HTPC upgrades

[DivineLight]

I build a cheap system for my TV setup sooner this year. It is ment for browsing, sorting and storing media (NAS), all time downloading and streaming / media playback. Currently it consists of the following parts:

• Intel Core i5-3550
• ASUS P8H61-MX (1155)
• 6 GB DDR3-1333
• 120 GB SSD 840 Basic
• 9.5 TB hard drives
• Geforce GT 530 2 GB
• Corsair CX500M
• Fractal Define Mini
• Samsung 50" UHD TV

Its a decent build, despite the ****ty looks inside. But the case is too big. I bought a Silverstone S05 first, which seemed as the perfect case, but my mainboard form factor was two centimeters too large. I need a decent micro-ATX board which will fit into my TV rack, but still allows a dedicated graphics card and at least two HDDs (More would be nice, even if I could just lay them inside, I'm planning to buy single 8 TB drives for my movies).

Also I need a GPU. My current one does not support 4K, I could get 4K at 30 Hz which will feel horribly even if you just surf. I need one that supports HDMI 2.0. The GTX 1050 I bought used turned out to be a fraud, the card arrived but it smells burned and does not output anything. My TV still runs on 1080p. I don't want to invest 150 € for a GTX 1050 (Current prices) but the price point of the 1030 is even worse. It would be nice if it could handle games at 1080p, just to have a backup GPU if my primary one fails and in case of having guests or travelling with the HTPC (Which is another reason why I want a smaller case).

Are there any good low end CPUs yet? I would pay up to 200 € for the complete hardware, mainboard, CPU, RAM. I know my platform is completely outdated and a cheap Ryzen with DDR4 and a 4K capable iGP would be perfect. But the only low end Ryzen I saw was based on the old architecture, it should at least compete with my i5. The i5 can still handle games at 60 FPS if necessary and it also unpacks downloaded files fast enough without having the rest of the system slowed down.

I'm open for new ideas. The Intel processors with 4K iGPs are too expensive currently, a Pentium G still has only two cores. But the market for HDMI 2.0 is also sparse, only the GTX 950, 1030/50, RX 460/560 support it. There is a version of the GTX 750 with HDMI 2.0 but this one is really rare. For a dedicated GPU I expect it to cost maximum 100 € while handling current games (Mass Effect Andromeda) in 1080p at 60 FPS in medium details. If it can just output 4K it should cost no more than 50 €.

 

[Jeff G]

If you don't have a 4k panel, why are you concerned with 4k output? The HD530 in my G4500 works perfectly for HTPC duty. And it handles all the HTPC duties I throw at it without any lags or hiccups. If you plan to upgrade to 4k in the future, worry about a GPU then. No point buying a GPU now for a 4k upgrade you're going to do in 6 months as that same GPU will likely cost less in 6 months.

 

[DivineLight]

If you don't have a 4k panel, why are you concerned with 4k output? The HD530 in my G4500 works perfectly for HTPC duty. And it handles all the HTPC duties I throw at it without any lags or hiccups. If you plan to upgrade to 4k in the future, worry about a GPU then. No point buying a GPU now for a 4k upgrade you're going to do in 6 months as that same GPU will likely cost less in 6 months.

I have, if you read the specs above. I cannot use it with this GPU. A G4500 is slower than my i5, as I wrote it should handle games as well. I personally don't need a 4K gaming GPU in this rig, if I decided to travel I would put in my main rigs one and otherwise guests who stay longer would bring their own. It should be capable of replacing my primary rig in case of RMA.

 

[Jeff G]

My TV still runs on 1080p.

It is ment for browsing, sorting and storing media (NAS), all time downloading and streaming / media playback.

From those statements, I assumed you were looking to build a HTPC for 1080p content.
But it appears you're looking for a dual purpose HTPC/backup gaming rig?
If you're going to purchase a GPU for 4k content, the rest of the PC is more than capable of handling HTPC duty and gaming at 1080p. There is no need to upgrade it unless you want more gaming power from it.
Have you considered the used market for cards? Some of the last gen cards should be coming down like the R9 300 series or the GTX 980 and they should handle 4k gaming with settings dropped down, and will do great on 1080p content.

 

[DivineLight]

Yes, it does a lot of tasks, as well it serves as a NAS and holds all of my hard drives. If I decided to travel I would just put in my 1080 Ti and it could handle 4K games at 60 FPS.

Yes, I bought that 1050 used, but it was fraud. As stated in the first post, it is completely dead, the fan spins but no video signal. R9 are too expensive (miner prices) and can't output 4K (I mentioned the only cards that have 4K HDMI 2.0). The graphics card doesn't need to handle 4K gaming, only video output. Games like Mass Effect 3 would run on a 1050 in 4K.

But which one to choose, they are all expensive. The miners completely destroyed the market which is why I thought about getting a completely new platform with a 4K iGPU, also giving it more future proofing. My current platform does not have USB 3, SATA 3 and uses DDR3 RAM. Otherwise I don't want to sacrifice the i5s performance. I don't know if a Ryzen 1200 and a board could go under 200 €, but I guess it would not bring more performance and the Ryzen still has no iGPU. Only Intel has and they are too expensive. Buying used would be an option, but due to the need of HDMI 2.0 I could not go below Skylake.