Best route for HTPC(ordering parts tomorrow)

[Fatback]

Hey everyone. Old member here haven't been around in a long time. I'll try to keep this as short as possible.

I'm about to build a budget HTPC. It will be used for heavy web browsing, streaming(Netflix, Hulu, amazon prime, etc), as well as watching Movies in general. I don't plan to play any games on this PC so that isn't a concern. I will be picking up a new 4K TV this weekend along with the parts. So I want this HTPC to be able to do 4K @60hz HDR. There are 2 ways I'm looking to go about this. Ones is the a discrete GPU(most likely a GT1030 or RX 550) and the other is with a Ryzen APU.

I have a budget of $450 and $150 of that is currently going to Case, PSU, Fans, and SSD. So that leaves me with $300 for the Motherboard, RAM, CPU, and GPU.

Here are the two options I'm looking at, but I am open to any suggestions you have.

Option one

AMD Athlon 200GE
ASUS TUF B450M-Plus Gaming
Ballistix Sport LT 8GB Kit (4GBx2) DDR4 2666
GT 1030 or RX 550

Total comes to about $303 with tax

Option 2

AMD Ryzen 3 2200G
Ballistix Sport LT 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR4 2666
ASUS TUF B450M-Plus Gaming

Total comes to about $305 with tax

I'm currently leaning towards option 2. Better CPU, twice the RAM, and as far as I can tell the Vega 8 IGPU can output 4K @60hz HDR no problem. I have also thought about trading the 2200g for a 2400g and going with the 8GB kit. I have already checked and the motherboard does have HDMI 2.0 port.

What would be yalls suggestion? Go with the Lower end CPU, less ram and get the discret GPU, or go for the APU with More RAM, or even go for the 8GBs of ram with the faster 2400g. Maybe you have a different idea all together. Id really love to know your input as I have been racking my brain on this for 2 weeks now. I'm planning to order parts tomorrow on Amazon to take advantage of my 2day primes shipping.

Other parts are
Thermaltake Versa H18 Tempered Glass
EVGA 450 BT, 80+ Bronze 450W
Kingston A400 SSD 240GB
a couple 120mm case fans
and a WIFI Card

 

[UnholyVision]

You don't need much power for the computer on the other end a.k.a the HTPC. The media server does most of the work and if you're talking about streaming services, it comes down to your network connection. Beefing up your media server or even your internet connection via a router or change of ISP could help. As for software. Depending on the platform and if the media player allows for caching more ram could be useful or even more HDD/SSD space for say a larger swap. Depending on how the software allows the system to cache the data received to prevent a lot of buffering or how you wish to do it will be that deciding factor.

An APU is just fine. I actually have 2400G machines as Linux HTPC's. They can do some mediocre gaming and not clunk up with heavy processes from a media center.

 

[beers]

I'd roll #2 but use the same RAM kit, if you aren't playing games 8 GB is suitable for what you want to do.

2400g has more iGPU resources but if you want to play games you'd probably have to augment with something better than a 1030/550 anyway down the road. 2200g w/ 8G sounds like a reasonable value play.

 

[OmniDyne]

As was stated, the 2200G is a solid option. The motherboard seems a bit overkill; could spend $50 or so on a budget board.

I would avoid the Kingston A400 and go with the Team Group L5 LITE 3D 2.5" 240GB. The L5 is an all around superior SSD by far, and it's a bit cheaper.

If you do decide to stick with the ASUS TUF B450M you could spend a little more and go cordless with an M.2 SSD. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820326190