NOT a gaming build

MRTULES

Non gamin PC.

So I dint fill out the form for this one because I am just spit balling here.
Looking to build a pc for general eveyday use, like boards and hardwareversand
Other than browsing there wont be anything too demanding but wondered if it would/could stream 1080p.
Budget is as cheap as possible I suppose but I can already see glaringly obvious choices like for an extra €10 I could double the HDD size.
No need to include monitor or windows ect just the basic 6 components please.
Although its nearly 3 times the price, I feel like I should try squeeze an i3 3220/3225 in there. I would welcome any thoughts on this option.
Also I have been using my crap old laptop for nearly 4 years now and its 240gb HDD has been plenty. Should I consider something like this instead of the HDD i selected

Item|Price
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€38.71
WD Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 3 6Gb/s|€50.20
BitFenix Merc Alpha|€32.31
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€45.99
ASRock B75 Pro3-M, Sockel 1155, mATX|€58.79
Intel Celeron Dual-Core G550 Box, LGA1155|€36.62
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€281.61

Also not sure abou that B75, AsRock seem to do a few of them and I can seem to make out the difference other than form factor. this one i picked as it seemed to have more sound options and hdmi also.

And finally jus wanted to see about the Merc Alpha. Does it not support usb3?
If not is the shanobi the cheapest decent case that does?
All thoughts,comments and help are as always much appreciated

marco_polo

The Merc only has USB 2 as do most of the low priced Xigmateks with the exception of the very dreary looking Pro . There are a couple of other reasonably decent cases around the 40 mark that have a single USB 3.0, the Thermaltake commander MS-III seems to be about the least harsh of these on the eyes (Check out its f-ugly siblings the MS-1 and MS-II ).

The G550 should be fine for 1080p streaming, I don't think the i3 offers you much more for near three times the price, the G550 lacks hyperthreading, clocked a bit slower and has a slightly smaller L3 cache but none of these should have any impact on your intended usage really.

It also lack a few fairly minor features on the GPU side but all the main encodings are still hardware supported (H.264, VC-1, and MPEG2 etc) so it should be just fine for a streaming HTPC.

SSD vs HDD is your call, but if you really feel you can live without the extra storage then it's no contest.

EDIT: A single stick of 4GB RAM would be a decent place to make a saving for now, that it will be running in single channel mode really isn't going to hurt HTPC performance at all either.

U_Fig

i have a HTPC that has the g550 and mITX asrock b75 board and it runs 1080p fine and it's grand for surfing and nexflix and stuff... i also included a 64GB boot SSD and a 500GB 2.5" HDD.. I went for the thermaltake element q and replaced the PSU with a be-quiet sfx 300w and added a custom heatsink and it's slient

i needed a small case for under my tv small so what's why i went itx

here's my build

Item|Price
4GB-Kit G-Skill PC6400/800,CL 5|€39.64
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€63.68
Thermaltake Element Q, mini-ITX, 200W-Netzteil|€51.84
be quiet! SFX Power BQT SFX 300W|€43.62
ASRock B75M-ITX, Sockel 1155, ITX|€71.17
Intel Celeron Dual-Core G550 Box, LGA1155|€36.62
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€325.56

i already had a HDD and got a CPU cooler for €20 but it very rarely comes on it has alot of passive cooling and never really reaches over 46C

the thing is with the B75 you get a sata 600 port which means you can add a SATA 600 SSD and boot in like 12 seconds and everything is instantaneous

MRTULES

U_Fig wrote: »

i have a HTPC that has the g550 and mITX asrock b75 board and it runs 1080p fine and it's grand for surfing and nexflix and stuff... i also included a 64GB boot SSD and a 500GB 2.5" HDD.. I went for the thermaltake element q and replaced the PSU with a be-quiet sfx 300w and added a custom heatsink and it's slient

i needed a small case for under my tv small so what's why i went itx

here's my build

Item|Price
4GB-Kit G-Skill PC6400/800,CL 5|€39.64
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€63.68
Thermaltake Element Q, mini-ITX, 200W-Netzteil|€51.84
be quiet! SFX Power BQT SFX 300W|€43.62
ASRock B75M-ITX, Sockel 1155, ITX|€71.17
Intel Celeron Dual-Core G550 Box, LGA1155|€36.62
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€325.56

i already had a HDD and got a CPU cooler for €20 but it very rarely comes on it has alot of passive cooling and never really reaches over 46C

the thing is with the B75 you get a sata 600 port which means you can add a SATA 600 SSD and boot in like 12 seconds and everything is instantaneous

Thanks for the replys so far. Size and quietness are of no concern as this will probably be placed in a cupboard. Also I should mention that it will be on 24/7. I dont know if this makes a difference but boot times won't matter so will I notice the benefits of the SSD?
I play a flash based game and have a piece of software running constantly in the background controlling this game (not sure what this is called but commonly referred to as a bot). This seems to be eating up my CPU atm according to task manager.

Serephucus

I've got a G550 running in my server, and for a while I was using it as my main machine. Handles 1080p content with no issues.

I'd strongly vote for an SSD, unless you have to have extra storage. As marco mentioned, there's no contest assuming storage isn't an issue.