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I'm about to order parts for a HTPC.

Can I get a few peoples thoughts on this build?

SILVERSTONE Black MILO Series ML03B Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case 64.99

BIOSTAR A88M Micro ATX AMD Motherboard 62.99

AMD A6-6400K 3.9GHz Socket FM2 Desktop Processor - Black Edition 64.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory 46.99

CORSAIR CXM series CX430M 430W Power Supply 59.99

Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR60GB-7 2.5" 7mm Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) 49.99

Total cost: 349.94 + taxes/shipping

Keep in mind I live in Canada so prices might be a little different. I'm ordering from Newegg.ca

I was hoping to keep the cost reasonably low and was hoping to not even bother with a optical drive. Thoughts?

I'm planning to try Linux as the operating system and use xbmc. I have ZERO experience with Linux so any advice there would be appreciated also.

Thanks a lot, hopefully I get lots of replies.

Any yea or nay? Was thinking of ordering the parts tomorrow want to make sure things are compatible and make sense.

with a quick look everything looks compatible.

are you going to use it for light gaming? if so, id up the ram speed to 1866 or higher.

also, is this going to be a stand alone htpc or do you intend to connecting it to a video provider? if so you will need a tuner card, hauppuage makes some that are linux compatible. also i dont see a mass storage drive, but you may be connecting or dlna'ng it to another pc or server or maybe just using it for netflix, etc.

if you dont think you will need an optical drive, then dont get one, myself i like a blu ray drive.

as for linux and xbmc, you can load both in one package to save some time and setup. there will probably be a learning curve for you with linux so plan on doing a little research.

ive built a few off of the ml03 case and just keep in mind that everything will fit fairly tight so take your time and use a little caution.

good luck

Thanks for the advice. I ordered it about an hour ago. Got a Wd green 2tb hard drive. Also like you mentioned I did some research and got the 1866 ram. Hopefully everything will fit fine in that case and I didn't order any extra fans but I'm not expecting much heat so hopefully that won't be a issue.

I did a little research on Linux. Sounds like mint would be the easiest to learn I'm hoping I can turn on my htpc and I can make it start up xbmc right off the hop. I don't want to be limited to what I can do with installing openelec which I also looked at but I do plan on using this mostly just aa a htpc.
I'm not connected to a cable provider or anything so don't need the tuner.

I would like a recommendation on a good remote. I was planning on just using my smartphone until I found one.

you shouldnt have any problem with heat at idle it will only pull about 40watts and at full load your still only looking at about 90watts or so. like i said that case will be tight, especially where the psu butts up to the drive bay.

as far as a remote the rosewill 110002 is a fairly descent remote made for win7, 8 but also works well with xbmc on ubuntu, dont know about mint though. xbmc has a section on remotes on their site, have a looksee and see what they recommend.

good luck