Mini ITX Gaming Advice

[KraniX]

Hi guys,

Have built a number of systems over the years but thinking of putting together a mini ITX for gaming in the lounge and wondered if anyone had any general advice or things to watch out for? I know this is quite unspecific but I guess I'm mostly concerned about power supplies, noise and heat if trying to game.

I was considering replacing my 360 with a PS4 or Xbox One and was surprised to hear that neither supported video streaming from a PC at launch despite both earlier generation models being able to do so.

It seems the XBone now does via a recent system update but this still isn't in place for the PS4 and thought rather than rely on a console I might be better off with a dedicated HTPC.

I mostly play FIFA and then thought why bother with a console when the PC has the full fat version using the new engine and Steam has the big picture mode thingy so a gaming ITX machine would be a great little system.

TweakTown just reviewed a Radeon 285 designed for ITX systems and although a bit pricey would allow me to game satisfactorily at 1080p on my TV.

 

[LePhuronn]

You could probably get away with the top-end AMD APUs. They have some good graphical grunt on them, but the trick is finding a decent A88X Mini ITX motherboard (I don't see the point in doing big motherboards for APUs).

PSU-wise you can get small form factor 300W, 450W and 600W units. The 300W is more than enough for an APU setup. So you could look at something like a Silverstone Sugo SG05 with the 300W PSU, drop in a Gigabyte A88X with a Kaveri A10 7850K (cooled with something half decent like a Thermalright AX100, Prolimetch Samuel or even a 120mm AIO water unit like a Hydro H80), 16GB of fast (faster the better) RAM and you're done! Even have a spare PCI-E slot for a sound card.

What sort of budget are you thinking?

 

[Bane]

The ITX graphics cards are more a trend than necessity. Unless you are going to use a super small case that won't support length of regular models.

Probably penalised by the ITX model single fan cooler, requiring higher fan rpm to cool equally well as larger cards with multiple fans.

Also dilemma of getting a blower card that exhausts heat out of case rear, but is normally louder than multiple fan coolers. But if fan coolers are just recirculating heat in case they will get louder anyway.

 

[Mockingbird]

Something to consider - if you already have a beefy gaming PC in the house, you could build a small, quiet HTPC with a couple of Xbox360 wireless controllers and use STEAM in-home streaming. Cheaper and easier than a whole new power PC build, plus less noise in the TV room.

Does require your main PC to be on ofc, if that's a concern.