Advise on small form pc

PogMoThoin

Looking for advise on building a small form pc for under the tv to use as a normal windows pc on my tv, a htpc that does hd to replace XBMC, but must also be capable of playing games at 1080p. Won't be requiring storage other than os, installed games and programs, so a few hundred GB's is fine, I've network storage for media.

Will need to be socket 775 as I've an e6600 sitting here and will have a quad when I upgrade at some stage in future. A generic 4GB kit of ddr2 will be fine, don't see it ever needing more. Graphics card will need to be low profile, without fan, have HDMI out and be capable of playing modern games at 720-1080p. Bluray not required, but may be added later. Biggest requirement is that this pc is completely silent.

Not really decided on a budget, I have ~€300 initially, but I'm hoping I can source some of the parts second hand on Adverts. I'm just throwing the idea out there to see if anyone can point me in the right direction as to what case/mobo/psu etc. The choice of case is probably the most important part of this build. Its also a long term project, I don't mind it taking 3-6 months.

Anyone else built one? Anyone any input?

TIA
Pog

Kinetic^

Not what you're looking for but built an ITX system over Christmas and it's now our media centre but wouldn't be up to playing games as it's an integrated gpu.

Apart from budget restrictions, have you any dimension restrictions in place? Will give a good idea of what size case could fit.

PogMoThoin

Kinetic^ wrote: »

Not what you're looking for but built an ITX system over Christmas and it's now our media centre but wouldn't be up to playing games as it's an integrated gpu.

Apart from budget restrictions, have you any dimension restrictions in place? Will give a good idea of what size case could fit.

I'd like to use this case or maybe this slightly bigger one. Anyone any experience with either of these cases?

I may sacrifice playing games if it keeps it smaller, there's already 2 gaming pc's in the house, but the ability to play older games would be nice. The Young fella plays mostly Steam games, CSS, HL2, TF2, Garrys Mod etc. so the graphical requirements wouldn't be that high

Solitaire

I'm afraid 1080p may be a bridge too far if you want to keep this system low-profile! But 720p is easily doable with all except Crysis

Sadly now isn't the best time to buy as the HD5670 is badly overpriced, and the HD5570, which is supposed to be cheaper, is actually worse! :mad: Its certainly the most logical occupant of the MicroFusion for light/moderate gaming, but this close to release passive versions are much thinner on the ground

Do you have any website restriction? Do you want the whole rig from OCUK?

PogMoThoin

Solitaire wrote: »

Do you have any website restriction? Do you want the whole rig from OCUK?

Doubt I'd deal with ocuk, they charge Irish Vat and aren't cheap
Dabs, Komplett, Elara or Hardwareversand, I've dealt with all before

I was hoping to pick up some bits on Adverts, I've spotted this:
http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=190626&cat=8

Pacifico

Consider one of these Lian Li's?

http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/Cases/Lian-Li/Lian-Li-V-35X-Series:::29_88_1484.html

That Thermaltake Tenor is massive!

slowlydownwards

In case you decide to cross out game playing ability, it'd be very hard to beat Acer Revo, at least on the face value of what's in the box:

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ACER-Aspire-R3610-REVO-320G-2G-RAM-Desktop-PC-Linux_W0QQitemZ380192406419QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item58853bbb93

Atom (although dual core) and nvidia Ion are quite shy, but may be able to play some older steam titles at 720p.

Would be nicer to build your own box though .

Solitaire

Only reason I even mentioned OCUK is because for their many sins they do stock those lovely MicroFusions - one sounds like just the ticket for this build Although methinks you might need to swap the three 80mm fans for Noctua or Scythe units for complete silence

Also wondering what'd you'd do for CPU cooler - if you even have a stock cooler handy for that Q6600. Big Shruiken time methinks :P

Anyway, sample build for ideas:



Lots of options here. Mobo was chosen due to cheapness and decent onboard audio; if you want better pay more, if you have a decent sound card already you can go even cheaper here. RAM was chosen as its barely any more expensive (yet better) than the stock stuff.

GPU was a pain. Sure there's HD5570s out now but not all are in stock and there are no passive ones out yet. If you want passive then find a heatsink and its Dremel Time :P Club3D have the cheapest model out and its the first non-reference card! And... its not low-profile. Golf Clap time lads... Next up is MSI and theirs is in stock but they look like they cheaped out on the cooler, which is why I put in the Sapphire - there might be a tiny chance there's some copper in that heatsink like there's supposed to be (the reference cooler was!) - the MSI was all aluminium

HDD and drives are up to you. I specced a 1TB F3 and an LG DVD but you might want more or less capacity and I don't know if you want a BluRay drive instead.

Case is nice, good to see it on HWVS Didn't spec any replacement fans but the Enermax Magmas look good at about a fiver a pop. They might be a bit quieter than the stock fans and should give much better airflow than the TriCools on minimum. The CPU cooler might be overkill but you are sticking a 95W CPU in there :P You can drop that to a smaller Shruiken or the Alpenfohn Panorama but there isn't a big drop in price, only diameter

PogMoThoin

Pacifico wrote: »

Consider one of these Lian Li's?

http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/Cases/Lian-Li/Lian-Li-V-35X-Series:::29_88_1484.html

That Thermaltake Tenor is massive!

Sorry, it needs to fit on the shelf below the tv replacing the Xbox and 360 or inside the cabinet on the shelf. Would prefer to move the Wii and FTA box into the cabinet and leave this visible, shelf opening is 680mm w x 165mm h (rules out Thermaltake also), so I'm really looking for a htpc style case

slowlydownwards wrote: »

In case you decide to cross out game playing ability, it'd be very hard to beat Acer Revo, at least on the face value of what's in the box:

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ACER-Aspire-R3610-REVO-320G-2G-RAM-Desktop-PC-Linux_W0QQitemZ380192406419QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item58853bbb93

Atom (although dual core) and nvidia Ion are quite shy, but may be able to play some older steam titles at 720p.

Would be nicer to build your own box though .

No way, I'm definitely building this one

PogMoThoin

Thanks Solitaire, thats given me some great food for thought. There is no rush on this project, in fact the longer it takes the bigger the budget will be What I intend to do is keep an eye out for bargains on adverts

Its an e6600 c2d that I got, but later at some stage I will add a quad. The young fella's pc has a stock cooler, been intending buying a better one for that, now that it has a quad

That mobo has onboard, perfect for waiting for Ati's price to come down, could built a htpc first and add the ability to play games later by adding a gpu. Onboard audio would be fine for a start. I got a Creative SB Audigy, but its prob too old to do anything with. Something could be added later, I've not got surround for the sitting room, intending to buy myself a set of Logitech z5500's sometime, this first tho.

1TB F3 Spinpoint would be completely wasted in this pc and an expense I don't need when I have 3x 1TB F1's as network storage (more to be added) and a gigabit network. 500GB is more than enough for this pc

Liking that case even more now, have You built with it Yourself? How is it? Is it good and silent?

Solitaire

Ah flip, hate it when I see "E6600" and immediately edit in a "Q" on the front :D At least there's less pressure on the cooling side of things

What Audigy? If its a "proper" one then it still beats the hell out of even modern onboard and cheaper discrete cards. And if its a weenie Audigy 2 ZS you picked up for €20-odd back in the day its still decent sound quality and most of the bells and whistles are software anyway so just hunt down the modded X-Fi Audio drivers that change the PartID to any "SBLive! 24bit"-family card (including the identical Audigy ZS and X-Fi Audio) - they can all run the software, its just the older the card the lower the sound quality.

I fervently wish I'd built a rig with the MicroFusion like I was going to, but every time I try something bad happens! First I lost my job, then I crashed the car! :eek: I was originally going to throw some old stuff in there and use it as a HTPC for the family, upgrading with cast-offs from my own rig as it was updated. Now I'm preoccupied with other things that involve two bits of delayed hardware hitting retail - and it looks very much like I'm about to get bumped back to XP as I'm not getting TWO copies of Win7 just because I'm still waiting on my prospective mobo! :mad:

From what I've seen the MicroFusion is near-silent when the fans are set to Low but you don't get too much airflow; heat issues are offset by the good internal layout. On Medium setting they're good fans but while quiet they're far from inaudible. I've messed with TriCools before so this is no surprise at all.

Also a word of warning: on closer observation a Big Shruiken won't fit. A Shruiken or Panorama might but it'll be tight with a BluRay sticking out back there On the same note a long drive like a BluRay will overhang some of the DIMM slots but unless you're sticking in Reapers or G.Skill PIs/RipJaws in there it won't be an issue so long as the optical goes in last Its tight in there but the big void underneath the optical bay is pretty much the designated "stick your cables" spot in there, with cable hooks nearby and the area away from airflow sectors. The TFX PSU is also pretty decent, 350W with a good 25A of total 12V juice plus it takes its own air in from the side and keeps the heat well away from the internals.

PogMoThoin

Reviving this, I'm planning buying the case and mobo for mine to get me started, gonna pick up the rest of the bits for mine on Adverts.

My brother wants me to build him a small form pc for under the tv with the same case, he's wanting to maybe add a gpu, it needs minimum 1tb hd (maybe 2tb). Got no cpu for this one so I'm open to Amd. Budget would be around €400, Opinions etc?

Solitaire

What's he doing on it? Heavy work and CPU-intensive stuff? Light/720p gaming? He might get away with an integrated HD4200 if not Not so sure on CPU, given the price of even cheap Intel CPUs I'd stick with an X2 for light-duty computing or an X3 for all-around capability. In any case a discrete GPU or other bits will blast the budget; the case and RAM will take half of it and the CPU, mobo and one 1TB HDD will eat the other €200

Why oh why didn't AMD release a low-profile HD5760 and clean house? :(

PogMoThoin

No heavy cpu stuff, just light HD gaming (COD etc), I'm thinking now I'll use that c2d I got (e6600) as it'd be more suited to his needs and get myself a quad on adverts

Solitaire

Whoa! When you say "Light HD gaming" do you mean 720p or 1080p? Even the recent COD releases would flail around a bit at 1080p on a HD5570!

PogMoThoin

It needs to look as good as it is on xbox, so 720p is fine
1080p is prob a step too far for this pc

PogMoThoin

Ok, slight change of direction for my Brothers pc, gonna make a new thread and keep this one for my HTPC which I'll be ordering the case and board for soon