Help spec self build 'steambox'

[rob4001]

Hi

I'm not too impressed with the next gen consoles. So looking to build all round gaming/htpc

Requirements: Needs fit under the TV and play all modern games at 1080p @60

Budget £500-600

Suggestions please

Many thanks in advance

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

play all modern games at 1080p @60

Not going to happen unless you drop settings.

[rob4001]

ok 1080p @30 is this because card required would be too big to fit in a case that would fit under the TV?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

ok 1080p @30 is this because card required would be too big to fit in a case that would fit under the TV?

More your budget TBH!!

Edit!!

I meant for 60 FPS.

[rob4001]

Ah ok well I can go more if needed say £700. I would of thought £600 would suffice at 1080p

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Ah ok well I can go more if needed say £700. I would of thought £600 would suffice at 1080p

The problem is you wll get something like Crysis3 or Watch Dogs which will tax even £300 cards,if you want 60FPS at full settings and details!

[virtuo]

Have you got any bits you can re-use? I recently put together a fairly good Intel/i5 build for just over £500 http://forums.hexus.net/review-my-bu...ml#post3249773

That price didn't include a case (or OS), but for your budget you could get a fairly compact case, quieter cooler and a spicier graphics card with your 600-700 budget.

The 270x hasn't struggled in anything I've tried yet at 1080p, can't comment on exact framerates but not noticed any stuttering with Ultra everything. And I'm sure it's easily on par with PS4/XBone graphics.

[rob4001]

I was asking as I didn't know what parts would suffice but my current desktop I can re use a few parts I have and i5 2500k and ati 7950 i guess its squeezing it into a case that will fit under the tv.

[MrJim]

It depends on the size of case you're happy to have under your TV - you could have a case like this:

http://silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=75&area=usa

Which will take can ATX motherboard, for example, but it's consequently quite big. The other problems are cooling vs noise. If you want a powerful PC, it will produce quite a bit of heat under load; 'under the TV' type cases tend not to have the best cooling, as they're usually designed for modestly-powered gaming PCs or HTPCs, not high-performance gaming PCs.

[iMimix]

Whats the complete Spec list of your current PC? There might be lots of parts that you could reuse and wouldn't need to purchase again for this build.

[krazy_olie]

This case http://silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=503&area=en
or rvz01 (just different styling)
HAs a PCI-E riser so that gpu mounts parallel to motherboard.

Though 1080p@60 will definitely need some toned down settings in that range for newer games.

[shaithis]

My HTPC plays most games at full settings at 60fps. There are caveats, mainly heavy gameswork titles...but for the most part it is plenty fast enough to have the vast majority of eye candy @1080p@60FPS. (Had to turn off TressFX in Tomb Raider and some AA in Batman as recent examples)

Your "spare" CPU and GPU are in the same ballpark as my front-room PC (Xeon 1230v2 and 7970). I would give them a go before buying anything else.

While the Silverstone cases aren't that small (understatement!), I do find it ideal for the job still but then I slammed a ton of HDDs in mine and was very appreciative of the space.

The noisiest part of the build is the graphics card, this smarts when watching TV at night. If you can afford to take the small performance penalty I would recommend getting a Z-based board for your CPU so that you can use the IGP when not gaming instead.

[narz]

The noisiest part of the build is the graphics card, this smarts when watching TV at night. If you can afford to take the small performance penalty I would recommend getting a Z-based board for your CPU so that you can use the IGP when not gaming instead.

How would one switch from GPU to IGP in real world usage, dual cabling, fiddling or software config?