Under the TV Gaming/XBMC Build

[DonPachi]

Hi all,

Apologies in advance for this being my first post - I've lurked this forum for years on and off, better late than never!

For the past year or so, since I built my gaming PC (3570k, Windforce GTX 670 & Fractal R3) I've been lugging my PC up and downstairs from my office to the TV for some sofa gaming. I've compromised for a while now by having a HP microserver under the TV as an XBMC box, but I'm ready to go full on HTPC for gaming too, albeit on a budget.

Can anyone spec me the bits for a machine around £500, essentially I will only ever be playing at 1080p so with this in mind, I need:

Space for at least two HDD's + 1 SSD (2x3TB and SSD I have these already).
Nice enough looking case that will look good under the TV.
No need for RAM as I have 16GB laying around.
Reasonable sound levels.

I only really need:

Case
Motherboard
CPU
Graphics Card
PSU

Thanks.

 

[Idleman]

Full ATX HTPC.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £146.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x Silverstone SST-LC17-S USB 3.0 La Scala - Silver £90.95
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 550W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £49.99
Total : £497.51 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 

[The Only Beardy]

building on a budget is hard... but i guess this is possibly what I would get... I am sure someone will be able to poke some holes in it

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA Hadron Air Mini-ITX Case - including 500W Gold Power Supply - Black £149.99
1 x MSI Radeon R9 270 Gaming Edition OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £143.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4430 3.00GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £139.99
1 x Gigabyte H87N-WIFI Intel H87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £99.95
Total : £543.52 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 

[DonPachi]

Thanks gents. I'm going to keep looking for the moment.

I may well invest in some HDMI over CAT6 extenders and route cabling from the PC upstairs down to the living room. That way I can plough some money into getting another 670 for SLI or a 780!

 

[Idleman]

Thanks gents. I'm going to keep looking for the moment.

I may well invest in some HDMI over CAT6 extenders and route cabling from the PC upstairs down to the living room. That way I can plough some money into getting another 670 for SLI or a 780!

That would be a cheaper alternative.