New PC project

[Irf]

Hi all,

As you may be able to see from my post history, it's been aaaages since I've done any PC building. However recently my old gaming machine, now mainly used for webbing, has started to annoy me for reasons such as noise, occasional unreliability, size, etc. I've recently had a failed (AGP!) graphics card, replaced with a ceap old one I found in a house-moving box, and teh HDD is starting to display probelsm with Windows finding errors. So....

I'd like to explore the possibility of speccing a SFF PC which will be unobtrusive, quiet, and functional. Basic requirements:

• Small, quiet and good looking (wife friendly)
• Moderately powered (regular home usage)
• DVI output for existing screen
• Wireless connectivity (cable not an option)
• Plenty of USB capacity
• SSD HD for speed, though capacity is taken care of with a NAS
• Enough RAM to make Win7 reasonably quick
• Onboard graphics OK if good, but expansion capability would be nice
• Existing peripherals to be reused (USB mouse, keyb, printer, webcam, etc)
• Would have liked optical drive but seems slick and cheap USB ones are now available

What bits and pieces can you guys come up with to suit? To be honest I'm a bit nervous about getting involved with PC building again because I'm so out of touch with what's hot and not in terms of boards, CPUs, RAM, HDDs, etc. But the thing that's spurring me on is the recollection that I loved it!!!

Hope someone can spare the time to make suggestions....

Irf

 

[Gav_881]

All depends on the money you want to spend and the future proofing you plan on building in.

Overklll build that will take a standard GPU try the SG06 if she wont go for the SG05 case. There about the size of a sheet of A4 and 20Cm tall. room for more drives too if you want to.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x ASRock Z77E-ITX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £123.98
1 x Silverstone Sugo SG05 HTPC Case with 450W Power Supply - All Black ( SST-SG05BB USB 3.0) £114.98
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128N/EU) £89.99
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v1.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (AX3U1600GC4G9-2G) £39.95
1 x Silverstone SST-NT06-E CPU-Cooler £28.99
1 x Samsung SN-208BB/BEBE Slimline 8x DVD±RW SATA Drive - OEM £18.98
1 x Akasa Slimline Optical SATA Cable, 40cm (AK-CB050-40) £2.99
Total : £613.36 (includes shipping : £11.25).

 

[Irf]

Silly me!!!

Thanks Gav for your help. I can't believe I didn't give an indication of price... ridiculous! I was hoping to spend a fair bit less than that, though I have to say the components listed do look great. Would it be hugely out-of-balance if I were to reduce the cost of the processor, motherboard and case? I'd be looking at a total price of around £400.

As I said, I love the look of the case and the spec of the mobo sounds really cool... I'll just find it hard to justify the cost. This would be the only "desktop" in the house, supplementing 2 laptops.

Is there any merit in cost/preformance in going for AMD over Intel? Also, would the cooler fit into this case OK, and would it be OK without a fan?

I'd appreciate a little bit more input if you or anyone else can spare it.

As for the other stuff - it looks ideal. I didn't know I'd need a special cable for the slimline optical drive - see how out of touch I am!?

Cheers again,

Irf

 

[Irf]

By the way - I forgot to say that i don't have any plans to OC the system... if that makes any difference to the build spec.

 

[Gav_881]

If you have no intention of OCing then drop the cooler the intel one will be fine and you can swap the processor and mobo for these to get you down to about £400.

Remember the case comes with a PSU so if you find a different case you will need to get a PSU too

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £99.95
1 x ASRock B75M-ITX Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ITX Motherboard £71.99
Total : £182.74 (includes shipping : £9.00).




Wont be as fast but still quick, the cheaper mini itx mobo's dont have sata 3 and some dont support GPU's, also no WIFI on this board so grab a USB dongle there about £5

 

[justalex81]

copied from another thread i posted on. i built this spec into an antec isk110 vesa case and it flies. No room for expansion on the graphics in that case, but it will keep the wife happy as it's tiny and easy to dust.

"spec as follows:

Asrock H67M-ITX/HT. Onboard sata 3, usb 3.0 and wireless b/g/n. It also has 7.1HD audio.
8gb corsair vengeance LP memory
intel i3 2125 3.3ghz processor
128gb samsung 830 SSD.

By going for the 2125 cpu you get HD3000 graphics instead of HD2000. The system is fast. It will boot into windows 7 64bit in 15sec from power on.

The antec case has room for 2 x 2.5" hard drives. there is no room for expansion cards/graphics on this case. the board however has a full pci express 16x slot on it.

Cost me approx £350 to build. gonna strap it to the back of a 27" monitor using the vesa mount."

 

[Irf]

Cool, thanks Gav. Useful info regarding the other mobo too - I'm happy to get a USB wifi dongle. Shame the Edimax micro ones are not available at the moment.

Thanks justalex for your spec too. I'll have a look at the bits and may come back to you with some questions.

Cheers,

irf

 

[Irf]

justalex - I've had a look and the case is really good looking but with that size I will have to forego the optical drive (not a massive problem). I can't find that mobo for sale though, which is a big shame because of the spec you have quoted!

The rest of the spec looks good to me - thanks for your help.

Now I just need to decide!

irf

 

[justalex81]

justalex - I've had a look and the case is really good looking but with that size I will have to forego the optical drive (not a massive problem). I can't find that mobo for sale though, which is a big shame because of the spec you have quoted!

The rest of the spec looks good to me - thanks for your help.

Now I just need to decide!

irf

overclockers don't sell it unfortunately. It is available on a popular auction site though.