Maximum PC

Hi all I am going to build my own Petite 3D HTPC with the help from the June 2011 issue and here is my parts list:

SilverStone Aluminum Alloy Mini-ITX Case with 60-Watt DC to DC Adapter LC12B (Black)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NP ... PDKIKX0DER
Panasonic UJ-230 Slim Blu-ray Burner SATA (Tray Load) Drive
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005I6 ... FB7P808BWJ
Intel Core I3-2105 Processor
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051Y ... PDKIKX0DER

Im stuck on the Zotac mobo because the one used in the article is no longer available so I am not sure which one to get. I checked the Zotac website and none of them support BluRay 3D playback with on board video like in the article. I want to future proof this HTPC for 3D and regular bluray playback as well as all my other HiDef content. I will be connecting it to an Onkyo TX-NR5009. I really don't want to buy my parts from amazon but newegg doesn't seem to carry the main parts like the case and the mobo's. Wifi is not an issue since it will be wired to a gigbit router.

So if anyone can tweak my build for the better please let me know. Price is kind of an issue but I think it can be built for less than a Asrock Vision 3D and less than what was paid in the article.

Thanks for any help!

1. The MaxPC HTPC build from june 2011 is a bit dated, as you found out.

2. You selected a 65w processor to pair with a 60w power supply.

3. So, I'm going to assume you want quiet operation, blu ray playback and HD streaming?

Here's, what I'd build.

Part list permalink / Part price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-2120T 2.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($123.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Silverstone NT07-1156 40.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($24.50 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Foxconn H67S Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard ($64.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: PNY Optima 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($34.90 @ Amazon)
Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($54.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: Silverstone SG05-B Mini ITX Desktop Case w/300W Power Supply ($104.99 @ Amazon)
Optical: Panasonic UJ-230 Slim Blu-ray Burner SATA ($89.99 @ Amazon)

Total: $498.34
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2012-03-18 19:29 EDT-0400)

You can save a few bucks buy going with the cheaper Intel Pentium G620T for $79.99 and be more than speedy enough for your operations; still has the same HD 2000 gpu core as the i3 does for more than enough power for HD playback. Another way to save a few bucks is back the ram from 8GB to 4GB; don't exactly need all of that for a set top box like this, but since its uber cheap right now... why not? And as for storage, I went with a 60GB SSD; if you use the open source XBMC software, you really can cut it down to 8GB and use a usb stick if you wanted, but since the Agility 3 is uber cheap, I stayed with it.

Now, I cheap'ed out with the foxconn ITX mobo that has limited outputs, but you can look at upgrade to the Gigabyte GA H61N usb3 ITX board for $85. Has a lot more options, but you could always go higher up with the niche zotac mobo's that's a bit on the expensive side. I'd honestly would just buy a cheap mobo and then spend the money for a dedicated sound card like the creative X-Fi Titanium HD, Auzen X-Fi Hometheater HD or Asus Xonar Essence.

I'm sure others will give you a better idea.

I would jump to this processor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115090 the better hd graphics chip and faster. That cpu cooler confuses me...

You don't need a lot of power for an HTPC, HD 2000 is more than fast enough for HD video playback, specially with Intel Quick Sync. And you don't need a faster processor when the gpu core is footing the bill. Shit, even during transcoding, the cpu runs in power saving mode at 1.6Ghz. I'd still go towards a 35w cpu for an HTPC box like this, specially if you have no need to play games on it.


what does that mean? its a cheap cooler... you put on cpu...

It looks like the stock cooler, with a shiny base...

because its basically that... hard to fit a normal sized cpu cooler in some ITX cases. Don't need a lot of cooling if you are only wicking away 35w from a low powered i3...

If you got a better recommendation for the same or small price point that isn't a POS, post it up. I didn't look too much into it since its small and decently priced. Just picked the same thing that MPC used. I'm sure there's better alternatives.

It's the same as the stock cooler... the same cooler they use on quad cores correct? Or does the i3 have a shittier one? Why waste money on that heatsink, if anything I would jump up to a scythe cooler.

http://www.frostytech.com/top5_lowprofile_heatsinks.cfm or look at these.

Ah your correct. I was assuming they had the same large heatsinks as the more powerful, higher wattage brothers. I didn't really check, just went with what MPC had for choice.

Stock cooler:


Yeah, the Scythe Kozuti cooler looks cool as hell... a bit expensive, but looks quite nice for a compact ITX case with good cooling abilities and low noise operations.

Thanks for the great list and suggestions. I think I will go with the Gigabyte board since it has more features and I am a huge fan of the company my PC has mostly all gigabyte parts. The case suggestion is a little to big I like the size of the silverstone I chose because it is not as tall as the SG05 and I dont think it will fit in my entertainment center but It seems to be hard to find maybe it to has been discontinued which would be sad because it looks like a nice case.

As far as audio do you thing the boards HDMI will us an audio passthrough so my receiver can decode the HD audio and Im not sure if the HDMI is 1.4a 3D compliant the manual doesn't say anything about it.

I dont know much about the Core i3 and from what I am understanding it has built in video that will decode 1080p content so no need for a video card?

I do plan on using XBMC so an SSD would be nice and speedy, eventually I will run a NAS but for now I need to install a 2TB drive to store the movies.

@JBaz I like that cooler I want noise to be at a minimum and I think that will do it.

Thanks for all the help!

Well what is your space limitation of your entertainment system? You don't need to go uber small if all you need is a thin case unit; you'll be paying a bit of a premium to have such a very compact player system. Give us the measurements of your space.

get a 2u rack mounted case and put it on the wall behind the tv

Why? 2u racks are heavy, long and you don't need that kind of size anyhow. A simple itx case would still be better. Shit, you can get a nettop sized pc and just use double sided sticky tape it. That's how I got my ps2 slim mounted on my 42".

Because server chassis are awesome. He should just build it into the entertainment center.

Length is about 18in so that isn't an issue but height is about 5in I didn't realize the small cases were so espensive. I like the one in this article but it doesn't have a barebones version with out mobo etc.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/a ... ered_htpcs

This one is nice to but I can't find it anywhere.
http://www.hd-plex.com/h3-series/

Any thoughts on the audio and video questions?

Thanks again!

A rack mount would be ideal but I live in an apartment and I would like to put that in a nice wall cabinet with my other components, but that will be in the future and I will have a NAS by then also.

This case? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811163174
This power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817371033 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817139026 if you want matching black.

Also this looks neat.
http://www.arctic.ac/en/p/living/entert ... tml?c=2296

Damn you DAN! I was just about to suggest that silverstone htpc case, since I asked about the height. lol

Yeah, look at getting a decent wider htpc case since they still use the slim/half height factor. The good thing is that they use the more standardized micro-atx parts, including a full sized PSU, but you really don't need a lot of power for this setup.

Silverstone HTPC case:

Part list permalink / Part price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-2120T 2.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($123.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H67M-GE/HT (B3) Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($102.36 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($35.78 @ NCIX US)
Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($59.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: Silverstone ML03B HTPC Case ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair 430W ATX12V Power Supply ($36.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On IHBS112-04 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($69.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $484.08
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2012-03-20 21:46 EDT-0400)

This nets you a pretty nice setup; the case is about the standard blu-ray/dvd player or so and gives you room with 4 expansion slots so you can drop in half height, more powerful gpu along with room for audio cards and such. This also allows you to use the more standard 3.5" hard disks in companion with a 2.5" ssd as well as the normal height 5.25" drive bay so you can pick up a normal optical reader/burner for a lot cheaper than the slim drives. This way gives you room to grow but still fit in on your shelf.

I selected a little more expensive motherboard with this because its the cheapest micro-ATX board that features the elusive 20 pin internal usb 3.0 connector that you'l need for the case; if you want usb 3.0 ports to work on the front. You could grab a cheap $50 mobo and throw in a $30 usb pcie controller, but more often then not, they are a hassle to deal with since nec controllers are known to be flaky to run on the pcie lanes instead of their own dedicated channels through the chipset separately.


Antec mini-ATX build:

Part list permalink / Part price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-2120T 2.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($123.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Scythe SCKZT-1000 24.8 CFM CPU Cooler ($28.98 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H61N-USB3 Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard ($84.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($35.78 @ NCIX US)
Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($59.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: Antec ISK 300-150 Mini ITX Desktop Case w/150W Power Supply ($72.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical: Panasonic UJ-230 Slim Blu-ray Burner SATA ($89.99 @ Amazon)

Total: $496.71
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated 2012-03-20 21:57 EDT-0400)

For about the same cost as the silverstone build above, this is the true mini-ITX build that will the smallest fully functional pc you can build right now with optical. The Antec ISK comes in 65w and 150w models, but the 150 is like a few bucks more. The best part about it is that its nearly silent since it uses the power brick (picoPSU btw, good stuff).

The case has lots of cooling for such a small case and comes with an 80mm fan included; pair it with the Scythe cooler and you won't hear this thing much further away than a few feet. Shit, you could probably take the 80mm case fan out and only have the cpu fan running... or even just turn it off. Those i3 35w cpu's run very cool and you can just passive cool the whole damn thing.

These are some great builds! The asrock board seems it might be better than the gigabyte after reading some articles.

The case seems to be the most difficult choice. When you mentioned passive cooling the whole thing how would I go about doing that? Would I use the heatsink listed in the above thread? I think I want to go the passive cooling route.

TIA

So here is my final build

Mobo:H67M-ITX/HT LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813157239
CPU:Intel Core i3-2105 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115090
Case:Thermaltake Element Q VL52021N2U Black SGCC / Plastic Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case 200W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811133093
RAM:CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145315
Heatsink:Scythe SCKZT-1000 80mm Kozuti CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835185167
Optical:LITE-ON Black 12X Blu-ray Burner with Blu Ray 3D Feature SATA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827106369

Any thoughts will be appreciated before I make the commitment haha

TIA

I thought you needed a thin case?