Help Finalizing HTPC Build

[tizodq]

1. I will be using the HTPC for movies/tv shows via XBMC with a couple hard drives for storage with flexraid. The only other software would be sabnzbd/utorrent. I don't plan on gaming on the pc.

2. Budget is $1200 roughly. Can extend up a bit if it is worth it.

3. All parts will be from the US.

5. I don't have any brand preferences, just want the best bang for the buck.

6. Not using any current parts

7. Will not overclock

8. HTPC will be connected to my Panasonic VT60 plasma so want picture quality to be decent. My WD Live just broke and want something similiar in terms of PQ.

9. Would like to build now but can wait a month

I have most of the parts I am buying figured out:

$149.99 - Silverstone GD08B
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811163196

$74.99 - SeaSonic SSR-450RM 450W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151124

$129.99 - Sandisk Ultra Plus 256gb SSD (Just bought since the price was great)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820171741

$174.99 x 2 - Seagate NAS HDD ST4000VN000 4TB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822178393

$49.99 - LG Black 12X BD-ROM UH12NS30
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136268

$84.99 G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231468

Current total - $839.93

Couple things I am having a tough time deciding on.

1st is the CPU. I am leaning on getting a i3 4130 with ASRock Extreme 4 motherboard but the the new AMD Kaveri A8-7600 or Richland APU looks like it might be better for HTPC. Which CPU/APU is my best choice for my HTPC?

2nd is the OS. I am currently using Windows 7 on my laptop and don't mind it. I have no experience with Windows 8.1 but am wondering if I should get that as it is the newer OS and seems to be better in terms of speed/power saving. Which should I get?

Any feedback will greatly help me out. Thanks!

 

[Charlie98]

Question for you... do you plan on encoding video? I.E: ripping video from DVDs or BDs and encoding them into .MKV or .MP4 (etc.) That will largely determine the processor you need.

As far as OS, I would stick with W7, it comes with Windows Media Center (WMC.) I tried XBMC and didn't really care for it, I'm using WMC with Media Browser and it works very well for me. At least W7 gives you that option.

If you want to save a little money, you can get by with 4GB RAM, and, either way, I wouldn't get anything over 1600, you will not be able to tell the difference.

Although you got a good deal on your SSD, a 256GB SSD is uber overkill... I have my old 64GB SSD in my HTPC, I think it's at about 40% capacity with everything loaded on it besides media storage. 256GB would be nice, but completely unnecessary.

 

[Termie]

Kaveri is not good for HTPCs - it's good for compact gaming HTPCs, which is not what yours is. Stick with the 4130 - it's very fast and very efficient.

I see you're getting a BD-ROM. That has no BD burning capabilities, so I assume you are intending to use that for Blu-Ray playback. Keep in mind that it comes with no software for that purpose. The software is usually $75-100.

Also, on W7 vs. W8, W8 Home Edition (not Pro) does drop DVD movie support, which is somewhat annoying for an HTPC. But it is a superior OS in terms of bootup/shutdown speed and stability. You should get a start menu emulator, however, because using it without one is impossible, and MS knows this and will be changing things in Win9. It's not worth upgrading too (and I just did), but it IS worth buying new for a new build (which I've also done).

 

[tizodq]

Question for you... do you plan on encoding video? I.E: ripping video from DVDs or BDs and encoding them into .MKV or .MP4 (etc.) That will largely determine the processor you need.

As far as OS, I would stick with W7, it comes with Windows Media Center (WMC.) I tried XBMC and didn't really care for it, I'm using WMC with Media Browser and it works very well for me. At least W7 gives you that option.

If you want to save a little money, you can get by with 4GB RAM, and, either way, I wouldn't get anything over 1600, you will not be able to tell the difference.

Although you got a good deal on your SSD, a 256GB SSD is uber overkill... I have my old 64GB SSD in my HTPC, I think it's at about 40% capacity with everything loaded on it besides media storage. 256GB would be nice, but completely unnecessary.

I plan to do some encoding with makemkv from the blurays. I will probably use it once and a while.

I did try wmc and didn't like it. I have setup XBMC on my laptop and have been using that for a while and love it so far.

I agree the 256 gig is overkill but I got a killer price on it and would rather be safe.

Kaveri is not good for HTPCs - it's good for compact gaming HTPCs, which is not what yours is. Stick with the 4130 - it's very fast and very efficient.

I see you're getting a BD-ROM. That has no BD burning capabilities, so I assume you are intending to use that for Blu-Ray playback. Keep in mind that it comes with no software for that purpose. The software is usually $75-100.

Also, on W7 vs. W8, W8 Home Edition (not Pro) does drop DVD movie support, which is somewhat annoying for an HTPC. But it is a superior OS in terms of bootup/shutdown speed and stability. You should get a start menu emulator, however, because using it without one is impossible, and MS knows this and will be changing things in Win9. It's not worth upgrading too (and I just did), but it IS worth buying new for a new build (which I've also done).

I plan to have the bdrom to use makemkv to rip to my server and play via XBMC.

I agree with win8 and the start menu. That is the only thing keeping me from win8.

Will the 4130 be enough for bluray rips with makemakv? Also I read somewhere that the video quality is better with the amd apu. Is that true?

 

[mfenn]

MakeMKV does not do any re-encoding, it's just remuxing the BD format into MKVs. It's completely limited by the speed of your BD drive.

As for Windows 8 and the Start Menu, ClassicShell is pretty good, and makes the start menu function like Windows 7 (over even Windows 98 if you prefer ). Windows 8 is worth it just for the better licensing terms, $120 for the Full version.

As for the build:
- Case: Nice, but what you're building doesn't need a full ATX case. The smaller and less expensive GD05 keeps the same look for $91 AR.
- PSU: Also nice, but the $30 AR CX430M fits your needs for half the price.
- SSD : Overkill, but you know that and have it already
- HDD : 4TB drives are bad cost per gig compared to 3TB drives. I'd stick with a pair of these 7200RPM Seagates for $115 each unless you really need 8TB.
- ODD : Good
- RAM: Fast RAM is pointless in general and doubly so in an HTPC. Grab this Team DDR3 1600 8GB kit for $63 AP and call it good.

As for the CPU and mobo, I agree that a Haswell i3 is plenty for you.

i3 4130 $125
ASRock H87M Pro4 $73

 

[tizodq]

MakeMKV does not do any re-encoding, it's just remuxing the BD format into MKVs. It's completely limited by the speed of your BD drive.

As for Windows 8 and the Start Menu, ClassicShell is pretty good, and makes the start menu function like Windows 7 (over even Windows 98 if you prefer ). Windows 8 is worth it just for the better licensing terms, $120 for the Full version.

As for the build:
- Case: Nice, but what you're building doesn't need a full ATX case. The smaller and less expensive GD05 keeps the same look for $91 AR.
- PSU: Also nice, but the $30 AR CX430M fits your needs for half the price.
- SSD : Overkill, but you know that and have it already
- HDD : 4TB drives are bad cost per gig compared to 3TB drives. I'd stick with a pair of these 7200RPM Seagates for $115 each unless you really need 8TB.
- ODD : Good
- RAM: Fast RAM is pointless in general and doubly so in an HTPC. Grab this Team DDR3 1600 8GB kit for $63 AP and call it good.

As for the CPU and mobo, I agree that a Haswell i3 is plenty for you.

i3 4130 $125
ASRock H87M Pro4 $73

The reason I was going with the GD08 was in case I needed to add a 3rd HDD and the GD05 only has 2 3.5" slots. Maybe I can switch to the GD06 and gives that ability. The smaller form factor isn't a big deal for me.

Same thing for the CX430M as it only has 4 SATA connectors and I am maxed out right now with my current setup if I went with that. Both of those were on my list but wanted to "future proof" it the best I could.

Good call outs on the the HDD and Ram.

On the MB, how important is the on board audio chipset? I was trying to get a MB with newer Realtek 1150 chipset, but will I notice a difference between that and the Realtek 892? The HTPC will be connected to my AVR via HDMI then to the TV via HDMI.

 

[mfenn]

Same thing for the CX430M as it only has 4 SATA connectors and I am maxed out right now with my current setup if I went with that. Both of those were on my list but wanted to "future proof" it the best I could.

It's basically impossible for you to max out the CX430 in your case. HDD's draw about 10W each, and the whole rest of your PC draws ~85W at most. So you could add 30 HDDs before even starting to worry about power. All you need are a few SATA Y cables.

On the MB, how important is the on board audio chipset? I was trying to get a MB with newer Realtek 1150 chipset, but will I notice a difference between that and the Realtek 892? The HTPC will be connected to my AVR via HDMI then to the TV via HDMI.

The mobo audio chipset doesn't matter when you're doing audio out via HDMI. The bits are exactly the same no matter which chipset you have.

 

[Zorba]

I've had my HTPC since 2009, and it was fairly cheap hardware back then, integrated graphics, Athlon X2 240 CPU, etc. I can record 2 HD shows, while watching a Blu-Ray or HD recording with no issue. HTPCs don't need much power, unless you also want to do a lot of encoding on it, which I only do a little. In '09 with TV tuners I spent about $650, not including OS. Since then I've added a 2TB HDD and upgraded to Windows 8.1, and I had to get a discrete GPU when I went to Win8 because AMD wouldn't release Windows 8 drivers.

As far as the OS goes, I like Windows 8.1 on my HTPC and I run it without a start menu app. I think the metro interface is decent for a 10 foot interface, much easier to use from the couch than the start menu in XP was. I prefer the look and feel of XP and 7 for a desktop, but I like 8 for a HTPC quite a bit. If you want a start menu, Classic Shell is very good. I don't really use any Metro Apps, but, for example, the NetFlix app is easier for my extended family to use than the browser.

As for no DVD support in 8.1, this can be fixed by installing VLC (free) or any player that you would use to watch Blu-Rays.

 

[tizodq]

Would I be able to use the 360 watt Seasonic PSU or should I stick with the SSR 450? I feel the quality, noise and warranty on the Seasonic is going to be better than the Corsair since the HTPC will be on 24/7.

Seasonic SSR-360GP

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151117

Also on the ASRock H87M Pro4, is that a good board? I was looking at Newegg reviews and there are a lot of DOA comments but I don't know if I should take that with a grain of salt. I don't know if it is worth spending the extra money on something of better quality.

Sorry for all the questions just want to make sure I don't mess up!!

 

[SViscusi]

Would I be able to use the 360 watt Seasonic PSU or should I stick with the SSR 450? I feel the quality, noise and warranty on the Seasonic is going to be better than the Corsair since the HTPC will be on 24/7.

Seasonic SSR-360GP

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151117

Also on the ASRock H87M Pro4, is that a good board? I was looking at Newegg reviews and there are a lot of DOA comments but I don't know if I should take that with a grain of salt. I don't know if it is worth spending the extra money on something of better quality.

Sorry for all the questions just want to make sure I don't mess up!!

Don't overthink the PSU. I have 2 machines sitting a few feet away from me, one a Seasonic 380, the other a Corsair 430, and I can't hear either PSU. Since you'll never push the PSU draw to it's limits, just decide whether or not semi modular cables are worth the cost to you.

 

[mfenn]

Don't overthink the PSU. I have 2 machines sitting a few feet away from me, one a Seasonic 380, the other a Corsair 430, and I can't hear either PSU. Since you'll never push the PSU draw to it's limits, just decide whether or not semi modular cables are worth the cost to you.

:thumbsup: Agree.

As for the board, yes the H87M Pro4 is good quality. Since everybody has moved to solid caps, ther's really no build quality differential between motherboards once you get above $50 All the PCB manufacturing and soldering is done by the same machines, whether the board costs $75 or $200.

The cost differential comes into what extra components they manufacturer puts on the board. You might as well not pay for any fancy features that you don't need.