Hi im planning on building a htpc soon and could use some help. From what others have already told me i've put together 2 builds (An Intel and AMD one) and could use help with picking a perticuler one and seeing if the parts are going to get the job done. This is pretty much a budget build atm so im planning on useing onboard graphics from the m/b + onboard sound too.Also ditched a htpc casing to save alot of money aswell.I think though my selection would allow upgrading in the future if i choose to, which is a bonus. My only real requirement is that it can play any hd video files.I won't be gaming on this machine either, just watching stuff.

INTEL BUILD

Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072

ASUS P5N7A-VM LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9300/nForce 730i HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131348

COOLER MASTER Elite 330 RC-330-KKN1-GP Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119115

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16820145590

CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003



AMD BUILD

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e Brisbane 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103298

ASUS M3A78-EM AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131324

COOLER MASTER Elite 330 RC-330-KKN1-GP Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119115

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16820145590

CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003

Well those are the builds. I'll be going with stock fans since noise won't bother me and im not overclocking them. So can anyone give me some suggestions and advice on these 2 builds plz?

What u talking about? it looks like it could be approching summer in those out door pics. Trees losing a few leaves and some patchs of earth where the grass ain't grown yet.

They can keep the colors. Just drop all the leaves on the trees and have it so that the grass only grows in small little patchs cuz lifes just harsh atm. Thats closer to what i define as misrable.

[QUOTE="D_Knight_Nik"]

I wonder if they will stay true to fallout character building. You decided on skills and stats with a perticuler goal in mind (Like those sniper chars with the instant kill skill if i remember right), and u had to stick with your build and play on it's strength throughout the game. I bet beth will let u build uber stupid chars that can get every skill and max every attribute.

teardropmina

if Beth is doing a true Fallout game, a uber stupid character at max skills/attributes won't be possible since the maxed out character cannot be stupid in Fallouts; in original fallouts, you can play as a mindless brute or a smartass, and the game will differ according to your character built. I doubt Beth can manage this kind of complexity: my guess is that the game would be played alomst exactly the same no matter how you build your characters.

Your competely right. I forgot how black isle went to the trouble to make sure every type of character build had diffrent ways they could use to finish the game. I already think beth don't understand the concept of a smart char 'talking' his way out of bad situations. If it's in your way hack and slash to victory, beth can manage that one alright. In this one context already it's not gonna be anything like the old fallouts.

Moving foward? Betheseda? Ha! They were on the right track with morrowind. All the npc's had huge dialogs, u could spend hours just on information gathering in that game and it was great. What did beth do? They killed off 90% of dialog and what remained was lacking. It's gonna turn out more of a hack and slash rpg with a side element of some small multiple choices answers at times.

I wonder if they will stay true to fallout character building. You decided on skills and stats with a perticuler goal in mind (Like those sniper chars with the instant kill skill if i remember right), and u had to stick with your build and play on it's strength throughout the game. I bet beth will let u build uber stupid chars that can get every skill and max every attribute.

Thanks alot!

I entered in my specs, pushed the tdp to 90% and the system load to 95%. Then overclocked my cpu to 3.8GHz with voltage 1.35 and finally add capacitor againg 30% to account for 24/7 usage for 1 year+. It's given me around 747w, so im estimating that 750-800w will be plenty to cover my system for over a year or more.

Sorry to pester you lot again, but any chance u can take a guess at what psu/wattage i'll need for my system. Might help me save a little money, which would be nice.

Gigabyte GA-48X-DQ6, Intel Duo E8500 3.16GHz dual crossfired HD 4870's, OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) ddr2 ram, 2x Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB SATA-II 32MB Cache, Westen Digital VelocilRaptor 150GB 10000RPM SATA-II 16 MB Cache, Antec Twelve Hundred Ultamate gaming case. I don't know what soundcard im getting, but will be something cheap and i may have to add 1 or 2 other peripherals. Oh and dvd rom + Dvd-RW.

480w for peaked 4870 crossfired and i think E8500 overclocked is around 100w, so thats already 580w. I don't know how much the m/b, ram, hdd's and peripherals would all use up and i hear it's good to have power to spare so a system runs without any hicupps. Im taking a guess that it' somewhere between 750-850w needed. Can anyone comfirm plz.