Gaming HTPC $1,500

[andross]

Hi all. I just registered on this site to get advice for a new gaming computer. I will probably go to a lot of Forums to seek advice. My budget is $1,500, not a penny more (and if I can go cheaper I'd be happy to but I think I need it all for what I want)

I have already bought 2 items: Case, Fractal Design Arc Midi for $70 and Kingston HyperX T1 1600mhz ram (4gb x 4) for $44

So I have $1,386 left and I need everything expect a monitor and speakers

Here are my thoughts:

CPU: i5-3570k
MoBo: some ASRock pro-4 or something (at the Microcenter near my house there is a $50 discount when you buy CPU/Mobo and so i can get these 2 things for like $270 after tax)
PSU: Seasonic Platinum 860 or 1000 (i don't want to cheap out on PSU; i want at least 80+ gold and i really like the seasonic's 7 year warranty. PSU is something I want to last for 7 years at least without having to think about it again)
GPU: GTX 670 or Radeon 7970
HDD: WD or Seagate either 1.5/2/3tb; would love to get 2 but will stick with one if I can't swing it
Keyboard: Logitech K800 (or K810 if it comes out soon AND is better than K800)
Mouse: Logitech MX Performance
OS: Windows 8 home 64bit
Optical: Need a blu-ray drive since this will replace my ps3
CPU Cooler: debating between Corsair H100, Noctua, Tuniq, Zalman, etc

So my thought was to skip the SSD. I have one on my current gaming laptop and it's nice but besides the quick boot up to windows, i'm not sure if it helps me a ton. The primary purpose for this HTPC is gaming on my bigscreen. It will also be used for Netflix streaming a lot and then some computer work.

Questions:
Will I see big improvement to my Steam gaming experience if I get a SSD for the OS? I already have 600gb of Steam games so I definitely cannot afford an SSD big enough for all the games i want.

What CPU cooler should i get, especially now since I went ahead and bought high profile ram (which i really didn't want to but $44 for 16gb was a ridiculous deal to me so i jumped)? I bought the Fractal arc midi partially for the great airflow and the fact that the H100 fits in it perfectly with no case modding needed. But i don't want to spend $100 on it if the cooling of the 212+ or Noctua U12p (both $30-$40) is basically the same.

Hard drives: Should i buy 2 and put them in Raid 1? (that's the advice of my IT friend at work so i have an immediate backup of everything). Should i buy 2 and put them in Raid 0 so i have improved performance? Should i just get one 3tb drive and save some money? (i definitely don't need all that space) Should i buy a 60gb SSD drive for the OS and then a big 3tb drive for Steam? I'm confused

Lastly, I have a like 6 year old Sony 50" SXRD DLP tv. It has 2 HDMI inputs and right now i run my ps3 into it via HDMI and also have a Receiver that controls 7 speakers. If i get one of the new MOBO's that has an HDMI port is it as simple as building my computer, running an HDMI cable from the mobo to the tv and then selecting the right input on my tv and WAHLAAA! Gaming on my TV?

Or will my tv try to downscale the picture and I need to upgrade to a newer tv to really have an HTPC? I know I probably need to go to the AVS forums for this one but thought I'd give it a shot here

Oh and my tv model is the Sony SXRD A2020. Thanks!

 

[DSF]

RAID 1 is not the same as a true backup, and an IT guy should know that. It's fine if one hard drive happens to fail randomly, but it won't help you at all if the computer is killed by a power surge, stolen, etc.

860-1000W is also well above what you need, even for a double-graphics card set up. Are you ever planning to use more than one graphics card? For 1080P I wouldn't think so.

 

[dmoney1980]

1- do you plan on overclocking?

2- yeah that PSU is way overkill, get a high quality 600w unit instead.

3- regarding the SSD- your best option might be to buy a 64gb SSD and use it as a cache drive for your primary HDD. That h77 mitx motherboard supports it (it's called Intel Smart Response)

 

[Insert_Nickname]

That's a lot of questions...😀

Questions:
Will I see big improvement to my Steam gaming experience if I get a SSD for the OS? I already have 600gb of Steam games so I definitely cannot afford an SSD big enough for all the games i want.

No, I run a similar setup with an SSD system disk and a HDD for gaming. The only thing you would likely see is slightly faster load-times, but I think that's about it...

What CPU cooler should i get, especially now since I went ahead and bought high profile ram (which i really didn't want to but $44 for 16gb was a ridiculous deal to me so i jumped)? I bought the Fractal arc midi partially for the great airflow and the fact that the H100 fits in it perfectly with no case modding needed. But i don't want to spend $100 on it if the cooling of the 212+ or Noctua U12p (both $30-$40) is basically the same.

Unless you are planing some serious overclocking (4.5GHz and above), the stock HSF should do fine. The 3570K is only a 77W chip after all. If you want a little more security then the stock cooler, the 212+ is the best and cheapest solution. The H100 only makes sense if you are overclocking like crazy...🙂

Hard drives: Should i buy 2 and put them in Raid 1? (that's the advice of my IT friend at work so i have an immediate backup of everything). Should i buy 2 and put them in Raid 0 so i have improved performance? Should i just get one 3tb drive and save some money? (i definitely don't need all that space) Should i buy a 60gb SSD drive for the OS and then a big 3tb drive for Steam? I'm confused

Two things,

1) RAID is no excuse for backup of your data, it only protects from HDD failure, not accidental deletion of files, virus, malware and the like...
2) RAID0 is dangerous, because a single HDD failing will wipe your data from both drives. There is no recovery from that. Unless you go for high benchmark scores RAID0 should be avoided...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

Lastly, I have a like 6 year old Sony 50" SXRD DLP tv. It has 2 HDMI inputs and right now i run my ps3 into it via HDMI and also have a Receiver that controls 7 speakers. If i get one of the new MOBO's that has an HDMI port is it as simple as building my computer, running an HDMI cable from the mobo to the tv and then selecting the right input on my tv and WAHLAAA! Gaming on my TV?

Or will my tv try to downscale the picture and I need to upgrade to a newer tv to really have an HTPC? I know I probably need to go to the AVS forums for this one but thought I'd give it a shot here

Oh and my tv model is the Sony SXRD A2020. Thanks!

HDMI is pretty much plug-and-play, you should not have any problems there...

And welcome to the forums...😀

 

[Juror No. 8]

My vote is to send the Arc Midi back and wait just a bit longer for the Node 605.

Now that's a proper HTPC case!

 

[mfenn]

My vote is to send the Arc Midi back and wait just a bit longer for the Node 605.

Probably want to send that HyperX T1 back as well because I only found it in 1.65V (not to mention the absolutely ridiculous heat spreaders).

In all honesty, since a TV is going to be stuck at 1080p, you should just grab the build located in my midrange builder's guide (updated weekly) and add the BD-RW, keyboard, mouse, and OS that you have.