How much to spend on an HTPC

So Im gonna be building an HTPC in the next few months, I already have a GTX 650 1GB laying around so how much should I spend on finishing it, price including Windows. Like should I spend 200, 300, 400? I dont really know if I would be going overkill, only really want to watch Netflix, youtube and Blurays. And maybe the occasional casual game like TF2 or something but I already have my gaming PC so not too concerned about gaming performance, also I want to system to be mITX so im limited to FM2 or intel, which should I choose? So many questions.

Cheers if anyone can actually make anything out from that mass of random questions 

i think most people will tell you to go the AMD route to save a couple of bucks.

you can check this out that i just put up

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/30rVh

Yeah one thing I wasnt sure about was whether to get 8GB ram or not, cheers, if I stick my GTX 650 in there then I may be in good shape right?

 

yeah the case has 300w integrated PSU that GTX 650 isn't going to make that system pull more than 200w however look around and mix and match. you could probably find some cheaper components then what i put up in that link. or something better overall.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/30sA8 This is what I came up with

that's very good.

Thought I maybe went over the top, cheers for your input, guess I had better get saving considering all I can buy is the PSU at the moment haha

If you're going to use the GTX 650 in it you could use an AMD Athlon 760k and save some money. Only real difference is the Athlon doesn't have integrated graphics, which you wouldn't need.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-ad760kwohlbox

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/176/AMD_A10-Series_A10-5800K_vs_AMD_Athlon_X4_760K.html

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/30U31

 

Looks like we are all hitting around the 400 mark.

Now that I think about it, FM2 might be pretty overkill for an HTPC. A 100 watt CPU might be a bit much for small form factor solutions, especially if noise is an issue (more heat more fan ramping). You could go with the lower wattage Athlon:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-ad740xokhjbox

except the price is almost the same, so you might as well go with the faster solution.

Intel is a really good option. Any Ivy bridge or Haswell i3 would be more than enough for an HTPC and it would run cooler too. Some higher end i3's have hyper threading so you get 2 cores and 4 threads if that is something you're after. If you want to go mega budget friendly, you could go with an Ivy/Haswell Pentium or Celeron too. I see some people use them for HTPC's.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646g1830

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646g3430

Quad Core solutions: This Xeon processor on the Ivy bridge lineup is an interesting option (Albeit overkill, but if you want a low wattage quad core CPU):

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80637e31220v2

This doesn't have onboard graphics, just like the Athlon. It's a bit more pricey than the lowest end i5 on the Ivy Bridge line up, however the Xeon is a lower wattage CPU that runs cooler. You could go with Haswell options as well, they have the respective parts, they do draw a bit more power though.

Now I know most motherboards are compatible with the Xeon's on the 1150/1155 socket's, but I don't feel like being responsible for anything, so do your research before hand.

If you NEED a quad core (which you don't for an HTPC), I would just go with something on the FM2 platform.

I would personally go with an i3 Haswell solution on the 1150 socket, and a pentium if you want to save some cash. Second choice would be something on the FM2/FM2+ platform.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/30Uhm

This is what i would go with personally.

HTPC's really don't need super high specs. When building one, you have to consider what you're going to be doing with it primarily and realize there's no need to go overkill. Most quad-core CPUs are overkill for an HTPC.

If you're primarily playing media (music, HD video (1080p) and some light gaming), the graphics card will easily handle the brunt of that demand. For this type of usage, you really don't need a very powerful CPU, nor do you need a huge amount of ram.

Thus, I came up with this build.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/30ZCL

It's the least expensive suggestion yet by far and will still perform exceptionally well for what you need it to do. If you want, you can throw in an SSD or go for a 1TB HDD, that option is yours. If you have a home NAS then you'd only need a 64 or 128GB SSD and it would run plenty fast enough. Left one ram DIMM open so you can easily upgrade to 8GB ram if you find 4 isn't enough.

I used this CPU in a recent upgrade for a family member and was pleasantly surprised by it's performance. For an HTPC and a little light gaming, it's capable.

good setup, I would only change the psu. For onboard gpu use you can do with even a 150 watts PSU so I would suggest a BeQuiet L8 300 watt. 80+ Bronze PSU. Besides that it's a solid suggestion I like Intel too Mostly because they fixed all issues and idle on such low power you can run it as a NAS too. If you don't need ITX and can do with micro ATX you could use an Asrock H81M-HDS.

Thanks. Yeah my thinking with the 430w PSU is for future upgrades. If the OP ever decides to throw in a beefier GPU that requires more power and an external power connector, it could handle it no problem. Otherwise, yeah, a good quality 300w 80+ bronze PSU would work fine for this setup, even with the GTX 650. 

Thanks for all the replies, only thing about that build I would have to change is the mobo, would need something with WIFI, so I had to go the the gigabyte board, but thanks for making me not go overkill haha

Also how would Linux be for an HTPC, i dont really know anything about it other than its free, dont know if it would be practical for this build.

So.. Question. Will this HTPC only be used for movies, youtube, and netflix streaming? If so. Get a Roku3. 

I got one. $99. Has a USB for external storage, runs smoothly, you can use Plex to stream media from every PC in your house if you want to.

Sure, you can't play games on it, (besides mobile games like Angry birds) But hey. It's $99.. I don't regret buying it one bit.

Yes it shall only be used for those things, il go take a look, cheers

So you just plug it in, hook it up to the WIFI, then go on netflix/youtube etc?

Yep. Its that easy. Also, the remote has a headphone jack. Which is awesome. And works with RF, so it will work from anywhere without needing line-of-site.