hey guys, im building my mother a HTPC for xmas and need some help picking parts out. Not sure what motherboard to get but i know i want a mATX build, already pretty much decided on a case, fancy the fractal design core 1000, it's a bargain at £27 Also haven't kept up with graphics card releases this year so I don't have a clue what to get, its not going to be used for gaming apart from small indie games like limbo and games like bejewelled (i showed my mother bejewelled on my ipod, bad mistake, didn't see my ipod again for 3 days ) Just GPU, PSU and MOBO left CPU - AMD Phenom X4 9650 GPU - PSU - RAM - 2x2gb DDR2 MOBO - CASE - Fractal Design core 1000 HDD - 2x500gb dont think im missing anything out, Can't wait to read some replies. Cheers Peeps Black Tiger
haven't got a particular budget in mind, but somewhere around this area, it's not going to be overclocked or pushed hard, just movies and low end casual games Motherboard - £40 GPU - £40-60 PSU - £30 Cheaper the better but obviously not too cheap LMAO if you catch my drift
The problem is that AM2+ CPU are not compatible with AM3 mobos (and doesn't support DDR3). Why don't you get a MSI miti-ITX H61 mobo + pentium G620 ? The IGP will handle easily HD movies, it is cheap, small and power friendly. MSI H61 mITX : £53 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-...ddr3-sata-ii-3gb-s-graphics-on-board-mini-itx Pentium G620 : £53 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-pentium-g620-s-1155-dual-core-260ghz-3mb-smart-cache-65w-retail Corsair XM3 DDR3 1333MHz (2x 2GB) : £27 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-...6-(1333)-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-9-9-9-24-150v Total = £141
thanks for the reply, really want to use the AMD chip as it's just sitting around doing nothing, just got 4gb of DDR2 sorted out now aswell. edited first post with updates
A quick browse would suggest: The cheapest AM2+ motherboard you can lay your hands on, probably GeForce 7025 based - Maybe £30 or so: http://www.dabs.com/products/asrock-n68c-s-ucc-am2--amd-geforce-7025-ddr3-matx-748H.html Combined with a Radeon HD5570/5670 - About £40-50 Plus a cheap, but not too cheap PSU - Not really au fait with that end of the PSU market, but maybe £20-30?? Should give you the best bang per buck with a few (albeit limited) gaming options. This is assuming you want new components. Since AM2+ is an obsolete form factor there are probably big savings to be had if you are willing to go second hand. EDIT: You could get a cheaper graphics card and still run casual games and movies fine.
My HTPC is based around the asus e35m1-I deluxe which is perfectly fine for everything you've mentioned above but is above your combined mobo + GPU price - the E35M1-M PRO http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-e35m1-m-pro-amd-hudson-m1-amd-zacate-18w-pci-e-20-(x16)-ddr3-1066-sata-6gb-s-micro-atx would also do the trick and be close-ish to budget. It also draws next to no power (30W idle, 40W playing a blu-ray) so a huge PSU is not necessary - a PicoPSU would do the trick. Add 4GB DDR3 for £20 and you're done! Total cost for mobo, integrated CPU + GPU & RAM £124.50 from scan (this ram http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-corsair-ddr3-xms3-pc3-10666-(1333)-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-9-9-9-24-150v)
