$700 Wall Mounted Machine

[mangoodbad13]

Alright I'm planning to build a system for my sister. She needs a computer to run her TV in the living room. She uses Netflix, hulu, and whatever else instead of paying for cable tv. For the past few years I've been on her about letting me build her a computer instead of using an old laptop. Well she finally gave me my chance but I've been away from hardware for a couple of years now so I thought I'd ask you guys for some advice.

 

This computer will basically just run chrome/firefox and play movies at 1080p. Maybe some light gaming, but top end graphics aren't necessary. Her budget is $700USD but a case won't be necessary because I talked her into letting me mount everything flat on a piece of acrylic. The budget is for the hardware only, I'll foot the bill for the acrylic and specialty mounting stuff and OS. I'd be willing to chip in a little for hardware as well if it would be large gains in performance. I would like for it to have an SSD for the OS. She already has a couple of external hard drives that I'm planning to take apart and mount to the acrylic and given that it's gonna be mounted with no real case, modular power supply is a must.

 

Another thing to consider is that I'm an Intel and Nvidia fanboy so...yeah Intel and Nvidia please.

 

What I've come up with so far:

CPU: Intel Core I5 4690K 3.5GHz Processor 

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9174257&CatId=11497

Mobo: MSI Z97-GAMING 3 ATX Motherboard

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Red 8GB 1866MHz DDR3

Power Supply: ThermalTake TR2 Powersupply

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9636971&CatId=1079

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9117006&CatId=7387

SSD: OCZ Vector 180 Series 120GB Solid State Drive

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9658896&CatId=5300

 

That's all for now, thanks for any help!

[Bittenfleax]

It is a bit overkill for just watching things/browsing?!

[mangoodbad13]

I want it to be pretty future proof. She has 3 kids and they might catch an interest in gaming some day. Oh and I need to mention that she wants a red and black theme.

[JoePro87]

Don't be a fanboy. She just needs a media center. Just get the cheapest parts you can, that will still do the job, and install the Kodi Media Center on it. The build you described above seems like it will work just fine....so I don't see where the problem is. If you're software savvy, you can link Kodi up with all sorts of streaming services, and even use your phone as the remote for it. I'm sure there are posts somewhere describing how to do this, if you're not familiar with Kodi. 

[matjojo]

just buy an raspberry pi, its only $30 and dos everything you want, its also very little and completely silent as it is cooled passively

 

edit: fixed link

[Bittenfleax]

I want it to be pretty future proof. She has 3 kids and they might catch an interest in gaming some day. Oh and I need to mention that she wants a red and black theme.

I see what you mean. Urm.. if you are willing to spend the money on that.. then it would be good. 

 

On top of the 4690k you could get an MSI Gaming 3 - they have a red and black colour scheme, and for the RAM the only type I really know of Corsair Vengance Red 4GB then... urmm... yeah