A few months ago, I threw together an HTPC for $100 using a $75 small form factor Lenovo Thinkcentre (2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 80GB HDD) and a $25 Geforce 8400GS. It works well with Plex playing back 720p video files, though I have some issues with it:
Since the GPU is cheap as hell, it doesn't have PWM and the fan is pretty noisy.
Gaming performance is pretty bad even when I lower the resolution to 1280x720.
The boot time and hibernation speed is a little sluggish since I'm used to the SSDs in my laptop and desktop, though I usually keep it in sleep mode.
1080p Youtube isn't completely smooth.
My original idea was to keep the Thinkcentre and upgrade the graphics card to this [URL="http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202002"]low-profile Radeon HD 7750[/URL]. It costs about $138 after HST and shipping. This would solve my noise and graphics performance issues, though I'm not sure how badly the Core 2 Duo would bottleneck games like Minecraft and CS:GO. I'm also not sure if the new GPU would help with the 1080p Youtube videos.
I was also considering a [URL="http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171740"]128GB SSD[/URL] to improve the boot and hibernation times. Though that would bring the price of the upgrade to $250. Which is over twice what I paid for the PC and GPU originally.
Another option would be to build a whole new computer, which I priced out here:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/MCLXZTE.png[/IMG]
One problem I see with this build is that the 7750 I was thinking of throwing in my existing box would have better graphics performance than the onboard graphics on the A10. If you have any better ideas for a build I'd be happy to hear them. $472 is quite a lot of money for me, though I wouldn't have to upgrade it for quite a while. I could probably get $75-100 for the Thinkcentre if I sell it to offset the cost a little.
If I haven't lost you yet, I'm trying choose one of these options:
1. Upgrade the GPU.
2. Upgrade the GPU and add an SSD.
3. Build a new machine and sell the old one.
Personally, I would just upgrade the graphics card. From my experience, the core 2 duo should be enough to get decent performance from minecraft and source games.
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