- May 22, 2009
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United States of America
Getting in on Newegg's 640GB Seagate SATA and AMD 7750 CPU for $65 a couple of months back left me with enough spare parts to start a new budget HTPC build.
MoBo : ASUS M3A78-EM
CPU : AMD 4850e dual core 2.5Ghz 45W
Memory : 6MB OCZ SpecOps DDR2-800
GPU : onboard 256Mb ATI Radeon HD 3200
Case : CompUSA Spyder Minitower with 450W PSU
TV Card: Pinnacle HDTV PCI
OS : Windows 7 64bit RC1
DVD - waiting on a deal
I picked the M3A78-EM as it basically has everything needed interface wise on board and is nicely priced. VGA, DVI, HDMI (with sound) and SPDIF Optical to name but a few. I've had the same board in my workstation for 6 months and it works like a dream, so when I found a deal on it I grabbed a second one. Using an AMD 4850e CPU as it is low power (45W) but still has enough muscle. The memory cost me about $30 after MIR for 2 2GB and 2 1GB sticks and comes with heatspreaders
The Pinnacle card was a spare I picked up a while back for about $30 and had intended to add it to my current HTPC to make that dual NTSC tuner.
The onboard ATI Radeon HD 3200 GPU seems more than up to the task of 720P/1080i (which is what my LCD can handle) and the onboard HDMI even supports audio. Although I intend to use the SPDIF to go directly to my A/V receiver for the sound.
The case was a special sale at the local CompUSA. Not really an HTPC case but has it very good airflow so I should be able to suffice with just adding a 120mm fan in addition to the PSU and CPU fans to keep it running both cool and quiet. And $39 for case and PSU makes it very affordable
I'm running Win7 RC1 on it right now with MCE enabled as I can't seem to find a 64bit version of Media Portal. But as said, it's a test box so the software configuration is subject to change. Eventually this will be my HTPC box with both the Pinnacle and the Hauppauge 1600 (which is in my current HTPC) cards in there as well as a raid set up for the media drive. Most likely it will run WIndows 7 64bit. Especially as MS intends to drop all support for XP in the near future including security fixes.
MoBo : ASUS M3A78-EM
CPU : AMD 4850e dual core 2.5Ghz 45W
Memory : 6MB OCZ SpecOps DDR2-800
GPU : onboard 256Mb ATI Radeon HD 3200
Case : CompUSA Spyder Minitower with 450W PSU
TV Card: Pinnacle HDTV PCI
OS : Windows 7 64bit RC1
DVD - waiting on a deal
I picked the M3A78-EM as it basically has everything needed interface wise on board and is nicely priced. VGA, DVI, HDMI (with sound) and SPDIF Optical to name but a few. I've had the same board in my workstation for 6 months and it works like a dream, so when I found a deal on it I grabbed a second one. Using an AMD 4850e CPU as it is low power (45W) but still has enough muscle. The memory cost me about $30 after MIR for 2 2GB and 2 1GB sticks and comes with heatspreaders
The Pinnacle card was a spare I picked up a while back for about $30 and had intended to add it to my current HTPC to make that dual NTSC tuner.
The onboard ATI Radeon HD 3200 GPU seems more than up to the task of 720P/1080i (which is what my LCD can handle) and the onboard HDMI even supports audio. Although I intend to use the SPDIF to go directly to my A/V receiver for the sound.
The case was a special sale at the local CompUSA. Not really an HTPC case but has it very good airflow so I should be able to suffice with just adding a 120mm fan in addition to the PSU and CPU fans to keep it running both cool and quiet. And $39 for case and PSU makes it very affordable
I'm running Win7 RC1 on it right now with MCE enabled as I can't seem to find a 64bit version of Media Portal. But as said, it's a test box so the software configuration is subject to change. Eventually this will be my HTPC box with both the Pinnacle and the Hauppauge 1600 (which is in my current HTPC) cards in there as well as a raid set up for the media drive. Most likely it will run WIndows 7 64bit. Especially as MS intends to drop all support for XP in the near future including security fixes.