Small compact PC needed with fairly decent graphics

Phate

Phate

Phate

Caporegime
Joined
1 Nov 2003
Posts
35,691
Location
Lisbon, Portugal
Hi all,

I need a small (Mac Mini sized) PC with a decent graphics output.

Basically, Dad likes RC flight Sims and his current laptop just will not run the latest one (his laptop is a dinosaur tbf)

So I've thought about either buying or building him a very small and compact PC which can run his flight sim's for a couple of years. Something small enough that can sit in his TV cabinet and not look out of place?

Requirements for the current sim is as follows

QsDUCwt.jpg.png

So with that being the minimum it's going to need arguably a bit more to make it actually look and run half decent.

What say you OcUK? I'm out of date with current technology. DVD drive isn't an issue as I can just rip the disc to an ISO format and install it from that. Budget wise I'm not sure but lets see what people come up with.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 270 Gaming Edition OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.99
1 x Intel Core i3-4150 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £92.99
1 x MSI H97I AC Intel H97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x Silverstone SST-RVZ01 Raven Mini-ITX - Black £63.94
1 x Silverstone Strider SST-ST45SF SFX Series - 450 Watt Power Supply £61.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16001104G-2CW) - Blue Light £50.99
1 x SK Hynix 128GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS128G32MNB-2201A) £44.99
Total : £606.36 (includes shipping : £11.25).




YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 270 Gaming Edition OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.99
1 x Intel Core i3-4150 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £92.99
1 x MSI H97I AC Intel H97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16001104G-2CW) - Blue Light £50.99
1 x SK Hynix 128GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS128G32MNB-2201A) £44.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced Mini-ITX Case - Black £39.95
1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Power Supply (100-W1-0500-KR) £29.99
Total : £546.47 (includes shipping : £8.00).




Neither case is close to being as small as a Mac Mini (which doesn't have a discrete GPU) but they aren't exactly big either. You won't get a case as small as the Mac Mini's that's able to fit a card that will give decent performance.

Add a separate storage drive, now or later, if more space is needed. Or go for a 250GB SSD to begin with if that will be enough for a long time.

If you find a micro-ATX case that will fit where he wants it, then the motherboard needn't cost so much. There's the APU option as well which would be cheaper.
 
Last edited:
modd1uk said:
Do you have a budget buddy?

How old is that sim, look at the specs :O.
Click to expand...

I've since spoken to him. He said there are lots of different ones. He mentioned another which is more power hungry.

Cheers for those builds. I'll have a think. Hmmm
 
If size is an issue I would consider an APU maybe the A10 6800 or higher, I have one and it is quite nippy, no probs running Skyrim etc at reasonable levels of detail and could be made into a very small PC. It would need a good low profile heatsink though as they are noisy with the stock heatsink.

A popular PC magazine ran an editorial on FM2 mini ITX in this months issue.
 
WoZZeR said:
If size is an issue I would consider an APU maybe the A10 6800 or higher, I have one and it is quite nippy, no probs running Skyrim etc at reasonable levels of detail and could be made into a very small PC. It would need a good low profile heatsink though as they are noisy with the stock heatsink.

A popular PC magazine ran an editorial on FM2 mini ITX in this months issue.
Click to expand...

Ah thanks I will check this out :)
 
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