Second Tier HTPC

The Build:

The Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz processor is the perfect pick for your HTPC costing roughly $58.99, you cannot go wrong with this Dual-Core 2 x 1MB L@ Cache Socket AM3 65W processor. This processor should be all the power you need to run your HTPC to its full extent.

The Asus M4A88T-M HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard includes 2×240 pin memory slots allowing up to a maximum of 8GB of  Dual Channel DDR3 memory. A built in Audio chipset allowing 8 channels of sound using Realtek ALC887, and 6 x USB 2.0 real panel ports (5 onboard USB 2.0 ports), 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 port just in case you want to add a future graphics card for gaming etc,  1 x PCI express x1 port, and one PCI port.

In this build I included a Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory, a SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive, an Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power, a goodLITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray Reader SATA Model iHOS104-06 – OEM, and chose the nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum / Acrylic / Steel HTPC 1080P Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case with the option of picking a combo that includes the Rosewill WMC Remote control/Rcvr RRC-127 for Win 7.

All parts have a set of constituent products under “Budget Yielding Alternatives” that you may feel like considering if you want to go with something a little different (especially with computer cases), or better (as in a hard drive with more space, power supply with more wattage for future use, or higher quality RAM).

Required Hardware:

Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor ADX250OCGMBOX
Motherboard: ASUS M4A88T-M LE AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Graphics Card:
Integrated on motherboard: ATI Radeon HD 4250
RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model …
Hard Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Power Supply Unit: Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power ..
Optical Drive: LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray Reader SATA Model iHOS104-06 – OEM
Computer Case: nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum / Acrylic / Steel HTPC 1080P Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Caseor COMBO with Rosewill WMC Remote control/Rcvr RRC-127 for Win 7

Budget Yielding Alternatives:

Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 255 3.1GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop ProcessorAMD Athlon II X2 260 3.2GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor

AMD Athlon II X2 265 3.3GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor

Motherboard: none
Graphics Card: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4650 100253HDMI Video Card SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood) 100287VGAL Video Card”>Radeon HD 5670

XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

RAM: none
Hard Drive: Corsair Force CSSD-F60GB2-BRKT 2.5″ MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Power Supply Unit: none
Optical Drive: LITE-ON Black 12X Blu-ray Burner with Blu-ray 3D feature SATA Model iHBS112 – OEM
Computer Case: Thermaltake Black LANBOX Lite VF6000BWS Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC CasenMEDIAPC Silver HTPC 2000S ATX Media Center / HTPC Case
TV Tuner AVerMedia AVerTV Hybrid Volar Max MTVHBVMXR

For prices in Canadian please visit:

Once You Know, You Newegg

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