Budget Compact Build with 64Gb SSD

[cptwhite_uk]

Looking to put together a small micro ATX or mini ITX AMD based budget system for a family member. This is new territory for me so I'm in need of some advise.

The budget is around £300 for just the base system only. They already have a copy of Win 7 Home and Monitor.

I'd really like to squeeze in a solid state or hybrid drive so the system feels fast and responsive.

Processing power and GPU performance are not critical - this will be an internet browsing and general photo editing (light adjustments only) PC with the occasion light gaming session for the grand kids.

My thoughts are:

AMD APU
Mini ITX
4Gb RAM
Hybrid drive (so they get the simplicity of one drive, with the benefit of some SSD cache)

Looking for recommendations for the case, motherboard, CPU/APU, power supply, CPU cooler.

If you can fit a DVD drive into this price bracket that would be even better. Not checked to see if ITX cases support it yet!

If you can put some suggested builds together that would be awesome!

Thanks all.

[herulach]

This plus £80 of beer money. You won't build cheaper (or in a neater looking case). THere are plenty of APU you ones kicking around under £300 if you want to go down that route.

[AETAaAS]

Here's my try.



Lower-mid APU and 1600 memory which I think should be a reasonable match. DVD-RW included and I went for a 60GB SSD plus a 500GB magnetic with the requisite bay adapter, which brings it up to £95 for storage alone. I personally prefer SSDs for Windows and Programs, move the User files to the magnetic. Things will feel very snappy and I think you should be set for space. If you really want, a 3.5' 1TB SSHD can be had for £68, but I'd prefer the dual drives.

I went a little over budget but not by much. You can cut corners on the APU or drives as you see fit.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Celeron dual core has a very weak IGP. The A6-5400K would be faster and has a Llano A8 level IGP,but is only a dual core.

With the form factor you are looking at and the budget I would not get an SSD,as you will be skimping too much in other areas IMHO. I would make sure the build has a quad core and 8GB of RAM,as it means you won't be needing to do one for a while. Unless your family member is techy,they will most likely find a 64GB SSD is too small,and it will fill up quickly,as Windows and many applications tend to keep all your downloads on the SSD,and programs are installed by default on the Windows drive.

I would get the following parts:

http://www.cclonline.com/product/982...t-OEM/PSU0486/
http://www.cclonline.com/product/662...Drive/HDD1190/
http://www.cclonline.com/product/917...phics/CPU0150/
http://www.cclonline.com/product/126...emory/RAM1620/
http://www.cclonline.com/product/123...lack-/CDR0201/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-AMD-CO...item4acb4b8200

The total cost will come to just under £300.

You can get a faster 2133MHZ DDR3 RAM set for around £10,but whereas I know with the A10 it will improve the IGP performace,I am not sure about the A8.

Edit!!

I just saw this 3.5" SSHD by Seagate:

http://www.cclonline.com/product/121...rnal-/HDD2101/

It will push the build cost to around £330 if you replace the 500GB I listed earlier,but not only do you have more capacity but it is also an SSHD.

Second Edit!!

Here is a review of the Seagate drive:

http://www.storagereview.com/seagate...op_sshd_review

[cptwhite_uk]

Without factoring CAT's suggestions (had already put this together) I have managed to spec the following

Highlights are the A6 6400, 500Gb SSHD + 60Gb SSD

[MrRockliffe]

If you want faster RAM just switch to 1866 MHz RAM. You'll see an improvement in performance a little with the APU.

[cptwhite_uk]

Yes I'm going for the 1866 Ram. CAT do I really need to buy a seperate CPU cooler, isn't it retail anyway?

[cptwhite_uk]

So this is the final spec:

Total cost is £352.79

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. I've gone for a SSD + SSHD combo. Might be wasted money but for £20 I'm interested to see if it helps with general file access times, also if they end up installing onto it it gives them a little head room over the main 60Gb drive for faster access.

Decided against 8Gb RAM as it's really just overkill for what it's going to be used for.

I'll try and post a build guide like I did with my main rig once I assemble it - hopefully next weekend.

Edit: Yes it's from 4 (!) Etailers - Ebuyer, Scan, CCL and Amazon

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You need to have the RAM running in dual channel,otherwise the CPU and especially IGP performance will be reduced a decent amount.

Also,the SSHD I suggested is a 3.5" model and runs at 7200RPM unlike many of the mobile models which run at 5400RPM.

Regarding the cooler,the standard FM2 cooler is all aluminium and in a SFF system can be quite noisy. The 125W TDP cooler for AM3 and AM3+ CPUs should cool the CPU better.

[herulach]

If you're getting that case then why bother with ITX at all? Some thing like a Core 1000 is going to have a smaller footprint, and (it's about half the width, and more or less the same depth). Its also £10 cheaper and allows you to use MicroATX boards, which then saves you another £20/30.

Separate disk is just asking for trouble - since you built it I assume its one of those 'expects free support all the time' type of friends, and when they run out of disk (which will happen very quickly - a 60GB SSD with office & win 7 on will only have about 20GB free).

I suspect it will make a difference where its going, but a small tower will take up less space than a cube.

[cptwhite_uk]

Thanks for the feedback. Few points:

1. Total didn't spot it was a single 4Gb stick, cheers!
2. The PC case will be located behind the desk (on the floor) and there's 300mm width between the wall and the rear of the drawers so the case will be fine
3. I've ordered the cooler you recommended CAT as after reading a review of the case the reviewer commented on the restricted height for the CPU cooler due to the PSU being above it
4. The 2.5" main drive will be rarely accessed I expect, except for pulling up images, video playback etc (we're talking about someone who has used an 80Gb drive for the last 6 years so I don't think massive file transfer are likely. I've explained data should be put on the second drive (and I'll make sure the user folders are stored there for automatic use)
5. I've opted for a 2.5" drive as the 3.5" to 2.5" converter will hold both drives, and it frees up room for cable management and better air flow

Herulach you make some good points and if I hadn't already ordered from 5 seperate places I might have been inclined to switch to that case and an mATX board. That said I really fancy building into the Cooler MAster Elite 120 for the challange. That and it looks much nicer than the Core 1000 for a budget case. Nothing against the Core 1000 (I have the R4 myself, so I like fractal design a lot!) but it just looks very budget, unlike the Elite 120.

Also got a stonking deal on that ASrock board and it looks the business.

[cptwhite_uk]

For anyone interested here's my photos from the build into a Cooler Master 120 Elite

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ute1ozj96yhfwuu/z_006goEKm

Thoughts:

The motherboard was very nicely built and looked nicely premium

To remove the DVD Drive fasica pop off the entire front panel (took me a couple of minutes to work that out!), then remove by pushing it backwards

The CPU Cooler was about as good as you're going to get, nice weight and copper heat pipes for £5.50 delivered, bargain.

The case was fine, but was bigger than I expected really. Happy enough with it.

The case comes with 2 plastic mounts which support 2.5" drives. However I'm glad I opted for the addition bracket as this way the drives take up one 3.5" bay space, instead of two. Which keeps the internals tidier and leaves more room for cable management and airflow.

The case has a pityful (60mm?) side fan which is pushing air against the CPU cooler, so fighting against the CPU cooler's air venting from the heatsink fins, pretty bad design really should have been better placed. You can mount a 120mm fan internally (between the drive bay and the motherboard, if you have the space) but it seems pointless and liable to get wires ratting against it.

Case was of good build quality overall with plenty of tie wraps and screws provided for free

The drive bay adapter is for 9.5mm thick drives, if you buy a 7mm mechanical drive you might want to consider packing it with something to reduce vibration / movement (although it is wedged end to end via a spring so doesn't move easily).

Power supply was ample for this build but only comes with 1x 6 pin PCI-E. Fair enough it was £19? and is 400W. Quality seems very good with a nice weight.

Any particular questions let me know.