HTPC/Gaming Rig

[diamondd]

Hi Guys,

just a sanity check on a build I've roughed out for my little brother. Basically aiming for an affordable PC for the home theatre with some light gaming capabilities. Here's what we're looking at:



Now a few extra details, the plan is to use an SSD we've already got as well as leave some space for 2x2TB hard drives (in RAID) and an updated sound card along these lines later on (fingers crossed for an HDMI v1.4 update).

Only real requirement I'm somewhat unsure about is 3D bluray playback, which I think ought to work, but I'm not sure if I need a special drive or not.

Let me know what you think! cheers guys

[diamondd]

Ok, going for updates/upgrades to what we had and also promoting this to a "complete" build.



Also, this is probably juuust about maxing the budget but if any additions are justifiable I'll push my brother for the inclusions

[Tydus]

Ok, going for updates/upgrades to what we had and also promoting this to a "complete" build.

[ http://i.imgur.com/5qxRw.png ]

Also, this is probably juuust about maxing the budget but if any additions are justifiable I'll push my brother for the inclusions

I would prob grab a better motherboard then that if i was you, grabbing a h series ( non overclock-able) and then a k series cpu. Not to mention the 61chipset. Personally id go for a cheap z77 mb and grab all the extra features. Also gigabyte dont use uefi yet (iirc), so unless you choose not to with purpose id go asus/asrock and take advantage of the fast boot time and prettier bios.

This is the cheapest asus z77 chip set mb in mATX form factor that i think would be well worth the extra ~50 bucks

edit: that 50 bucks gets you

Hidden: show

2 more Ram slots
integrated raid controller (actually a big deal here as you wont be able to run RAID off of your sata2 ports on the gigabyte board forcing you to run it off your sata3 ports on the marvel controller, thus forcing you to run your ssd on sata2 and not allowing any other hdds to be raided. You could always software raid them tho if your determined)
more usb2 ports + integrated usb3 controller + more USB3 ports +
headerUSB3ports for front of case USB3
overclocking of cpu and ram
options for sli/cfx
spdif out for fiber sound out + better on-board sound in general


+ cool asus things like
fanexpert+ for manual fan speed control
network icontrol to prioritize/manage bandwidth by programs and users
usb boost further increase the speed of your usb quite substanially

+ much more technical things things

[diamondd]

Ok, thanks, I'll look at talking him into it. I'd initially just looked for a no frills, set it and forget it option but faster boot times is probably a good selling point.