My Second Hand HTPC Build

[Segad0r1]

This will be my little build log of my HTPC

My current media server is outdated and is struggling to keep up with all my content and applications, so I've decided to upgrade it and also convert it to a full HTPC in the living room. I first wanted to buy everything new and just build it, but I've been inspired by the Linus Tech Tips Scrapyard Wars show so I decided to do a second hand build. This build will span over a few months as I'm currently in New Zealand for work, but I'm buying the parts over here and will just take them home in my luggage, hopefully they don't break in transit :nightmare:


My goal for this build is to have a HTPC that is able to play 4K content on my TV and also be able to play some games, but I'm not expecting it to play the latest AAA titles on ultra settings.

The only items that I'm going to transfer from my previous build will be the hard drives. I'll use my old case so long until I see a second hand case I like.

Current part list so far is the following:
Motherboard: Asus H110M-A/M.2
CPU: i5 6600K

That's about it for now, I'm waiting for the motherboard and CPU to arrive while I'm still shopping for the other components.

Motherboard:

CPU:

The following items are pretty much what I want in this build, but it will depend entirely on what is available this side.
CPU Cooler: Corsair H55i, otherwise any 120mm AIO will do
Memory: 8Gb, prefer single dimm for now, but if I get a good deal on a 2x4Gb set then that'll be fine
Power Supply: Any Corsair above 500W will be fine, currently looking at a AX750 (Overkill yes, but will be perfect for my gaming pc, so I'll just swop it with my gaming pc PSU)
SSD (Coz no SSD in 2017 is unacceptable right!?): 128GB SSD will be fine, not really going to be doing much on the system drive
HDD: 2TB (My current 3TB is pretty much full and the others are not far behind)
Case: Corsair Air 240 (Won't be buying it this side for obvious reasons, but will keep a eye out on here for when someone is selling one)
Graphics Card: 1050/1050 Ti or 1060 3 GB (If I can get everything else cheap enough I might consider a 1060 6 GB)

My budget is about 10k for this little project, I don't really want to be on the edge of that limit but will see how it goes. I made a bit of a mistake on the CPU, I made the bid before I actually saw what they were really worth.

Current Spend (Rough estimate, working of 1 NZD = 10 ZAR, but realistically it is around R 9.80):
Motherboard: R 650 + R 60 shipping
CPU: R 2 880 + R 50 shipping

Budget Remaining: R 6 360

 

[Segad0r1]

Project Update:

I got most my components, I'm still deciding on what GPU to get that will be best bang for buck.

I kind of went off the rules of this build by buying the SSD and CPU Cooler from a store, but the reason was that I couldn't find any SSDs for sale that were worth while. I bought the CPU cooler from the store as this is my very first time using a water cooler and I didn't want to spoil it by off chance that I bought a faulty/leaking 2nd hand one.

So my parts list is as follows:
Motherboard: Asus H110M-A/M.2
CPU: i5 6600K
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid 120L
RAM: Corsair Value Select 8GB DDR4 2400Mhz
SSD: ScanDisk 128GB
PSU: Corsair VS650
GPU: ???
Case: ???

I know the 6600K is a bit overkill especially on the motherboard I got since it won't support overclocking, but I want to upgrade it down the line to a Z270 board.

Any suggestions on what GPU I should get? I'm leaning towards the 1060, but only if it falls within budget, I have around R3500 to buy a GPU. Is it worth paying the extra for a 6GB over a 3GB 1060?

 

[Kornflakes]

Better off future proofing the system by getting the 6GB 1060 which will still be able to play games to come in the years at medium settings where as the 3gb might struggle

 

[Segad0r1]

Better off future proofing the system by getting the 6GB 1060 which will still be able to play games to come in the years at medium settings where as the 3gb might struggle

Thanks, I went and got a Asus 1060 6GB Turbo, really like the look of the external exhaust design.

Update:

So my parts list is as follows:
Motherboard: Asus H110M-A/M.2
CPU: i5 6600K
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid 120L
RAM: Corsair Value Select 8GB DDR4 2400Mhz
SSD: ScanDisk 128GB
PSU: Corsair VS650
GPU: Asus GTX1060 6GB Turbo
Case: ???

So I started thinking about the case a bit more, the Air 240 was my first choice, but I've been looking around for some cases that look like your normal A/V type of equipment. The only local products I could find was from Lian-Li, being Lian-Li they tend to be quite expensive, costing around R3 500 with not much to offer, some of the cases in that range only have USB 2.0 front IO. The one I'm specifically looking is this: https://www.rebeltech.co.za/565-lian-li-pc-c60-mini-tower-black-atx.html

I have another question to any that might be able to help, the chipset on my motherboard is getting extremely hot, it's is much better after I added the GPU, but often gets so hot I can't even touch it, is this normal or can it be a fault on the motherboard?