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HTPC Build Advice Needed

Ive said this before but again, HTPCs are not for gaming. It goes against everything HTPC. Quiet, low power, and sleek. You start trying to game and you might as well build a gaming rig so you get decent frame rates. A PC that does both will do nether well. But maybe that's just me?
 
bettz said:
I was going to just use the HD4000 as it would cut costs But would it be able to cope with games such as rome total war?
Click to expand...

Well, a dedicated GPU card adds extra features to your system, but the 6450 is slower than the HD4000, so if you really want to add something, I think it would be better to add something stronger/faster. If you don't have the budget now, just use the HD4000 and save some money and buy a better card later. Don't go for the 6450 if you already have a HD4000.
edit: The best would be to try with the HD4000 first and only go for an extra card if it's really needed.

Jetster said:
Ive said this before but again, HTPCs are not for gaming. It goes against everything HTPC. Quiet, low power, and sleek. You start trying to game and you might as well build a gaming rig so you get decent frame rates. A PC that does both will do nether well. But maybe that's just me?
Click to expand...

I think it's just you:P. It's 2012 after all. It's more expensive to build a fast one compared to the bigger builds, but they can game just as fine:)
 
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cheers for the advice just waiting on a good case to come up at a reasonable price.Any Antec Fusion case lookalikes out there i should look at ????

kinda like this case http://www.quietpc.com/st-f7c-evo
 
I've been offered this build any advice or shall i stick with the i3?? I'm thinking just add a tv card and it'll be good to go?

Case: Antec Veris Fusion Black Desktop with Remote Control

Motherboard: ASRock M3A790GMH/128M Motherboard AMD Socket AM3 AMD 790GX+SB750 MicroATX RAID Gigabit LAN (Integrated AMD Radeon HD 3300 Graphics)

Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core (550) 3.1GHz Processor 512KB (L2 Cache) Socket AM3

CPU Cooler: Scythe Ninja Mini to replace the stock one, allows for near-silent cooling

Memory: Kingston 4GB 1600MHZ DDR3

Hard Drives:
1 x Western Digital 1.5TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache
1 x Western Digital 2TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache

Power Supply: Compucase Green Earth 350W 80plus Certified PSU

Optical Drive: Pioneer BDC-202 Blu-Ray Reader 12X DVD±RWDL/RAM SATA Black

Keyboard/Mouse: KeySonic 2.4Ghz Wireless HTPC Compact Keyboard with Integrated TouchPad – USB

Graphics Card: Inno3D GT430 1GB PCI-Express
 
bettz said:
I've been offered this build any advice or shall i stick with the i3?? I'm thinking just add a tv card and it'll be good to go?

Case: Antec Veris Fusion Black Desktop with Remote Control

Motherboard: ASRock M3A790GMH/128M Motherboard AMD Socket AM3 AMD 790GX+SB750 MicroATX RAID Gigabit LAN (Integrated AMD Radeon HD 3300 Graphics)

Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core (550) 3.1GHz Processor 512KB (L2 Cache) Socket AM3

CPU Cooler: Scythe Ninja Mini to replace the stock one, allows for near-silent cooling

Memory: Kingston 4GB 1600MHZ DDR3

Hard Drives:
1 x Western Digital 1.5TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache
1 x Western Digital 2TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache

Power Supply: Compucase Green Earth 350W 80plus Certified PSU

Optical Drive: Pioneer BDC-202 Blu-Ray Reader 12X DVD±RWDL/RAM SATA Black

Keyboard/Mouse: KeySonic 2.4Ghz Wireless HTPC Compact Keyboard with Integrated TouchPad – USB

Graphics Card: Inno3D GT430 1GB PCI-Express
Click to expand...

I would replace both the mainboard and the CPU to Mainboard: Asus and CPU: Intel.

But then again, I just builded my own HTPC with that and I am very happy with it.
 
bettz said:
I've been offered this build any advice or shall i stick with the i3?? I'm thinking just add a tv card and it'll be good to go?

Case: Antec Veris Fusion Black Desktop with Remote Control
Motherboard: ASRock M3A790GMH/128M Motherboard AMD Socket AM3 AMD 790GX+SB750 MicroATX RAID Gigabit LAN (Integrated AMD Radeon HD 3300 Graphics)
Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core (550) 3.1GHz Processor 512KB (L2 Cache) Socket AM3
CPU Cooler: Scythe Ninja Mini to replace the stock one, allows for near-silent cooling
Memory: Kingston 4GB 1600MHZ DDR3
Hard Drives:
1 x Western Digital 1.5TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache
1 x Western Digital 2TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache
Power Supply: Compucase Green Earth 350W 80plus Certified PSU
Optical Drive: Pioneer BDC-202 Blu-Ray Reader 12X DVD±RWDL/RAM SATA Black
Keyboard/Mouse: KeySonic 2.4Ghz Wireless HTPC Compact Keyboard with Integrated TouchPad – USB
Graphics Card: Inno3D GT430 1GB PCI-Express
Click to expand...

If you like that deal and want to go with that 790GX motherboard - which has an integrated GPU and hybrid crossfire capabilities - you might want to put a HD3450/70 next to it instead of the gt430, so both could be utilized for a little better performance.

Personally I would go for a low power Sandy/Ivy bridge or an AMD Fusion (A8-3850) config (where you may add an extra HD6670 for Dual Graphics later if it's needed).

Also, You don't want two 7200rmp hard drives in your HTPC, because they are gonna be noisy as hell;)
 
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Right thought i'd update this thread so i've managed to source a

Antec Fusion case for £65 & it comes with a Antec EarthWatts EA430D Green Power supply

The seller has also thrown in a Scythe Ninja Mini cooler will this be able to cope with a i3 3225 cpu?

Now im waiting on a decent i3 3225 cpu
also any recommendations on a motherboard that will suit this?
 
bettz said:
Right thought i'd update this thread so i've managed to source a

Antec Fusion case for £65 & it comes with a Antec EarthWatts EA430D Green Power supply

The seller has also thrown in a Scythe Ninja Mini cooler will this be able to cope with a i3 3225 cpu?
Click to expand...

Yea those are decent coolers. should do that chip nicely
 
Received case and psu today its bigger than i expected :laugh:.

In two minds about if i should just start using the htpc hooked up to my tv as my main pc :confused::confused:.

I've a 27" i5 iMac that i thinking about selling
 
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