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Advice on a mini gaming pc

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  • 23-08-2015 5:25pm
    #1
    How Soon Is Now
    Registered Users Posts: 13,083 ✭✭✭✭


    Building another pc for someone i work with but hes going for something smaller which im not used to.

    Here is what he has originally went for http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/6867jX

    I dont have any previous experience with smaller builds so im looking for some advice as its a gaming/htpc machine he is looking at here so the parts will need the proper space and ventilation and im used to working with a lot more room!

    Keyboard and mouse where mentioned to me as well and he seems keen on razor turret keyboard and mouse combo but id imagine that will not be an issue with most systems and should be fine.

    Any advice on this build or what might work better would be great.

    Thanks!


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    #2
    Digital Solitude
    Registered Users Posts: 11,397 ✭✭✭✭Digital Solitude


    A lot of the stuff is taking the piss.

    No need in a Pro Series SSD or a 10000rpm HDD

    An i3 will be plenty for almost all games, depending on what he wants to play

    960 is alright, depending on what he wants to play

    What is he looking for in a motherboard? He shouldn't need to spend over £70 or €100 on one


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    #3
    How Soon Is Now
    Registered Users Posts: 13,083 ✭✭✭✭How Soon Is Now


    Digital Solitude wrote: »
    A lot of the stuff is taking the piss.

    No need in a Pro Series SSD or a 10000rpm HDD

    An i3 will be plenty for almost all games, depending on what he wants to play

    960 is alright, depending on what he wants to play

    What is he looking for in a motherboard? He shouldn't need to spend over £70 or €100 on one

    He mentioned gta as type of game looking at.

    From the parts he's picked obviously wants to spend a bit his choice but was thinking myself might not need to spend as much.


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    #4
    Digital Solitude
    Registered Users Posts: 11,397 ✭✭✭✭Digital Solitude


    Well the going price for a 1tb HDD is about €50, the one above is 5x that

    An i3 and 960 will run GTA at High settings


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    #5
    How Soon Is Now
    Registered Users Posts: 13,083 ✭✭✭✭How Soon Is Now


    Digital Solitude wrote: »
    Well the going price for a 1tb HDD is about €50, the one above is 5x that

    An i3 and 960 will run GTA at High settings

    I haven't looked at parts yet to compare to these but I'd say he could change it up a bit alright!

    He obviously wants the performance I'm gonna ask him in detail what else he will run. It's mainly the size of the case that's the issue with me as I'd be dealing with parts don't normally look at.


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    #6
    challengemaster
    Registered Users Posts: 16,931 ✭✭✭✭challengemaster


    Digital Solitude wrote: »
    Well the going price for a 1tb HDD is about €50, the one above is 5x that

    The hilarious part is, for an extra £30, you can get a 1tb SSD.

    It's utterly pointless having a raptor in it.


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    #7
    grindle
    Registered Users Posts: 6,026 ✭✭✭grindle


    He'd be a lunatic to get that HDD - you can get two SSDs, one 480GB the other 960GB for the same price as the two drives he's picked out.

    As it's partly for HTPC usage and he has the cash to burn (the partlist on PCPP seems to indicate a budget of around €1370?) he'd be better off getting the 980GB SSD for the OS & games library and a larger, more reasonably-priced HDD for media storage/downloads.

    Partlist from mindfactory.de
    7lm1K3J.png
    The Noctua cooler is much better suited if he wants to OC, he'll be able to reach 4.4ghz easy enough, plus the GPU can be overclocked to 390x levels although I doubt that'll be necessary for a while at 1080p, especially with the performance gains DX12 is going to have in future games.

    That comes to €1290.09 delivered, the Fractal case seems to come to around €77 from Amazon, so that'd be €1367-ish.

    €20 for a copy of Windows via Reddit brings it over the PCPP budget - if he's desperate for the €20 he can drop the HDD to 1TB as that's all he had planned anyway, and a faster HDD means very little when it's just being used as media storage.


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    #8
    Digital Solitude
    Registered Users Posts: 11,397 ✭✭✭✭Digital Solitude


    That's a much better build, but I'd go Nvidia in an ITX because of the temps. A 960gb SDD couldn't be any more OTT, even a 250 or 500gb is loads of room


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    #9
    How Soon Is Now
    Registered Users Posts: 13,083 ✭✭✭✭How Soon Is Now


    Thanks for the replys lads I'll look into them in more detail later!


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    #10
    grindle
    Registered Users Posts: 6,026 ✭✭✭grindle


    Digital Solitude wrote: »
    A 960gb SDD couldn't be any more OTT

    Totally. But if he has the money to spend...Just think of those sweet, sweet loading times...


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    #11
    How Soon Is Now
    Registered Users Posts: 13,083 ✭✭✭✭How Soon Is Now


    grindle wrote: »
    He'd be a lunatic to get that HDD - you can get two SSDs, one 480GB the other 960GB for the same price as the two drives he's picked out.

    As it's partly for HTPC usage and he has the cash to burn (the partlist on PCPP seems to indicate a budget of around €1370?) he'd be better off getting the 980GB SSD for the OS & games library and a larger, more reasonably-priced HDD for media storage/downloads.

    Partlist from mindfactory.de
    7lm1K3J.png
    The Noctua cooler is much better suited if he wants to OC, he'll be able to reach 4.4ghz easy enough, plus the GPU can be overclocked to 390x levels although I doubt that'll be necessary for a while at 1080p, especially with the performance gains DX12 is going to have in future games.

    That comes to €1290.09 delivered, the Fractal case seems to come to around €77 from Amazon, so that'd be €1367-ish.

    €20 for a copy of Windows via Reddit brings it over the PCPP budget - if he's desperate for the €20 he can drop the HDD to 1TB as that's all he had planned anyway, and a faster HDD means very little when it's just being used as media storage.

    Im trying to use that site to check out some parts as well as what you picked out but its all in bloody German!. Im using Google translate but just keeps returning to German.

    How has everyone worked around this? I pretty much cant use the site. Is there no where that is similar in price and parts thats actually in English?


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    #12
    Digital Solitude
    Registered Users Posts: 11,397 ✭✭✭✭Digital Solitude


    Just search for the parts from the names?


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    #13
    How Soon Is Now
    Registered Users Posts: 13,083 ✭✭✭✭How Soon Is Now


    Digital Solitude wrote: »
    Just search for the parts from the names?

    Yep gonna do that just prices might change.


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    #14
    How Soon Is Now
    Registered Users Posts: 13,083 ✭✭✭✭How Soon Is Now


    Right so i was looking at the motherboard mentioned above it only has one pci slot and one mini pc slot. Down the line if you wanted to add another card in there sound card etc its gonna be pointless right?


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    #15
    Lu Tze
    Registered Users Posts: 3,495 ✭✭✭Lu Tze


    How Soon Is Now wrote: »
    Right so i was looking at the motherboard mentioned above it only has one pci slot and one mini pc slot. Down the line if you wanted to add another card in there sound card etc its gonna be pointless right?

    Thats the trade of for going for a mini gaming system, you will only fit one graphics card in there (from both the motherboard and case perspective) and assuming its dual slot (with the cooler) it will cover the second slot as well, so no sound cards, wireless cards and what not.

    You could move up to micro-atx, you can still get relatively small cases (though quite a bit bigger than the smaller itx cases) and still fit 1 or 2 additional cards. Realistically though you can get USB soundcards, wireless cards etc. if required. Satellite Tuner Cards might be the only exception though you can probably get them in usb as well i just have never looked


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    #16
    How Soon Is Now
    Registered Users Posts: 13,083 ✭✭✭✭How Soon Is Now


    Lu Tze wrote: »
    Thats the trade of for going for a mini gaming system, you will only fit one graphics card in there (from both the motherboard and case perspective) and assuming its dual slot (with the cooler) it will cover the second slot as well, so no sound cards, wireless cards and what not.

    You could move up to micro-atx, you can still get relatively small cases (though quite a bit bigger than the smaller itx cases) and still fit 1 or 2 additional cards. Realistically though you can get USB soundcards, wireless cards etc. if required. Satellite Tuner Cards might be the only exception though you can probably get them in usb as well i just have never looked

    Grand this is why id never go down the micro road meself personally but its not my machine. Ill explain it to the person who is buying the pc.

    I cant seem to find the above motherboard at a decent price on any sites but the above. What would everyone recommend be a good micro atx board that would run the msi geforce gtx 970 no issues??


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    #17
    grindle
    Registered Users Posts: 6,026 ✭✭✭grindle


    This'd work.

    Needs a new case now though. Fractal, Coolermaster & BitFenix produce lots of compact and either stylish or style-neutral cases, depends on his tastes.


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    #18
    How Soon Is Now
    Registered Users Posts: 13,083 ✭✭✭✭How Soon Is Now


    grindle wrote: »
    This'd work.

    Needs a new case now though. Fractal, Coolermaster & BitFenix produce lots of compact and either stylish or style-neutral cases, depends on his tastes.

    It's for a living room he wants something compact quite and simple. It's a fairly small case compared to what's standard so fits what he's looking for.

    The motherboard is only thing I've issue with at the moment I've other parts sorted.


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    #19
    grindle
    Registered Users Posts: 6,026 ✭✭✭grindle


    How Soon Is Now wrote: »
    The motherboard is only thing I've issue with at the moment I've other parts sorted.

    Well, itx boards are expensive in general because (although it's growing) there's little demand for them, and he wants it to be overclockable for some reason. He's got to pay the premium if he wants to have premium features.


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    #20
    How Soon Is Now
    Registered Users Posts: 13,083 ✭✭✭✭How Soon Is Now


    grindle wrote: »
    Well, itx boards are expensive in general because (although it's growing) there's little demand for them, and he wants it to be overclockable for some reason. He's got to pay the premium if he wants to have premium features.

    I don't think it needs to be over clocked unless it's nessecary. So that shouldn't be an issue.

    I just need something that will go along fine with the gpu.


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    #21
    Lu Tze
    Registered Users Posts: 3,495 ✭✭✭Lu Tze


    How Soon Is Now wrote: »
    I don't think it needs to be over clocked unless it's nessecary. So that shouldn't be an issue.

    I just need something that will go along fine with the gpu.

    If not overclocking you should look at an i5 4460 in that case for the CPU, and can drop to a H97,B85 or even H81 motherboard depending on needs. Will save a good chunk for little to no difference in real performance.

    Micro Atx motherboards tend to be denoted by an "m" suffix e.g. H97m if you are looking through them.


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    #22
    grindle
    Registered Users Posts: 6,026 ✭✭✭grindle


    How Soon Is Now wrote: »
    I don't think it needs to be over clocked unless it's nessecary. So that shouldn't be an issue.

    I just need something that will go along fine with the gpu.

    Drop the 4690 to a non-k and get a h97 itx motherboard. An external soundcard would be preferable either way if he needs analog outputs with high quality sound.

    If he's got a sound system that has an optical input then a mobo with toslink is gonna work great, no audio interference.

    Seems to cost ~E100 on mindfactory, E130 on dabs


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    #23
    How Soon Is Now
    Registered Users Posts: 13,083 ✭✭✭✭How Soon Is Now


    grindle wrote: »
    Drop the 4690 to a non-k and get a h97 itx motherboard. An external soundcard would be preferable either way if he needs analog outputs with high quality sound.

    If he's got a sound system that has an optical input then a mobo with toslink is gonna work great, no audio interference.

    Seems to cost ~E100 on mindfactory, E130 on dabs

    I mentioned sound cards he said it's not an issue so I assume standard setup be fine for now.


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    #24
    How Soon Is Now
    Registered Users Posts: 13,083 ✭✭✭✭How Soon Is Now


    So this is what i have at the moment.

    http://i.imgur.com/ry6xM5Z.png?1

    Happy enough with this unless im missing something ?


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    #25
    Slutmonkey57b
    Registered Users Posts: 5,552 ✭✭✭Slutmonkey57b


    You've got an actual ssd so the sshd is unnecessary. Save almost half that and get a standard 7200 rpm one.


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    #26
    How Soon Is Now
    Registered Users Posts: 13,083 ✭✭✭✭How Soon Is Now


    Slutmonkey57b wrote: »
    You've got an actual ssd so the sshd is unnecessary. Save almost half that and get a standard 7200 rpm one.

    Ya I just went with it cause seemed good value and better speeds.

    Everything seems fine for a mini build though?


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