Cheap build ideas needed?

Stinicker

I need to build a fairly basic system, just a tower no other bits and pieces needed.

I will be using the PC as a multimedia playback PC, basically I will have it connected to the TV by HDMI and its main purpose will be to play back .mkv 1080p video files to the tv.

Ideally it should be quite enough and also be able for the occasional youtube video streaming also. As I say just something basic enough that works, with a fairly nice case.

I will use 2 x 2TB Hard drives in it but have these so was just wondering a ball park figure? Or any recommendations!

Big Lar

You could get a network media player that you could also surf the web with for €90.00 upwards, connect a usb drive to it an you can access this from the network also, and you will also have a remote control.

Just thought I would throw that in as an option as I think that is what you want the pc for.

IrishMetalhead

what you basicly described there was a htpc (home theater pc) which are fairly popular but costly considering there are cheaper solutions like the media play big lar suggested but they do come in handy as they support all video codecs so it does eliminate compatibility issues. btw i didn't quite get what you meant about the 2tb drives, do you already have them? if so you should get a smaller drive as your os drive as windows have abit of an issue running on drives over 1.5TB.
There loads of different configurations for a media pc but i'd recommend this as the gpu and cpu are built into one chip so there should be no issue at all running vids at 1080p:

Total build cost: €401.00 + €30 shipping
4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1333 CL9 €20.44
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 3 6GB/s €46.34
Silverstone SST-ML03B Milo Desktop - black €56.09
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W €41.01
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €15.93
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch €85.84
MSI A75MA-G55, Sockel FM1, mATX €76.49
AMD A4-3300 APU mit AMD Radeon HD 6410D Grafikeinheit, Sockel FM1, boxed €58.86

Stinicker

IrishMetalhead wrote: »

what you basicly described there was a htpc (home theater pc) which are fairly popular but costly considering there are cheaper solutions like the media play big lar suggested but they do come in handy as they support all video codecs so it does eliminate compatibility issues. btw i didn't quite get what you meant about the 2tb drives, do you already have them? if so you should get a smaller drive as your os drive as windows have abit of an issue running on drives over 1.5TB.
There loads of different configurations for a media pc but i'd recommend this as the gpu and cpu are built into one chip so there should be no issue at all running vids at 1080p:

Yeah I already have two 2TB drives so would use them in it. I wonder would it be possible to install WIN-7 to the 2TB drive by creating a smaller partition on the 2TB drive of say 500GB for Windows? Thanks for the recommendations, will deffo do something soon on it think!

Would this rig be capable of adding a BluRay-Rewriter? I have one of these in my Medion Aldi computer that I was using all along as my HTPC but instead as it is so much faster than my 6 year old Dell that I borrowed it from the TV room to into the office this summer as I got sick of the old Dell and I now need to replace the HTPC with something dedicated.

I was double jobbing the Medion as a HTPC and PC with a 10 metre HDMI to the TV and a DVI cable to the pc monitor; however due to the distance between my office & tv room it cannot do both tasks despite a cheap 10metre HDMI cable (eBay crap) and a large hole drilled through the wall, the 10m HDMI cable would drop the signal every so often so I have decided to build a new rig instead rather than over extending the Medion which works so well as a normal computer for me now. I could take out the BluRay rewriter from the Medion and and add it to the new rig as I have a OEM DVD rewriter for the Medion which I upgraded to Bluray a while back but would more need the BluRay drive in the new HTPC rather than the Medion.

Any suggestions if I increase the budget to €500-€600? Or is it even necessary?

Serephucus

Simply buy a better HDMI cable? I'm using a 10M one myself at the moment, and it's working fine.

Jonny7

Try the PC configurator on hardwareversand.de

I used old refurbished dells from ebay (150ish euros) as HTPC's but yours sounds like you need something a little more solid

One of the other lads will spec you up a much better "budget" machine, I excluded graphics card but should be around 260 euros delivered (inc. BluRay player)

IrishMetalhead

if you partiton one of the 2tb drives that should be fine but i can't garentee it will work for sure, jonny's build wouldn't be the best way to go as those case\psu combos are a terrible idea (sub standard psu's blow ubber easily) also the celeron dosn't support the onboard gpu so it might struggle running vids at 1080p also he didn't include a copy of windows, good effort tho nontheless.

had a quick go through the specs i posted last night and removed the hdd, change the psu to a newer model and added the blu-ray burner and the assembly service:

Total build cost: €439.15 + €30 shipping
AMD A4-3300 APU mit AMD Radeon HD 6410D Grafikeinheit, Sockel FM1, boxed €58.86
MSI A75MA-G55, Sockel FM1, mATX €76.49
Thermaltake TR2 450W/80plus Bronze €51.13
Rechner - Zusammenbau €20.00
4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1333 CL9 €20.44
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch €85.84
Silverstone SST-ML03B Milo Desktop - black €56.09
LG BH10LS30 Blu-Ray Brenner bulk €70.30

maygitchell

Jonny7 wrote: »

Try the PC configurator on hardwareversand.de

I used old refurbished dells from ebay (150ish euros) as HTPC's but yours sounds like you need something a little more solid

One of the other lads will spec you up a much better "budget" machine, I excluded graphics card but should be around 260 euros delivered (inc. BluRay player)

Any link to ebay vendors?

Jonny7

maygitchell wrote: »

Any link to ebay vendors?

I haven't found any solid vendors like there used to be back in the day

Just search refurbished in ebay.ie and it will show you the UK vendors who should ship to Ireland. I go for machines with core2duos in them, choose the size, XP installed - usually around 100 euros plus 30 to 40 euros shipping - always check the shipping (some seem to think Dublin is on the other side of the world)


I don't recommend case + PSU combo's except when its only going to be used as HTPC, the OP mentioned on another forum he'd be interested in as low a price as possible. Obviously if he has the cash the 400 euro machine is much more rounded and better. The chip is perfect too.

maygitchell

Jonny7 wrote: »

I haven't found any solid vendors like there used to be back in the day

Just search refurbished in ebay.ie and it will show you the UK vendors who should ship to Ireland. I go for machines with core2duos in them, choose the size, XP installed - usually around 100 euros plus 30 to 40 euros shipping - always check the shipping (some seem to think Dublin is on the other side of the world)


I don't recommend case + PSU combo's except when its only going to be used as HTPC, the OP mentioned on another forum he'd be interested in as low a price as possible. Obviously if he has the cash the 400 euro machine is much more rounded and better. The chip is perfect too.

I agree, there seems to be a lot of ex-office stock on ebay, picked up a few dell machines for the family over the years, solid bargain for sub €80 if you dont need a monitor, anyway thats dragging things off topic!

IrishMetalhead

your not joking, the amount of ex-office comps i acquired over the past year or two has been unreal and i got them all for free and all from family, friends and clients who just want rid of em, but i wouldn't imagine they'd be the best htpc's to go with as most of them are noisy and hella slow which mean you might have to add a graphics card to it and even then compatibility and bottle-necking can be a major issue just to run 1080p videos but it is the cheapest option by far but tbh I would just go with the new build as it will last you for years and there'd be more options for upgrading\updating plus it will all be under warranty if all goes wrong

Stinicker

I never went ahead with this much to shame. I am ready now though! I am just wondering that over the last few months what new stuff has come to the scene?

I am still in the €400ish price bracket, but we can exclude an operating system as I am thinking I will try out Linux on it and if I don't like it I can always buy Windows 7 64-bit later.

Basically the specs needed are:

128GB ssd drive for fast booting, it is to be used as a cheap HTPC

2TB storage hard-drive

lots of ram 4gb

Bluray drive

good graphic card capable of playing back 1080p .mkv files and handling bluray from the bluray burner/reader.

Tij da feen

Item|Price
ASRock H61M/U3S3 (B3), Sockel 1155, mATX|€55.07
Intel Celeron G530 Box, LGA1155|€37.50
Gigabyte Radeon HD 6450, 512MB GDDR3, PCI-Express|€29.93
4GB Patriot AMD Entertainment Edition PC3-10600 1333MHz|€19.77
Crucial M4 128GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€111.28
Seagate Barracuda Spinpoint HD204UI 2TB SATA II|€99.12
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€31.75
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER BQT S6-SYS-UA-300W 80plus bulk|€27.93
LG BH10LS38 Blu-Ray Brenner Retail|€73.49
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€504.83

100 quid over budget but it has everything you wanted there. You can't fit all of the stuff you wanted in on a 400 quid budget.

IrishMetalhead

got it down a slight bit by adding a cheaper ssd that would be more then enough for just the boot drive and replacing the cpu and gpu for a apu which is more then capable of running 1080p videos, and a few other slight changes like changing the psu to a 350w cause it's only €4 more nad it's better to be safe then sorry and a smaller case but the build is still over budget unfortunatly:

Item|Price
Total build cost: €465.36 + €18.99 shipping
OCZ Agility 3 120GB 6,4cm (2,5") SATA3|€92.39
Seagate Barracuda Spinpoint HD204UI 2TB SATA II|€99.12
AMD A6-3500 APU mit AMD Radeon HD 6530D Grafikeinheit, Sockel FM1, boxed|€63.93
ASRock A75M-HVS, FM1, mATX|€50.99
LG BH10LS38 Blu-Ray Brenner Retail|€73.49
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse Core 1000 black|€34.36
4GB Patriot AMD Entertainment Edition PC3-10600 1333MHz|€19.77
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER BQT S6-SYS-UA-350W 80plus bulk|€31.31