New HTPCish build

[dampchimp]

Long time lurker, first time poster.

Ok, bit of a dilemma here. I am planning a new build, mainly this will be used for Mame/emulation using the Hyperspin front end. I also plan to use it for some video encoding etc. and possibly some light PC gaming.

My wife won’t tolerate a “real” PC in the living room where I plan to place the PC connected to a 1080p 46” TV.

As such, I have decided to build a sort of HTPC type build, I am fairly settled on the Silverstone Grandia GD04 as this fits nicely in my current TV/entertainment unit and matches the rest of the aesthetics.

Given I probably wont be doing any heavy gaming, I probably don’t need an uber i7 monster (and budget wont allow).

Problem is I cannot seem to put anything together on a decent budget, I have 2 potential builds, 1 using the AMD A10 and dual graphics or an i3 and a 7850 or something.

The AMD build comes in at ~£800 minus peripherals and the Intel build at ~£900.

I am sure I am doing something wrong and it should be a lot cheaper, but not sure if/where to cut corners.

I want something as silent as possible and something I can probably add a decent graphics card to and play “proper” games at a later date.

Any thoughts/comments/advice would be much appreciated.

Specs below >>>

 

[dampchimp]

Intel Build
Case Silverstone GD04B USB 3.0 £71.96
PSU Silverstone Strider Plus 500w £59.40
Motherboard Asrock Z77 Pro4-M £69.34
CPU Intel Core i3 3225 £99.98
RAM Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" 8GB £41.99
CPU Cooler Scythe Big Shuriken £35.32
Graphics Card HIS HD IceQ X 7850 £155.99
SSD Crucial M4 128GB £81.10
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Green 2GB £71.22
Blu-Ray/DVD-RW LiteOn IHES112 £49.32
OS Windows Home Premium 7 SP1 64-bit OEM £59.94
Additional Fans 3* 120mm Gentle Typhoon Fans £37.40
Cables etc. 3* 45cm SATA III Cables £2.94
3 Way PWM Fan Splitter with Power £4.67
Total £893.37

 

[dampchimp]

AMD Build


Case Silverstone GD04B USB 3.0 £71.96
PSU Silverstone Strider Plus 500w £59.40
Motherboard ASUS F2A85-M PRO £99.89
CPU AMD A10-5800K £89.99
RAM Patriot Memory 8GB 1866MHZ £42.20
CPU Cooler Scythe Big Shuriken £35.32
Graphics Card Club 3D Radeon 6670 £46.56
SSD Crucial M4 128GB £81.10
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Green 2GB £71.22
Blu-Ray/DVD-RW LiteOn IHES112 £49.32
OS Windows Home Premium 7 SP1 64-bit OEM £59.94
Additional Fans 3* 120mm Gentle Typhoon Fans £37.40
Cables etc. 45cm SATA III Cable £0.98
Total £785.48

 

[sheroo]

I've just recently built a htpc in the GD06B, I like the clean front - as its looks lees like a PC. I didn't bother with a DVD drive as I stream all my stuff and it does give you much more options with heatsinks etc.

Both your builds look as if you've done your research, however the graphics are a little disproportionate - in that one has a decent 7850, and the other has a mediocre last gen card.

The biggest decision you need to make is how much gaming you'll be doing on it and what settings you'll be happy running on that 46" screen. That will then dictate what graphics capabilities you need.

 

[dragoonk]

I think that the 6670 works in hybrid crossfire with the APU's IGPU. As for the prices, yeah you're not doing everything wrong... you seem to be aiming fairly high at everything except what's most important: CPU and GPU.

 

[dampchimp]

Thanks for the comments.

I'm aware that the graphics/cpu are a bit lower than everything else, but a large part of my goal is getting something silent and reliable hence I am reluctant to skimp on the other parts.

The optical drive was because I fancied at some point ripping some of my BD/DVD's over and using it as a HTPC of sorts.

I am not sure how much PC gaming I would be doing, but if I was I would probably only do it if I could get a tangible improvement over the PS3, i.e. 1080p and ultra settings, think the 7850 could almost manage that?

Will maybe take another look at bumping the CPU, may go with the 7850 for now and consider whether to upgrade at a later date.

 

[dampchimp]

I've just recently built a htpc in the GD06B, I like the clean front - as its looks lees like a PC. I didn't bother with a DVD drive as I stream all my stuff and it does give you much more options with heatsinks etc.

Sheroo, do you have a link to your build or what you used, would be an interesting comparison.

I like the 6 as well, but want access to the front USB ports without having to open the case, hence the 04.

 

[dragoonk]

The 7850 could play games very well. In your case, if you're not looking to build a game munching monster it should work well. I'd say going with the 7850 in the AMD build as well and maybe try to pick up a FX-6300 instead of the APU, it's kicking every i3's butt at the moment and going after the i5's at the i3's price.

 

[dampchimp]

Cheers, having thought about it a bit further, I may actually lean the other way and go for something a little more powerful on the CPU/GPU front. As pointed out above, the rest of the build was probably a little disproportionate, but having looked at it, don’t really see how I can cut back much on those.

I can pick up the 3570K for £55 more than the A10 or FX6300 and to be honest given the total price, I think this makes more sense. I will probably bump the GPU to a 7950, I can then be fairly confident the rig will handle pretty much anything I will be throwing at it (given I will be running 1080p on only one monitor).

Plus the 3 games with the 7950 (which they aren't doing on the 7850 anymore) offset most if not of all the extra spend.

 

[dampchimp]

Revised build >>>

Case - Silverstone GD04B USB 3.0 - £71.96
PSU - Corsair CXM Builder series 600W Hybrid Modular - £55.92
Motherboard - Asrock Z77 Extreme4-m - £80.78
CPU - Intel 3570K - £161.99
RAM - Patriot Black Mamba 8GB - £36.72
CPU Cooler - Scythe Big Shuriken - £29.99
Graphics Card - MSI HD7950 TwinFrozr OC - £215.99
SSD - Crucial M4 128GB - £80.54
Hard Drive - WD Caviar Green - £74.38
Blu-Ray/DVD-RW - LiteOn IHES112 - £49.32
OS - Windows Home Premium 7 SP1 64-bit OEM - £59.94
Additional Fans - 3* 120mm Noctua NF-P12 - £49.28
Cables etc. - - £10.00
Total - £976.81

 

[dragoonk]

Woah, I didn't expect you to jump from that to this :lol: but... that's what I am talking about! You're not going have a problem and worry about low fps at high resolutions at max settings with this one... Now the balance has been restored Good thinking mate!

 

[dampchimp]

If I am spending the best part of a grand anyway, I really want something pretty kick@ss. The AMD or other Intel build felt like I would be a little disappointed, for that money I kind of want something that will blow me away. Anyway, given the second build at the end of the first page, open to suggestions on whether this is what other folks would pick (and please don't suggest I spend anymore).

 

[dragoonk]

Yeah, although the 6300 would of done a proper job as well, but if you are willing to spend more, the do it, it's your choice and you are not gonna regret. Was a shame to see almost 1000 pounds being spent on mediocre power, the money weren't justified. If you are going to build a computer that for entertainment and have the firepower to do everything you throw at it, do it right. Am I right? Or Am I right? :lol:

 

[dampchimp]

So true. Probably complete overkill, but the goal to have it in an HTPC case dictates a lot of the cost.

I plan to do a bit of video de/re-encoding and have heard that Intel Quick Sync seems to be a lot better than the AMD equivalent.

I have never actually had an Intel CPU before, always opted for the slightly cheaper AMD alternative, but the current Ivy/Sandy stuff just looks too good!

I currently have a cheapo laptop with an AMD something or other which gets a passmark of under 500, the 7,000 odd of the 3570K will hopefully feel amazing in comparison!

 

[dragoonk]

I wouldn't call it overkill... 1155 with a 3570k is brilliant and decently futureproof .. might stop you from wanting to upgrade in a year or so cause you're not happy with it ( reference to the i3/APU builds), it's a good overclocker and very fast too, surprised you made this choice but it was the logical one to make... you can't have all those expensive and quality stuff in there and lack the power to put them to use, strain them to the max... that would be a waste of money you don't actually feel till you think about it.

 

[dampchimp]

To be honest compared to the cr@ppy laptop I have at the moment, anything would seem like a huge step up.

 

[dragoonk]

I heard that . just come back and post some pics in this thread, keep a build log... people will want to see, and so will I... if you can and want of course.

Good Luck!

 

[sheroo]

Sheroo, do you have a link to your build or what you used, would be an interesting comparison.

I like the 6 as well, but want access to the front USB ports without having to open the case, hence the 04.

The component I used are as follows (this was purely a htpc build with no gaming though)

CPU Intel i3 2100
M/B Asus P8Z77-M
GPU Sapphire Ultimate HD6570 1GB DDR3
Memory Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB
SSD O/S Corsair Force GT 60GB
SSD Storage Intel MLC-Flash 80GB
PSU Enermax Modu 82+ 425W
Case Silverstone GD06
Heatsink Noctua NH-L12
Fans Corsair Quiet Edition AF120 & SP120

I didn't need any local storage, as everything is streamed from my home server. The 80GB Intell SSD was from the old htpc that this one replaced, and is used as temporary storage for recorededtv until it is archived onto the server.

Not using a dvd also allowed me to use the big noctua heatsink. I only have 2 fans, one as intake, the other on the noctua, and of course the one in the psu.

This is the 4th htpc that I've built for myself, and for pure htpc duties the i3 2100 is more than enough. The system feels snappy because of the corsair gt ssd that I used for the O/S. If I wanted to turn this into a gaming monster I would simply add a 7850, as this is the best bang for buck atm.

 

[dampchimp]

Cool, thanks for the info.

 

[Bang]

As a former fan of AMD I have to say the 3570k absolutely rocks. I reckon youll be very happy with it if you decide to grab one. I run that and a GTX550Ti on a 42" tv and a 24" monitor and have no problems at 1080p on both. Batman Arkham City runs at 42fps minimum at very high detail, physics enabled.

If you run the 3570k and the 7850 youll be laughin. Then theres the 77w TDP to consider... laughing all the way to the bank.