Spec me a HTPC please.

[Sputnik]

Thinking on the lines of 2x1Tb samsungs, dual core AMD of some description, Possibly the Asus M4A78-HTPC board, A pair of dual tuner cards and anything else I might need.

It seems I blinked and the energy efficient AMD CPU's have gone !

[Hawker1986]

I would go with 2x1.5Tb samsung ecogreen F2s just because more space is always good and their very cheap atm. What case are you going for?

Hawker

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would look at getting a motherboard with the 785G chipset as it has better media decoding facilities.

This is what I would get:

Antec Fusion Remote ~ £106 to £112

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148790

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148791

Asus M4A785D-M PRO ~ £57

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

Samsung F1 1tb ~ £54

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

AMD Sempron 140 ~ £26

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

OR

AMD Athlon II X2 240 ~£43

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

4gb PC-8500 RAM ~ £45

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

Be Quiet 350W Pure Power PSU ~ £30

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166784

OR

Silverstone ST35 PSU ~ £32

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/350W-...ATA-80plus-Eff


The energy efficient versions of the Athlon II X2,X3 and X4 which have a 45w TDP are being launched in the next month or two AFAIK.

Here are some more details:

http://en.inpai.com.cn/doc/enshowcont.asp?id=6844

[scaryjim]

I've just rebuilt my HTPC with a Sempron 140 and an ASUS 785G motherboard (I got the EVO rather than the PRO - the difference being the EVO is AM3 / DDR3, has Sideport memory, and costs ~ £10 more!). It's absolutely perfect for the job - I strongly recommend it.

Also my Sempron 140 unlocked to a dual core (Athlon II X2 4400e, according to CPU-Z) by enabling ACC and setting "Unleashing Mode" to enabled. Interestingly, the ASUS BIOS allows you to enable ACC without unlocking cores (you can enable ACC but leaving "Unleashing Mode" on disabled), so if you just want an overclocked single core you can still get the assistance of ACC!

I'm currently running my Sempron undervolted by 0.12V which *should* be reducing my power draw even further - once I've bought a plug in power meter I'm going to do more playing with undervolting things and I'll do a write up with my results.

[Sputnik]

Thanks for the advice, I'll look into the suggestions. I had not looked at CPU's for a while and wondered why the Energy efficient ones was not listed any more.

[benus]

If you consider yourself an audiofile don't forget about obligatory, one and only Asus Xonar Slim sound card that will enable to send a lossless signal from blu-ray discs.