SFF spec please (Home server/HTPC/General use)

gee3000

gee3000

gee3000

Associate
Joined
28 Jan 2007
Posts
1,586
Location
London
Hi everyone


I'm looking to put together a new SFF machine to take over some duties from my main PC (gaming rig) ie;
  1. General use (browsing, emails)
  2. Multimedia playback (music via itunes, downloaded tv eps, movies)
  3. File storage (of above multimedia mainly), will be required to be left on 24/7
Budget: As little as possible between £300-£500
  1. Case
    • Space for 1 x 2.5" SSD and at least 2 x 3.5" HDD's
    • Must have very low noise and heat outputs
    • USB 3.0 slots on front panel if possible
    • No need for optical drive slot
    • Around the size of the Lian-Li PC-Q08 if possible
    • The Lian-Li PC-Q25 looks the perfect choice so far but doesn't have front USB ports!
    • Must look subtle, similar to these mentioned Lian-Li's
  2. Motherboard
  3. CPU
    • I would like to fit an all-in-one water cooler ie OcUK H²Flo if the case will allow
  4. Memory
  5. SSD
    • Around 100gb
  6. PSU
    • Must be modular for tidiness
  7. Graphics card
    • Preferably fanless
    • Note I will not be gaming on this so nothing fancy required, I do however use a Dell U2711 monitor at 2560x1440 res so video performance may be of consideration
  8. Sound card (only if budget allows)
I won't be doing anything at all power intensive so reckon I'd be happy with low to mid-range performance, main thing for me is quality, reliability and functionality.

Thanks! :D
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus E45M1-I DELUXE AMD Hudson M1 DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £135.98
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128D/EU) £84.98
1 x Asus Xonar DX 7.1 PCI-Express Sound Card £59.99
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced Mini-ITX Case - Black £36.98
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £33.59
Total : £418.51 (includes shipping : £10.00).



i went with an amd htpc setup as intel sandybridge apparently has problems outputting hd video without a gpu:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/7
and for a mini itx build, its graphics card or sound card, u cant have both ;p
 
N40L ~ £150 after cashback

then add a 6450 or 5450 and the HDD of your choice, with 4Gb of ram it runs win7 64 well 2Gb is enough for 32 bit and should do everything you need it to do, no water cooler in it but you can run it without the fan connected if you like, will need a 5.25" to ssd converter and a molex to sata and sata data cable to fit the ssd but there is room for 4 3.5" non hot swap drives up to 3Tb each.

as for the sound card not sure its worth it as sound comes out on HDMI but theres 2 PCI slots so you can fit one if you like.

draws about 20-30W on load so you can leave it on all the time and ditch the ssd if you like.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 6450 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £29.99
Total : £35.96 (includes shipping : £4.98).

 
25w is a breeze for the 6450 and 5450 cards. as a previous microserver owner i can vouch for these badboys!. would suit you well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom