I have been asked to make a good 'all rounder' HTPC for my friend. It will be used for MKV files, music and games from their Steam account (Includes GTA 4, Total War games etc) The first one I specced was too much, over £1000, so I was looking at the AMD alternatives (instead of Intel SB) Would the following spec be able to run most games in HD: Case - Silverstone GD06B Gradia, Black, HTPC, microATX Case - £83.98 CPU - AMD A8 3850, Lynx Core, Quad Core, S FM1, 2.9GHz, 4MB Cache, GPU 600MHz, 100W - £99.95 Motherboard - Asus F1A75-M PRO, AMD A75, S FM1, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, RAID SATA, PCIe 2.0 (x16), Graphics On Board, Micro ATX - £83.70 Memory - 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black, PC3-12800 (1600) - £44.59 Optical - Samsung SH-B123L/RSBP 12x BD-ROM & DVDRW Combo Player Retail box - £49.58 HDD (OS and programs) - 1TB Western Digital WD1002FAEX Caviar Black, SATA 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 64MB Cache, 8ms - £62.38 HDD (storage) 2 x 2TB Samsung HD204UI Spinpoint F4EG, SATA 3Gb/s, 5400rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9ms, NCQ - £113.95 OS - Windows 7 Pro (64) - £106.88 PSU - 350W PSU, Be Quiet BN134, 82% Eff', 80 PLUS, Quiet Fan, mATX v3.2, SFX power - £39.20 Wi-Fi - Edimax EW-7612PIn 300Mbps Wireless 802.11 b/g/n PCI Express Adapter - £16.78 That comes to just over £700 https://secure.scan.co.uk/aspnet/shop/basket.aspx Is that powerful enough to do HD gaming? (I don't know AMD hardware too well) - or would it be wise to add something like a Sapphire HD 6850 AMD Radeon Graphics Card - 1GB for another £120? Cheers
You will need a discrete gpu if you want to play more demanding games like gta4 at 1080p on anything but the lowest settings.
HTPC and gaming are kind of opposite ends of the spectrum. A HTPC can be thrown together for <£150+HD costs A decent gaming rig is £500+a noisy hot beast which isn't a great thing to have in the same room while watching a movie. (talking just tower hardware for both sums)
Cheers for that. So I could get them an even cheaper GPU? I assume the 350W PSU would be OK? I have a HTPC under our TV, in the slim TV cabinet using the same case, HDD's, optical drive, memory and OS. Mine has a 2500k and GTX460 though - but all fans were replaced by (quite expensive) quiet ones (Scythe Gentle Typhoons) - and it has literally replaced the PS3, X box and Hi-Fi. Even with the GPU, it is a lot quieter than the X Box - but it has great airflow at the back. My friend and his wife were very impressed with it when they came over last weekend, and they both asked if they could have one too. Like me, they have too many CD's and DVD's in the living room, and backing them all up onto something that has a smaller footprint than my AV amp, and then storing the originals in the loft is a great space saver - not to mention very convenient. I’m just trying to get the best bang for buck for them, rather than a ‘no expense spared’ option. Cheers
This will show just how much more performance you will get out of "dual graphics" and 350W should be fine.