New gaming/encoding/LAN PC

[jim]

I don't have a PC at home any more, and my current rig is way too heavy to drag back, so I'm thinking of putting together another PC.

For the moment, it would be used primarily for gaming, but later on I'd probably put it to work encoding music, video and the like. Vitally, time isn't going to be a massive issue - it'll just be sitting in the corner somewhere chugging away, so my main rig is freed up for normal usage. Hence I don't think I'll be needing a Phenom X6

As long as it can play any game that's currently available at decent quality and FPS, that's the main thing. I will probably run it at 2048x1152, as that's the spare monitor I've got, but I can always drop the resolution if I have to.

I would *prefer* to go Micro-ATX, perhaps even mini-itx, although that tends to be prohibitively expensive in my experience. The smaller the better. Also, something that's compatible with my existing AM2+ kit would be nice, so that I can swap in components for testing purposes, although it's certainly not essential.

Budget would be around £500 I think, and I already have a WD5000AAKS 500GB with 16MB cache, so assuming that's still a decent drive I'll use that. I don't have any other components that I could use, so it's a fairly blank slate!

Any thoughts?

[kalniel]

Sandy bridge. Quite cheap, very low power draw, and dedicated hardware video encoding chip. There will be low end multimedia motherboards available specifically aimed at the HTPC market, which should be cheap and fit in a nice small box for you.

Only problem is waiting for the new year for them to come out and drop past early adopter price.

[jim]

Yeah, it could take a bit too long really. I would hope to have this up and running within 6 weeks or so, so anything speculative probably won't be an option - unless there's a huge delay for some reason.

[nibbler]

Base it around an i5760 perhaps?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is what I would get:

Silverstone SG07B ~ £141

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silve...e-2-full-slots

Intel i5 760 ~ £139

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

DFi Lanparty LP MI P55-T36 ~ £87

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

OR

Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 ~£81

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...x-on-board-vga

4GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £56

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

Samsung Slim DVD Writer ~ £21

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/samsu...lim-dvd-writer

768MB Asus GTX 460 TOP ~ £115

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

The total comes to around £553 to £559.

[nibbler]

Wow, Finally RAM prices are down again?

[Terbinator]

Wow, Finally RAM prices are down again?

They've been dropping since the last half of September - I've moved up too 2x4GB sticks of Corsair @ 1600/7-8-7-20 for less than £140

Snooty, some guy on the Aria forums is claiming the X6 is being cut too £105 ex.VAT (for the 1055) so a X6 may just make sense on a cost base

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The main issues is that AM3 mini ITX motherboards are quite expensive and also usually have a 65W to 95W TDP limit for the CPU. There is a 95W version of the Phenom II X6 1055T but is not easily available ATM and is more expensive than the 125W version.

Edit!!

The 95W Phenom II X6 1065T is being released in the next few weeks it seems:

http://www.fudzilla.com/processors/i...faster-thubans

[PC4Free]

The 1055T 95Watt OEM version is on Today Only for £150?

Not sure if it is worth waiting for the 1065T though. Personally i would go i5 760

[nibbler]

I reckon my bithday money is going to go towards doubling my SMP ppd with an x6

[c.ruel]

Pentium G6950 £58 Amazing cpu for budget gaming build at that price, particularly when overclocked, hence the h50 further down! ... here are some benchmarks

SG06 with 450w psu £121

Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 H55 motherboard £78.69

CAT's 4gig of ram for 56 quid

Slimline samsung optical drive £20.54

Hd 6850 £146

Optional!?: h50 cpu cooler £58 Should be able to get a decent overclock out of that cpu as that motherboard is suppose to be suprisingly ok for overclocking! The Hd6850 is about 8.5 inches long and the case supports 9.5" graphics cards so a H50 should fit with that GFX card.

For a HDD just retain the one you have already.

Total is about £530~ (480 odd excluding the h50).

I did a mini itx build very recently with that case and motherboard and an i3 530 instead. I looked into the sg07 and opted for the sg06 in the end purely because the sg07 is so long and it is more expensive. The length sort of defeats the purpose of a mini itx build ... I also think the SG06 looks nicer but that is obviously subjective.

G6950 is also on scan but unfortunately for £71

[Terbinator]

I reckon my bithday money is going to go towards doubling my SMP ppd with an x6

Pffff. Should of kept your i5 build and just picked up a second hand i7 - it genuinely cuts WU steps by half.

[jim]

Thanks a lot for the advice people, completely opposite direction to the way I was moving but I think it's the right choice!

I've gone for Cat's suggestion, swapping to the Gigabyte board, and I dropped to the SG06 suggested by c.ruel. It'll be a much tighter fit, I fear, and might be a bit hot, but I'm not particularly keen on the aesthetics of the SG07, and it feels a bit big for a mini-itx build, as c.ruel pointed out. Thanks again, should be good

[nibbler]

Pffff. Should of kept your i5 build and just picked up a second hand i7 - it genuinely cuts WU steps by half.

I'm an impulse buyer, decided to mix things up!

[jim]

Just built the PC with the Gigabyte board - it's fantastic, so small and roughly as powerful as my desktop. Bit noisy, as you might expect, but no complaints here - it's brilliant.

Thanks Cat! (and Cruel for the case suggestion)

I got you a special present off Google images:

It's a penguin riding a moose

[c.ruel]

HAHAHAHA.

Maybe you can upload some pics of it!? Really like to see it ... particularly an internal picture to see how you used the space inside the case.