I need your recommendations.

[WhiteEagle22]

I need some recommendations here for a HTPC that will run Win 7 fine, and also play games like OpenTTD, Empire Earth II, C&C3:TW, and Civ IV decently.
I believe I can save C$100/month for the next year, making my total budget C$1200. I prefer to buy from NCIX and TigerDirect.ca, but I'm also willing to buy from NewEgg.ca if it's cheaper.

What are your recommendations?

 

[Fëanor]

I'm confused, are you going to buy the HTPC now or in a year?

 

[GoodGame]

I think the main constraint is how much HTPC are you talking?

Does it have to be ultra quiet, ultra small? I think that'll limit GPU options severely.

I'm fairly certain that you can't have a powerful gaming computer in a HTPC form due to overheating/noise issues.

At $1200, your budget isn't the main constraint for sure.

 

[Fëanor]

What size he wants it to be is the most important, there are HTPC cases that can fit any hardware (e.g. my DH103) but if he want something to be mATX or ITX its going to be a lot harder.

Anyway you are going to buy this HTPC a year from now (after saving 100 a month) you will probably be looking at a 1155 or AM3r2 motherboard and processor, AMD's Fusion will supposedly give a pretty decent gaming experience, however even a quiet 100 bucks videocard will probably beat it. As for that videocard, if we are lucky and the 28nm fab process isn't delayed you might be looking for a AMD 7xxx series card or a nVidia 5xx series card, probably something called the HD7670 or GTS540 will hit the price performance sweet spot for a HTPC with some gaming capabilities.

What might be really interesting is a possible option similar to Hybrid Crossfire where you use the Fusion graphic core(s) to considerably boost the performance of a discrete videocard.

But this is all speculation and rather pointless until the hardware is priced, released and benchmarked.

 

[Aramazd]

A discrete GPU won't even be necessary assuming those 4 are the only games that will be played.

Also, how do you recieve tv currently? Because your going to need a tuner card to watch tv.

 

[WhiteEagle22]

I receive TV right now via cable, without the need of a tuner box. That could change in the future.
I would prefer ATX (my current machine is that a HP Pavilion).

I'm planning to build in a year's time. (I know what others have said elsewhere, hardware changes too much but an idea at least would be nice!)

 

[Aramazd]

Overall your looking at something that is fairly similar to your average computer, with a tv tuner and possibly an htpc case.

Other than that your looking at the same kinds of parts as a regular PC. Although you'll want lower power parts(which run cooler). Look for 45W or 65W CPUs and if you do go with a discrete gpu, make sure it's on the lower end.

It is hard to offer any specifics on a build that is a year off. As feanor said there will be lot of new parts in a year.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

I receive TV right now via cable, without the need of a tuner box. That could change in the future.
I would prefer ATX (my current machine is that a HP Pavilion).

I'm planning to build in a year's time. (I know what others have said elsewhere, hardware changes too much but an idea at least would be nice!)

A month off fine, we could help you, 3 months off we can give you an idea. In a year, the whole hardware situation can (and will change).

Necro this thread in about a year.