HTPC/Steam Box

[5lay3r]

So I have decided to build a "steam box" for in my living room.

 

I have pretty much decided on my case: Silverstone Grandia GD05B unless someone can suggest something that is as good looking and a similar form factor and price as this. Don't need usb3 on the front.

 

motherboard I was thinking of getting a cheap b85 matx board from either gigabyte or asus(sale dependent at time of purchase).

 

CPU I'm leaning towards a haswell i5 4430.

 

GPU thinking of a 7870.

 

With 8 GB 1333 MHz g.skill ram.

 

Thinking of putting in a Noctua NH-L9i or Thermalright AXP-100 for cooling.

 

PSU probably a 500W sliverstone or antec because cheap high quality units. 

 

Wont be needing a sound card as ill be using optical audio then my surround system.

 

 

 

Any changes you would recommend if so what. Remember price is important on this.

Thanks for any and all help.

[AraSarkisyan]

Wait till 9000 series in october. a month away from the press talk. but yeah its solid. 

[NinjaStyle013]

Because you're in NZ I can help out a ton here.

That case is perfect, so pretty.

I would however change the i5 to an 8 core FX because you're gunna get more for your money especially in NZ where intel tends to be overpriced compared to AMD.

The money saved can be used to get a 7950 to cash in on the 3 games for free thing or you could wait it out for 9000.

RAM is fine, would recommend checking out Techworld for ram, it's run by a NZer and he does it as a side thing so you can get some really nice deals. Sent him a bunch of emails and gotten quick detailed replies compared to Ktechs and Zcoms relativity short ones.

If you could reply to this post Ill go out and build a system. A budget would be nice also.

[5lay3r]

Because you're in NZ I can help out a ton here.

That case is perfect, so pretty.

I would however change the i5 to an 8 core FX because you're gunna get more for your money especially in NZ where intel tends to be overpriced compared to AMD.

The money saved can be used to get a 7950 to cash in on the 3 games for free thing or you could wait it out for 9000.

RAM is fine, would recommend checking out Techworld for ram, it's run by a NZer and he does it as a side thing so you can get some really nice deals. Sent him a bunch of emails and gotten quick detailed replies compared to Ktechs and Zcoms relativity short ones.

If you could reply to this post Ill go out and build a system. A budget would be nice also.

Through my work i get whole sale prices at a few of the stores around here so i should be fine.

Want to stick with an i5 as the FX chips put out a bit to much heat for my liking in such a small space.

and budget under $1300 but the cheaper the better lol but must be able to game at 1080p

[NinjaStyle013]

Through my work i get whole sale prices at a few of the stores around here so i should be fine.

Want to stick with an i5 as the FX chips put out a bit to much heat for my liking in such a small space.

and budget under $1300 but the cheaper the better lol but must be able to game at 1080p

Yeah I agree with you on the heat thing, AMD does run hot but you are getting another 4 cores for cheaper so yeah. Could get a liquid cooler or something nice fans?

Anyways under 1300 is easy because I'm planning a personal build that's at 1000 and its going to be able to run BF3 at ultra at 1080p with 30 frames and this is with a 7850.

I would recommend going for a 7950 if you can as the 7870 series isn't offering much of a boost compared to 7850 cards like the pcs+ from powercolour.

Do you want me to put together a full price list for you? You're gunna have to provide any wholesale prices for me though.

[5lay3r]

Yeah I agree with you on the heat thing, AMD does run hot but you are getting another 4 cores for cheaper so yeah. Could get a liquid cooler or something nice fans?

Anyways under 1300 is easy because I'm planning a personal build that's at 1000 and its going to be able to run BF3 at ultra at 1080p with 30 frames and this is with a 7850.

I would recommend going for a 7950 if you can as the 7870 series isn't offering much of a boost compared to 7850 cards like the pcs+ from powercolour.

Do you want me to put together a full price list for you? You're gunna have to provide any wholesale prices for me though.

Not a fan of the aio liquid coolers if I'm going liquid I'm doing with a real loop cpu and gpu. Do u think the 7850 will hold up well in this system as the less i spend here the more i spend on my proper gaming rig(2011 IBE when released)

[NinjaStyle013]

Not a fan of the aio liquid coolers if I'm going liquid I'm doing with a real loop cpu and gpu. Do u think the 7850 will hold up well in this system as the less i spend here the more i spend on my proper gaming rig(2011 IBE when released)

It should be pretty good, from the benchmarks I've seen the card I'm getting runs BF3 ultra at about 30 Fps like I said. To be certain you get 30 Fps a 7870 would be better but it gets funky where you can get a cheap good 7850 that is almost equal to a cheap meh 7870 but then the good 7870 cards get close to 7950 which is a damn good card.

I would say you could get the Powercolour PCS+ 7850 because the difference between ultra and high is tiny and you'll get 60 Fps off of this card at this setting. It should do well enough even as just a fill in for a 9000 series or even an old card from your rig.

The 8320 is gunna offer you 8 real cores compared to the 2 real and 2 hyper threaded cores you get with the i5 but it does consume more power and has more heat come out so idk but its 100 dollars cheaper which will buy you an epic cooler to cool it off.

[5lay3r]

It should be pretty good, from the benchmarks I've seen the card I'm getting runs BF3 ultra at about 30 Fps like I said. To be certain you get 30 Fps a 7870 would be better but it gets funky where you can get a cheap good 7850 that is almost equal to a cheap meh 7870 but then the good 7870 cards get close to 7950 which is a damn good card.

I would say you could get the Powercolour PCS+ 7850 because the difference between ultra and high is tiny and you'll get 60 Fps off of this card at this setting. It should do well enough even as just a fill in for a 9000 series or even an old card from your rig.

The 8320 is gunna offer you 8 real cores compared to the 2 real and 2 hyper threaded cores you get with the i5 but it does consume more power and has more heat come out so idk but its 100 dollars cheaper which will buy you an epic cooler to cool it off.

$100 less for an FX i think not, as I plan on getting a Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H and a i5 4430 currently. also the amd matx boards dont seem to have as good power delivery and I with a cpu that will draw 125W TDP good power delivery is important. epic cooler you say what is better than Noctua NH-L9i or Thermalright AXP-100

that can fit in my case as i want it to be near silent. thanks for your help man

[NinjaStyle013]

$100 less for an FX i think not, as I plan on getting a Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H and a i5 4430 currently. also the amd matx boards dont seem to have as good power delivery and I with a cpu that will draw 125W TDP good power delivery is important. epic cooler you say what is better than Noctua NH-L9i or Thermalright AXP-100

that can fit in my case as i want it to be near silent. thanks for your help man

Yah pretty dumb of me to recommend a 8 core in an htpc when you could easily buy a Haswell anyways... Gotta get my head off my build.

7870 is a better for longest invite but for a real upgrade go 7950. If not the powercolour pcs+ is great as its one of the best 7850 cards and runs cool.