reasonable spec for a HTPC?

ninjasurfer1

Hi,
I've been looking to build a HTPC for a while and have come up with the following spec from komplett for approx €350:
(I won't be using it for gamng - mainly media playback and internet).

451987 AMD Athlon X2 7750 2,7Ghz, AM2+, 3MB, 95W, Boxed : 59.00
445779 ASUS M4N78, Socket-AM2+/AM3 nForce 720D, ATX, DDR2, SATAII, GBLAN, PCI-Ex16 : €61.01
324986 Corsair Dominator TWIN2X PC8500 2GB DDR2 Kit w/2x 1GB XMS2-8500 dimm's, CL5-5-5-15, 1066MHz, E.P.P, DHX : €40.00
451869 OCZ Fatal1ty Series 500W PSU : €64.01
442779 Sapphire Radeon HD 4350 1GB DDR2 PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI-I, HDCP, Heatsink, Lite-Retail : €41.01
313880 Silverstone SST-LC17B HTPC, Black (Without PSU) : €89.36

TOTAL: €354.39

I have a lot of HDD's so i'll be putting approx 4TB's (4x1TB's) into the case.

Do you think i'd need a more powerful psu to power all of the above (+ 4 1tb hdds)?

Thanks for any advice.

StopNotWorking

God when I saw fatal1ty I thought you bought one of those naff sound cards..

Looks good to me OP, only thing thats making me cringe is the horribly named PSU. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to name products after that guy deserves a right kick up the arse.

Solitaire

CPU is kinda power-hungry...

And the PSU is naff. Get a CX400 or similar.

ninjasurfer1

Solitaire wrote: »

CPU is kinda power-hungry...

And the PSU is naff. Get a CX400 or similar.

Thanks for the feedback.

Given that I'll have 4-5 HDD's, graphic card, Mobo,etc, would the cx400 supply enough power to supply them all?
I did a quick review of the parts (under stress) and the breakdown was as follows (approx):
Hdd's were approx 12-15 watts each (5 drives = up to 75 watts).
CPU : up to 200 Watts.
graphics card: up to 200 Watts.


This pushes me well over the 400w mark. Any other cheap psu capable of supporting 5+ Sata drives that is compatible with the rest of the selection?

Thanks for any info.

Mac daddy

Why don't you not take a look at the power calculator?
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Banged your bits into it ( GFX selected a 4550 instead )

305W you shouldn't need anything more than a 400W psu or 500W tops

ninjasurfer1

Mac daddy wrote: »

Why don't you not take a look at the power calculator?
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Banged your bits into it ( GFX selected a 4550 instead )

305W you shouldn't need anything more than a 400W psu or 500W tops

Thanks!!
Thats a brilliant calculator!! Pity I didn't have it today as I spent hours reading individual reviews today to come up with the figures!!!

Solitaire

Even then its flawed...

As I said the 7750 is a bit hungry for a HTPC that isn't doing hardcore server/encoding/rocket science in the background. Its priced well but 95W TDP for a CPU that isn't any better than the E5200 in real life ain't so hot (or, literally speaking, a bit too hot :P)

200W for a HD4350?! :eek: That's at least one zero too many :P

HDDs use little power when running, its the current spike when they spin up from idle that's the problem. Which is why I went for a PSU with a single 12V rail - that system won't be using anywhere near 300W let alone 400W when running, and the big 12V rail capacity for its size allows it to shrug off the brief hit from all the HDDs spinning up together at boot



E5200 may be better for this application. Very good performer, cheap and cool-running (the 65W TDP is incredibly pessimistic )
Mobo is a bit pricier so I could get a ICH10 model for the extra SATA connections. Also has decent onboard sound.
Twice as much RAM here, you should still see 3.25GB even under a 32bit OS. Bear in mind I got a PC6400 kit as PC8500 can't run at full speed with an Intel CPU on FSB800; you'd need to OC to get it up to speed (at least 266MHz bus speed)
Graphics card has everything you need, plus its passive.
PSU should be more than enough - 30A of 12V power on the one rail. Solid OEM too (that's a Seasonic in disguise! )
And don't you need an optical drive?

And my last issue: the case. My build has the same as I know you have the HDD requirement (and its the only design that works well as a non-tower home server) but aside from needing more fannage it's also out of stock until some time next month. D'oh.

TerrorFirmer

I had to laugh at the though of a 4350 using 200w. It would use something like 30-35w at a guess.

The Fatality line is absolute crap, a means to shift low end gear at stupid prices. I've yet to see a 'good' product with his name on it. Most of them are low performance cards sold at high performance prices.

CPU wise try something like this. 45w, cooling running and efficient. There's Sempron versions as well but the 1MB cache is worth the extra.

Here's an example of a good, extremely low draw build. Keep in mind the CPU, the one there has only a meagre 256kb L2, so you'd be best off buying that separately from Pixmania for example. But as a guideline:

Solitaire

Terror, I think Ninja wants (or needs) a HTPC case. Yeah, I know there's no LC17s anywhere at the moment... kinda tricky...

TerrorFirmer

Ah. I see- dropped the ball again. Well, never mind - and I should add I've really budgeted mine, no need to go that cheap really, but it would be an extremely bill friendly build.

ninjasurfer1

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I had to laugh at the though of a 4350 using 200w. It would use something like 30-35w at a guess.
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Thanks Guys,

You've given me food for thought!!!
(Looks like i get to spend tomorrow in work surfing Komplett, etc!!). :D

btw, Dunno whether i'm looking at this right (probably not!!), but I was basing my figures for the 4350 power consumption on the following review i found:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3420&p=6

Thanks for all the help!!! It's much appreciated!!!
(Don't worry, i'll be back for your opinions once i've made some new selections!!).:D

Solitaire

Haven't loaded it up yet but I'll bet you'll see in tiny small-print "System Power Consumption"... so easy to get caught by that old trick

Just looked at the article... and even as whole system stats the results seem off! Anand has been mocked for power consumption fallacies before... I'm guessing the loaded system was also stressing the CPU and inflating the result!

I doubt the HD4350 needs more juice than its own bigger brother, the HD4550, so use this as a guide:



18.5W for a bigger card

ninjasurfer1

Thanks for that!

Looks like I can go for a smaller PSU and help save the planet (and my Electricity bill!!).

Time for me to get to bed as I have to get to work early to start choosing a new build!!

Thanks for the advice!!

ninjasurfer1

Well, after a few hours of sneaky surfing during work, I'm back with a new (and hopefully!!) selection for you to critique!!! :-)

404885 Corsair Powersupply 400W, 120mm Fans 6xSATA, ATX/EPS, 1xPCI-E, 20/24pin € 39.00
338074 Corsair TWIN2X PC6400 DDR2 4GB KIT CL5 Kit w/2x 2GB XMS2-6400 dimm's, CL5-5-5-18, 800MHz € 45.00
480480 Gigabyte GA-P43-ES3G, P43, Socket-775 ATX, GbLAN, DDR2, PCI-Ex(2.0)x16 € 65.00
376380 Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 2,5GHz, Socket LGA775, 2MB, 800MHz, Boxed w/fan € 61.01
442779 Sapphire Radeon HD 4350 1GB DDR2 PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI-I, HDCP, Heatsink, Lite-Retail € 41.01
313880 Silverstone SST-LC17B HTPC, Black (Without PSU) € 89.36

Total: €340.38 - €14.01 cheaper than the selection posted earlier!! :-)

I picked the 1GB radeon card as it has tv-out (I don't have a hdtv yet - but i'm working on it!!).

Also, (I don't know the name for it) but i'd like to get a remote or keyboard that I could use to wake the PC up from standby or hibernation when i want to watch something. Do any of you know whether the motherboard needs to have this feature installed (don't think it's the WOL feature).

As always,thanks for any advice.

Solitaire

Looking good... so long as you can survive the long wait for that case to come back in!

And I'm pretty sure that all modern mobos support Wake On USB, given the migration of keyboards and mice to the standard!