SFF XBMC/Emulation build

[kicker56]

Hi,

Just about to take the plunge on a totally new system used mainly for XBMC that can play my bluray 1080p no compression rips, and run emulation for my wii games, as I saw this program dolphin can convert them to HD, which looks quite cool.

It's a...
i5 2500k which I hope to overclock to 4Ghz - 4.5Ghz (dont really know what will go up to with the motherboard I'm looking at, but from what I've read hopefully at least 4Ghz)
Asrock Z68M-ITX
8GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz
OCZ Agility 3 60GB SSD
Corsair H60 CPU Cooler (I'm thinking for the overclock)
Sapphire Radeon 6850

All in the silverstone SG05 with 450w PSU

I've got external NAS storage for XBMC content.

Maybe the odd modern PC game like Dirt 3 etc but not a massive gaming rig. It wont be run all the time I will suspend and wake when needed (usually about 4 hours up at a time)

Does anyone have experience with this sort of setup. Just heat and overclocking worries me abit in such a small case which hopefully the corsair H60 can help with. What you think?

Hopefully I haven't left anything out

[b0redom]

Massive massive massive overkill for an HTPC/Mame box.

[UseItNow]

Edit: Sorry, wrong thread.

[kicker56]

Massive massive massive overkill for an HTPC/Mame box.

Not from what I'm told to emulate wii games, I need a decent cpu in order to do it right. I know it overkill for XBMC but wanting to run wii games at 720p or maybe 1080p requires a bit more 'umph!

Just hope my case is fine with the stuff in there, as I can't go a any bigger.

[b0redom]

Ahh didn't see you wanted to do Wii emulation stuff too.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Emulators tend to need strong single threaded performance IIRC. Hence,maybe a Core i3 2120 would be worth looking at:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel...33x-65w-retail

Edit!!

Also,the AsRock motherboard has a 4 phase VRM,with no cooling either. An H60 will provide no active cooling to the VRMs too,which on a mini-ITX motherboard are very close together.

[DDY]

I built my gaming rig with the SG06 which is internally identical to the SG05, specs to the left, build log here.

First of all, you won't be able to get an H60 in there without sacrificing the optical and hard drive bays or modding the case. The alternative is to have a have a shorter (hence slower) graphics card but I think you'd rather forgo the optical drive! Getting rid of the HDD bay also means you'll have to stick your SSD somewhere - an easy task... I use self adhesive hook and loop tape.

My entire system is cooled by a single low RPM 120mm fan (bar the GPU and PSU fan), the passively cooled CPU loads at 70degC so I reckon with an actively cooled i5 2500k at 4GHz would be ok and even leaves a little extra overclocking headroom.

[kicker56]

Sorry, so are you saying that you have a H60 in yours? I can absolutly go without an optical drive, as I wasn't going to put one in anyway. Then do I put the rad from the H60 on the front 120mm fan? Also have I got a problem with cooling to the VRMs, doesn't the 120mm fan on the front do that.

Thanks for your input on this by the way

[DDY]

If you check out my build log you can see what I've got in my machine, it's a modded CooolerMaster Geminii. From my own measurements when planning my build and reading build logs of similar builds on the internet; I found that a 120mm watercooling radiator will only fit at the front of the case without modding if;

• mounted horizonatally, the graphics card (if present) is short enough to clear the rad,
• mounted vertically, the drive bays are removed (i.e. no optical drive),

The way the SG05 is laid out you'd certainly want the fan pushing air in to the case as opposed to pulling air out, you can place the radiator in front or behind the fan, the debate as to what's better rages on but a fan pushing air in to the radiator seems to be more popular e.g. in this instance rad-fan-case, in addition a push-pull configuration (two fans, one on each side of the rad) could be improve temps, e.g. fan-rad-fan-case.

Note; with the radiator mounted horizontally, you should ideally have it set up as fan-rad-case to maximise space for the graphics card.

CAT brings up an important point I hadn't considered and that's the cooling of the motherboard's VRMs, I still think 4GHz is safe but I retract my previous satement of having extra overclocking head room. Without active cooling you shouldn't overclock too heavily and most definitely should not increase CPU voltages! You might be able to undervolt the 2500k even at 4GHz to reduce power consumption and the temps a bit.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would really investigate whether a Core i5 2500K is really needed. My Core i3 2100 is even fine with CPU heavy games like SupCom and Sins of a Solar Empire.

OTH,if an overclocked Core i5 is really needed then why not get a secondhand Wii for a few quid??

[kicker56]

Thanks for all the advice, I have a wii, and just wanted a powerful enough machine to play the games in hd, along with being able to play the odd hd pc games. According to the emulator advice, i5 2500k is ideal overclocking to 4Ghz. I will do as DDY suggests and play around with the clocking voltages when I get it. also DDY I love the setup you got on the sg06 and the radeon card, might go for that XFX myself.

Thanks guys