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Building a HTPC that - Your thoughts on these parts?
shateredsoul1979:
(He went a little higher end so he could push out SBS 3D .. which this build does perfectly, according to him)
[cpu] Intel Core I3-2100 3.1GHz LGA-1155 Dual-Core 65W
[mobo] MSI H61M-E33 (B3) LGA-1155 Micro-ATX
[gpu] ASUS GeForce GT520 1GB DDR3 64-bit Fanless Low Profile
[case] SILVERSTONE ML03B Micro-ATX
[psu] Antec EarthWatts 380W ATX12V
Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066
Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV125-S2/30GB 2.5" 30GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
It comes out to a little bellow 500 (I have a copy of win 7 64bit)
What do you think? I will use it for HD movies, music, and emulating mame and every system up to dreamcast through nulldc.
Option 1 - Switching the Graphics Card
The guy who recommended this build said he could run gamecube games on the dolphin without a hitch, but someone else recommended switching the graphics card for a Nvidia GT 240 or GT 440. The 240 is about the same price and the 440 is about $20 more.
Option 2 - Switching the hdd
A ssd is nice since the startup time is super fast, but for the same price of a 30gb ssd I could get a 2tb 7200 rpm Hitachi. If I stick with the ssd I'd probably get a Mediasonic HF2-SU3S23 External HDD Enclosure http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HF2-SU3S23-External-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B003X26VV4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1319490565&sr=1-1
upprc04:
I have a lot of the similar parts in my HTPC I built a couple of months ago. I have the same CPU/Motherboard and just use on-board graphics and haven't had problems with HD OTA TV, dreamcast with null dc or anything else I've thrown at it. This is an easy part to upgrade if needed, or for the price it might be worth it for you to just get it now to off load the work on to a separate GPU.
I currently just have an old laptop harddrive as my boot drive. Are you planning on storing movies (vs streaming) or recording TV on this machine? Like you said, a SSD would be nice for quick boot/load times, but you would fill up 30GB quick. I'd look to get a bigger SSD (60 GB would probably do it, assuming its just for some games and OS/not storing movies or recorded TV) if it's in your budget or just get another HD and look to upgrade that in the future.
shateredsoul1979:
Ahh cool thanks for the info. The ssd would be to install programs and the OS. I just saw a 60gb one for the same prices as the 30gb ssd on new egg. All the movies and games would go on an external drive if I go with a ssd internal drive.
upprc04:
If you aren't planning on having a DVD/Bluray drive, then I'd try to have an internal boot drive and storage drive. It looks like the case you are getting should have room for two hard drives if you aren't putting a DVD drive in it.
shateredsoul1979:
Ahh, that's right, I probably will do that!
A really weird thing I've noticed, so I usually just put my pc to sleep and don't turn it off. I put all the part in my amazon.com basket a few days ago. When I go back to amazon and view the basket, it tells me what prices have gone up or down. Sometimes prices change several times a day.. what the hell?
It's not just an offer expiring or anything like that, it's prices going up 1 dollar, down a few cents, maybe they adjust prices to demand instantly??? Overall it's gone down since I put the stuff in my basket :dunno
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