Quiet HTPC & gaming possible?

Z

Zapten

New member
I'm looking to buy an HTPC that can stream 1080p MKVs flawlessly, general surfing, HD freeview, bluray playback and some gaming. I would like the machine to be as quiet as possible so not intrusive in my living room. It will be hooked up to my receiver/speaker sound system and 1080p projector. It will be easy enough to get a spec capable of handling this, the only issue is noise levels. I'm unsure of graphics cards, the ones listed on the website don't have that much info. I was hoping to get a fanless graphics card to help with noise. I was hoping to future proof myself somewhat but not sure if I've gone over the top on spec levels, which is show below:



Case
Lian-Li PC-C33B Black Aluminium HTPC Case + 450W PSU
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500S Quad Core (2.7GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H61-M LE/USB3 (NEW REV 3.0): M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 430 - DVI,HDMI,VGA
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 510 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 450MB/sR | 210MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£45)
Sound Card
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium (£59)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
TV Card
HAUPPAUGE HI-DEF SATELITTE DVB-S2 TV RECIEVER (WinTV-NOVA-HD-S2)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,043.00 including VAT and delivery.
 
PCS

PCS

Administrator
Staff member
Welcome to our forums :)

If you consider installing a TV dongle as opposed to internal card, I would consider this spec:

Case
PCS Hush! Silent Mini-ITX Case + 60W PSU
Processor (CPU)
AMD® Zacate™ E350 Dual-Core Processor (1.60GHz) 1MB L2 Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® E35M1-I DELUXE: FCH A50, SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1066MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
Integrated AMD® Radeon HD 6310 Graphics - DX11
Memory - 1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 130MB/sW)
1[SUP]st[/SUP] DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BD-5730S 6x BLURAY WRITER & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE (£79)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
INTEGRATED GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD (AS STANDARD)
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £605.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-silent-mini-pc/

This is a 100% fanless/silent solution that is perfectly capable of handling 1080P at ease. I have one of these in my living room. It's not super fast but for 1080P, general surfing, HD freeview and bluray playback it will be fine, and you can use the HDMI/optical out ports to connect it to your receiver/speaker sound system and 1080p projector.

It can play games no problem, please see a video on Youtube on the HD 6310 and E350 processor playing Crysis:

[video=youtube;ABmWWJSSPWU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABmWWJSSPWU[/video]

Oh, did I also add that this saves you £403? :)
 
Last edited:
Z

Zapten

New member
Thank you for your reply. I'm quite keen on the case I picked out, or something similar. The HTPC would be in direct line of sight with a projector, so very low lights, lights on the front of a case could be quite distracting. From the video it looks like there's a bright power light showing, I would prefer not to have to tape over it or cover it up if I can buy a case without that issue. My two favourite cases were the Zalman HD501 or Lian-Li PC-C33B from what I've seen so far.

I don't mind spending a few hundred quid extra to get a better spec machine. In the past I've gone for just capable PCs/hardware, it's been fine at the time but later on down the line I wish I had chosen the upgrade, at which point it was too late. Which is why this time I decided to try future proof my purchase.

I'm fairly set on a quad core, likely i5, SSD drive, nice looking case as above but trying to work out the rest. If I went for my original spec without the graphics card would it be able to handle 1080p videos but not games? Is there any other methods I can use to help quieten the system?
 
PCS

PCS

Administrator
Staff member
The video is not of our case or indeed anything provided by PC Specialist - the video is simply a demonstration of the E350 + HD 6310 by AMD. This is the case that we would supply:

4.jpg
1.jpg


The original spec you have chosen will be absolutely fine for 1080P and will be better at gaming than the HD 6310.

More images here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-silent-mini-pc/
 
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