Build Advice Gaming rig upgrade + new HTPC and NAS - yes i want it all!

Possible Trinity MOBO MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 Motherboard AMD Socket FM2 micro-ATX - if it ever gets released?

I can see the point of going with the HP but am hooked on this building it myself idea now i've built my own gaming rig. Think it would be nice to do the rest and have it all looking nice too.

Will look into the WD greens and reds.

I rip my dvds and do photoshop / video editing on the gaming rig aswell although has to be said i definately do more gaming.

The GPU I was hoping to keep and maybe update later - i know its the part that will make the biggest difference.

Current problem with my mobo and fan cooler and gpu is i can only get at 2 of the ram slots which is why i thought i'd go atx...

 

jinq-sea - could you post a link to the TV tuner please?

 

Budget dependent, could do one of these (I'm a huge fan of Black Gold tuners - they're great)

http://shop.blackgold.tv/epages/BT3159.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/BT3159/Products/BGT3510

or an HD one

http://shop.blackgold.tv/epages/BT3159.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/BT3159/Products/BGT3620

I had one of these, which are rock solid too, and I thought would be really cheap, but no so much any more:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pinnacle-PCTV-DUAL-DVB-T-Pro/dp/B000FQHXMC

I personally wouldn't bother with a cheapie, as they're often not very stable or have a weak/noisy tuner.

 

That was the one I was looking at - seems very good for the price. It's slightly cheaper (after delivery and VAT) at scan but is out of stock until the end of the week.

GK

 

thats the tv tuner sorted out then:
http://shop.blackgold.tv/epages/BT31...oducts/BGT3620

This might sound a bit naive but will I be able to record tv straight to the NAS?

If not should I consider minimal HDD in the HTPC as recording to the SSD will shorten its life / is generally not a good idea?

as it's htpc should I consider a soundcard as well?

thanks for all the help. think we are making progress!

 

Good question - I hadn't thought of that (I'd just thought of bunging a HDD in my HTPC in addition to the SSD) CPC did a great article last month (I think) on making a HTPC and recording using WMC... I'll have a look...

Edit: Some good ideas here

 

From the looks of that link it looks like the best solution is to record locally then create an automated batch process that moves new files to the server.

which brings us back to can you record to an ssd and move files off to the nas instantly or would it be better to have a small hdd to use as the initial recording drive.

 

Anyone got any ideas on where to start for discreet gpus, soundcards and psus?

does this qualify as a discreet gnu - Zotac Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB or should i be looking at something more like Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 Ultimate AMD Graphics Card - 1GB...

 

Yep it does, what is your GPU budget?

If its just for an HTPC something low end would suit you better though. The 7750 is a good choice.

 

Think the 7750 should suffice its for the HTPC so it can run some games like LoL and XCOM. The Zotac seems a bit pricey given that most of my gaming will still be done on my gaming rig.

 

On the TV recording point, you can record straight to a NAS with a bit of tinkering - I've done it, but can't remember where the instructions are. I'll see what I can locate. Else, a CRON job (err no, sorry, batch file) to move recordings would be grand.

I'll see if I can find a link to the instructions.

Also, 7750 in the HTPC would be ideal, I reckon.

 

Also - PSU. I've got a passively cooled PSU in my media PC - SilverStone/NoFan do them (QuietPC is a great place to have a look, and Scan carry the passive SilverStone ones)

 

Time to try and price up:

NAS:
Asus P8H77-I mobo £78.55 (anyone used transparent before - came up in google but haven't dealt with them myself)
Intel 2.4ghz Celeron Dual Core G530 £31.84
Corsair CMG4GX3M2A1600C7 GT i5 (4GB DDR ram) FREE
64GB Crucial CT064M4SSD2 M4 FREE
Fractal Design Array R2 Mini ITX NAS Case with 300 Watt SFX Power Supply Unit £112.11
4x Western Digital 3TB Red WD30EFRX Hard Drive for 24x7 & NAS £499.12
NEED RAID CARD?

SUB TOTAL: £721.62

HTPC:
Streacom FC10 Black Full Aluminium Fanless Chassis £228.56
Intel Core i7 860 2.80G s1156 FREE
Gigabyte P55M-UD2 Mobo FREE
Corsair Memory Vengeance Jet Black Low Profile 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP Dual Channel Desktop £30.96
BlackGold High Definition PCI-e Card, Dual DVB-T/T2, Dual Digital DVB-C £105.60
Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 Ultimate AMD Graphics Card - 1GB £95.72
Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB - Solid State Drive - CT128M4SSD2 £79.34
500GB Western Digital Caviar Green Hard Drive - SATA III HDD (3.5") £46.20
Corsair Builder Series 80+ Bronze CMPSU-430CXV2UK 430W PSU £34.99

SUB TOTAL: £621.37

GAMING RIG UPGRADES:
Asus MAXIMUS V GENE Intel Z77 Socket 1155 Ivybridge Ready Motherboard £140
Intel Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz Socket 1155 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor £247.23
Samsung 256GB 830 Series SSD £134.99
Corsair Memory Vengeance Racing Red 8GB DDR3 1866 MHz CAS 9-10-9-27 Dual Channel Desktop £39.36

SUB TOTAL: £561.68

GRAND TOTAL: £1904.67

under the 2k mark... tempted to try and sneak in a gfx card update on the gaming rig lol. Can anyone see anything I've missed / errors?

 

Looks pretty good, apart from:

- I wouldn't trust £500 worth of hard drives on a PSU that was bundled with a case.
- The NAS motherboard only has two SATA 6Gbit/s connectors and you need four.
- Also check the prices of the G540 and G550, sometimes you can get a faster one for £1 more or so.

 

hmm now i'm nervous about the psu! but i can't seem to get the case without the psu... guess i could go for the cheaper fractal node...

The specs I get for the NAS mobo are
2 x SATA-600 (RAID), 4 x SATA-300 (RAID)
I can use the 4 sata 2 slots for the hdds and run the ssd off one of the sata III slots?

I had looked at the G540 and 550s when pricing the system and they do seem to be just a few pounds more... then I bottled it and stuck with the 530 that was recommended!

 

Yes, that would work. I guess HDDs aren't fast enough to saturate SATA 3Gbit/s.

 

It will be the first NAS i've built, could someone let me know if I need a raid card or not? If I do what would be a reasonable one to go for?

 

The H77 chipset should support RAID0, 1 and 5 if I'm not mistaken.

 

its all very very overkill though.

why does a NAS need an SSD ? are you going to turn it off ?

The HTPC is massive overkill unless your going to do encoding on it ? Also why have HTPC with only 500GB storage ? it would make more sense to scrap the NAS and put the HDD in the HTPC by getting a slightly bigger case that can support a few more 3.5" drives.

Ive got an AMD A3650 setup with 2GB of RAM and it plays everything flawlessly and makes a neat little browser machine too. It cost me less than £400 including a 2TB drive as storage and 128GB M4 for quick boots.

personally id grab an AMD APU for the HTPC to reduce the power and it will still be able to play games.

 

I had considered not having the NAS and just have a large HTPC but unfortunately I don't have room for a large case beneath my tv and have so many dvds and cds to rip to it I need a rather large amount of hdd space without even allowing for any future film purchases etc.

Not sure why the nas needs an SSD particularly but it seems to be derigour when you look at builds for them so thought I better had - and as its the old one out of my gaming rig it offsets the cost That's the other reason the HTPC is so overkill as I'm using the old gear from my gaming rig so I can upgrade that.

there's logic to it... kinda...