HTPC Build with room for upgrades...thoughts.

[DoubleHelix]

Hello Everyone,

I've been toying with the idea of building a HTPC and now I think I'm pretty much set on doing it. After having a look at a fair bit of hardware for the build I've come up with the following... (sorry there aren't any links for the components as this is my first post and I'm not allowed yet)

MSI A88XM-E35 M-ATX

AMD A6 6400k FM2

Corsair 4GB 1600 Vengeance

Corsair 430w CX modular PSU

WD Blue 1TB

Corsair Force Series 60GB SSD

ASUS DVD drive

All wrapped up in a...

Zalman T4


This pretty much pushes my budget (£250) near it's limits. I'll throw in a third party cpu cooler and system fans further down the line when I can, and maybe a discrete graphics card for some dual graphics fun!

Just want to know everyones thoughts on this build, whether good or bad. The aim of this build is to get a decent HTPC that can play dvds, stream etc (usual htpc stuff) and have room to be upgraded in the future

Thanks in advance

DoubleHelix

[shaithis]

"have room to be upgraded in the future"

To do what?

If all you want is a HTPC, look at AM1.

[DanceswithUnix]

I just ordered one of these PSUs:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/300w-...lus-bronze-psu

basically to reduce the volume used by the PSU to allow a bigger & quieter CPU fan in a small case, but it looks like if you can maintain a breeze through the unit it won't bother turning on it's own fan. Seems idea for an HTPC.

It is SFX sized, but comes with an ATX adapter plate.

[GeorgeStorm]

It depends what else you may want it for, otherwise Kabini may be a better choice.

If you want to be able to play games etc then I think that setup should be pretty decent.

Built a similar setup for my family at Christmas, using a 5800k (I think), just using the onboard gpu we've managed to play a variety of games, joe danger, grid, guacamelee, don't starve etc

[mikeo01]

A6 is a dual core; you'd be better off getting a Pentium G3420 and a cheapo board such as MSI B85M-E45 or Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H.

Otherwise AM1 seems like a sound choice, Gigabyte board + quad core Sempron 3850 or the faster quad core Athlon 5350 and you'll be laughing.

Throw in some cheapy RAM and a passive cooler and you've got a nifty little HTPC pair it up with an R7 240/250 in future if you need more umf on the graphical side of things.

[DoubleHelix]

Cheers for the replies guys. In terms of upgrading, I was thinking of changing the CPU at some point for a Kaveri A10 so I could game at half decent settings. And I've given the AM1 idea some thought too, and thinking about I may go for that with the Asus AM1M-A motherboard with the Athlon 5350. I might change it out for an FM2+ motherboard and Kaveri CPU sometime in the future and use the AM1 for a NAS build. Cheers for the response

Also, could anyone suggest any wireless cards for the Asus AM1M-A motherboard... preferably PCIe. Thanks