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Advice needed for HTPC build

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Hi! I'm looking to build an HTPC rig for a friend soon. Thought I'd ask you guys for some advice again, as I got some great help on a prior thread here too. Anyway, here it goes:

For his preferences, he says he wants a pc that'll mainly be used as a home theater setup (using a chromecast receiver for streaming), but with some music studio/music editing capability too. For RAM, 4gb is plenty. Storage-wise, he says a 1tb hard drive would be just fine. Wants to stick to Intel for the cpu. As far as the case goes, size won't be a problem and it doesn't need to be fancy.

His budget is $400 to $500, but it can go a bit over that if needed.

Here's some ideas I came up with after a little research, though keep in mind I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to htpcs:

Motherboard: MSI B85M-G43

CPU: Intel Core i3-4330 Haswell Dual-Core 3.5GHz

HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM

Video Card: PNY GeForce GT 610 1GB

Case: Silverstone Tek GD05B-USB3.0 Micro ATX HTPC Computer Case

OS: Win 8.1

As you can see, the current items already run between $400 and $500, but I still need to add a psu and RAM. Any ideas on what to pick for power supply and memory, as well as the rest if we can trim the price down a bit? Thanks for any help with this!
 

MxPhenom 216

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I would not go for a $100 case in a $400-500 system. Here is a ITX system with integrated WiFi that it's in this price range. You could even go with an i5 if you wanted and you will still be at $500.

Edit: I see you found a place with a cheaper Windows 8 to almost $400

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($99.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($67.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.10 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GT 730 1GB Video Card ($47.25 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 110 Mini ITX Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($83.70 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $433.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-24 15:31 EDT-0400
 

rtwjunkie

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You could even drop down to an i3-4130. It's a really capable cpu!
 
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MxPhenom 216

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I just find it so unnecessary to buy an Intel CPU, and then a dedicated GPU, when you can buy an AMD APU that has it all, and cheaper. Regardless if the user wants to stick with Intel or not. The AMD APUs are perfect HTPC chips. Low wattage, more than enought performance for an HTPC + some performance for light gaming if that ever comes into play.
 
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I just find it so unnecessary to buy an Intel CPU, and then a dedicated GPU, when you can buy an AMD APU that has it all, and cheaper. Regardless if the user wants to stick with Intel or not. The AMD APUs are perfect HTPC chips. Low wattage, more than enought performance for an HTPC + some performance for light gaming if that ever comes into play.
If you go for an A8 yes, if you go for an A10 then the difference in price is minimal. The difference is the intel platform has an upgrade path to i5 / i7 if necessary in the future while the amd doesn't. However you are right the a8 should be pretty good for htpc.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A8-7600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.20 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard ($85.50 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: A-Data XPG V2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($47.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.10 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 110 Mini ITX Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($83.70 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $397.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-24 16:59 EDT-0400
 
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Get some good ram to go with an A8 APU. I used a 6800K APU for my HTPC, thpse iGPU love high speed RAM, no matter how crappy the timing on the RAM is.
 

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Really, you don't need a dedicated GPU for the Intel build either. The onboard GPU on Intel is capable enough for HTPC use. This is what I'd do.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($166.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($67.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Stealth 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate 1TB 3.5"; 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive ($67.50 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG UH12NS30 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $529.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-24 17:37 EDT-0400
 
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Really appreciate the advice guys, all good stuff. He'd wanted to go with an intel himself, but I'll run the amd APU idea by him too. Whichever CPU we choose though, I'm glad to see such good builds with the performance I was hoping for, well within the budget no less. Thanks again!
 

newtekie1

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He'd wanted to go with an intel himself, but I'll run the amd APU idea by him too.

Really, unless he is planning on playing games using the onboard graphics, there is no advantage to going with an AMD APU. The Intel onboard GPU is powerful enough for everything except gaming, and the Intel CPU side is way more powerful. The APU system doesn't even have a price advantage anymore.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($99.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($67.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $167.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-24 23:42 EDT-0400


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A8-7600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.20 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+ Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard ($84.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $164.18
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-24 23:44 EDT-0400


The price difference is only $4 and the i3 just kills the A8 in CPU performance.
 
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Oh ok, gotcha. That's good to know. By the way, I notice pretty much all the builds you guys posted have 8gb of RAM, and was wondering is that necessary for HTPC builds nowadays or is that in consideration for the music studio work I mentioned he'd be doing with this rig? Won't be a problem, was just curious as I'd once read that 4gb was plenty for htpcs (was maybe an old, outdated recommendation...?).
 

newtekie1

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Oh ok, gotcha. That's good to know. By the way, I notice pretty much all the builds you guys posted have 8gb of RAM, and was wondering is that necessary for HTPC builds nowadays or is that in consideration for the music studio work I mentioned he'd be doing with this rig? Won't be a problem, was just curious as I'd once read that 4gb was plenty for htpcs (was maybe an old, outdated recommendation...?).

There isn't really a significant price difference, going from 4GB to 8GB only costs ~$15. It is better to have the extra in case you need it. Especially, since if you use onboard video you'll be loosing at least 1GB to that. You can get away with 4GB in a strictly HTPC, but if he is doing other tasks with it, particularly the audio editing, it is better to have 8GB.
 
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