Wanted to get a sanity check before ordering from NewEgg. Please review & comment if you have a second. I already have DVD drive, a 2TB HD and server rack to put it in. Planning on doing DVR through a Ceton 6 tuner, watching & ripping DVDs, maybe some transcoding.
Not as worried about the cost of each item... mostly just if it'll be a solid WMC PC.
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$129.99 Intel Core i3-3220 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Intel HD Graphics 2500
$62.99 ASRock B75M R2.0 LGA 1155 Intel B75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
$64.99 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
$99.99 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit
$64.99 Logisys CS4802BK Black 4U Rackmount Server Case
$46.99 Antec EarthWatts Green 380W Continuous power 80 PLUS BRONZE Power Supply
$99.99 SAMSUNG 840 Series MZ-7TD120BW 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
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$579.93 TOTAL
Your thoughts on this set up for WMC HTPC??
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wackychimp
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staknhalo
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If storage isn't an issue - why not get a Blu-Ray drive? I did it this past X-Mas; and aside from having to recollect all my movies but on BR now, it's been an appreciated upgrade. Also didn't have to mess with applying my metadata from DVDs to the Blu-rays or anything.
8GB might be overkill - but better to have more than needed than less.
I know plenty of people who have perfectly working ASROCK boards - but I find ASUS better in terms of firmware upgrades and reliability. Next would be Gigabyte but only if you need to do a Hackintosh setup.
Other than that - looks fine.
8GB might be overkill - but better to have more than needed than less.
I know plenty of people who have perfectly working ASROCK boards - but I find ASUS better in terms of firmware upgrades and reliability. Next would be Gigabyte but only if you need to do a Hackintosh setup.
Other than that - looks fine.
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foxwood
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Do you live within range of a Microcenter? They have the i3 3225 for only $119, and it's probably a better HTPC chip - it's got a better GPU.wackychimp wrote: $129.99 Intel Core i3-3220 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Intel HD Graphics 2500
$62.99 ASRock B75M R2.0 LGA 1155 Intel B75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
But MicroCenter's CPU deals are in-store pickup only.
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wackychimp
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I was under the impression that WMC didn't play ripped BluRays well. Am I wrong about that? If so, that'd be great.staknhalo wrote:If storage isn't an issue - why not get a Blu-Ray drive? I did it this past X-Mas; and aside from having to recollect all my movies but on BR now, it's been an appreciated upgrade. Also didn't have to mess with applying my metadata from DVDs to the Blu-rays or anything.
For this setup I already had the DVD drive and figured I could upgrade later on. I just got a Sony BluRay player for Christmas and figured that I could go with that for a while. Long term, storage shouldn't be an issue. I tend to horde HDDs. If I see a good deal on one I buy it. This is why I already have the 2TB.
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wackychimp
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Nope. Closest one seems to be 2 states a way.foxwood wrote:Do you live within range of a Microcenter? They have the i3 3225 for only $119, and it's probably a better HTPC chip - it's got a better GPU.
But MicroCenter's CPU deals are in-store pickup only.
Newegg has the i3 3225 for $144. Is it noticeably better? If so, I might as well swap it out.
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makryger
- Posts: 2132
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The 3225 gives you the next generation of graphics processor... probably worth the upgrade
My Channel Logos XL: Get your Guide looking good! ~~~~ TunerSalad: Increase the 4-tuner limit in 7MC
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foxwood
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According to Intel, the chips are the same, except for the Graphics core.
http://ark.intel.com/compare/65693,65692
Amazon and Tigerdirect are both cheaper than NewEgg for the 3225.
http://ark.intel.com/compare/65693,65692
Amazon and Tigerdirect are both cheaper than NewEgg for the 3225.
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NWW
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With Haswell that just came out with perfect support for 24p, lower power consumption, why not go for that directly?
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blushrts
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The only thing I might add is that an i5 or higher would help with the transcoding, depending on how much of it you are going to do.wackychimp wrote: maybe some transcoding.
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staknhalo
- Posts: 1176
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It will play them fine. Just different methods of doing so depending on how you plan to store them.wackychimp wrote:I was under the impression that WMC didn't play ripped BluRays well. Am I wrong about that? If so, that'd be great.staknhalo wrote:If storage isn't an issue - why not get a Blu-Ray drive? I did it this past X-Mas; and aside from having to recollect all my movies but on BR now, it's been an appreciated upgrade. Also didn't have to mess with applying my metadata from DVDs to the Blu-rays or anything.
For this setup I already had the DVD drive and figured I could upgrade later on. I just got a Sony BluRay player for Christmas and figured that I could go with that for a while. Long term, storage shouldn't be an issue. I tend to horde HDDs. If I see a good deal on one I buy it. This is why I already have the 2TB.
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richard1980
- Posts: 2623
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I currently use the i3-3225's HD 4000 graphics, and honestly I think the better choice is to go with NVIDIA or ATI if you care about picture quality. I really hate that Intel's driver does not allow 0-255 output, although the latest driver added an option for selecting the input level (0-255 or 16-235), but the output is still stuck at 16-235. Additionally, the latest Intel driver doesn't allow you to define a custom resolution, whereas that option existed in previous driver versions. Plus there's the 24p issue.
Overall I'd give the Intel graphics a mediocre rating at best. If I had more than 1 PCIe slot (which is currently occupied by my InfiniTV), I'd certainly throw in a dedicated GPU instead of relying on the HD 4000.
Overall I'd give the Intel graphics a mediocre rating at best. If I had more than 1 PCIe slot (which is currently occupied by my InfiniTV), I'd certainly throw in a dedicated GPU instead of relying on the HD 4000.
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Shackleford
- Posts: 242
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HTPC Specs:
The new Richland AMD APU's are out now too.
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bytor
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Yeah,
I'd like some thoughts, also. My very dependable HTPC is going on seven years old with only a couple of mods, and I feel it is time to build a new system holding back the old one for a backup.
My existing system has an AMD 4400+ with an 8600GT graphics card, two DVD drives (which never worked like I had hoped), 320 GB and 1 TB Hard-drives, and 8 Gigs of Ram in an Antec HTPC case. I started with Vista and upgraded to Windows 7 somewhere along the way.
I originally thought about re-using my case, but decided it was best to keep the system up and running until I got the new one working well. I picked up a Cooler Master 120 cube the other day on a whim, but I'm not completely sold on it, though I'd like to build a smaller footprint if possible.
My new system will consist of a Blu Ray drive, an SSD for the OS, a large capacity drive for content (3 or 4 TB to start with the intent of building a NAS later), and an undetermined board and processor. I'm eyeing the Richland APUs, but have not decided. I plan on using it almost exclusively with WMC loading only Media Browser, a weather app, channel logos, the couple required codecs, and the software for my HDHomerun.
My old system was plenty fast for almost everything, but sometimes slowed down in the music library and spotty slow-downs in the menu. I do use two extenders (one xbox and a dma2200) right now with a plan for a third in the future, though I was disappointed with the lack of codec support on the extenders, and I remember reading that additional cores helps the extenders run smoother.
It appears the new Richland based APU 6800K burns just a little more juice when using media than the 6700 so I might look seriously at that, but I haven't looked at any comparable Intel chips (my desktop is Intel so I build to suit). Is this overkill?
Anything else I should consider? Software or Hardware additions? Win7 vs 8 is another choice I will need to make as I doubt I will look at alternates since my wife and child are both adept at the ecosystem.
Thanks,
bytor
I'd like some thoughts, also. My very dependable HTPC is going on seven years old with only a couple of mods, and I feel it is time to build a new system holding back the old one for a backup.
My existing system has an AMD 4400+ with an 8600GT graphics card, two DVD drives (which never worked like I had hoped), 320 GB and 1 TB Hard-drives, and 8 Gigs of Ram in an Antec HTPC case. I started with Vista and upgraded to Windows 7 somewhere along the way.
I originally thought about re-using my case, but decided it was best to keep the system up and running until I got the new one working well. I picked up a Cooler Master 120 cube the other day on a whim, but I'm not completely sold on it, though I'd like to build a smaller footprint if possible.
My new system will consist of a Blu Ray drive, an SSD for the OS, a large capacity drive for content (3 or 4 TB to start with the intent of building a NAS later), and an undetermined board and processor. I'm eyeing the Richland APUs, but have not decided. I plan on using it almost exclusively with WMC loading only Media Browser, a weather app, channel logos, the couple required codecs, and the software for my HDHomerun.
My old system was plenty fast for almost everything, but sometimes slowed down in the music library and spotty slow-downs in the menu. I do use two extenders (one xbox and a dma2200) right now with a plan for a third in the future, though I was disappointed with the lack of codec support on the extenders, and I remember reading that additional cores helps the extenders run smoother.
It appears the new Richland based APU 6800K burns just a little more juice when using media than the 6700 so I might look seriously at that, but I haven't looked at any comparable Intel chips (my desktop is Intel so I build to suit). Is this overkill?
Anything else I should consider? Software or Hardware additions? Win7 vs 8 is another choice I will need to make as I doubt I will look at alternates since my wife and child are both adept at the ecosystem.
Thanks,
bytor