Spec me a mini-ITX (HT)PC

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Soldato
Joined
24 Aug 2011
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6,162
Location
ABQ, NM
It's been nearly 7 years since I built a PC, that is to say I have literally no knowledge about current ATX sized components, let alone the mini ones. I did consider reading up on all the available stuff but when I started, quite frankly, I was overwhelmed by choice and I know there are plenty of well informed people here that already know everything I want to know. I'm hoping from this thread I will be able to get a better understanding of what's on the market, for me!

How do I use my PC?
  • XBMC - 1080p video playback is a must
  • MS Office
  • Web 2.0 stuff (i.e. needs to handle flash/html5/java apps)
  • Un-RARing stuff
  • I'd like to add source games to my list but in all honesty I haven't had steam installed for over half a year now so it's not really a priority and I could live without that functionality

What do I physically need from the PC?
  • 2 2.5" hard drive slots with at least 1 being sata 6gb/s(1SSD and 1HDD I already own). Possible a 3.5" HDD slot (but not if this impacts on the size of case)
  • I'd like quite a small case (Silverstone Sugo SG05 for example)
  • I'd like it to be as quite as possible
  • Needs to be able to power dual 1080p screens
  • At least 4 USB 3.0 slots

What do I already have? (I'm coming from a laptop)
  • 2 2.5" hard drives and a 3.5"HDD in ext-caddy
  • Screens
  • Keyboard+mouse

Ideally I'd like to budget about £300 however I'd like my needs catered for before my budget, if what I want is more then I'll just save my money and wait for the next payday so I can afford it.

So really, just point me in the right direction with the type of components that will suit my needs. Feel free to create example set ups.

Thank you to anyone that helps me out :)
 
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Wow, this is just what I wanted to see. It's given me a great idea of the route of components I should be liking at. I also agree with the sg05, prodigy seems awesome but the size of case makes going mini itx seem a bit silly. Thanks for all the help, I'll post what I end up getting in the next few days.
 
So then, will this work when I jam it all together?

  • Silverstone SG05BB-450 USB 3.0 Sugo Mini-ITX Black Cube Case All Black, with 450W SFX PSU, 80 Plus Bronze
  • Intel Core i3 3220, S 1155, Ivy Bridge, Dual Core, 3.3GHz, 3MB Smart Cache, Retail
  • Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI, Intel H77, 1155, DDR3, SATA III 6Gb/s, RAID, PCIe 3.0, DVI-I/HDMI, Mini ITX
  • 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 Classic DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 8-8-8-24, XMP, 1.65V

And will it do 1080p videos and MS office and possibly even source games on the cpu integrated HD2500 gfx?
 
Cheers pumaz, I was confident enough to press buy without confirmation :p I did decide to actually do a slight downgrade on the ram, one 1333 cas 9 stick, I have no idea what sort of heat this thing is going to generate and for £20 I can easily buy another stick, as I barely game anyway I think it'll be perfect for now (plus the mobo says 1.5V for the ram, the previous set was 1.65V). £300 including p+p which is bang on my budget, I'm going to be driving home fast from work on Wednesday that's for sure :D

  • Silverstone SG05BB-450 USB 3.0 Sugo Mini-ITX Black Cube Case All Black, with 450W SFX PSU, 80 Plus Bronze
  • Intel Core i3 3220, S 1155, Ivy Bridge, Dual Core, 3.3GHz, 3MB Smart Cache, Retail
  • Gigabyte GA-H77N-WIFI, Intel H77, 1155, DDR3, SATA III 6Gb/s, RAID, PCIe 3.0, DVI-I/HDMI, Mini ITX
  • 4GB Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-10666 (1333), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V

So... just how fiddly is this thing going to be to install :p
 
Cheers pumaz for your help, I'm happy to post this from my new set-up :)

It all arrived midday today (including a new 27" screen to replace my laptop and go alongside my 23", it's awesome btw). Got back from work ate some dinner and started the build about 7. Finished the build about 9ish it all went fine apart from the optical drive bay. I don't have an optical drive but instead I decided to put a 2.5" drive in its place, unfortunately the holes weren't really lined up (or big enough) for 2.5" hdd screws so I had to get the drill out to make the holes fit the screws. That all went fine so I have a 3.5" drive, and 2 2.5" drives in the case now which is much better than I expected. For such a small case there is a surprisingly large amount of room.

Having the 3.5" in there really tightens space as you say but I managed to get every wire clear of the cpu fan, it was definitely a 2 man job to get the case lid back on though! I just have to hope they don't droop over time :p

The gigabyte board came with very few instructions, I had to look on the internet to work out the powerswitch lights etc although everything else was more or less the same as the build I did 7 years ago. Plugged it all in and it worked first time. Must be a windows 8 thing but I didn't even have to reinstall the OS it booted, told me it was dl'ing a few files for the new system and then worked-amazing!

So I'm incredibly happy with it for £300 delivered I got a very small, very capable machine. There's even room for expandability (gpu slot completely unused for example)!

Temps are cool too, cpu cores at 25C which is almost as if it's not on :p I didn't even use heat sink paste, just relying on the sticky pads on the supplied heatsink.
 
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