Hi. I want to build a htpc that I can use for gaming too. What is recomended for hardware and OS? This isnt gonna be a budget pc, but not an expensive one either. Ideas anyone?? Thanks a lot
The only thing that separates HTPC from a gaming PC is purpose. Do you need it to be quiet? Cheap? Efficient? If you have a vague idea of budget, and whether any of these are factors, that will help considerably. There's no reason why any gaming PC big or small can't be an HTPC.
Usually, "HTPC" just means a really crummy PC that can only do video; often built with leftover parts from old gaming rigs...a high end gaming rig won't be an HTPC, but it will be able to do everything an HTPC does.
Never even thought of that.. I wanted to have this pc in my living room and i wanted it to look good, thats why I thougt of a HTPC. I think prices in Norway is a little different then in th US, but i was thinking around 1000-1500 dollars. That means 6-9000 NOK, and will give me a good pc if i build it myself. It doesnt have to be silent. I can live with the sound of my ps3 fan so.. So all I really need is a gaming pc with a TV card?
Yes...if you have cable or satellite, you will need to make sure that the tuner you get will work. You would need a "Cable Card" capable tuner. A HTPC does not necessarily have nice case...it can just be an old junk case. Yeah...those cases with screens in the front and IR sensors are neat, but they don't make a HTPC by themselves. Personally, I have used "HTPC" cases for desktops and "desktop" cases for HTPCs...very hard to draw a line between a desktop case and a HTPC case. [edit] Also, you may find that a rackmount server case works well for you. This is what I am using for my current home HTPC...it is the right shape, it looks nice, and it has room for a large mainboard and a dozen hard drives.
I just wanted it to look nice since it's supposed to be in the living room. Then again, I might consider the rackmount server case. I suppose it'll do the trick Any hardware you reccomend, for gaming and HD movie I mean?
I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder, while rackmount cases look very techno and geeky, that isn't the kind of 'nice' I'd normally associate with a living room. Rackmountsd also tend not to be very quiet, and quietness is reasonably important for an HTPC. Basically, browse through the list of cases that are available, find one that you would be happy to use and then do that. $1000-$1500 is an enormous budget for an HTPC, way more than you will need.
Well yes, thats the price i CAN give for it. Not what I necessearliy WILL give for it. It may be a lot for a HTPC but for a gamingpc its not that much.
Here's a near $1500 gaming build in a noise-dampening case. Not sure how quiet the stock coolers are for the LGA1155 CPUs, but most of the good coolers are still adapting to the new socket, so if you want more quiet with a big cooler, wait a short while and I'm sure it'll happen soon enough. Have used the immensely powerful and overclockable i5 2500K CPU, a reasonable i5 2500K CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072 P67A-UD3 M/B: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128460 8GB XMS3 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145324 HD6950 GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125356 NZXT Whisper case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146051 WD20EARS HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136514 WD10EALS HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136534 X25-M 80GB SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167031 LG UH10LS20 BR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136183 Seasonic X650 PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151088 Here's a cheaper system with a little less performance: i5 2500K CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072 P67A-UD3 M/B: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128460 8GB XMS3 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145324 HD6850 GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150515 WD10EALS HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136534 WD20EARS HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136514 LG GH24NS50 DVD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136177 NZXT Duet case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146034 NZXT Value 430W PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817610002 478+195+70+100R20+24+67+84 This is about $1000. Don't be fooled by the term 'value' and the bland appearance of the PSU, it's pretty capable and is the quietest PSU in its class by a country mile. (16dB at 200W, versus 32dB for a corsair CX)
Sam...why three drives? I can understand the SSD for faster booting/program loading and the 2TB for storage...but what is the 1TB for? As for the rackmount cases...mine looks like it was designed to sit on top of a stereo receiver, so it fits in really nice. Obviously there are all kinds of front panel designs...but at least you know a rackmount case will be the correct width.
The 1TB is a games/high speed drive. While green drives are great for storage space and quiet, they're very slow and the games that won't fit on a boot SSD (many, if you have more than a few games installed) will be pretty tiresome loading off a green drive. The same goes for large programs. For example I installed a few music VST plugins that summed 50GB and they take a long time to load, even off my Caviar Black. For the sake of $70 for an additional 1TB storage, it seems useful to me, though it's only something I typially include in higher end builds.
I guess that makes sense...sorta. Personally, I never turn my system off unless I have new parts or something, so the only advantage offered by an SSD would be the load times of the programs you mentioned.
An SSD improves things all round. Using web browsers (their cache goes on the C drive), most large programs. The reason for the two mechanicals is for lots of storage space, but without resorting to either considerable expense, or very slow performance in everything except what little will fit on an SSD.
Hey Sam, I like the parts list for the PC, but as I was shopping for the motherboard, I noticed it seemed to not be available in general from major vendors. Then I saw the story about the Intel recall on the P67 chipset. Being a bit removed from the system building scene, I'm wondering if I should still try to buy one from a vendor and deal with the replacement motherboard via recall swaps later (likely April) or go with a different chipset, avoiding P67 boards altogether. It appears the "problem" is only with SATA 2 ports and I could instead use SATA 3 ports and not worry about this at all for the time being. That said, if I can't get the board or there is an alternative, what makes the most sense? I am needing to build something new right now and can't really wait until April for Z68 chipsets or even to consider AMD's bulldog coming at that time as well. Should I run an 1156 board instead and do you have any suggestions on which on or is the one you listed still what I should be chasing? Any ideas or some direction on this would be appreciated.
Well, you have two options. Either risk the P67 board if you can find one (remember this fault is only likely to occur in 5-10% of cases over typical lifespan), or use its SATA 3 ports only, or alternatively, buy an older LGA1156 system. They aren't as fast but they are still very much superior to any other alternatives, and in most cases you don't really need that extra speed, at least not currently.
I was actually all ready for an upgrade...then I read up on that chipset and found that the SATA problems are the least of the concerns. I just got over the DRM on my PS3...I don't want it on my PC.
I think people are reading a bit much into the whole DRM debacle. It's a security feature not a means to stop you doing x,y,z like people think.
If it provided me any security, I might be willing to call it a security feature...I just don't like the idea of hardware DRM, most of all on a homebuilt PC. It isn't just the DRM itself, but the software that might come to use it...if half of the next generation of games require hardware DRM, then AMD would be forced to make DRM'd chips too; and then I would have no way of avoiding hardware DRM at all. ...And yes, I know that this is a minor form of DRM that has few if any practical applications at the time, and which can probably be bypassed by either bios or software tool...but it sends a message that it is OK to put in hardware DRM because we will buy it anyway...and if software DRM has shown anything, this will eventually lead to PCs that won't even turn on without an internet connection. Just wait...in 15 years some 20-something will be getting sued by Intel for distributing the master key that allows you to run unsigned code on your PC. If this had ANY feature that was actually good for the users, then I might be able ignore the dark looming clouds...but the dark looming clouds are the feature set in entirety; it does nothing else.
