Features - QOTW: What are the best components for a £650 HTPC?

[ET3D]

For an HTPC I would want a GTX 750ti for low temps and more importantly low noise while still being capable of high settings on recent games.

I was annoyed with NVIDIA when I read that the GT 740 will use Kepler. A passive low profile card based on the GM107 would be something I'd buy, and I was expecting NVIDIA to use that in the 740, not regurgitate the last gen chip.

[siu99spj]

Hhhmmm, been looking at making something like this:

Rii 174; Mini 2.4GHz Wireless PC Keyboard £16.49 (Amazon)
Corsair CXM Builder series 430W PSU £35.65 (Amazon)
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair DDR3 PC3-10666 £32.88
AMD A10 5700 £88.28
Scythe Shuriken CPU Cooler £25.66
MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 £41.70
128GB Crucial M500 SSD £52.94
Silverstone Milo ML03B £46.84
Emprex 3009ARF Wireless MCE Remote Control £9.65 (Amazon)

TOTAL £350.09

But then I wasn't gaming and had a NAS floating around in the background somewhere. So I guess to bring it up to spec I'd also need the following:

2TB WD WD20NPVX Green, 2.5" HDD £111.84
Xbox 360 JR9-00010 Black Wireless Controller £28.24
BlackGold BGT3650 Quad DVB-T2/DVB-C £165.60
LiteOn IHAS124-14 £11.27

NEW TOTAL £667.04

Software would be OpenElec/XBMC with Ubuntu/Mint+Steam for gaming (Dual Boot).

Yes, it blows the budget a little, but you get multiple channel recording (Better than Tivo!) and proper gaming on the couch (No way can you play keyboard and mouse games on the couch, has to be a game console controller). Graphics aren't the fastest in the world, but enough for the odd game and with Ubuntu/Mint you have lots of 'old skool' retro possibilities (Emulators and the like).

Well, they be my thoughts anyway...

[gagaga]

After recently building an Intel NUC-based OpenElec machine, a £100 version running a Celeron, and realising how stupidly large, power hungry, loud and unnecessary my mATX HTPC at home is, i couldnt possibly recommend anything else.

Therefore my £650 is as follows:-

£100 on Intel NUC
£15 on a 2GB DDR3 SODIMM (note that 2GB is already overkill)
£5 on a USB stick to install the OS on to (a 4GB stick is plenty)
£10 on a remote control (MCE)

A Synology 4 bay NAS for £275.
£250 worth of hard drives (probably a couple of WD Green 4TB's to begin with, then expand down the line as you'd need).

OpenElec on the SSD, and you're away.

^ This. I've replaced my Nvidia ION based boxes with these now.

Also 1GB is plenty for XBMC ... Intel also make a fanless NUC for about £100 now too. It's slower than the one you mention, but is fine if you don't have enormous libraries as it's still got all the HTPC playback stuff.

[oolon]

I love Lian-Li PC-C37 case for my HTPC, as it takes matx boards, a normal ATX PSU and allows space for a normal optical drive. I have modded my one to include an LCD front panel. OpenELEC is a great distro for a HTPC.

[Marcvs]

You could play around with an anniversary pentium + a cheap discrete card. I use a G3220 as a home server / plex server - and the thing plays blu-rays pretty ok.

Play around with that - You can probably even drop the r9 270X, as that pentium apparantly isnt too bad an overclocker.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/PG64Bm