Help building mini-media center PC.

[IllegalEagle]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
This is going to be a media center PC. I hope to have it connected to a TV in the next room. I hope to stream via the network 1080p and 720p video from my main rig to the TV. I prefer the PC be as simple as possible. No optical drive is needed, a large HDD is unnecessary (Just one large enough to boot Windows, nothing else will be installed) I was thinking about a Z68 setup with using the onboard GPU. Quiet, cheap, low power. Less is more.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Under $500 would be ideal but in reality the cheaper the better.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
New York, NY.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Smaller the better case
CPU
RAM - 4GB? 2GB?
Mobo
HDD/SSD - Smaller the better? 10-20GB.
Power Supply - Low power. 300w? Maybe less if possible?

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
No parts will be reused.

6) Will you be overclocking?
If possible, but only if necessary. I'm not too sure a 2500 or something similar could run 1080p video.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1920x1080, for use on a plasma TV.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next 2-3 months, but I'd like to start planning now.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? etc.
Ideally it's a mini/micro board with onboard WiFi. If not, I can get a mini-adapter just the same.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I have Windows 7 Professional x64

 

[Dangman]

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next 2-3 months, but I'd like to start planning now.

Planning now isn't going to help you that much considering that a bunch of new parts are slated to be released in the next two months. While there might not be cheap Ivy Bridge CPUs in a few months, there will however be better (well hopefully better) mITX motherboards using the new chipsets. If rumors are to be believed, AMD's Trinity platform, assuming that it actually yields a significant performance increase over the current SB based Intel Pentium CPUs and cheap AMD GPUs combo, is due out around mid-2012. Then there's the normal "parts becoming out of stock, out of date, overpriced, or outperformed" in a short amount of time deal. So you're better off planning a build when you're roughly 2-3 weeks away from buying. That way you can have an up to date build list with little trouble/work


With that said, if you were building this month, I'd recommend the following setup:
$70 - Intel Pentium G620 CPU
$90 - Asus P8H61-I (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
$20 - G.Skill F3-10666CL9S-2GBNT 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$91 - Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SSD
$105 - Silverstone SG05-B mITX Case with FSP SFX 300W PSU
-----
Total: $376 shipped

Notes:
- The above setup may not be the same setup I'd recommend two months from now let alone three.
- Unfortunately, when it comes to SSDs, smaller is not better: The smaller SSDs tends to be of lower quality, lower performance, lower reliability, and honestly not priced well for their size. That 64GB SSD is the right balance of quality, performance, reliability and price.
- Since you're not overclocking, no real reason to go Z68 for a mITX setup.

 

[jsteinm1]

I just did a build in a similar price range using the AMD A6-3500. Overall very happy with that CPU/GPU and think it was a great deal.For planning I would recommend that or possibly something better as new stuff or lower prices roll out in the next 2-3 months.

For the SSD, I agree with Danny. For the price a 60-64GB (on sale) is nearly the same as a 32GB. I picked up an OCZ Agility 3 60GB for $60 for mine off newegg. The Crucial drives were also running about $1/GB a while back on sale as well. That's something you could start watching for once you're about a month out on building since technology won't change a ton there over that short of time.

For RAM: I say 4GB. Getting less might save you $2, not worth it. 4GB is cheap and should be more than enough. Also, look for 1600 low latency RAM if you find a good price. For AMD APUs the speed helps, or you can always drop to 1333 and lower the latency even more.

For the PSU, I bought a Corsair CX430. They were recently $17 on newegg after MIR, but still a reliable PSU. 430W is way overkill but its hard to even find less in a reliable brand. Your best bet is a ~400W ATX PSU if your case has room for it, or look into a 200W pico PSU if you have that small of a case.