Most reliable mobo / cpu / ram graphics for HTPC (1 Viewer)

[scott_mckenzie]

Hi everyone,

I'm wanting some advice on a good HTPC rig.
Basically I want a really stable setup - it doesn't have to be super powerful, but it must be stable.

Key things I want are:
- enough power for blu ray playback and to record 1 HD channel at the same time.
- minimal power consumption would be great to minimise noise.
- it can be either onboard HDMI or a HDMI card - whatever is more reliable.
- I already have a 1tb Sata drive so no additional needs here.
- onboard USB3 would be a good bonus but not essential.

Without being stupid, money should not be seen as a barrier here - any suggestions would be great.

Cheers - Scott

 

[gijoe73]

I'm using an I3-3225 cpu with an Asrock H77Pro4m Motherboard and Win8.

The System works absolutely stable and nearly noiseless. Even 24p playback is no problem

 

[scott_mckenzie]

Thanks for the feedback gijoe73.

I have done a bit of looking around and I think I will go for the following:
- m/b: Gigabyte Z77M-D3H-MVP
- CPU: Intel i5 3330
- ram: Kingston 1600 2 * 4gb kit

My existing rig is buggered so its time I upgrade - please let me know by tomorrow morning if you think I'm making a big mistake with the above.

Cheers - Scott

 

[Owlsroost]

Note that the Intel IvyBridge CPU model numbers with '5' at the end e.g. i3-3225 have the higher performance HD4000 GPU (16 EU instead of 6 EU) - this is worth having if you are going to use only the integrated GPU.