HTPC. Have A Look Please.

K

kingy71

Member
A HTPC.

Its going to sit under the TV, to play 1080/720p, 2D/3D .mkv files, iPlayer etc, YouTube, maybe a little gaming.
Windows 7, maybe 8.

Ill get a Wireless dongle and keyboard/trackball thing separately.

Ive been using an ION for the past several years. It just cant handle the latest 3D/1080 files so time for an upgrade.

Opinions please.


Case
Silverstone GD05B Black Brushed Aluminium Case + 450W PSU
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i3 Dual Core Processor i3-4330T (3.0GHz) 4MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® H81M-E: Micro-ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 640 - DVI, HDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
4x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ROM

:)
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
You can probably get away with 4gb RAM but for gaming you may want something slightly better but that depends on the games you play.
 
mantadog

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
keynes said:
You can probably get away with 4gb RAM but for gaming you may want something slightly better In the GPU department but that depends on the games you play.
Click to expand...


Something like a 650ti/660 or a 7850 would be better
 
K

kingy71

Member
Ok, Ill go with the 4GB. Was thinking the same thing.

I aint playing Crysis, but if I was, the online spec checker says no problem at 1280 x 1024.

:)
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
1280? that is a pretty low resolution. It really depends on the game, not very demanding you could get the GTX 650.
 
K

kingy71

Member
That card takes the build over £600, I aint got that.

Like I said I aint playing Crysis. It would be nice to play Kingdom Rush or Orcs Must Die, on a huge TV.

:)
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
kingy71 said:
That card takes the build over £600, I aint got that.

Like I said I aint playing Crysis. It would be nice to play Kingdom Rush or Orcs Must Die, on a huge TV.

:)
Click to expand...

Fair enough :) however I would consider dropping the SSD if you wish to save money since it is not essential.
 
K

kingy71

Member
Just added the LOGITECH® MK270 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO to the build.

Anyone got experience with these?

As a part time Keyboard and Mouse I'm sure they will suffice.

:)
 
K

kingy71

Member
I was thinking of storing the movies on the HDD, then copying over to the SSD to watch them. Large files anyway.

Also a little bit worried about space in the case.
 
K

kingy71

Member
I dont know!

Im using an ION at the moment.

There is nothing worse than sitting down on a Saturday night to watch a movie only to find it lags.

People all over the Internet say on board graphics are fine to play 1080p, I don't agree.

Just covering all bases for smooth video playback.

Just got a new 50 inch TV and what I could watch previously on my old 40 inch now lags.

I'm sure playing from the HDD will be fine. Just in case.

:)
.
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
People all over the Internet say on board graphics are fine to play 1080p, I don't agree.
Click to expand...
As I mentioned before it depends on the game.
There is nothing worse than sitting down on a Saturday night to watch a movie only to find it lags.
Click to expand...
I would guess the hard drive is pretty old or not working well. I have a caviar green and play blu ray movies (around 30gb) without any lags. I don't think you need an SSD to play movies without any lag.
 
Boozad

Boozad

Prolific Poster
The size of the TV will not effect the output from the PC, it's sending the same information. And watching movies on a HDD will be no different to watching them on an SSD, I rip all of our DVDs so we can stream them through the house (very handy for the kids) and they're fine. As Keynes said, it's something to do with your PC, nothing to do with the size of the TV. An SSD in a build for something like this would be a waste of money.
 
Boozad

Boozad

Prolific Poster
Be aware that constant writes and deletes from an SSD can drastically reduce the lifespan, unless things have changed. I wouldn't recommend regularly moving files to it and then deleting them or moving them back. Have a read through this for some very good info.
 
mantadog

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
I agree with what the other guys have said already, onboard is fine for 1080p video playback. I think your problem lies with something working in the background when your playing a movie, thus stealing resources from the video playback to do whatever is going on in the background.

You most certainly do not need a SSD to enjoy smooth video playback, also as already pointed out by boozad, constantly writing gigabytes of data to it will shorten its lifespan. Though I know intel's drives are rated for 10GB/day for 10 years and I doubt you would be on average exceeding that.
 
K

kingy71

Member
Another question.

Wireless card or USB dongle? Ive never used a dongle before, any recommendations?

This is the one im looking at goo.gl/yr6XYN I think it looks good and has a small lead on it so I can plug it in the back, but have the antenna thing in a better place.

I'm worried the case will be a little crowded with another card inside.

:)
 
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