To the computer guys (HTPC)

[Guest Spru]

Well I cut the cable a couple years ago and have done fine with gaming consoles but am looking to do a dedicated HTPC for the living room and move the gaming to the bedroom.

I'm looking at processors right now and am kind of stuck. I'm trying to keep it cheap but still be somewhat quick and handle some minimal gaming like Minecraft and flash games. So what I have been staring down is the AMD A-Series. Right now I'm looking at the Richland A10-6880k. What I am wondering is if I need that for 120 dollar APU or if something like an A6 or A8 for 60-80 bucks would handle that little bit just as well?

[itchytriggerfinger]

You can pack all kinds of goodies in an Intel Nuc.

[analog_kidd]

I built an HTPC a couple of years ago, and put an AMD A8 in it. I don't ever use it to play games, but it handles all of my movie watching just fine. I use it to play DVD / BluRay, and stream Prime / Loki. It never skips a beat for those.

 

I bought a special case that looks like a stereo component. It fits right in with all of my other electronics.

 

I also bought a compact wireless keyboard with a touchpad built onto it for couch-browsing.

[RC3]

If you want to game look at the a10 7700k. Run faster ram with it and it will make a killer HTPC and light gaming PC. Get a micro box and micro CPU. BAM!

[Guest Spru]

Thanks guys. After looking at what each was capable of I went with a late model A6. The A10 is realy nice, like can run Crysis and BF4 on lower settings. Just a lot more than what we needed.

All in all, I ended up spending right at 200 with tax and shipping. Micro case, micro board, older processor with built in graphics, 4 gigs of memory, 160 gig drive, wifi pci card and a refurbished wireless keyboard with touch pad. Even going to keep it cheap for a while and see how Linux/Ubuntu does for media streaming and browsing. Might add windows for more gaming options in a few months.