New Emulation Mini-ITX/NUC build

R

ras2a

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 14, 2006
Messages
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1. What will you be doing with this PC? Primarily Emulation first and foremost with a little light Steam gaming. I've got a dedicated gaming rig but figured it woukd be nice to play some less graphically intensive titles... rayman, walking dead etc.

2. Will you be overclocking? (If so, are you looking to watercool?). Nope

3. What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included in this budget? Is your budget flexible? £500ish

4. Where do you live? UK ...Scan / Overclockers are my preferred suppliers, but anywhere that sells the right parts really

5. What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. VESA mountable case with PSU that can accomodate mini ITX mobo, 2.5" SSD (60-120GB), Intel or AMD CPU/APU with half decent integrated graphics, cooler, RAM, Wireless card

6. If reusing any parts, what parts will you be rusing... all new parts here

7. What specific features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Thunderbolt? Crossfire or SLI support? 2-4 USB, 1-2 SATA

8. What resolution output do you need? 720-1080p

9. Does this system need to fit into a particular space and do you need an optical drive? No optical drive needeed. Want to mount the case on the back of a TV so case needs to be compact

10. How comfortable are you with custom case design/modification and electrical wiring? Would much prefer an off the shelf case... dont have time for customizations.

11. How important is the noise/silence of this sytem? As quiet as it can be but I'm not particularly precious about the noise... it wont be a deal breaker if theres noise as long as it doesnt sound like a hoover!

12. How mobile does this system need to be? Its not moving once in place

13. Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? Win 7 64... OS is covered.

14. When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Wanna buy bits and complete build by end of this June

Thank you all

Ras
 
Last edited:
Hi all

Sorry ive just seen the sticky for the questions I should be asking. I'll revise this post shortly

Thanks
 
While Amazon Fire TV is basically everything the Ouya should have been, you added the criteria of playing Steam games while being quiet...

All the NUC/Brix capable of gaming are all too loud.

While I would like to recommend getting a Streacom case like the F1C, I just think you might wait a year or two...
 
CHANG3D said:
All the NUC/Brix capable of gaming are all too loud.
Click to expand...

I can definitely attest to the brix pro being too loud.

Thing runs like a hair dryer for almost anything you start beyond the desktop in idle mode.

Really frustrated with it...Was looking forward to such micro systems.
 
Yeah I've heard the same about the Brix, though the NUC is a lot quieter. Again, not 'too' bothered by a bit of noise. The NUC will no doubt do what I want for emulating most systems but it would be nice to have a blast on Steam with some modest games. I think I can do this without dedicated GPU, but what are my options for integrated graphics? HD4000/5000/AMD APU...
 
pheonix991 said:
Grab a low end i3 and an r9 270. Should be good to go with light gaming.
Click to expand...
I can attest to this. I've been nothing but pleased with my setup (see sig, quoted for your convenience/mobile version). Different GPU, but essentially a low-mid level rig that allows me to play most any emu without hiccup. I've never hooked up a kill-a-watt, but I suspect the power draw is relatively conservative as well.

CMadki4 signature: said:
TheSteamBox | i3-3220 | NH-9Li | ASrock H67M-ITX | GTX660ti 2GB SC | 250GB 840 SSD | M3A2
Click to expand...
 
Thanks chaps.. limited on space which is why I want to be able to mount this on the back of a TV. So that rules out a discrete GPU really?
 
ras2a said:
Thanks chaps.. limited on space which is why I want to be able to mount this on the back of a TV. So that rules out a discrete GPU really?
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. I know emu is primarily CPU-intensive. At one point I experimented by removing my GPU and running Dolphin. It ran without any noticeable difference. May depend on the graphics plugins selected. Seems like an i5 would be great, packed into a little Wesena/Realan/EcoPC case. A 160W picoPSU should be able to power it without issue along with a small fan and SSD.
 
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