$700 steam machine

[studentofcubes]

i m building a steam machine for a friend and have been tinkering with this build for a few weeks now and i think ive settled on the following

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Q2qqZL

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Q2qqZL/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($189.99 @ Newegg) 

Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($98.98 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($23.49 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Seagate  500GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card  ($209.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply  ($93.98 @ Newegg) 

Other: Silverstone RVZ01B ($79.99)

Total: $746.41

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-13 16:56 EDT-0400

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Q2qqZL

 

i cant stretch the budget much further and im staying clear of AMD for heat reasons.

 

power supply is modular because its a small form factor build, in fact im pretty sure everything in this list is the best choice except the processor

 

i want this to last a while but im wondering if i should go down to an i3 or different i5 for some savings. (up in price is not an option)

 

i cant really change mobo either because it really needs to have wifi and dont want to go to back to 87 or up to X99

 

thoughts?  at the moment i can get $50 back in rebates and that is going to pay for the steam controller.

[studentofcubes]

this only uses one ram slot with the intent of future upgrading

 4 is the minimum and there are only two slots so i figured this leaves room to go 8 or 12 in the future and i didnt think 16 would be necessary and if it is its not terribly costly

[Thunder Down Under]

This is a better balanced build http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Lw7Ppg

[Streetguru]

Are you really stuck on that form factor? Because with Steam Machine, I more think Streaming Machine for the living room, which is more of a low cost kinda thing.

If you spend a bit more and give up that form factor, you can get a 4460 with a 390 that'll beat out that 960 by a fair amount, it's still ITX, and the Elite 130 case is really small anyways, more vertical compared to the case you've picked, the Elite 130 should fit 2.5 slot cards just fine

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6106/cooler-master-elite-130-sff-chassis-review/index7.html

 

$780
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/VrmGZL

Overall you may want to go AMD just because of DX12 support, it's rather unknown if current nvidia cards will really support DX12.

[pokechat8978]

 

-snip-

As others have said, you might want to go with AMD due to the issue regarding DX12 (I haven't read up much on it, don't h8 m8).

R9 380 is a much better choice especially if you get a Sapphire R9 380. Nvidia runs hot too, in some cases as hot as people claim AMD cards run.

[jimakos234]

380>960

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($176.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($78.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($47.78 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 380 4GB PCS+ Video Card  ($203.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone ML07B HTPC Case  ($66.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Silverstone 600W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply  ($113.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $728.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-13 20:28 EDT-0400