Bulding a HTPC - Been out of the loop

[gromacs]

Why not get a cheap sandy bridge i5? Tried and proven and popular choice for low profile HTPC's, runs cool, good resale value, QuickSync, much better chipset than AMD.... it's a no-brainer

[ipaine]

I have an i3-2100 with just the integrated video running my HTPC. I have it paired with a Silverstone case and a Asus board (honestly can't remember model H67 series I think) and then an older Kingston SSD. I can play anything on it including full blu-ray remuxes without any issue.

It works great and is nice and quiet and doesn't generate much heat either.

[richuwo11]

I am also looking at building an HTPC... I just picked up a few parts so far:

• Silverstone Lascala 20B (case)
• Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB RAM
• Logitech diNovo Edge keyoard

For the motherboard and RAM, I was thinking AMD FM1 quad-core or the triple core version. With that combo you won't need a dedicated video card. It's included in the CPU.

[great_big_abyss]

In the A6-3650 review previously posted, the A6-3650 + IGP was very close in performance to the A8-3850 + GT430, which is arguably a comparable card to the GT520. If you go with just the APU and the IGP, you can skip out on the extra cost of the dedicated GPU, and reduce your power supply size, resulting in lower heat production and quieter case cooling.

The A6-3650 also has enough horsepower to play some last gen games, such as L4D and Far Cry 2, so your son could amuse himself on some cheap $10 games from Steam. Don't expect it to play BF3 though. Then again, I don't think the GT520 would be capable of playing BF3 either.