Hardware Build your own Steam Box

Instead of a low profile cooler, I'd go for a side blowing one like this, orientated to blow out of the holes just next to the cpu socket. It would have the advantage of pulling air over the chipset heatsink as well.
I'm pretty sure it would fit, (after 10 mins reading through Intel's LGA1155 spec sheet).

 

I especially like the part where the author complains about the i5 2400 vs 2400S. As if lowering the Vcore is so difficult. Yes, the only difference between them is the voltage. What a surprise eh?

 

Well despite the negative feedback I thought it was quite interesting, hell it is able to play games at higher detail than the 360 can and it is still much more versatile due to its core i5 CPU. Job well done I'd say!

 

Considering it's about £300 more expensive than a 360, I should bloody well hope so

 

Me too, and it's great for watching all the films that are saved on my server on my HDTV in surround sound

 

Quite an interesting article really, showing that most games don't need a fully fledged pc to run decently.
A good comparison would be the image quality difference between the 'steam box' and a PS3/xbox.

 

Yeah, this... seriously who wrote this and thought they'd done a good job? Terrible component selection, personally I think it would be much better if you went up to micro ATX, would allow much better flexibility and still wouldn't take up much space.

 

The idea was to try to make it in the form factor of the steam box/alienware x51, not a powerful pc.

 

Great article. Hopefully this will let component manufacturers know that there is a market for small powerful stuff

 

Move to the Bitfenix Prodigy. Sorted.

 

I enjoyed the article. The author has conceded that some of the component choices were less than perfect, but this is essentially a build log with some benchies at the end, done in the style of an article. So I don't find it as offensive as some others on here.

 

Im doing something similar, except its going to be a case mod.
Ill be using the case from an original Xbox to house a H61M-ITX, i3-2100, 4gb ram, GTX 550ti and two 2.5" drives.
Im hoping to upgrade the CPU down the line to a i5 sandy or ivy.
The power supply is a 400w 1U and will be external.
It will be used as a HTPC and LAN gaming box.
Hopefully ill be creating a project log once i get the last of my components.

 

Not sure why the article featured the Intel CPU when the build centered around integrated graphics. AMD's APUs, even the lower end A6-3500, blow the Intel on-board graphics out of the water.

I've been putting together a list of parts for a SFF build as my "go to" when my friends/family want something cheap that works.

Fractal Design Core 1000 Case
Seasonic 430W PSU
MSI A55-M P33 Mobo
AMD A6-3500
4GB AMD 1333 RAM
Crucial M4 128 GB (No HDD by default. I change this depending on the needs of the user)
Sony optical drive
Wireless USB Adapter

This comes in at $386.94 on Newegg right now. I feel like this would be a superior steam/emulation box to the one in this article.

My own personal build is coming in at ~$430. I'm going for an ASRock ITX A75 Mobo with a Bit-Fenix Prodigy. That pushes up my costs, but since I already have RAM and a PSU I save a little money there.

 

Not that it comes cheap, but just a couple days ago [H] had a review for the Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe Mini-ITX. If you're going to lay out stupid cash for a Steam box, you might as well do it right and build a real PC.

Yeah, this is a bit worse than my desktop...but that cost around $400 total. If this build had showed up in the forums, it sure as hell wouldn't have landed a front page spot. Might have gotten a handful of gratz on someone's first modding project, but this being a top-line article is just silly.

 

I did the same thing. Built a low power PC for those older or undemanding games. Only I used some spare components I had lying around as well as some new stuff.

Silverstone Sugo SG06
AMD Athlon II X2 250e 3.0GHz @ 45w (passive cooled)
Zotac 9800GT Eco @ >70w (passive cooled)
J&W 785G mobo (passive cooled)
2 x DDR2 SODIMMs
1 x 750GB HDD

Cheaper, faster and cooler (and quieter!) than this build.
When the next generation GPUs come out and this generation stuff is cheap I'll be replacing the 9800GT with a passive HD7750, but that will be it. Anything newer/more demanding would be played on my gaming computer anyway.

 

I was just surprised that the integrated GT430 could actually accomplish better performance, considering console games are generally much more optimised for performance on the slower hardware it is quite interesting that a GT430 can surpass it. Perhaps it had a massive helping hand from the i5 though.

 

The same box that the Steam Box:

https://www.pulse-eight.com/store/products/99-q6-mini-itx-silver.aspx

I really love the idea to have a tiny PC to lauch all the game I loved to play. It's my next project.

 

[H]ardOCP has a review of that very board. An epic board

http://hardocp.com/article/2012/07/16/asus_p8z77i_deluxe_miniitx_motherboard_review

On another note, can you guys add a Steam Box as part of the buyers guide.

 

If you want to sit on your sofa and play games on your TV with an Xbox 360 controller...games that are, for the most part, poorly ported over FROM the Xbox 360 platform in the first place...why on Earth would you spend anywhere even close to £480 (plus the cost of the controller) when you could pick up an Xbox 360 for £130 (including a controller) to get practically the same experience???

Madness.

 

A fair question, but until Steam makes its way onto consoles there will be an awful lot of games on there that wouldn't be available on a 360/PS3.