Help me spec a Gaming HTPC system

[spoony77]

Hi people
I'm looking to build an under the tv pc for xbmc and steam gaming, with a max budget of £500.
I want to game at 1080p with a good framerate in modern games
I already have a ssd drive ready but need everything else, any advice appreciated.

 

[BinnsY]

This can be awkward depending on what you deem to be a "good" frameate.

This spec would give good frame rates in al lthe latest games and would be nice and small to hide in a living room, unfortunately its over budget.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £149.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4430 3.00GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £139.99
1 x ASRock H87M-ITX Intel H87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ITX Motherboard £89.99
1 x Silverstone Sugo SG05 HTPC USB 3.0 Case with 300W Power Supply - Black (SST-SG05B USB 3.0) £86.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
Total : £584.44 (includes shipping : £11.25).



If you can cope with going for something bigger, it's easier to get a more well rounded machine inside the budget.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £149.99
1 x Antec NSK-1380 M-ATX Aluminium Black/Silver Cube Chassis 350W 80+ Bronze PSU £94.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 AMD 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard £52.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
Total : £496.04 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 

[Danny75]

A BitFenix Phenom is basically the size of two shoeboxes placed one on top of the other. Would something like that do as well? Bit more room for cooling if you're going to be using it for gaming.

 

[spoony77]

Would prefer a Silverstone style flat case if possible or do these provide insufficient cooling for gaming?
Also I dont require a hard drive at all if this helps with budgeting.

 

[BinnsY]

Hows this?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £149.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £107.99
1 x Silverstone Grandia GD05 Desktop HTPC Case - Black (SST-GD05B USB3.0) £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99
1 x Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 AMD 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard £52.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 450W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £39.95
Total : £507.42 (includes shipping : £17.10).




You can get thinner slim cases if this is to thick, but then you limit yourself to half height graphics cards or APU builds. Although APUs will play games at 1080p you wont get "good" frame rates if you want to keep decent quality settings.

 

[spoony77]

That looks excellent thank you. I've never really used amd processors before but I assume this chip will hold its own in games?

 

[BinnsY]

It's not as good as any of the quad core intel offerings, but its £30 cheaper than the cheapest quad core Haswell chip. It will certainly hold it's own, and unless you are willing to up the budget it's about as good as your going to get really.

This link should give you an idea of its performance.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6396/the-vishera-review-amd-fx8350-fx8320-fx6300-and-fx4300-tested/5

 

[Danny75]

Nice find on the case, BinnsY.

I came across this one:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Thermaltake Armor A30 LAN Gaming Case - Black £79.99
Total : £89.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).



But it's a bit garish to sit under the TV in a living room and the Silverstone Grandia seems to have pretty decent cooling too.