HTPC / General Productivity / Light Gamer

[burnhamjs]

I am looking at building a PC that would be used as a HTPC, light productivity work, and very light gaming. Maybe some real light/basic CAD on Fusion 360.

I have related post on the CPU forum inquiring about whether the Pentium G5500, i3 7100, or i3 8100 would be best. The consensus seems to be that the i3 8100 would be the best bet for this system. With that I wanted to gather thoughts on the system as a whole.

Case: Corsair 100R Silent ATX Mid (picked as I like a plain look, and want quiet, as it will be beside my entertainment center)
GPU: i3 8100
Cooler: Cryorig H7
GPU: GeForce GTX 960 ( a spare I have laying around)
PSU: RMx550 (a little pricey, but it's quality and quiet)
Mem: Patriot Viper Elite 2 x 4Gb DDR4-2800 (though I may up this to 2 x 8Gb)
Storage: WD Blue 250GB M.2 SSD
WD Blue 2TB Hard Drive
Optical: LG 16NS40 Blu-Ray Writer (a quieter Blu-ray writer)

Any thoughts or suggestions?

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2C2L29



Here is the pcpartpicker link: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2C2L29

 

[Eximo]

Certainly agree that the i3-8100 is the best choice for the money, and H370 is a good chipset. Gives you lots of options for expansion if you need it. An argument could be made for a Ryzen APU, but not when you have a decent GPU laying around.

Fairly large for a typical HTPC, but nothing wrong with it. I would say you've built more a mid-range gaming PC.

Should be quite competent at your other tasks though.

 

[burnhamjs]

Certainly agree that the i3-8100 is the best choice for the money, and H370 is a good chipset. Gives you lots of options for expansion if you need it. An argument could be made for a Ryzen APU, but not when you have a decent GPU laying around.

Fairly large for a typical HTPC, but nothing wrong with it. I would say you've built more a mid-range gaming PC.

Should be quite competent at your other tasks though.

Thanks for the reply. Yea, I looked at a horizontal HTPC case, but for my setup the Corsair 100R will work nicely. I already get enough heat from my Onyko amp and didn't want the HTPC beside it. It's pretty much gonna be my primary PC. I had been using a laptop in my living room - but the laptop doesn't have the power for some of the stuff I want it to do. This should give me plenty.