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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JarredWalton - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
Honestly, the AMD/Intel stuff was in a large part based on editor personal preference. For a budget build, it's hard to match AMD, but ultimately it's just a $40 upgrade to Intel. Some of us really like AMD, some of us really prefer to run Intel. Funny thing is that I'm more of an Intel guy but decided that AMD made the most sense for what I was building, and Vivek definitely wanted to do Intel. Also consider that we didn't want a ton of overlap; if you asked each of us for a system we would REALLY build, no one would put together a dream setup, and likewise few of us would go budget; you'd get all sorts of $700-$1300 builds.The graphics card side was left entirely up to the editors. Some felt the need to list both options and others went with what they felt was "best". But then, there's enough parity in current GPUs that you really can go either way and be fine. So that's pretty much how the process went.
wumpus - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
Why in the world do you need to make separate Intel/AMD builds to keep the fanboys happy, and why don't you bother to include AMD/Nvidia splits as well?Second, I have to question pairing a GTX580 with a 1920x1200 monitor. While it does let you play crysis2 with absolutely everything turned on, it will be spinning its wheels doing everything else. While trying to build a decent $900 eyefinity* system might require raiding the budget from other components, the end result (5' of monitor instead of a big port hole) is likely superior to any single monitor 1920x1200 (even 24" IPS and a GPU that *never* drops below 60fps).
Finally, with all the worrying over hard drive brands nobody gave a thought to RAID5? You would think in the "ultimate HTPC" system might want to keep data after a drive death, but I guess all that expensive and noisy gear already thrown at it priced [physical] data integrity out the window (an SSD in an HTPC? Junk the software first and put something that works in its place!)
*note that a pair of 460s should not be ignored, and probably fit the price best when trying to match with 3 monitors
JarredWalton - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
Might want to read Brian's build a bit more carefully:"On every system I've built in recent memory, I've gone with an SSD + RAID array of slow but capacious storage; I think the same is best here. Get four or five 1.5TB or higher HDDs of whatever brand makes you feel warmest inside, toss them in a RAID5 set, and enjoy a crap-ton of storage that's fully redundant. I suppose if you're really feeling ultimate, you could get a RAID card instead of using the ICH10R's software fakeRAID, but it probably isn't critical unless you want to eek out everything you can from those mechanical drives."
Anand has also added his build, with RAID1.
As for 580 + WUXGA, while Crysis is the game everyone mentions, let me just state that Bad Company 2 (and the new Medal of Honor uses the same engine) can be very demanding as well... about as demanding as Crysis in fact. Mafia 2, Metro 2033, and a variety of upcoming and recent titles are also very demanding. I've got a 30" panel with 5850 CrossFire, and I certainly can't max out everything!
ajlueke - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
I did think about doing RAID 5 in my build. But in all honesty, out of the 3 WD20EARS drives I have purchased and the several 1 TB black editions from WD ,I have never had a single one fail...ever. Certainly I back up my programs and documents as well as anything that cannot be replaced such as pictures and itunes purchases. All the other data on the media drives is already backed up on the physcial discs from which they were ripped, and are now safely stored in my basement. Yes, it would be time consuming to rerip all of the media on a failed drive, but it is also time consuming to rebuild a RAID 5 array. I found the money spent on an extra drive for the storage overhead of a RAID 5 is better spent on cooling solutions to prevent drive failure in the first place. As I have never had a HDD fail in five years of building HTPC systems, I think the policy has worked out fairly well for me. The setup is actually extremely quiet, but certainly not as much some smaller solutions. But adding an SSD definately helps with the noise, as do the green edition WD drives.Jovec - Saturday, November 20, 2010 - link
I agree with the need for data backup, but RAID 1/5 really has no place in 99% of home usage situations. You are better off using a spare drive(s) for a proper backup. RAID provides insurance against hardware failures, but not user error. You are much more likely to suffer an accidental deletion/overwrite/etc than a drive failure.mattgmann - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
Everything has looked pretty good until this machine.For one, why is a monitor now included? Though I do think it's a good monitor (nice alternative to the dell U2410). But, as a gaming system, why not get 3 24" tn panels for the same price for eyefinity goodness?
Also, what is with the use of all the WD drives? They're good drives, but the samsung f3 and f4 drives are just plain faster and don't cost any more.
Is a sound card really necessary? I would only include it if you're including speakers.
Iketh - Saturday, November 20, 2010 - link
i really appreciated the addition of a monitor in the higher priced builds... the cheaper builds are assumed you'll reuse your current display, just common sense in my book... and then eyefinity? no thanks, unless a monitor with one large curved display exists...i have never and will never build my mid-range or higher gaming PC without a dedicated sound card... the sound clarity is very noticeable for headphones or higher-end speaker systems... but I agree 100% with not a mention of speakers for the systems including a dedicated sound card, please add suggestions!!
Ryan Smith - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
3 TN monitors is certainly an option and I mentioned it in the writeup. However all of these builds are ultimately based at least partially around our preferences, and my preference is for a larger, high quality monitor paired with a single fast GPU, as opposed to many low quality monitors and a dual-GPU configuration.Nataku - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
Eh... I just thought we'd see a few low~mid range systems with SSDs lolI was going to put together a system like below (im going to wait for sandy bridge instead though)
Zotac H55 w/ wifi
One of the lower cost SSD
probably thermaltake's Element Q for case
cheapest 4GB kit I can find
guess size of HDD does still matter more XD
Nataku - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
and... stupid of me to forget to include the CPU =.= i was thinking i3 lower end ones