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Living room PC

mini-itx? not necessarily more expensive, still depends on quality and brand really.
Silverstone do make quality cases...often reflected in their price tag i guess.
CPU is independant of mobo type (as long as its the same socket, so your only decisions are case and mobo, nothing else is ITX dependant.
 
Banzai_Joe said:
mini-itx? not necessarily more expensive, still depends on quality and brand really.
Silverstone do make quality cases...often reflected in their price tag i guess.
CPU is independant of mobo type (as long as its the same socket, so your only decisions are case and mobo, nothing else is ITX dependant.
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Just a case of finding a decent GFX card to squeeze in? I'm sure PC Gamer recently did an article on building a living room PC, I will have to see if I can find out which issue it was and try to get hold of a copy.
 
Yeah I meant the mobo really? You'll have to have a smaller PSU as well right? They seem to be a touch more expensive too.....or am I looking in the wrong place! I only found 4 SFX power supplies!
 
you can buy the SG-05 with a quality 450w psu inside for a higher price, or just the case on its own.
I bought a SFX 450w (same size, but fully modular) but i couldn't quite work it into my rig so its sitting here never used. ;) (just sayin')

Seriously dude, the SG-05 is a cracking under TV pc case. Mine sits in between the shelves of my ikea unit, next to the 360 which is above the ps3. Doesn't look out of place one little bit. There is also only about 4mm clearance from the shelf above yet it still doesn't overheat when gaming. :)

nvidia cards seem to be longer than AMD ones, but then i've always been an AMD owner over nvidia so i wasn't concerned there.
 
Best I could do, not as good as the spec above but it fits in the smaller case. From quick research the R9280 and GTX770 are both too long, some 270x's are too long but the Powerclolour should be 245mm which is less than 10"(this is what the case can take). Shame as it costs the same as a 280 and close enough to the GTX 770.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 270X "PowerBank" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x "Xenon H81I" Configurable Intel Pentium / Core i3 / i5 / i7 Mini ITX Home PC Bundle £70.01
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £62.99
1 x No Upgrade - Intel Stock Cooler (None overclocked systems) £0
1 x Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £41.99
1 x Standard Build Laptops - Approximately 3 to 5 working days £0
1 x Silverstone Strider SST-ST45SF SFX Series - 450 Watt Power Supply £61.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
1 x Silverstone SST-SG05BB-Lite Sugo USB 3.0 - Black £31.99
Total : £548.50 (includes shipping : £8.00).



What kind of "modification" did you have to make to get the 7950 to fit?

Edit: Just thought I'd mention the case and PSU separate were cheaper than buying together!
 
Ah - I see! I really like the Silverstone Mini-ITX case and it would fit under my TV really well, but if it means a big skimp on spec and also being more difficult to build, I might just go with the Coolermaster micro ATX case near the top of the thread and build a system around that. Its looking like it would be quite a bit smaller and more portable than my current system so I could probably make the room for it under, or next to my PC.
 
The first spec is better, an i5 and a GTX 770 beats the G3220 and 270x all day long. Like I said though if you could save an extra month you could get yourself a GTX 970!

Just to make sure you know, you wouldn't be able to overclock the i5 in that bundle, not sure if this was something you wanted to do?

Also you'll need to add 2 x case fans as it doesn't seem to come with any.
 
What kind of "modification" did you have to make to get the 7950 to fit?
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It involved an angle grinder ;)

The 7950 was about 3mm too long so i basically cut a window out of the metal inner front grill and it sorted it. The front fascia is the black plastic and is obviously unaffected.

Rhyswh's spec seems ok, but i'd be concerned the CPU could bottleneck games if you manage to put a decent gaming card in there. Then again, maybe not with the games you mentioned you play. (?)


Ah - I see! I really like the Silverstone Mini-ITX case and it would fit under my TV really well, but if it means a big skimp on spec and also being more difficult to build, I might just go with the Coolermaster micro ATX case near the top of the thread and build a system around that. Its looking like it would be quite a bit smaller and more portable than my current system so I could probably make the room for it under, or next to my PC.
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It's only my opinion but that case is fugly, especially for an under TV setup.
I've been thinking of a new build with THIS case. Small front facing footprint and will hold full size gpu.


As for skimping on spec with mini-itx, you won't be, your only limitation is size of GPU and for the games you play a 7850 that can be had for about £60 off MM would be perfectly fine. :)

edit: My 7850 (2gb) handled BF4 on high settings with no problems at all.
 
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For £500 you'll have to compromise somewhere as the mini itx stuff are slightly more expensive. The 7850 is a great shout at that price but I don't think the op has access to the MM, you need 1000 posts.
 
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How about an AMD build? Would have to be a slightly bigger case though.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320E Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £104.99
1 x Gigabyte 990XA-UD3 AMD 990X (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £59.99
1 x Crucial MX100 128GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT128MX100SSD1) £54.98
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95 (£79.90)
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Silver £29.99
Total : £473.93 (includes shipping : £11.75).




With free delivery. Then add a 7850 for £60ish......from an unknown source....*wink wink nudge nudge*

Or add some extra funds for a R9 290

YOUR BASKET
1 x Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £215.99
Total : £225.59 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Intel without a SSD, could always add it in later on + the 7850.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97MX Gaming 5 - Devil's Canyon i5 4690K CPU & Micro ATX Motherboard Bundle **£14 Saving** £277.54
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
1 x Aerocool Qs-200 Lite Midi Tower Case - Black £34.99
Total : £472.06 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Maybe add one more fan in the case as I think it only comes with one.
 
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Just read your original post again. I think you'll need something with a bit more oomph than the 7850 to play upcoming games on high.
 
Possibly. but i played Crysis 3, FarCry3, BF4 all at 1080p on high settings with no issues.
It'll be a while before any new big games require more than that i think. It's just the new tech chips with more vram and allegedly more efficient cores come out. Not all of them are better and faster.

That said, OP, if oyu feel you need a better card then yeah get a case big enough to house a 12" card. You could always buy a cheaper card now for current gaming needs, knowing that when you DO need to upgrade it, you'll at least have a case big enough for it.
 
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