Recommendations for mobo / cpu.

[JT!]

I'd like to use my tax return and make use of unused peripherals to build a facebook machine / living room pc. (Especially since my wife's dell inspiron 10.1" is an absolute piece of shit).

Pretty much would like to make it as cheap as possible, goal is <$300 with a 128GB SSD.

Not sure what route to go down with mobo/cpu. It is going in a MicroATX Mini Tower, only requirements are that the PC must be plenty powerful enough to play 1080p HD footage (have we got to the point in time yet when you'll be hard pushed to find something that won't handle this?), and that it has HDMI out. Everything else can be just standard.

Goal is around $100 for both the mobo and cpu, looking at maybe something like this: http://goo.gl/F78ebE and then ~$50 cpu?

...or would AMD be a better alternative?

And also, seeing as though the PC is going to be really low wattage, I looked at the lowest wattage Corsair powersuply on newegg and that's 430W which I feel is overkill for the system? If so what would be a reliable low watt power supply? Or should I just play it safe and stick with Corsair?

Thanks!

[admin89]

MSI H81M (Haswell Mobo) with HDMI port ~ 50$
Intel Celeron G1830 @ 2.8GHz (Haswell CPU) ~ 60$
Don't be fooled by the name "celeron" . In Dolphin Benchmark , a Pentium Haswell G3220 @ 3.0GHz is on par with Core i5 3570k @ 3.8GHz . Celeron Haswell has less cache compared to Pentium Haswell . Therefore , it should have the same performance as i5 3570k @ 3.4GHz in Dolphin . Yeah , you can build a somewhat gaming PC (for Emulators only) at this price range
As for the PSU , you should pick sth that could last for long and have excellent warranty :
EVGA 430W
EVGA is well-known brand

Btw , The celeron Haswell has an integrated GPU : Intel HD graphics (Haswell) . Base on notebookcheck benchmark , Intel HD Haswell is on par with Intel HD 3000 (Sandy Bridge) . Therefore , most games can run fine at 1x or 1.5x Internal resolution (480p or higher) . If your wife want to play some PC games in the near future , just pop a GTX 650 or sth similar in

Quote:only requirements are that the PC must be plenty powerful enough to play 1080p HD footage (have we got to the point in time yet when you'll be hard pushed to find something that won't handle this?), and that it has HDMI out.

1st gen Intel HD can play 1080p video just fine , i can verify this . 2nd gen Intel HD 3000 is faster than 1st gen Intel HD
Edit : changed the mobo - VGA version to the one with HDMI port

[lamedude]

Just about anything will play 1080P H.264 video since that gets offloaded to the GPU (Netflix being the exception since Silverlight is CPU only but the Win8 app fixes that). If you want to future proof for H.265 (pirates will prolly be using that long before legitimate services) you'll need some horse power.

[JT!]

Thanks admin! Do you think I'd need a 430w power supply when the PC's estimated wattage is going to be barley over 120W?

[KHg8m3r]

It will give you extra headroom if/when you upgrade in the future with either a dedicated GPU and/or new CPU

[admin89]

That's right . You will be able to upgrade the CPU up to next gen Broadwell Core i3 , Core i5 (non-k version) or even Core i7 (non-k)

[JT!]

Aright, then something like this http://goo.gl/g1ENo (permalink not relevant anymore) sounds like a plan. I'll look into the power supply a little more that's just a place holder for now.

[NaturalViolence]

430 watt is way overkill. Take a look at my HTPC thread for some ideas.

I'm going to recommend the exact opposite of your current setup. I would strongly consider going the AMD route if you're on a tight budget. Intel IGP drivers still suck. And you don't need the cpu horsepower of an Intel cpu for a system like this.

Edit:
You're going to have to bump your budget up to $350-375. $300 is really pushing it for an HTPC.

Here are my recommendations.

Case ($40): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121003
SSD ($90): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147247
CPU ($60): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113282
RAM ($50): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231474
PSU ($45): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151077
Mobo ($70): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128659

Total cost before shipping: $355

I would recommend spending more on the mobo (get a CIR supported model) and case if you can stretch your budget even higher. $450 I think is ideal for an HTPC with an SSD.

[JT!]

Might be a little too over powered and over budget.... also I'm not really building a HTPC. When I mean living room PC I mean a PC that's just going to be for the household to use. It really doesn't need to do anything more than play full HD footage. Most of the time it's just going to be use for facebook, emails, maybe odd low end games, play music from spotify.

I would like to have more power than it needs, but I think I'd like to try keep it under 300.

[admin89]

That AMD PC has no future (next gen streamroller need new mobo)
The CPU performance isn't as fast as modern Intel dual core , more like single core (2 modules)
The integrated GPU performance isn't that great to begin with . It may be on par with Intel HD 4000 but the CPU performance will suck and that AMD PC cost over his budget