Holiday 2010 System Builder's Guide
by AnandTech Staff, edited by Jarred Walton on November 19, 2010 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
- Systems
- Holiday 2010
| Ganesh's Midrange HTPC | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Processor |
Intel Core i5-650 Clarkdale 45nm (Dual-core + HTT, 3.2 to 3.46 GHz, 4MB L3, 73W) |
$113 |
| Motherboard |
ASUS P7H55D-M EVO (Intel H55, USB 3.0, MATX 1156) |
$180 |
| Video | Clarkdale Integrated Intel HD Graphics | $0 |
| Alternate GPU | HIS Silence Radeon HD 5570 1GB (H557HR1G) | $75 |
| Alternate GPU |
Zotac GeForce GT 430 1GB Zone Edition 1GB (ZT-40601-20L) |
$85 |
| Memory |
G.Skill Eco Series 2x2GB DDR3-1600 (F3-12800CL8D-4GBECO) |
$83 |
| Hard Drive |
Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB (ST32000641AS 7200RPM 64MB SATA 6.0Gbps) |
$170 |
| Optical Drive |
ASUS 8X Blu-ray/16X DVDR Combo Drive (BC-08B1ST) ($20 MIR) |
$69 |
| Power Supply |
Antec TruePower New TP-550 550W (80 Plus Bronze Certified) |
$92 |
| Case | Antec Black Fusion Remote MATX HTPC | $135 |
| Total System Cost (Price range based on GPU choice) | $842-$927 | |
The PC I've put together is not meant to be a powerful gaming machine/HTPC combo—Alan will cover that next. Instead I've specced out a midrange build that tries to do a bit of everything, while making sure that it excels at HTPC duties. Some of the components are left to choice, depending on the needs of the end user. For example, if gaming and support for native video refresh rates are not necessary for the end user, there is no need to invest in a dedicated graphics card. Similarly, the level of interest in 3D would influence whether to go the NVIDIA or the AMD route for the dedicated graphics card—and how high you might want to go. Many of the components in the system are similar to Balraj's value build, and the cost conscious consumer can refer to that for some of the costlier components in the table below.
For the motherboard, I went with the ASUS P7H55D-M EVO mATX. It is slightly costlier than the ASRock board chosen by Balraj, but you get the option to slot in extra DIMMs and take the total memory installed up to 8GB (or 16GB if you go with 4GB DIMMs). For the CPU, a quiet, dedicated HTPC can make do with Balraj's choice, but I prefer something with more muscle and the ability to Turbo Boost. The Core i5-650 is ideal. The stock cooler is good enough and considering the airflow allowed by my choice of chassis (more on this further down), there is little need to go for a fancier cooling solution.
The DRAM is one of the most understated components in an HTPC build. DIMMs that operate at higher voltages tend to heat up and have a reduced lifespan and also affect the nearby motherboard components. Fortunately, G.Skill has an excellent HTPC oriented DRAM product in the Eco series. 4GB of G.Skill Eco memory wraps up this department. We opted for the CL8 memory, though care needs to be taken to adjust the ASUS motherboard BIOS settings appropriately for the voltage (1.35V) and CAS latencies.
As mentioned earlier, the integrated GPU in the Clarkdale is good enough for most HTPC purposes. However, people wanting a bit more muscle in the gaming department and better video quality should go in for an AMD HD 5570. The better 3D solution right is the GeForce GT 430, which performs as well as the 5570 in most HTPC benchmarks. For people who have already invested in the 3D ecosystem for the rest of their home entertainment, the GT 430 is the way to go. You could try adding a "near-silent" GPU with more performance, but my focus is on keeping things as silent as possible so I limited my selections to fanless GPUs.
For storage, the WD Caviar Blue 500GB is still an option, but I feel that the capacity is too low for a desktop HTPC. Sometimes, I want to do some video editing too, and a fast hard drive helps. The 2TB Seagate Barracuda XT is the best combination of capacity, performance, quietness and price right now. If you want a bit of added performance, the Kingston SSD Now is quite cheap, with deals for the 128GB version coming in at $180. This could be an ideal OS drive choice too, but it increases the cost of the system too much and I wanted to invest the extra money in something that would last through multiple HTPC builds. The ASUS Blu-ray Combo Drive BC-08B1ST is my choice of optical drive for the system. The 8x speed ensures that 3D Blu-ray can also be read without issues. It's a little extra money that I believe is well spent for a reusable component.
The HTPC case is something that I expect to last beyond the usual life of a motherboard and processor. For HTPC purposes, I also like to have an MCE remote / IR receiver. LCD displays and volume controls are icings on the cake. If you're willing to increase your budget, the feature packed Antec VERIS Fusion Remote Max has multiple drive bays and support for ATX motherboards. This would ensure the reusable nature of the case for purposes other than a pure HTPC. However, I wanted to keep costs down so I decided to go for its smaller sibling. The Antec Fusion chassis has similar features with respect to media center capabilities but supports only two internal 3.5" drives and can support only Micro ATX and Mini ITX motherboards. The spacious and well ventilated chassis, along with the three partition internal structure, maintains a cool thermal profile for your HTPC even when the chassis fans are removed.
Unfortunately, the chassis doesn't come with a PSU. Allowing for builds with gaming GPUs requiring external PCI-E power connectors, I budgeted for the well reviewed Antec TruePower New TP-550 550W PSU. With a partially modular cable system, unused cables can be safely stowed away for later use while maintaining a clean assembly inside the chassis.
I have never been interested in the TV content that cable connections have offered. With online streaming becoming so popular, it shouldn't be difficult to view most content on the Internet. However, interested users can add a Hauppauge WinTV tuner to the system if streaming video isn't sufficient.
In the end, depending on your choices for the GPU and optional tuner, we have a good HTPC build that costs anywhere from $850 to $1050 (the higher price includes the GT 430 and WinTV tuner). That's a bit higher than we'd like for a midrange HTPC, but we put some extra money into reusable components. You can build the above system now and upgrade to the Sandy Bridge successor (Ivy Bridge) while keeping several hundred dollars worth of equipment, or you can take the above but wait for Sandy Bridge to come out.
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StormyParis - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
htpc should fit into a stereo cabinet. you're trying to build a NAS + HTPC + desktop into one machine, which makes no sense at all. Split the thing in 3, with a real, small, silent HTPC, a NAS, and a mini-itx desktop, and you're much better off, for pretty much the same price.ajlueke - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
While it is somewhat a matter of personal preference, I admit, some people really hate giant cases in the living room. I love having everything built into one system, and using it to serve the rest of the house and play Starcraft II on the big screen. The real downside, is then you are using a high end rig to serve you other computers as opposed to a NAS, and a NAS is going to have far superior numbers in the power consumption department.Mathieu Bourgie - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
Good job on the builds everyone, great idea of getting several members of the AT's team to work together on this.Here are my opinions, suggestions and things that I'd personally change:
Dustin's AMD Pure Budget System:
Hard Drive: Actually, if you shop on Amazon instead, you can snap a Spinpoint F3 500Gb for about $46 and a 1TB for $53, without needing to find any coupons.
Power Supply: I'd mention that the Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D 380W doesn't include a power cord in its package. Not a big deal for most of us, but still good to knowi f you don't have a spare cord.
DVD Burner: Why go with an IDE based model, which is out of stock by the way? Because the motherboard comes with a single SATA and a single IDE cable? Hardly a reason if you ask me.
Might as well get a SATA model that can be used for years and years, if you upgrade the system down the road. Going by customer's feedback on NewEgg, ASUS 24x SATA DVD Burner is one of the most reliable model available, for only $20: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
Balraj's Intel Budget System:
The one stick of RAM is an interesting trade off, sure you lose dual-channel but you gain the ability to easily upgrade RAM down the road. Then again, a motherboard with 4 RAM slots would allow for both options.
Blu-Ray: The Samsung SH-B083L/BSBP has pretty bad reviews on NewEgg, I'd get the Samsung SH-B123L instead, which costs $20 more, but is also faster (12x vs 8x).
Power Supply: I cannot skip this: you really want to avoid using a low-end, generic power supply, for reliability purposes and to protect your components. You do not want to cut corners on a power supply.
Jarred's AMD Budget Gaming System:
You mention Crossfire support, but go with a motherboard that has the PCI-Express 16x slots running at 16x and 4x, which would bottleneck performance?
For a similar price, the ASRock 870 EXTREME3 comes with two PCI-Express 16x slots at 8x/8x, which are well spaced to allow both cards to "breath".
125W CPU, with a stock cooler? Sure, it's "adequate" for cooling in most cases, but that stock cooler is going to be heard from miles away when you game for hours and/or during hot summer nights if you don't have an AC. Not much of an issue if you play with headphones, but still, I'd get at least a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler.
"Gaming depends primarily on your GPU" "You could even go with a cheaper CPU like the Athlon II X4 645 or the Phenom II X4 810"
Agreed for most games, but there are games that will be CPU bound (Think RTS like SC2, or MMORPG like WoW), where you'll want a powerful CPU that allow the GPU to flex its muscles.
Also, while the X4 645 isn't a bad CPU, losing the L3 cache and the lower frequencies are going to hurt performance quite a bit for video games.
Vivek's Midrange Intel System:
Once again, Crossfire is mentioned, but the second PCI-Express slot runs at 4x...
An ASRock P55 EXTREME4 will fix that and if you want USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0Gb/s at the same time as Crossfire 8x/8x, you'll want an ASUS P7P55D-E Pro, which features a PLX chip, making it one of the few P55 boards that can run SATA 6.0Gb/s, USB 3.0 and Crossfire 8x/8x all at once, unlike most boards where USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0Gb/s will fall back to USB 2.0 and SATA 3.0Gb/s due to the lack of bandwidth (lack of PCI-Express lanes, thanks to the P55 chipset).
PSU: OCZ don't exactly make the most reliable PSUs, with the biggest issue being that reliability varies from a model to another, since they use various manufacturers for their PSUs. You get what you pay for with a PSU and a solid Corsair or Seasonic PSU will serve you much better IMO.
Raja's Midrange AMD Overclocking System:
I actually agree with all your choices and like how you didn't strictly stick to NewEgg. Way to go.
Raja's Midrange Intel Overclocking System:
I'd avoid the ASUS Maximus III GENE like the plague. I used to recommend it, until I'd hear back from so many readers that had issues with it (Read some review on NewEgg) that I had no choice but to stop recommending it, because it's so unreliable.
Ryan's High-End Gaming System:
Way to go for keeping noise somewhat under control. Once again though, an IDE DVD Burner in a 2k+ system? Really?
Also, the sound card is priced at $100, not $75, unless I missed something here.
Brian's Intel Dream PC:
Hahaha, now you're talking! Couldn't agree more on the motherboard, which is a one of a kind.
Just one thing though: You forgot CPU Coolers, since Xeon CPUs don't come with any.
Also, why ECC RAM? ECC seems kind of futile for a Gaming PC.
Keyboard: Yes! Mechanical keyboards are the best. I personally recently got a Filco with MX Cherry Blue switches and that keyboard helped me increase my WPM typing speed tremendously. The feedback and noise is also great for gaming.
Mouse: I've always been a fan of the Logitech MX-518, which remains excellent years after its release and offers a great bang for your buck too.
Don't have much to add to the HTPCs, they make sense and quite frankly, it's a matter of personal tastes too.
Except for a few things mentioned above, great job all on the builds. Although I'm a bit sadden to not have seen any Workstation build.
P.S. For those who wonder about my experience building PCs and the like, I’m a computer enthusiast with 10 years of experience in building, fixing and modifying computers, who has been writing about/offering PC Builds of all kinds (Gaming, HTPC, Workstations, etc.) at various price points on my own blog (www.hardware-revolution.com) for over two years and a half now.
Cheers,
Mathieu
Ben90 - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
I agree completely on the inclusion of a mechanical keyboard, they are the SSDs of the keyboard world. Once you try to type on rubber domes again it feels absolutely horrible.Personally I am a Cherry Black guy as I like the linear travel for gaming, but for typing its impossible to beat Cherry Blues unless quietness is a metric.
bji - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
How do you feel about scissor switch keyboards? I like them as I find them to be much less mushy than rubber dome keyboards, but alot quieter and with less key travel than mechanical keyboards. I use the Kensington "Slim Type Keyboard" (that's what it says on the bottom, I can't remember the exact model number) and highly recommend it.Tom_S - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
Concerning keyboards etc. I *have* been living under a rock and had not heard of the DAS keyboard that sounds interesting, but while under the rock I have been using my Northgate and Avant keyboards (made by CVT Inc) which were always the gold standard in mechanical keyboards. I looked at the site, and it appears that the lesser of the Avant kbds is not available right now, but the Stellar is.http://www.cvtinc.com/products/keyboards/menu.htm
I concede that these are old fashioned - not USB without an adapter, no USB hub, but they have been around since the 1980's and are noteworthy. To further date myself, one of their features has been to remap the left ctrl and caps lock keys (moving ctrl next to the "a" key), for those of us still used to old terminals and editors/programming environments that use control keys.
strikeback03 - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
Are the current Samsung HDDs any good? A couple years ago I bought a Samsung HDD recommended on this site for a build for work. First one wouldn't allow an OS install. RMAed it, got a replacement. That one died a few months later. RMAed that, bought one from another brand, and after testing the third Samsung to be sure it could be formatted when we got it just kept it on the side for emergency use. Can't say I'm anxious to try again.Mathieu Bourgie - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
Samsung HDDs are some of the best drives on the market in my opinion. Their F3 and F4 (The 7,200 rpm 320GB model that is) line-up offer some of the best throughputs rates in MB/s, are very reliable and emit very little heat.For the average latency time, the Western Digital drives tend to be better, although they run hotter and have slightly lower reliability. For Gaming, I'd say that WD drives are the best, but quite frankly, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a system equipped with Samsung or WD drives.
Also, keep in mind warranty: W.D. offers 5 years on their Black Caviar line-up, as opposed to 3 years on their Caviar Blue and 3 years for Samsung drives.
JarredWalton - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
I did try to price-check everything using our internal pricing tools (Dynamite-Data is an AnandTech affiliate of sorts), so where I could find clearly better prices from other than Newegg I went that route. Obviously, 10 systems or whatever makes it a bit difficult to get every little detail, which is why some IDE DVDRW drives slipped in. Oops!The CrossFire/SLI issue on lower end motherboards (i.e. P55 with x16/x4) was another one that I wracked my brain on for a good long time. I'd really like to go the Biostar route on Vivek's setup (or the overclocking board), but truthfully I'm a bit gun-shy with Biostar. I've had decent boards in the past from them, and other boards that sucked hard. Price is another item that I kept running into -- I don't want to recommend an expensive Intel board when SB is coming so soon.
I'll try to go through and update the optical drives to be SATA, though. Shame on my fellow writers for being so lazy! :-) Thanks for the comments.
JarredWalton - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
Okay, I made some updates and added some additional commentary where appropriate. But I chose to disagree (or let the editors disagree at least) with some of your comments. IMO, there's no need for aftermarket cooling on CPUs if you don't intend to overclock, so I left my build without one.The other big issue is Newegg reviews; they're just not reliable by any stretch. We've had motherboards that our guys loved that get mediocre scores at Newegg because of idiot users. "Gee... my memory isn't working and I plugged it in, never looked at the BIOS, never updated the BIOS. What's wrong with this board!?" Likewise, some items get 5 eggs not because they're the best but because a lot of buyers think they're a great value... and they wouldn't know quality if it walked up and punched them in the nose. So, while I generally avoid stuff that gets 3 eggs or less, the 4/5 egg stuff may be decent, good, or great depending on the user. Plus, people with problems are about 10X more likely to post as people where everything worked fine.
Anyway, thanks for the corrections/suggestions.