Hi there,

I've been looking out for a cheap HTPC that also supports casual gaming over the last couple of weeks. It shall support xbmc with fancy skins, 1080p playback from NAS and older games like assassins creed 1 or crysis 1, but then with settings in low and without stuff like AA.

This is what I came up with so far:

Case: SilverStone Milo ML03 ~60EUR (nice under the TV, USB3 in the front)
HDD: takeMS UTX-2200 120GB ~90EUR (supposed to have good value for the money)
RAM: Kingston HyperX DIMM XMP Kit 8GB PC3-14900U ~60EUR (no special reason for this)
CPU: AMD A10-5800K ~100EUR (overkill, I know, but A6 is quite limited for gaming and A8 is just 15 EUR cheaper)
Mobo: ASUS F2A85-M LE ~60EUR
PSU: be quiet! Pure Power L7 300W ~35EUR
Fan: Scythe Shuriken Rev.B (SCSK-1100) ~25EUR

As always, I started with the absolute minimum (F2A55 and A4) and saw the occasional cheap upgrade, so these are already parts that more than satisfy my needs, but I am comfortable with it. Especially if I find out my 3-month-old lets me play more with the computer, I could easily upgrade with a dedicated GPU and I'm ready to go.

I have some questions about this setting:
- A friend brought up the idea of having different VMWare images for surfing/banking/playing so that these things are separated for security, but he has 16GB RAM. What do you think? I it worth 55 EUR more?
- Does the fan suit in the case and will it go well with the RAM?
- Is DDR3-1866 good with this setting or will DDR3-2400 bring a serious improvement?
- Is the PSU well-dimensioned or shall I go for an even lower wattage?

Comments are appreciated!
Thanks!