HTPC/Gaming build

DamoKen

Hi lads, starting a thread here as instead of the HTPC forum as questions in the main are quite general.

Firstly as the thread title suggests this will be firstly a HTPC build, however it will also be used for a lot of gaming so needs to have a lot of grunt.

Priorities therefore are as follows :

• Noise Levels
• Power Efficiency
• Processing Power
• Graphics
• Storage Capacity

So firstly, for a case I'm thinking of the Silverstone Crown CW02B – MXR Black case (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silverstone-crown-cw02b-mxr-black-(htpc)-pluslcdplusirplusremote). Can hold up to 6 HHD's, regular ATX board and provides the height clearance for an after market custom cpu cooler as well as an assortment of after market fans. Hoping the sturdy aluminium construction will also help noise reduction. Not bad looking too which is a consideration as it will be sitting in the living room.

For the CPU I was looking at the I5 & I7 Sandybridge range and have more or less decided on the I5 2500K 3.3GHz. From the benchmarks I've read for my purposes the I7 would be an unnecessary increase in the price tag for a negible increase in performance.

With that chip in mind I'll be going with the Sandy Bridge chipset. Been holding off the last while due to the differences between the H67 & P67, both with features that are useful but didn't want to buy one at the expense of the other. With the arrival of the Z68 I'm ready to take the plunge and take advantage of the power savings offered switching between discrete and onboard graphics depending on what app you're using.

However...not sure if I'm being premature here. Bit of a limited choice at the moment so out of that I'm interested in the Asus board as quite partial to their boards. Board I'm looking at is the Asus P8Z68-V PRO (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-p8z68-v-pro-intel-z68-s-1155-pci-e-20-(x16)-ddr3-2200(oc)-sata-6gb-s-raid-atx-hdmi), reviews of which I've read have been quite favourable.

Should I wait a couple of weeks though until there is more choice on offer? Has anyone heard of impending releases of this chipset that are forthcoming from the major manufacturers that would make waiting worthwhile?

Finally onto storage. Thinking for the moment for secondary storage 2 Samsung Spinpoint F4EG 2TB (http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/11_HDD/07_INTHD35/productdetails/80001766/Samsung_Spinpoint_F4EG_2TB/HD204UI/default.aspx). Meant to be quieter than a lot of similar sized drives and for the moment would provide more than adequate space for my media collection. These would be connected to the board via 2 Sata II ports as from what I've read the only type of drive to really show a benefit from Sata III are the SSD's.

Speaking of which, and to take advantage of the Z68 SSD caching capabilities for my primary drive I'm thinking of something in the OCZ Vertex range, just haven't decided on size yet. From what I've read, if used in conjunction with the SSD caching on the Z68 and a secondary drive size does not need to be a huge concern and it would be a lot more cost efficient to go with a smaller SSD. Is this correct?

Ok, that's it for the moment. Haven't included memory, psu or graphics I know, more because I just haven't had the time as of yet to look into it so any suggestions for these components that will be a good fit with those already outlined would be more than welcome.

Criteria of a PSU are modular is preferabe, low noise levels and power efficiency rating.

Graphics card(s)? Considering both Nvidia and AMD as Z68 is compatible with both. Also would consider both SLI and Crossfire, and again noise levels would be a consideration although if possible I'd change the stock coolers. One reason I haven't given graphics a priority as of yet is I'll probably hold off buying until I have the case and can make an accurate estimate of length once I've got the hard drives in.

Haven't considered memory at all really other than more than likely go with a minimum of 8GB. Other than that usual factors such as speed etc apply.

All suggestions, criticism of choices and reasons why! welcome

Cheers

Serephucus

I have to run in a minute, so I'll address a couple of your points:

Case - if you're going to spend €400 on a case (don't), get something like this.
http://www.quietpc.com/ie-en-eur/products/pc-cases/nof-set-a40. There's also Fractal Design's XL, that will hold ten hard drives.

If you want something more inline with what you were thinking, try this
http://www.quietpc.com/ie-en-eur/products/pc-cases/fd-array-black

Hard drives - very good choice, but I'd pick them up fast. Samsung drives are no more, unfortunately. They've been bought by Seagate.

SSD caching - I'm not sure why you'd want to bother with it for HTPC machine, but regardless, the maximum size SSD that can be used is 64GB. Intel will be releaseing 20GB SLC SSDs that are designed for this in the future.

You were saying it's a gaming rig, what sort of graphics card had you planned? (this will contribute the most to the noise, power, and cooling requirements of the build)

Also, a total budget would be helpful.

If noise is a concern, watercooling is also an option. (I'm going to assume you have the money for it, if you can splurg on a €400 case. )

Lu Tze

Serephucus wrote: »

If you want something more inline with what you were thinking, try this
http://www.quietpc.com/ie-en-eur/products/pc-cases/fd-array-black

Thats a mini-itx case - not exactly suitable for a graphics card of any size!

DamoKen

Serephucus wrote: »

I have to run in a minute, so I'll address a couple of your points:

Case - if you're going to spend €400 on a case (don't), get something like this.
http://www.quietpc.com/ie-en-eur/products/pc-cases/nof-set-a40. There's also Fractal Design's XL, that will hold ten hard drives.

If you want something more inline with what you were thinking, try this
http://www.quietpc.com/ie-en-eur/products/pc-cases/fd-array-black

Cheers for the reply Serephucus. Regarding the case, should have mentioned I want something that will fit in well with my AV receiver, hence that choice instead of a tower. Also height would be a consideration so would need to be no more really than 8 to 10" to fit. I have a Nas quite similar to your second link already, so basically what I want is a case capable of holding an ATX board and graphics card(s) capable of good frame rates on most if not all the latest titles on a 42" 1080i plasma via HDMI but is (fairly) unobstrusive and can still be used as a media player (thinking XMBC for Windows which I already use on my desktop upstairs).

Serephucus wrote: »

SSD caching - I'm not sure why you'd want to bother with it for HTPC machine, but regardless, the maximum size SSD that can be used is 64GB. Intel will be releaseing 20GB SLC SSDs that are designed for this in the future.

Main reasons for including an SSD would be firstly boot times. Don't want to be waiting an age if I just want to watch a film. Currently use an xbox downstairs for this so would like something that would boot if not exactly as quickly, significantly quicker than standard drives. Also from what I've read Sata III is fairly redundant with normal drives so want to be able to take advantage of these ports, not to mention Z68 SSD caching.

Serephucus wrote: »

You were saying it's a gaming rig, what sort of graphics card had you planned? (this will contribute the most to the noise, power, and cooling requirements of the build)

This is one part of the build I haven't looked into in depth so far, and as it's the main culprit for noise the reason I held off until the Z68 was released. From the reviews I've read discrete graphics should run at idle if the application running is not graphics intensive. As the only time it would be running at full throttle is when I'm gaming any noise increase should be drowned out by the game

Serephucus wrote: »

Also, a total budget would be helpful.

Sorry forgot to include that . Thinking in and around 1.5K but flexible. At the same time don't want to include expensive components that are purely for show. If there is a cheaper alternative with no significant drop in performance that's what I'll go for.

Serephucus wrote: »

If noise is a concern, watercooling is also an option. (I'm going to assume you have the money for it, if you can splurg on a €400 case. )

Yeah thought of that as a future option and another reason I like that case as it comes pre-drilled if you want to include water cooling.

Forgot to mention in my first mail. Haven't included a sound card in this build as from what I've read if the output is HDMI to the AV Receiver, the receiver will handle this?

Lastly, recording. A lot of what I watch is is streamed HD or divx (i.e. IceFilms XBMC plugin). Would I need a dedicated card to record HD quality or could this be handled by the processor?

Cheers again!