Hello together, since I’m planning to upgrade / replace my current HTPC with some new hardware I would like to get some help from you guys.
Currently I’m using an old small form PC to bring the action to my projector and sadly it is not strong enough anymore for everything ;(
Also the LAN-Connection died some weeks ago and currently I can just use the integrated WLAN which isn’t the best.
The specs of this system are:
CPU: Intel Core i3 3227U
Mainboard: Mobile Intel HM77 Express
RAM: 4GB DDR3
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 4000
PSU: No idea
HDD: 500GB
Full specs can be found here
So it is a really weak system.
My plan is to replace it with a stronger system which could be also used by friends as a single PC when they came over to play some games together. This is what I have planned to do:
CPU: Intel Core i3 6300 / Intel Core i5 6400 (No idea if I really need 4 cores) / waiting for AMD Zen
Mainboard: MSI Z170A-G45 Gaming / Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming 3-EU (Please don’t try to talk me into other brands … I just trust this two brands when it comes to motherboards so I won’t listen xD)
RAM: 16GB HyperX FURY DDR4-2400 (Sadly the Crucial Ballistix Sport are not officially supported by the MSI Mainboard)
GPU: 8192MB MSI Radeon RX 480 / 4096MB MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G
PSU: 500 Watt be quiet! Straight Power 10-CM / 550 Watt be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11
SSD: 250GB Crucial MX200
Case: Maven Reference (silver)
I wouldn’t get an i3, so i5 or wait for zen to see how those are. I’d get an 8GB 480 personally, but I like AMD. I’d get gigabyte over msi for the mobo and card.
ShiftySatchmo I still have my backup 4TB WD Red here which should be enough for the start
And what are the reasons why you would go with Gigabyte instead of MSI? Any technical reasons or only style and brand?
From what I’m seeing, I would personally go for a 650w or maybe a bit bigger PSU just to be on the safe side cause in reference, my 290x pulls just as much as the 970 if you go NVidia, and that is up to 300 watts alone and with the rest you’ll prob sit around up to a max of 500+ watts at complete full load. Especially if you OC anything. As for storage I agree with ShiftySatchmo about getting a storage drive but I think the 250gb ssd is more than plenty for an HTPC itself. And I would go i5 if you plan to game game on it instead of stream games. Rest looks pretty solid. Just my 2 cents from what I have learned from ZOD(Todd). My current setup watt wise would be pulling around the same as the setup you’ve mentioned, so it could pull near 600 watts under full load.
PeaceLeon everything I’ve had from Gigabyte has been gold and they have a solid warranty and RMA process, which I’ve never had to use, but my coworker has and they did amazing things for him haha. For some reason I’ve never liked MSI.
ShiftySatchmo Haha yeah if I wait for Zen I will need another board, but that should not be a big problem. About MSI I used a lot of their GPUs and Boards lately and they never disappointed me. Don’t know about their RMA since I never had to use it. But yeah Gigabyte is great too … but I like the design of the MSI products more xD
PeaceLeon to be honest, I’m sure you’ll be happy with whatever you decide compared to your current one. My only real recommendation is don’t get an i3.
Only0neKnight I used in my old system which I had before I won the PC on GTribe also a 500w PSU and used a i5 4690 and a GTX970 and had no trouble with it. So that was the reason why I thought 500w should be enough again. But maybe I will go with 550w or 600w this time.
Only0neKnight What I heard is that you should try to get a power usage of the PSU from around 45% - 80% for the best results
I love to calculate my systems with the help of BeQuiet
instead of i3 6300 try i3 6320. it’s better than i5 6400 and it’s cheaper. 6320 is almost as good as 6500 (a bit slower but nothing you’d notice much). for the psu I’d recommend EVGA (anything certified gold) because you’ll have better warranty. I think Marko got 750 g2 with 10 year warranty.
Also whole point of calling PC the HTPC is to have OS with Media Centerand some kind of TV tuner http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/prods_hvr_internal.html
and ability to work in so called Away Mode … So in short today’s HTPC is multimedia and gaming PC with lots of compute power in small package …
I will recommend Intel CPU (specifically core i5 ) for HTPC because of supported technologies you need a processor with advanced power interface (ACPI) and power management …
now rest of the hardware is not so important … much more important question is whether your hardware fits into the chassis … and how much will all together produce heat inside chassis … If you are building regular PC you can ignore all what i just posted …
