Mini ITX Gaming for living room vs PS4, Pro's & Con's?

[Edgar R. Zakarian]

Pros and con's ? title says all.

[RedWulf]

Con- cost to match performance, having to set it up yourself

Pro- multiple uses, perhaps better performance, customization

If it's just for gaming I would go with PS, but if you care to spend abit more and have other uses then I say PC. 

[Monkey Dust]

ITX

Pro - Much more powerful, many more uses

Con - Much more expensive, not that easy to operate from a sofa outside of games

 

PS4 pretty much the reverse of the above.

[Edgar R. Zakarian]

is mini itx much more expensive than a regular tower?

[RedWulf]

2 minutes ago, Monkey Dust said:

ITX

Pro - Much more powerful, many more uses

Con - Much more expensive, not that easy to operate from a sofa outside of games

 

PS4 pretty much the reverse of the above.

I have to disagree, PC couch gaming is easy, and a bluetooth keyboard is only like $25 for non-gaming uses. Hell if he wanted to with 1 cord or even wireless he could move all I/Os to his couch. 

[Edgar R. Zakarian]

1 minute ago, RedWulf said:

I have to disagree, PC couch gaming is easy, and a bluetooth keyboard is only like $25 for non-gaming uses. Hell if he wanted to with 1 cord or even wireless he could move all I/Os to his couch. 

I'm thinking more like a controller.

 

Just thinking PS4's big Con is that it's not upgradable, so in the end, I may have to pay more. - Games are more expensive than on steam. Also thinking that I can make a custom desktop mini pc more quiet?

[RedWulf]

3 minutes ago, Edgar R. Zakarian said:

is mini itx much more expensive than a regular tower?

On it's face no, but to cram power into it yes. You'll probably end up with an AIO or a custom loop, and finding a small-ish gpu to run 50fps games will be tricky or costly. But you can get a mini for just a little over a mid-tower

Just now, Edgar R. Zakarian said:

I'm thinking more like a controller.

 

Just thinking PS4's big Con is that it's not upgradable, so in the end, I may have to pay more. - Games are more expensive than on steam. Also thinking that I can make a custom desktop mini pc more quiet?

Quiet, i doubt without paying extra for low noise case and fans. 

For future proofing I wouldn't go with a mini pc, I would go mid tower so you don't have to worry much about card length or heat or pci cards.

The controller will be fine for gaming, but you might want a keyboard for other functions. 

 

What budget and games are you looking at?

[Edgar R. Zakarian]

1 minute ago, RedWulf said:

On it's face no, but to cram power into it yes. You'll probably end up with an AIO or a custom loop, and finding a small-ish gpu to run 50fps games will be tricky or costly. But you can get a mini for just a little over a mid-tower

Quiet, i doubt without paying extra for low noise case and fans. 

For future proofing I wouldn't go with a mini pc, I would go mid tower so you don't have to worry much about card length or heat or pci cards.

The controller will be fine for gaming, but you might want a keyboard for other functions. 

 

What budget and games are you looking at?

Nothing expensive, maybe 100$ more than a PS4. Just speculating at this point.
Problem is that girlfriend doesn't like a tower in the living room and would be ideal not to have mouse/keyboard either , just a controller.

 

So it's sounding like a PS4 is better.

[Monkey Dust]

5 minutes ago, RedWulf said:

I have to disagree, PC couch gaming is easy, and a bluetooth keyboard is only like $25 for non-gaming uses. Hell if he wanted to with 1 cord or even wireless he could move all I/Os to his couch. 

I know someone, Logitech I think, do a wireless keyboard and track pad in one, which looks to be a good solution. But it's still not as neat as being able to control everything with just a controller.

[Sauron]

The ONLY con are potentially exclusives and split screen. Price and performance are both on the pc's side.

[Edgar R. Zakarian]

Just now, Monkey Dust said:

I know someone, Logitech I think, do a wireless keyboard and track pad in one, which looks to be a good solution. But it's still not as neat as being able to control everything with just a controller.

and steamos isn't that far in the process, is it?

 

Which controllers would be recommended?

Atm. I use logitech rumblepad 2, wired.

I'd like a wireless controller. Heard Xbox 360 controllers eat batteries like pacman eats cookies.

[1Revenger1]

with a ps4, you really are getting the ease of use as well split screens and exclusives. With a mini itx system, you can fit more performance, while still having the abilities to use controllers. But it has more to set up, and if you use steam, games can be cheaper.

About the 360 controllers, I haven't had any serious issue with them and you can always get rechargeable batteries for them.

[RedWulf]

28 minutes ago, Monkey Dust said:

I know someone, Logitech I think, do a wireless keyboard and track pad in one, which looks to be a good solution. But it's still not as neat as being able to control everything with just a controller.

They make several, I use a $20 logitech on my Pi

30 minutes ago, Edgar R. Zakarian said:

Nothing expensive, maybe 100$ more than a PS4. Just speculating at this point.
Problem is that girlfriend doesn't like a tower in the living room and would be ideal not to have mouse/keyboard either , just a controller.

 

So it's sounding like a PS4 is better.

You can find some stylish cases, some look better than a ps4.

[Psycosis86]

3 hours ago, Edgar R. Zakarian said:

Nothing expensive, maybe 100$ more than a PS4. Just speculating at this point.
Problem is that girlfriend doesn't like a tower in the living room and would be ideal not to have mouse/keyboard either , just a controller.

 

So it's sounding like a PS4 is better.

This is way more expensive then a PS4 and a bit bigger, but just an example of a very capable mini itx system. http://pcpartpicker.com/b/H7tJ7P

 

Of course you wouldn't have to get a $600 gpu, so the price could be reduced a bit.

[LordLeewee]

was using my htpc to play rocket league split screen with my friends in my living room last night. 60 fps on max settings out of a £300 system. amd 5350 cpu with 750ti and 8gb ram on an asrock motherboard, all in a silverstone sg13 case. tiny and quiet

[tbake0155]

Mini-itx boards are generally more expensive than an equivalent atx board.  If you put the most powerful hardware into a mini-itx case you are going to have remove the heat somehow.

 

I have a wireless logitech keyboard with a trackpad on it. It lasts remarkably long on one charge.  It lasts for months and months, although it's not my primary keyboard.  A nice feature is the backlight stops working when the battery gets low to conserve power. Eventually a low battery light turns on.

One thing about computers in general is you are only limited by your imagination.  For example, you could easily build yourself a controller/modify a controller and then write some software to allow it to communicate with your PC in whatever way you want it to.  Although that is likely not practical for most people, what it means is there is a good possibility someone else already did this and you can take advantage of their hard work.

 

 

[AshleyAshes]

As someone who has two HTPCs, I just use Xbox 360 controllers with the wireless dongle for all games and when I need a keyboard and mouse, the unremarkable but very useful Logitech K400 wireless keyboard with touchpad is what you need.  However MOST games in Steam Big Picture Mode negate the need to ever need the keyboard, but there are exceptions and also times something crashes or otherwise needs servicing.

[byalexandr]

Why are people saying it's more expensive? You can easily build a PC for cheaper that's mITX and will kick a console's ass, especially if you buy used parts. There are no cons besides the obvious ones like exclusive titles and platform stuff (like friends and stores and what not, but hey, Steam is better anyway).

[sgloux3470]

Personally, I prefer consoles in the living room.  

 

42 minutes ago, byalexandr said:

Why are people saying it's more expensive? You can easily build a PC for cheaper that's mITX and will kick a console's ass, especially if you buy used parts. There are no cons besides the obvious ones like exclusive titles and platform stuff (like friends and stores and what not, but hey, Steam is better anyway).

 

Console - $349, comes with controller and usually a game bundle.

 

PC- Assuming you got lucky buying used and we ignore the free game + controller, you need to get a CPU, GPU, PSU, Mobo, Case, HDD and memory for $70 each on average.  If you spend half that on non performance essential components, you have about half your budget for a CPU/GPU.  

 

  It's doable because 95% of your performance requirements are 4 threads and a better GPU than the PS4 but it's quite a bit more deal hunting than most people want to do when they could save all that time and effort and just go into Bestbuy and walk out with a PS4 game bundle today.

 

 

[Energycore]

It's gonna be hard to knock out a console on price performance because Sony/Microsoft make zero or negative margin on them. They make all their money on their game sales IIRC. Especially since Mini-ITX motherboards/cases/cooling is more expensive than basic ATX/mATX mid towers.

[ShiftHitTheFan]

Don't forget that the ps4 and xbone are blue ray players, that another $70 right there.

Personally, I would either just get a console, or save up a bit more and build a good htpc with a blue ray player and large HDD for movies. Say $500.

Simple itx, 8350 or i3, r9 380, 8gb RAM, and a 1tb hdd, you would be set for most games on high settings at 1080p.

[Prysin]

23 hours ago, Edgar R. Zakarian said:

is mini itx much more expensive than a regular tower?

mobos cost more, towers cost more. If you need a STX PSU (due to ATX being too large) then those costs more.

Powerful ITX graphics cards costs more (that is if you want a REAL ITX setup, and not some "ITX" box that can fit half of a normal ATX case in a compact form

[Prysin]

This is what you WANT for livingroom gaming:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($238.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D9L 46.4 CFM CPU Cooler  ($55.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($149.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 Nano 4GB Video Card  ($479.99 @ Amazon)
Case: RAIJINTEK Metis (Silver) Mini ITX Tower Case  ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply  ($88.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1303.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-20 11:52 EDT-0400

 

 

This is what you need for decent livingroom gaming:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($69.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D9L 46.4 CFM CPU Cooler  ($55.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard  ($96.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  ($66.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Momentus Thin 500GB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($41.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card  ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Case: RAIJINTEK Metis (Silver) Mini ITX Tower Case  ($57.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply  ($88.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $678.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-20 12:19 EDT-0400