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Started By
Message
HTPC Build
Posted on 8/11/15 at 2:26 pm
Posted on 8/11/15 at 2:26 pm
I'm thinking about building an HTPC to go in the living room. It's primary uses would be watching movies (PopcornTime/torrents mainly), web surfing, and Office and Acrobat. It should also be able to handle 4K video as well. I would also like to it do some casual gaming. I'm not expecting it to run the newest games at maxed settings, but I do want it to play fairly new games at moderate settings. I've put a link to my current parts list, but I'm pretty well over my desired budget. I'm hoping to keep it around $750 so I need to trim about $500 off. I also know that there are other ways to get Windows, so that's about $140 of the $500. Where are the best places to cut prices without losing too much performance? The only part on the list I don't want to change is the case. Everything else is negotiable. I also have a 1 TB HDD in my current PC that I plan to install in this build for additional storage. Any constructive help/advice is appreciated.
HTPC Parts List
HTPC Parts List
2
Posted on 8/11/15 at 3:08 pm to BlakeB123
quote:
4K video
This is the capability that will be driving your budget up. Of course, you can always go integrated and upgrade when you have to - understand that 4k is rare as hen's teeth, but over the next 4 or 5 years, will expand rapidly.
We've had some discussions on here about my upcoming build - I defer to ILike's advice as he is practically a cyborg - and, of course, 4k video playback isn't quite the same as 4k gaming - but that's a lot of pixels - and you're driving a much larger display at that resolution over HDMI.
So - that's what I would do - get it up and running - get all of your local media over to it - and then see - you might have the 90% solution and slog through 6 months or a year, free up some more money and get a truly capable 4k card (although people are doing some 4k now with some the current and immediate past top tier cards).
ETA: Depending on how much transcoding on the fly you do, you might need more processor power and more ram than for a normal, general purpose computer.
(After looking at your build - it looks reasonable and balanced, but that 450w PS might be a chokepoint if you want to go up in GPU in 1 to 2 years - everything seems to be going lower power except GPUs.)
This post was edited on 8/11/15 at 3:13 pm
Posted on 8/11/15 at 7:12 pm to Ace Midnight
4K video playback doesn't take a whole lot of processing power. It's the 4K gaming that will drive the budget up. A GTX 960 is not even in the ballpark for 4K gaming, but it's actually the perfect card for a 4K HTPC, as it uses hardware-based decoding for HEVC 4Kp60 and has HDMI 2.0. I'm sure OP saw that for himself, hence the choice.
For gaming, I'll just assume OP is going to game at 1080, because that's the only way one can "play fairly new games at moderate settings" with a GTX 960.
OP -- First of all, the friggin' Blu-Ray burner is the obvious first thing to eliminate. Honestly. Is there 1080P content in this world that isn't available online? And it's more than double the cost of a 5.25" bay version because it's slim. It's the most egregiously poor use of funds on your list.
Second, you can shave $100 off the CPU by going with an i3 instead of an i5, maybe an i3-4160, because the i5 isn't going to give you an edge in transcoding 4k any more than the i3 will. Meaning, you aren't going to be transcoding reasonably high-bitrate 4K content for a Plex server with a $500 PC build, and streaming 4K requires far less CPU power. I'd say get an Pentium G3258, but I'm compromising with the hyperthreaded i3 for gaming. The i3 has like 90-95% of the single-threaded performance for the i5.
Thirdly, I know you're refusing to change the case, and so I'll just bring it to your attention that you are paying close to $100 to have a mini-itx form factor instead of micro-ATX. Extra for the board. Extra for the case. Extra for the power supply.
Fourth, the GTX 960 does not need to be the 4GB version. This will not, whatsoever, at all, help you run games better in 4K. So, getting a 2GB 960 gives you back another $40+.
If you relent on the case, I'll help with motherboard/case/PSU selection. Otherwise, I have no other recommendations for your intended purpose.
For gaming, I'll just assume OP is going to game at 1080, because that's the only way one can "play fairly new games at moderate settings" with a GTX 960.
OP -- First of all, the friggin' Blu-Ray burner is the obvious first thing to eliminate. Honestly. Is there 1080P content in this world that isn't available online? And it's more than double the cost of a 5.25" bay version because it's slim. It's the most egregiously poor use of funds on your list.
Second, you can shave $100 off the CPU by going with an i3 instead of an i5, maybe an i3-4160, because the i5 isn't going to give you an edge in transcoding 4k any more than the i3 will. Meaning, you aren't going to be transcoding reasonably high-bitrate 4K content for a Plex server with a $500 PC build, and streaming 4K requires far less CPU power. I'd say get an Pentium G3258, but I'm compromising with the hyperthreaded i3 for gaming. The i3 has like 90-95% of the single-threaded performance for the i5.
Thirdly, I know you're refusing to change the case, and so I'll just bring it to your attention that you are paying close to $100 to have a mini-itx form factor instead of micro-ATX. Extra for the board. Extra for the case. Extra for the power supply.
Fourth, the GTX 960 does not need to be the 4GB version. This will not, whatsoever, at all, help you run games better in 4K. So, getting a 2GB 960 gives you back another $40+.
If you relent on the case, I'll help with motherboard/case/PSU selection. Otherwise, I have no other recommendations for your intended purpose.
Posted on 8/11/15 at 8:36 pm to ILikeLSUToo
See? Some guys talk the talk.
ILike walks the walk.
ILike walks the walk.
Posted on 8/12/15 at 11:48 am to ILikeLSUToo
quote:
ILikeLSUToo
What are you?
Posted on 8/12/15 at 12:32 pm to TheJacer
quote:
What are you?
Computer Jesus, I do not look forward to the day chicken feels threatened and tries to crucify him.
Posted on 8/13/15 at 2:32 pm to BlakeB123
Updated List
I took into account the comments and edited my list. In order to get this thing going I think I will forgo a dedicated graphics card for now and limp along with the integrated graphics of the CPU for a few months.
Thanks again for the advice.
I took into account the comments and edited my list. In order to get this thing going I think I will forgo a dedicated graphics card for now and limp along with the integrated graphics of the CPU for a few months.
Thanks again for the advice.
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