HTPC build, personal.

Better to start on what you expect to do with this HTPC.
Unless you are doing some gaming HTPC is a thing of the past..... a dead cheap Android TV box will cover just about any need regarding movies.

I was going to throw in a smaller discrete GPU, probably a GTX 1070 or something, maybe even a GTX1060.

It's more around the CPU I'm wondering about, is there a better option or a cheaper one?


Thanks,
Alex

It depends on what kind of gaming you expect to do...for most games an i3 should keep you covered( I Have a HTPC for gaming and i am running a Dual Core Pentium with 750ti and is handling most games)

May consider the i3, I assume that's compatible for 4k video and the like right? I know my 4670k isn't which is why i'm doing the upgrade.

Good point, even 4K is handled better and cheaper with a dedicated box.

Also, although you can plug the Ryzen into most of the AM4 boards (particularly X370, X470,  B350,  B450 & A320 with newest BIOS updates) you'll encounter the phenomena that you absolutely will remember when you were up to speed with hardware, in that you've got one fabulous component strapped inside the bottlenecks and restrictions of older hardware.  If you're buying a Ryzen 5 you really ought to put it in a board that will let it gain its full potential.

But as above, unless you're gaming you certainly don't need state of the art CPUs for streaming or displaying TV.

Agreed, so if I went with a Ryzen 5 I'd need to put it in a motherboard that's £170, which bumps up the cost massively for something I just want to stream on.

So the i3 may be the cheaper way to go?

Lets take it for start...
If you are for movies just forget the HTPC....grab the TV box and when you are on your sofa handling everything with your remote control then you will see how better it is compared to HTPC...no windows -popups , no updates..no interruptions
If its for gaming just grab the best you can ...

Any particular "TV box" that you could recommend me? I assume I could stream data from my PC to watch films etc on the TV box right?

Thanks

Alex

I think I'm going to be out of sync with the rest of this thread but for completeness:
May consider the i3, I assume that's compatible for 4k video and the like right? I know my 4670k isn't which is why i'm doing the upgrade.

3rd Gen will get you 2560x1600 if you have a DisplayPort output the IGP can talk to.
4th/5th (Iris) would get you UHD (3840x2160) if you have one of the "U" series or true 4k (4096x2304) if you have the "H" version.
Again motherboard dependent (you need to be sure you have DP v1.2 support or HDMI v1.4   with high bandwidth cabling).


As far as boxes go Amazon still really have the market cornered in good streaming systems with access to subscription services but against that they do use the platform to push their own subscriptions to you.  Their Fire Media Streaming Player (rather than the Firestick which struggles with some 4K) is certainly worth a look.

That's awesome, thank you both, I'll take a look at the TV Boxes instead.

Thanks

Alex

I have being on this boat for many many years...spending quite some money and effort...when my 1st tv box arrived i looked at it with the a feeling like "what the heck is this little piece of junk...compared to my kick ass HTPC"....then i grabbed the remote ....HTPC was obsolete...so i kissed my HTPC goodbye as it found its way to the small adds...never again battle with windows..remotes that work after many configuration experiments...updates...etc...
To add more now i have an HTPC for gaming but ...lets face it is cumbersome...only was yesterday is was playing a game with my kid and for some reason Windows decided to steal the focus everytime the game was doing some kind of change....probably i should have gone for a XBOX or Playstation...

Well I'm planning on a switch and PS5 when it comes out so I think the TV Box would be a much better option to be fair.

Thanks :-)

Alex

Yes everybody is waiting for PS5