Upgrading HTPC Rig

[StealthArsenal]

Hello all,

 

A few of you might have seen a GPU thread I started earlier yesterday and I kind of thought I had adequate spare parts to scrap together another PC upgrade but much to my forgetfulness, I don't have everything.

I am looking for a little assistance with the upgrading of my secondary HTPC/gaming rig. The purpose of this system is to display some netflix, youtube, etc as well as game on my 100-inch projector setup. The rig needed a replacement graphics card so I went ahead and picked up a EVGA 780 SC on a killer deal from Microcenter. Now with that in mind, the existing system is utilizing an AMD FX4100 with a Gigabyte GA-78LMT Matx motherboard. The computer is built in a Bit Fenix Prodigy M (mAtx/mItx case). Obviously this board only utilizes PCI Express 2.0 so that coupled with the FX4100 is going to create a bit of a bottleneck for the 780 SC. I am looking to do this on a bit of a more friendly budget. I only need a CPU/Motherboard as I have memory and anything else I could possibly need. I am not trying to do with this rig the same as my main in my signature.

Based on my requirements, I am assuming AMD is going to be my most economical choice, but I am not sure if a mAtx or mItx with an FX or APU is the best bang for the buck.

 

Edit:

 

Now after doing a little bit more thinking about this, even the strongest FX chip might not do what I want. I started looking at non K skus of Intel chips and was kind of interested in the 4590 (non S variant). I don't believe this system would need an overclock, so I think sticking with stock clocks and turbo boost, that would probably work out nicely. With that in mind, I was contemplating throwing in the following board.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/443766/GA-Z97MX-GAMING_LGA1150_mATX?ob=1

Keep in mind, I would buy the open box version (I normally do this with secondary systems as Microcenter is so close and I practically live there) and there is 35% off the open box boards this weekend.

Thoughts.

 

Thanks for the insight and help.

[Un4tural]

4590 should do perfectly fine, if you want economical route can get a 6300FX or thereabouts, but it will bottleneck the 780, just not as much.

 

for motherboard just get something that suits your needs fan/sata wise etc. for the lowest budget mostly as it wont impact performance much

[StealthArsenal]

Thank Un4tural.  I am thinking of going Intel just to eliminate more of the bottleneck and get onto PCI Express 3.0. 

[Guest trucker2]

Microcenter is awesome. Got both my A10s there.

[StealthArsenal]

Hey all,

 

I ended up going with the 4590 for this system with a gigabyte H97 micro atx board.  Now I was planning to use an OCZ StealthXstream 600w power supply I have.  It has the proper connectors and such but isn't Haswell certified.  Does anyone think this will be an issue?