Building A Mini PC Console

[Cepheus_001]

Hello everyone, this is my first time posting on the Linus tech forums. I hope I'm posting in the right place! Anyways, I was hoping I could get a few shout outs from some of you or at least know if the parts are compatible. I heard this was a great forum, so I would really like a few comments and suggestions on which way I should go about building this small console PC build. If you can find any cheaper parts, that would be a big thumbs up. thanks!

 

I used - ca.pcpartpicker.com

 

Also, I'm from canada, and I would like the parts to be found with in canada because of the Canadian dollar.

 

 

[UnlimitedTMD]

get your OS on some site like g2a, dont get optical drive, get  a SSD, other GPU and other PSU

 

[Cepheus_001]

That is a option, but I really would like the stuff to come within my country - to lower cost - I'll take that into account though - thankyou

[Cepheus_001]

I would really like to know if any of the AMD graphics stuff will work better for me. I noticed it is cheaper, but what I really wanna know is which stuff I should buy for the kind of needs I have. I would at least like to run fallout 4 on high settings with no vertical sync. would the Radeon R7 - R9 series work?

 

(do not count AMD's APUs in your findings please!)

[Streetguru]

5 hours ago, Slayerstealth said:

 

Should go for skylake and get USB 3.1

 

that GPU is complete crap and isn't worth the money, should step up to at least a 360

 

don't buy a grey market windows key if you're going to buy a windows key

 

also that's not a very compact build

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/Ym6BNG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/Ym6BNG/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($158.50 @ shopRBC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-S2HP Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($90.66 @ DirectCanada)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($45.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($66.75 @ shopRBC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 360 2GB Core Edition Video Card  ($142.08 @ shopRBC)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($54.95 @ Vuugo)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($78.12 @ Amazon Canada)
Total: $637.04
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-14 15:19 EDT-0400

[Nalm]

I Would Have gone with something like this:

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/4Pn7cf
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/4Pn7cf/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($69.99 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($25.75 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: MSI A88XM GAMING Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($108.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($36.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Corsair Force LS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($47.99 @ NCIX US) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card  ($199.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($30.98 @ Newegg) 
Other: ThermalTake Versha H23 ($55.00) (Or whatever you like with a comparable price)
Total: $625.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-14 15:25 EDT-0400

[Cepheus_001]

I heard that anything that isn't over R7 360 - 370 isn't that good. Thanks for the input! My tax is 13% here, so if you factor that in, that will give the total price(free health care comes at a cost).

[Cepheus_001]

May I also comment that this "IS A PC CONSOLE BUILD" I would like "some expandability in the range that would put me forward into gaming". I would like at least 500GB of space to hold 20+ games in my library.

[Streetguru]

10 minutes ago, Nalm said:

 

Motherboard is overkill, also, wrong country

 

an 860K + 380 is going to be faster than an i3 + 360 in gaming by the way, though you'd proabably want to wait a bit and see if AM4 launches like it's supposed to this month so the socket has an upgrade path

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/39NqK8
Price breakdown by merchant: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/39NqK8/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($93.98 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($84.99 @ DirectCanada)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($39.88 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($66.75 @ shopRBC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card  ($259.98 @ NCIX)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT SW ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($69.88 @ Canada Computers)
Total: $665.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-14 15:37 EDT-0400

 

8 minutes ago, Slayerstealth said:

I heard that anything that isn't over R7 360 - 370 isn't that good. Thanks for the input! My tax is 13% here, so if you factor that in, that will give the total price(free health care comes at a cost).

Wut. the 370 isn't too good a buy usually because the 380 doesn't cost much more and gives you way more performance.

[Nalm]

Lol I Know, I just find it more aesthetically pleasing. Also Im sorry I forgot to change the country thing in PC Part Picker, it should be something like this then http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/gabrielzzz6/saved/gnrZxr

[Cepheus_001]

Let me put this straight(I'm not trying to be rude). This is my first build. What I want to know is what graphics cars would be nice from AMD, and the worse ones from AMD. I would like a bit of a overview of the situation to understand if I should go there or not for the specifications I want. thank you!

 

Also, I would like pointers, not a entire "turn around" of the computer I put out on PC Part Picker.

[Nalm]

2 minutes ago, Slayerstealth said:

Let me put this straight(I'm not trying to be rude). This is my first build. What I want to know is what graphics cars would be nice from AMD, and the worse ones from AMD. I would like a bit of a overview of the situation to understand if I should go there or not for the specifications I want. thankyou!

If you put it that way, I would recomend at least a r7 370/ gtx 950

[Streetguru]

10 minutes ago, Slayerstealth said:

Let me put this straight(I'm not trying to be rude). This is my first build. What I want to know is what graphics cars would be nice from AMD, and the worse ones from AMD. I would like a bit of a overview of the situation to understand if I should go there or not for the specifications I want. thank you!

 

Also, I would like pointers, not a entire "turn around" of the computer I put out on PC Part Picker.

It's not complicated, higher number = better

 

it's just that some jumps are going to be worth it and some aren't, like going to a 390X from a 390 isn't generally going to be worth the 10% boost unless there's like a sale, but going from the 370 to the 380 is easily worth the 20-30% boost

 

and I had to change your whole build, simply because everything in it could have been better as skylake doesn't cost much more and is easily worth the extra cost, you don't need an after market cooler of that kind, a hybrid hard drive isn't worth the money, linus has already pointed out that those really low end GPUs aren't worth the PCB they're printed on, and the power supply there is extremely weak and not worth it

 

also you probably don't need a DVD drive, you can just install your OS from USB and it's going to be faster that way anyways

[ShaunC]

how about this one?

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($169.98 @ Newegg Canada) 
CPU Cooler: Deepcool ICE BLADE 200M 43.0 CFM CPU Cooler  ($26.98 @ Newegg Canada) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($117.98 @ Newegg Canada) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($65.98 @ Newegg Canada) 
Storage: Seagate  1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive  ($88.75 @ shopRBC) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card  ($139.99 @ NCIX) 
Case: Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($58.13 @ DirectCanada) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12G 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($94.98 @ Newegg Canada) 
Total: $762.77
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-14 15:59 EDT-0400

[Cepheus_001]

Thanks for giving me a breakdown streetguru!

[brob]

1 hour ago, Slayerstealth said:

Let me put this straight(I'm not trying to be rude). This is my first build. What I want to know is what graphics cars would be nice from AMD, and the worse ones from AMD. I would like a bit of a overview of the situation to understand if I should go there or not for the specifications I want. thank you!

 

Also, I would like pointers, not a entire "turn around" of the computer I put out on PC Part Picker.

Post the permalink for your partpicker list. Better yet, click on the [bb] button above the list and copy & paste the result.

[Cepheus_001]

I'm just gonna slap down what kind of info I want on my post.

 

- I do not want a complete new build list.

- I want to find these parts within my country, Canada(Cuz of the Canadian dollar)

- I would REALLY LIKE TO KNOW if my original build is still sound if there are not CHEAPER PARTS.

-I'm REALLY looking for pointers and relevant information towards my build.

 

I'm very happy with the support I'm getting, so thank-you very much!

 

- Cheers!

 

[Cepheus_001]

Here is a re-cap on specs...

[brob]

2 hours ago, Slayerstealth said:

Here is a re-cap on specs...

...

Post the pcpartlist permalink. The picture does not provide enough data for reasonable comments.

[Cepheus_001]

Lol. How do I do that? Anyways, I would like to know if these parts I have are compatible at least. Thank-you!

[Cepheus_001]

Lemme just update - If you find something on Amazon or eBay. That's oK too. I just prefer not to deal with shipping because it's exoensive and I find it a little untrustworthy.

[brob]

3 hours ago, Slayerstealth said:

Lol. How do I do that? Anyways, I would like to know if these parts I have are compatible at least. Thank-you!

Two ways. Just above the build list on the left is a field labeled Permalink, copy and paste the contents. Or, click on the [bb] button (toolbar, center above list), copy & paste the result.

[GTRetro87]

I think that's not a bad parts list for a budget build honestly. 
 

I do personally feel you should upgrade the GPU. Rule of thumb for Nvidia GTX cards is, don't choose below anything "60" series as in don't choose 650 or lower, or 750 or lower. You could get a GTX 750 Ti is not a bad card and it's affordable, I just feel like you could get better but that's up to you and how you're going to use your PC essentially. If you could find a used GTX 760, 780, or even a 970; that would be ideal compared to the GTX 740. (Btw, food for thought, a GTX 970 is a very power efficient card compared to say a GTX 780 TI.. and very overclockable).

 

Movies, web browsing, this build with the GTX 740 should be just fine. But if you're gaming? Up it a bit in the GPU department. The CPU should work nicely though, I can't see that being bad right now. 

 

 

 

Also the power supply, their not THAT bad, but you could also go better there. I highly highly highly recommend EVGA supernovas for a nice long lasting power supply

 

 

One thing I also recommend is getting yourself a cheap SSD. Like a Kingston 120GB SSD or cheaper, that's what I've got in my PC. I installed my OS (Windows 7 64-bit Pro) on that and it boots up instantaneously and is extremely SNAPPY. Then I would use the HDD you have on your list as the secondary drive where you store ALL of your programs, games, whatever. 

 

SSD for operating system only, HDD for everything else only -- this way you keep costs down. 

 

 

 

If you're already willing to spend almost $700 (though I'm sure you're going to find all the parts the cheapest way possible), you might as well add the extras I've suggested and upgrade the GPU. One thing to keep in mind, take your time getting parts if you want to save money, that was my biggest mistake -- I could've hit deals and savings left and right if I only waited a week or two for my local store to put plenty of stuff on sale (like my I7 4790k I could've gotten quite a few bucks off if I just waited)!!

 

Also, when it comes to building up a PC, let me reiterate the understanding of what you're using the PC for... cause if it's gaming, and you're not going to make the upgrades to the list, you will eventually have the urge to upgrade.

 

All I can say is that the power supply, CPU, and GPU upgrades made my Battlefield 4 on medium settings go from 60-70 FPS to 130-170 FPS lol... made me sleep at night

[Cepheus_001]

Thanks for the instructions Brob! I'll send it soon! Also thank you GTRetro! That really cleared some things up for me! I really appreciate the help

[Cepheus_001]

I'm not sure, but I think the Power Supply does not fit in the case. Maybe I can get a few suggestions for a new one, or maybe this one still fits? 0_o