coolers). the raijintek metis, bitfenix prodigy, aerocool ds or the NODE 304 are also options. the small form factor case markets options have really expanded. For a htpc i'd also suggest looking for cases without windows and flashy leds. the boards good but i tried the r7 250 and the r9 270x and the gpu area flexed. the pci-e slot does have a retention slider and i don't think any gpu would pop out. you just need to take a bit more care installing parts to the mobo i suppose.

 

[bahnstormer]

CM130 (Coolermaster 130 Elite) looks good... good tip!

I'll live with the motherboard flex - I doubt I'll be putting an uprated GPU.... whole idea is to make this a cool, simple box, 2x SSD's is the one "luxury" I'll allow myself, so I can image / rebuild one of the slices without impacting the other.