I'm gonna go against the grain and say that the idea has merit. The Asus board you mention is superior to any 1156 one due to proper USB3 and SATA6gig, and the iGPU on the 2500K is leagues ahead of the Clarkdale one. Also the power efficiency is there and the chip would transfer to a wide range of uses down the line if you decided to change things around. And the machine would be capable of a great deal more than just HTPC if you ever need it. If you have the cash, I think it's a great idea.
You don't need sata 3/usb 3 for a HTPC. Get an i3 with room and a PSU to add a GPU at a later date and it will last 10 year for video playback.
You don't NEED a HTPC, or any kind of PC for that matter. Everything on this site is about want. And nothing lasts 10 years in PCs.
but an HTPC is not your average PC. theres no reason it couldnt last 10 years. im using a P4 for my HTPC...thats 10 years old and its still sufficient for being an HTPC.
i'm with okenobi on this one actually, if the op wants and can afford he should get. for the reasons okenobi stated.
But if it's 10yrs old, it's likely it wasn't bought as a relatively low power, cheap alternative at the time. It's been demoted to HTPC duties at some point. Anyway, it's up to the OP, but I think it's makes sense and I've said why.
I think i might end up going for option 2. But I'm still debating on which to choose. Would a dedicated sound card for option 2 add much to the performance of it? I the future I plan on getting surround sound and think I would need one the possibly. Also could someone suggest a small quiet CPU cooler for option 2 which would not take up to much space or make much noise. Thanks for the help. AC
most motherboards are already equipped with decent 5.1+ surround sound with a variety of output options (digital, analog, optical). back in the day, a dedicated sound card was a must...these days? not so much. to help keep the system quite, you might consider underclocking/volting the CPU. assuming you dont have a gob of space inside whatever case you choose, this will help reduce the load on whatever low-profile cooler you end up with. unless you plan on using the HTPC for ripping/encoding media, youll likely never notice the reduction in CPU power. i cant suggest a low profile cooler for you as i dont have a lot of experience in that area.
Agreed. Optical out, straight to an amp is the way to go. As for quietness - having listened to the stock cooler on the the 2400 today, I would suggest that it really isn't that bad tbh. At idle it was 37 degrees and 1100rpm - not silent, but WAAAY not loud. It's very small too. If you want virtually silent, I'm guessing Gelid Tranquillo is still the way to go.
Sandybridge i5 2500k HTPC Quickly read the posts and can only say - most of you do not know what you are talking about. I5 2500k with H67 board HTPC - LOW Watts (95) Perfect playback - blu ray etc Transcoding System powerful enough to take care of business and play games No extra graphics card unless you want high end games - and if you do later on - no problem just add appropriate card - if you do and want to go beserk and overclock - just change MB to p67. For a HTPC - you need K series as this is the 3000 series graphics. Its all about power versus performance + silence. My system on order is as follows: (maybe some overkill but I want to have an option for gaming if that's what I want) ASUS PCE-N13 WLAN PCI-Express Low Profile $40.00 Internet Price: $40.00 Hauppauge HVR-2200 Hybrid Dual Tuner Card Internet Price: $177.00 $177.00 Intel Core i5 2500k Processor LGA1155 3.3GHz CPU Internet Price: 299 $299.00 Gigabyte GA-H67A-UD3H Intel H67 Chipset Socket 1155 Internet Price: $174.00 $174.00 Lian Li PC-C34FB Black Aluminum HTPC Case Internet Price: $331.00 $331.00 Corsair HX-650 ATX Power Supply, 120mm fan Internet Price: $139.00 $139.00 Samsung SH-B123A 12x Blu-ray/DVD Combo Drive Internet Price: $90.00 $90.00 GSkill 8G(2x4G) DDR3 1333 PC10600 (F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT) Internet Price: $85.00 $85.00 Noctua NH-C12P SE14 CPU Cooler Internet Price: $94.00 $89.00 OCZ 120G Vertex II E Series SSD Internet Price: $265.00 $265.00 Seagate SATAIII 2TB Barracuda 64mb Cache Internet Price: $113.00 x 2 = $226 $226.00 Microsoft ARC keyboard Black Internet Price: $44.00 $44.00 Microsoft Mouse Mobile 4000 Graphite $40.00 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM(Microsoft OEM Terms&condition apply) Internet Price: $104.00
Do bear in mind that for video decoding purposes, there is practically no difference between HD 2000 and HD 3000 graphics. The graphics core doesn't even handle video decoding, that's done by a dedicated fixed function pipeline (and this forms the basis of Intel's QuickSync encoding technology). Cheaper dual-core Sandy Bridge i3s should be coming around soon, so it might be worth waiting for those.
Just a couple things; Why would you ever need 8Gb of RAM for a HTPC? Even gaming won't touch half of that. Not all of us have the money for such a case. Are such high performance drives needed?
Putting in a 2500K just doesn't make sense. Wait untill the end of February/ begining of march for the new i3's to arrive on the scene.
Wait a minute right there... What do you people are thinking about, when talking about "HTPC" exactly? For me, a HTPC is an IONITX-board or similar with 2GB RAM, a 64GB SSD and a BluRay-drive. Put all this in the smallest case possible, install Ubuntu + XBMC and enjoy your new and 100% silent HomeTheater PC at a price of under $500 that draws a maximum of 50Watt from the wallplug under load. Add a TV-card if you need it and have an external 1TB HDD connected via eSATA or LAN for storage and be done with it. Anything else is a normal PC used to watch videos most of the time and not a HTPC imho.
Anyone actually know why they put the best intergrated graphic in the CPU which are going to be used with a good GPU so won't be needed , while the normal sandybridge which will be used only with integrated get a stripped down version. Any chance there release a chip without the graphic along with a slight price cut in the 1155 socket?
A 2500K without the Graphics chip would be pretty cool alright. I would disable it on my chip if I could.
Noone understand this crap, but intel. Interesting enough, all mobile parts have the HD3000 graphics, no matter if they're i3/i5/i7. Here's waiting for a revision of the Asrock HTPCs to include these new mobile SandyBridge CPUs. Currently they go with the nVidia graphics -> http://www.asrock.com/nettop/index.asp
not even sure why anyone builds a htpc anymore. pretty sure bit did an article about the waste of time and money it has become with the other solutions out now. my two cents. if you can afford the sb chip, get it. lower power consumption = less heat = lower temps = less noise. but again, why bother...
