MaRvIn January 15, 2014 Share MaRvIn Member January 15, 2014 I have been looking to upgrade our home entertainment system. This is what I have come up with so far. Some components may change I will try and keep it updated. Case: Hec 7K09BB Black Motherboard: MSI FM2 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) Micro ATX APU: AMD A6-5400K Trinity HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Extras: LG Black Blu-ray Drive Perixx PERIBOARD-717, Wireless Remote Keyboard with Touchpad Total Cost: $500.92 (not including shipping) If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. Haven't ever used AMD APU in a build before so any help with that would be great. Another thing is would it be worth moving down to 1333 or should I stick with 1600 in terms of RAM? Is an SSD necessary in an HTPC build, I have seen a few more recent ones with them included but they were only for boot speeds and I am not worried about that since this will idle a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiMiT January 19, 2014 Share LiMiT Member January 19, 2014 I've read great things about the new Kavari APU's that AMD just put out, but they are a lot more expensive than the APU you have in your build. Still, for a HTPC it seems pretty solid. Yeah, the SSD would only improve load times and you'd store all of your media on a standard HHD anyways so you're pretty set. Are you just wanting to store and stream media or do you want to do game streaming to your tv as well? S. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaRvIn January 19, 2014 Author Share MaRvIn Member January 19, 2014 I just want to stream media, no gaming on this of any kind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lookback January 20, 2014 Share Lookback Member January 20, 2014 I have built 2 of these. The biggest issues are heat (especially if you are going to keep them in a closed cabinet) and noise - these are obviously closely related. I actually went to a full heat sink GPU in my second build, it was a half height NVIDIA circa 5 series board and it fit nicely under a large CPU fan that had a tunnel to pump hot air out of the case. This worked out really well and the case is incredibly quiet, I am sure they are building quieter cases now, what you want to see is a lot of metal in the case, with some emphasis on conducting heat away - rather than having to use case fans. I think you can even get fanless power supplies now and these will be a boon! A nice to have would be an SSD for booting and Windows commands, otherwise you are stuck waiting a while for everything to get going. Also, get yourself a unified remote (not sure if your case has IR), or you have to teach everyone using it (over and over) how to get the computer running so they can watch movies lol. Finally, on the main HTPC in our house, we have a Gyration Mouse/Keyboard ensemble. The mouse is 3D and is really handy as a flat surface is not available. Again, a nice to have, but the touchpad should be ok as well. I use that machine for Rocksmith as well and it handles it well, with no lag or other issues (but make sure you have a USB in the front of your unit). Finally, if memory serves, the Barracuda drives are pretty loud. Pick out those nice cheap green drives instead. If you are just running media player stuff from them, the slow green drives are more than adequate, generate a lot less heat AND are pretty quiet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lookback January 24, 2014 Share Lookback Member January 24, 2014 Almost forgot - Get a Hauppage card and maybe an antenna if you are in an area with lots of local broadcast stations. Seriously, the broadcast HD pic is often higher quality than the cable one AND it's free!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaRvIn January 24, 2014 Author Share MaRvIn Member January 24, 2014 (edited) I don't know anything about the local broadcast stations. I don't watch a lot of TV, mainly stream from netflix or hulu. I also download a lot of movies. Which the main reason for a dedicated for and HTPC. So that I have a great GUI, and also dont have to constantly plug a flash drive into the TV and play it that way. But thank you for all the info, gonna look into changing some stuff around. I am going with an APU so there is not need to worry about a GPU. Edited January 24, 2014 by MaRvIn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lookback January 24, 2014 Share Lookback Member January 24, 2014 The mobo you selected looks good, no noisy little Northbridge fan! Now just find a really really quiet CPU cooler fan, or go liquid... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOFX January 24, 2014 Share NOFX Member January 24, 2014 I had a Mini-ITX htpc. It was loud, very hot and consumed alot of power. It's been sitting in a box somewhere for the past few years. Raspberry Pi with XBMC - $35. Its so small and quiet, I sometimes forget I even have it. It works pretty well. However, my TV has software built in for hulu, netflix, amazon prime and to stream from video files from the PC. The TV with built in software has been the easiest solution for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaRvIn January 24, 2014 Author Share MaRvIn Member January 24, 2014 I had a Mini-ITX htpc. It was loud, very hot and consumed alot of power. It's been sitting in a box somewhere for the past few years. Raspberry Pi with XBMC - $35. Its so small and quiet, I sometimes forget I even have it. It works pretty well. However, my TV has software built in for hulu, netflix, amazon prime and to stream from video files from the PC. The TV with built in software has been the easiest solution for me. We too have all of this built in to our current, but this will also leave with me when I move since I am playing for it. The mobo you selected looks good, no noisy little Northbridge fan! Now just find a really really quiet CPU cooler fan, or go liquid... I want to go with water cooling but would a 120MM fan and radiator fit in that case? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lookback January 26, 2014 Share Lookback Member January 26, 2014 I don't know, I would get one of those out of the box fans so you can vent it elsewhere, especially if you were going to keep it in a closed cabinet. My secret plan was always to do one that vented into the cold air return of my furnace... I actually have a gigantic fan that I want to experiment with at some point, it seems that the bigger the fan, the quieter it is. Currently, my main cabinet has dual, sensor activated 120mm fans (one in, one out) for cooling the cabinet when the temp gets up there. Oh, and my HTPC is super versatile. I am running Rocksmith 2014 on it and I get to play through my primary sound system!!! If I did not have kids, I would play other games there as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaRvIn January 26, 2014 Author Share MaRvIn Member January 26, 2014 Its not going to be an open cabinet and the bigger the fan definitely is quieter. I think I may go with all air cooling and buy a nice 80mm fan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lookback January 27, 2014 Share Lookback Member January 27, 2014 Go for only 1 fan for the whole thing, if you can! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaRvIn January 27, 2014 Author Share MaRvIn Member January 27, 2014 (edited) I am gonna head to MicroCenter sometime this week and look at some. Maybe even get a different case. Don't know about the whole already built-in PSU. Note: Build is on hold. I have to buy a new phone since I accidently threw this one across the room. Edited January 27, 2014 by MaRvIn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lookback January 27, 2014 Share Lookback Member January 27, 2014 Keep us posted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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