Greetings!
Recently, my friend wanted me to spec a budget system (using Newegg) for his eight-year-old son, but decided not to pull the trigger right now.
No longer being a "computer guy," I had fun designing the system with the help of the [H]. It's been maybe a decade since I was interested in computers.
Anyway, I've about talked myself into a budget HTPC build. I have a large, new-ish LG HDTV. It's at home, and I can't recall the exact model or even size. Of course, it has HDMI ports. Hooked up to it, I have an Xbox 360 that I almost never play.
My friends and I play MW3 and Black Ops on it, but I'm far from a gamer. I play very few modern games and I only play them rarely, so there's no reason to throw me in with the console-gamer culture.
What I want is a small computer that looks like just another appliance -- glossy black with few lights and buttons and such. I want it to play DVD and Blu-ray disks so that it can replace my budget player.
I probably won't play many first-person shooters or other high-end games, but I may venture into the world of Skyrim or Dark Souls. Since I'm accustomed to console graphics, I won't need a system that can run games ultra-high settings at super-high resolutions.
But, I want it to still be a nice system in four or five years, so updatability is a bonus.
I'm absolutely sold on this Sugo Series SG05BB-450 case. It looks great -- though why the heck did they put a white fan in it?!
That all said, I filled out the questionnaire:
Here's what a little time at Newegg got me:
Whew! That comes to $1,245 without shipping and I've probably forgotten things. That's bit bit over budget... Chopping off $400 would make that an easier pill to swallow.
Not sure what solid-state drive I should get. The SSD market right now is just screwed up. The Cherryville drives sound great, but they are crazy expensive. I'd like to keep it under $250 for the SSD.
I didn't do much research on the RAM, either. I've never built a DDR3 system, and I don't know what today's players are putting out. Would there be a noticeable difference between 2x4GB and 2x8GB? What is the fast RAM timings now?
Thanks for reading and for all your build suggestions!
-Sharpe
Recently, my friend wanted me to spec a budget system (using Newegg) for his eight-year-old son, but decided not to pull the trigger right now.
No longer being a "computer guy," I had fun designing the system with the help of the [H]. It's been maybe a decade since I was interested in computers.
Anyway, I've about talked myself into a budget HTPC build. I have a large, new-ish LG HDTV. It's at home, and I can't recall the exact model or even size. Of course, it has HDMI ports. Hooked up to it, I have an Xbox 360 that I almost never play.
My friends and I play MW3 and Black Ops on it, but I'm far from a gamer. I play very few modern games and I only play them rarely, so there's no reason to throw me in with the console-gamer culture.
What I want is a small computer that looks like just another appliance -- glossy black with few lights and buttons and such. I want it to play DVD and Blu-ray disks so that it can replace my budget player.
I probably won't play many first-person shooters or other high-end games, but I may venture into the world of Skyrim or Dark Souls. Since I'm accustomed to console graphics, I won't need a system that can run games ultra-high settings at super-high resolutions.
But, I want it to still be a nice system in four or five years, so updatability is a bonus.
I'm absolutely sold on this Sugo Series SG05BB-450 case. It looks great -- though why the heck did they put a white fan in it?!
That all said, I filled out the questionnaire:
- Gaming -- Some, but gaming won't be the main priority of this system. I will move to the new Xbox when it debuts.
- Photoshop -- Both PS and Gimp, yes. Often, maybe. The ability to work with 4,000x4,000-pixel images will be needed.
- Overclocking -- No. None.
- Web browsing -- Often, yes.
- HTPC/Playback -- Yes, and this will be important as I would like this to replace my existing Blu-ray and DVD player both.
- What's your budget? -- About $999 for the box, not including software, speakers, cables, peripherals, etc.
- Is cost a driving factor in component selection? -- No more than it is for any other wage slave.
- Do you have any big computer chains nearby? -- Nope. I'd prefer this entire build to come from Newegg.
- What exact parts do you need for that budget? -- If it's in the case, I need it. The box will use no existing parts. Case/PS, CPU, mobo, RAM, video card, sound card (?), SSD, HDD, Blu-ray reader, DVD reader/writer, etc.
- What specific features do you need in a motherboard? -- The ability to support nearly all currently standard tech is required: RAID, Crossfire or SLI support, USB 3.0, SATA 6G, etc.
- Which is more important, size of the system or having the particular feature? -- Ouch. That's a tough one. If I had the measurements of the shelf space under my TV, I'd be able to provide exact maximum size specifications. I'll come back to this when I get a chance.
- What resolution output do you need? -- My TV supports 1080p and Blu-ray looks awesome on it, so awesome that I'm completely spoiled by it. I dislike going to the movie theater now and am enraged when an older, but popular movie isn't made available in it!
- Do you need multiple monitor output? -- I don't need it, but it would be nice.
- How comfortable are you with custom case modification and electrical wiring? -- I'm not at all.
- How important is the noise/silence of this sytem? -- It's probably not too important as the computer will be behind a glass door inside a cabinet.
- How mobile does this system need to be? -- It doesn't need to be mobile.
- Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? -- No. I'd like to move to Windows 8 when it debuts. Until then, I'll stick with Windows 7 64bit.
- When do you plan on building/buying the PC? -- In no more than a couple months.
Here's what a little time at Newegg got me:
- SILVERSTONE Sugo Series SG05BB-450 ALL Black Plastic / SECC Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case with SFX 450W 80+ Bronze Certified / Single +12V rail Power Supply -- $119.99
- ASRock Z68M-ITX/HT LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard -- $119.99;
- Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I52500 -- $209.99;
- CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile Desktop Memory Model CML8GX3M2A1600C9 -- $49.99;
- EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1461-KR GeForce GTX 560 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card-- $199.99;
- Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW120A3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) -- $239.99;
- Western Digital Caviar Black WD1502FAEX 1.5TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive -- $169.99;
- Sony Optiarc Black 4.8X BD-ROM 8X DVD-ROM 24X CD-ROM SATA Slim Internal 12.7mm Slot Blu-ray Combo Model BC-5650H-01 -- $134.99.
Whew! That comes to $1,245 without shipping and I've probably forgotten things. That's bit bit over budget... Chopping off $400 would make that an easier pill to swallow.
Not sure what solid-state drive I should get. The SSD market right now is just screwed up. The Cherryville drives sound great, but they are crazy expensive. I'd like to keep it under $250 for the SSD.
I didn't do much research on the RAM, either. I've never built a DDR3 system, and I don't know what today's players are putting out. Would there be a noticeable difference between 2x4GB and 2x8GB? What is the fast RAM timings now?
Thanks for reading and for all your build suggestions!
-Sharpe
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