SFF build for under the TV for ~ £300 - remotely possible?

[Rob_B]

Hi all,

I've been looking at buying a SFF PC for under the TV (to replace a Dell Micro I currently have as I'd like some more GPU grunt) looking at pre built I see that HPs (705 G4) with something like a 2200GE seem the cheapest option however at ~£300 I can't shake the feeling I can perhaps build something for a similar price or cheaper.
An APU would be acceptable as I'm not playing anything too demanding but even pairing something with a low end card would probably be ok.

I realise prices are mental right now but it it feasible?

Cheers

Rob

[DanceswithUnix]

Hi all,

I've been looking at buying a SFF PC for under the TV (to replace a Dell Micro I currently have as I'd like some more GPU grunt) looking at pre built I see that HPs (705 G4) with something like a 2200GE seem the cheapest option however at ~£300 I can't shake the feeling I can perhaps build something for a similar price or cheaper.
An APU would be acceptable as I'm not playing anything too demanding but even pairing something with a low end card would probably be ok.

I realise prices are mental right now but it it feasible?

Cheers

Rob

If prices weren't mental...

£100 ITX motherboard
£50 for an Athlon 3000G or similar
£50 for a 500G SSD
£35 for 8GB of DDR4
That leaves £65 for a case and PSU

An Asrock X300 as a starting point probably works out cheaper, with about £140 getting you motherboard, case and PSU.

Or you can blow past your budget with a PN50, which gets you a rather nice APU bundled as well but still needs ram and SSD:

https://www.cclonline.com/product/34...4300U/BRB0619/

If you can stretch your definition of SFF up to uATX you can shave quite a bit off the case and motherboard costs. So if you really want budget, I would start with trying to find an acceptable uATX case.

[Jonatron]

With a low budget, and lack of GPU availability, I'd consider hunting on ebay for used laptops / NUC-like systems.

Getting creative, maybe consider the "For parts or not working" category.
Eg: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402729768613
The only problem that matters for this one if it's under the TV is the audio, and you could use a USB sound card / HDMI Audio.

[Rob_B]

QuietPC have the 4300GE for £155 delivered, that plus the X300 and my budget is gone

I guess I could go a little larger, I'll have to measure the space I have, any suggestions if I did that?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you don't mind going for a previous generation CFL CPU this costs around £128:
https://www.cclonline.com/product/26...ebone/BRB0537/

You can find a Core i5 8400 for £78 secondhand:
https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail?...hz%29-lga-1151

Arctic Cooler 12 LP for £6:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arctic-Alpi...07HJ3DWQ2?th=1

WD SN550 500GB for £47:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-SN550-...mputers&sr=1-3

This 16GB RAM kit should be fine IMHO for around £78:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/2400MHZ-Lif...mputers&sr=1-9

It should come to around £340. If you go for 8GB of RAM it should get it closer to £300ish.

The UHD630 IGP is the same in 8000/9000/10000 series CPUs.

Another alternative is to get a Core i3 10105 for around £105:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/inte...cache-65w-reta

This B560 mini-ITX motherboard for around £100:
https://www.cclonline.com/product/34...board/MBD3005/

This 7 litre Silverstone ML05 is around £40:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SilverStone...9990982&sr=8-7

This PSU for around £45:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/300w...mm-fan-atx-psu

Apparently quiet until 80% load but noisy after that. However,with an IGP I doubt the system will even use 150W!!

8GB for 3200MHZ DDR4 for around £47:
https://www.cclonline.com/product/24...y-Kit/RAM3628/

The same SSD for around £47 too:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-SN550-...mputers&sr=1-3

The total comes around £384.

This should give you some idea of the size of the case:
https://pcpartpicker.com/builds/by_part/J7mLrH

It has space for a pair of 80MM fans on the side.

[Spreadie]

CEX has the 3200G in stock (at a hideous price of £110), which could be paired with the AMD X300 barebones at £138 at CCL (if you can stomach giving them money)

[Rob_B]

Thanks Cat, I'm looking for more oomph than the UHD630 though, even a 2200G(e) beats it I think. I don't mind Intel but would need to go discrete for the gfx. Definitely going to look at that case though!

Spreadie are CCL on the naughty list?

I can lay my hands on a 2.5" SSD and some 2400 DDR4 SODIMMs so really it's cpu/case /mobo/psu (and potentially GPU) for around the £300 Mark.

[Spreadie]

Spreadie are CCL on the naughty list?

Personal bias - all retailers have hiked the prices, obviously reacting to increases from AIB partners' wholesalers, but I don't think I'm alone in the opinion that CCL have been truly extracting the urine with their price hikes.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks Cat, I'm looking for more oomph than the UHD630 though, even a 2200G(e) beats it I think. Its new badly with Intel but would need to go discrete for the gfx. Definitely going to look at that case though!

Spreadie are CCL on the naughty list?

I can lay my hands on a 2.5" SSD and some 2400 DDR4 SODIMMs so really it's cpu/case /mobo/psu (and potentially GPU) for around the £300 Mark.

Interestingly enough the Intel IGPs are actually certified for stuff such as Netflix 4K playback:
https://www.techpowerup.com/254444/i...ts-4k-backbone
https://www.techpowerup.com/232892/n...0-series-cards

With Nvidia you need at least a GTX1050 class GPU,with at least 3GB of RAM! AFAIK,the Ryzen 2000 series APUs don't support 4K Netflix,etc but the 12NM 3000 series APUs might(it wasn't the case when they launched IIRC).

[Rob_B]

So I went a slightly different route as I managed to pick up the below parts for a very reasonable price. My TV has Netflix built in which works fine for us at the moment so probably going to be Web browsing and light gaming on older titles or 720p on newer if possible.

A320M-k
Athlon 3000G
8GB RAM
PSU
SSD of unknown size + 1TB Seagate Barracuda

I'll probably throw the case (and PSU?) it comes with and try to get something SFF as I'm only just halfway over my original budget.

The 3000G isn't great by any stretch of the imagination but it's better than the HD630/i3 I was using previously and of course AM4 gives me an upgrade path.

So it's time to case shop!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

So I went a slightly different route as I managed to pick up the below parts for a very reasonable price. My TV has Netflix built in which works fine for us at the moment so probably going to be Web browsing and light gaming on older titles or 720p on newer if possible.

A320M-k
Athlon 3000G
8GB RAM
PSU
SSD of unknown size + 1TB Seagate Barracuda

I'll probably throw the case (and PSU?) it comes with and try to get something SFF as I'm only just halfway over my original budget.

The 3000G isn't great by any stretch of the imagination but it's better than the HD630/i3 I was using previously and of course AM4 gives me an upgrade path.

So it's time to case shop!

If you got all that for around £150 that is a good price,but you need to be careful if you run Netflix 4K. The issue why a number of the AMD CPUs won't work with Netflix 4K is due to the secure chain. Intel was the 1st to implement it in their IGPs. Then Nvidia implemented it on mainstream Pascal onwards,and AMD only started to try and do something in 2019. From what I am reading at least in 2019/2020 the AMD 14NM APUs didn't support the secure chain,the 12NM ones apparently did,ie,the Ryzen 3 3200G and Ryzen 5 3400G.

[Rob_B]

Yeah I thought it was a good price. Fingers crossed when 5000 APUs come out I'm in a better position to upgrade

only on the 1080p Netflix plan so no 4k for me anyway! I think my TV would do 4k in the Netflix app but had no need to find out yet

[DanceswithUnix]

The 3000G isn't great by any stretch of the imagination but it's better than the HD630/i3 I was using previously and of course AM4 gives me an upgrade path.

We have a couple of 3000G machines at work, intended for basic tasks usually involving configuring things via a web browser. I was surprised how responsive they are.

[Rob_B]

I've seen lots of varying reviews, 2C/4T so not amazing but for a cheap APU with an upgrade path I'm happy. Just a shame the A320m won't overclock

[Rob_B]

Any suggestions on cases that will take a microATX board and potentially a 'normal' PSU?
The Silverstone looks nice but I'd need a new PSU.

[DDY]

Any suggestions on cases that will take a microATX board and potentially a 'normal' PSU?
The Silverstone looks nice but I'd need a new PSU.

The similar Silverstone ML04 takes a standard ATX PSU.

There are also varieties of the Antec Fusion which take a standard ATX PSU which occasionally go for about £40 used on Ebay.