HTPC/Gaming Spec Please

pieman

pieman

pieman

Associate
Joined
10 Nov 2002
Posts
53
After receiving great advice over the years I again return for some guidance and a project to divert my focus from Sunderland's god-awful start to the season.

I'm looking to build a machine that will primarily be used for Media (XBMC) but I want to be powerful enough for some gaming (e.g. Torchlight II/Total War: Rome 2/Football Manager) and emulation (e.g. Wii via Dolphin). If I'm being greedy I guess I would like it to be a little future proof

For the media I'd be looking to play everything up to 3D SBS through this machine connected to a Samsung UE46ES8000.

I've read all about the pro's and con's of the Intel Haswell CPUs and still remain firmly in the pro-Intel camp, but in terms of cases, motherboards, a separate GPU?, SSD and RAM I'm open to suggestions. I guess I'll also need to factor in a requirement for a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Budget anywhere between £500-£700 but closer to £500 the better ;-)
 
Hello :)

This is my take on it, im not that good at ITX builds, so forgive me if i have made a mistake somewhere :D


looking at what you need/want with a budget of 500 to 700, i think you will struggle to get it. although this is the closest i can get.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x OCZ Vertex 2E Bigfoot 480GB 3.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive - (OCZSSD3-2VTX480G) £149.99
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) £119.99
1 x Seasonic G series 550w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £79.99
1 x Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £68.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £49.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced Mini-ITX Case - Black £39.95
1 x Zalman ZM-M500WL 3000 DPI Wireless Optical Mouse £17.99
1 x OcUK Wireless Media Centre Keyboard - Black (9039ARF) £17.99
Total : £737.46 (includes shipping : £10.50).

 
Wanting to play Rome 2 on this will push your budget up, as the rest can be done without a discrete graphics card. I know you prefer Intel, but perhaps you could put an AMD A-series processor in this build, and slot in that 7970 you've got when you need to do something more graphically demanding?
 
Thanks for the rapid responses thus far.

Well perhaps what I'm asking for in terms of requirements and budget aren't really possible and with Christmas round the corner perhaps they don't need to be.

Ideally I'd be looking for an all black/brushed metal case and given where I'm looking to put it it's would need to be relatively silent also, not asking for much am I ;-).
 
Ok, I've had some time to do a little research and have put the following together, anybody spotting any issues or could do better for the money?

Appreciate any assistance whatsoever and certainly around a suitable PSU that's quiet.

Your basket

1 x Silverstone SST-LC16B-M USB 3.0 La Scala - Black
1 x Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI GENE Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard
1 x Plextor M5 Pro 256GB Extreme Series Solid State Drive - (PX-256M5P)
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Superclocked 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (PV38G240C0K)
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A [BW] Performance CPU Cooler
 
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