So after 10+ years of trusty service, I've decided it's time to retire my PC-now-(noisy)-HTPC and treat myself to something slicker.

I've a DSJ213 NAS so I don't need a big box of drives anymore, and w/ the PS3 handling movies - no need for optical either. In truth, it'll purely serve as a VLC & foobar frontend for the living room - and I accept the spec. I've put together is pretty overkill for such purposes, but since I am (still) not sold on the VFM of NUCs, nor the connectivity options of "media" devices (I need dual lan, multiple display outputs, optical-out & wireless) and of the mind I'll make this purchase now, and not another for another 10 years...



The case is a bit of a treat, but somewhat of a (cheeky) necessity as I'm limited for (height) space in my AV rack - and the mobo. is one of the few with the features I want/need that also suits the heatpipe system of case.... my only real dither is on the CPU, as I tend to focus my reading these days on "specs-for-work", where it's all about brute strength and TDP/onboard GPU isn't a concern.

Accepted, I could probably save £20 or so on 4GB, or lower speed, RAM... but again, I'm of the "buy/build once and be done with it" mindset there.

Either way, I'm still open to critique before I drop the cash (probably) some time over the weekend.

I'd add a ssd in there for the boot drive and maybe a low power gpu to handle graphics. Even a hd5450 would be good as it supports master audio deciding over hdmi from bluray.

For some reason the 256MB SSD I had listed doesn't show there - possibly because it was a day only offer - so got that covered.

GPU wise, no room at the inn, with no use case and no plan to upgrade the AV amp anytime soon - can live without HD audio formats & hdmi switching.

Having slept on it, I'm thinking I could save £100ish on going i5, possibly i3, w/ 4GB but again, don't want to needlessly undercut the longevity of spec. so going to dawdle a bit on this one I think.

Just wondering if you might be better with an AMD APU with a decent integrated graphics core rather than the Intel route if you can't accommodate discrete graphics. Not sure if the passive case will deal with the higher thermal output mind and of course you couldn't use your chosen mobo.

I had considered that route, but the itx mobo offerings for FM2 aren't as strong as they are for 1150.

If it is just for video playback and music, then the AMD is not a better choice. And with Intel's video encoding technology, the Core i's run rings around external graphic cards when it comes to encoding H.264 HD video. The modern internal HD graphics from Intel are fine for HD TV and the newer Haswell and Broadwell chipsets can even drive 4K video streams. You can't play high-end games on them, but if you aren't planning to play high-end games, then the Intel processors are currently in a class of their own for price per Watt performance.

I would think, for video and music playback, the i3 would be more than enough. 4GB is borderline, I would seriously consider 8GB if you can.

And don't forget that, with an 1150, you can always Hackintosh it at a later dat, if you so wish. Doing that with an AMD setup is not something I'd try.