[Hybr!d]

So my bro is looking to build a HTPC and wants me to spec something.

He's looking at spending £400ish on the CPU, RAM, Mobo, GFX card and PSU.

He does game but that is not his main use of this machine.

Also as he is adding a SATA Blu-ray drive, would a SATA hard drive be essential so not to cause a bottleneck?

He has a 500GB IDE and is unsure whether or not to run that.

Thanks.

[Razer]

I highly doubt that the hard drive would make a difference. Since it runs from the br drive, I cant see it making a difference.

I'm sure Carbon shall be along shortly, he has a great HTPC build in his 4th guide, if you'd like to take a look there Dave.

[Hybr!d]

I thought when running off the blu-ray some processing will be done via the HD as the OS and software to run the film are on that.

[Razer]

Checked around the internet for people in a situation like yours and they're using IDE drives to save pennies, people say upgrade the CPU and GPU and don't mention the IDE drive. I cant see a problem.

[Hybr!d]

Coolio, thanks.

[4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie]

As another note, don't feel you hae to splash out on the really expensive BD Drives, I was going to get the £160 LG one, (They also do a £300 one! ) But I ended up getting one of their £80ish models, which has LightScribe too.

And it works brilliantly, basically just don't feel that the drive is most important. I think you'd have to have a really nice monitor and graphics card before £300 on a HD Drive would make a difference.

[Hybr!d]

CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720 & Motherboard: Gigabyte 790X-UD4P ($218 with combo deal) (FS)
Video: MSI GTX 260 216 (FS) ($175) (R -$20)
RAM: OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 ($45) (FS)
PSU: PC P&C Silencer 500W ($80) (R -$20) (PC "Maypsu10" -$10) (FS)
Optical: Sony Optiarc 24X ($24) (FS)
HDD: Western Digital 640GB ($70) (FS)
Case: COOLER MASTER 690 ($75)

Am I missing something, the chip is AM3 and the AM3 version of the UD4P board is DDR3, and you've speced DDR2 RAM.

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?q=ud4p&x=0&y=0

The DDR2 version is only AM2.

[Carbon]

AM2+ and AM3 are technically the same socket: AM3 chips work in AM2+ boards with the usual caveats about really old boards not supporting them unless you flash the BIOS. AM3 actually has less pins than AM2+ so AM2+ chips won't work in AM3, but the other way around works fine which is why I recommend that board with a AM3 X3 720. However, that board is kind of overpriced in the UK as compared to the US, I would look at the MA770-UD3 to save some money and stick a 4890 in there instead just for the price/perf ratio.

[Hybr!d]

Thanks Carbon.