Hey Chaps, I opened a thread earlier in the month regarding a new build, however my circumstances have changed. Budget: £450 - £500 for PC + £400 for TV display. Main uses of intended build: I will be moving home in a few months, and will be living in a smallish flat. This PC is going to be permanently seated by the TV as sadly I won't have room for a desk any more. The PC will be used for a little gaming but only games suitable for playing on the couch with a gaming pad of sorts, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this too as this is something I need to look into. Parts required: I can zombie from my current system the following parts. Zotac GTX 560 Ti AMP! OCZ 240GB Vertex 3 1TB WD Cav Black OCZ GameExtreme 650W PSU (will this fit in a mircoATX profile case) Usual mouse and keyboard peripherals. Starting off I need a small case, I don't like the expense or the appearance of HTPC cases, coupled with cooling performance worries I felt that a Fractcal Arc Mini might be better suited to my needs as I plan on installing an aftermarket CPU cooler. Any recommnedations on what would fit, I have concerns some larger ones might not fit in the arc mini. I also need advice on a great preforming Mobo I was looking at the Asus P8P67-M PRO which wiould pair quite nicely with the i5 2500k I was planning on buying. Last but perhaps most importantly can anyone recommed a freeview HD tuner? not sure how much room i will have after installing my GFX & wireless lan card on the inside of the case so im probably looking for a small or discreet external device. Monitor resolution: I will be running at full 1080p on a 42 inch tv. Storage requirements: I will be storing full quality DVDs and Blurays on my PC but already own multiple drives, see above Will you be overclocking: yes Any comments or tweaks let me know!
What about a silverstone fto3 if you are willing to pay the price of that+slot loading drive. Do you need a blu ray drive?
I hadn't thought about a bluray drive, however as I only own one blu ray disk atm its not a priority! Thats a beautiful case and wouldnt look out of place next to a huge TV either, I'll consider it if I have some of my budget left over
It's just that being a htpc you might end up watching blu rays. And a slimline bluray drive will be pretty expensive.
I'm all for HTPCs, but have you considered a PS3 with Play TV? If your going to be treating your PC like a console, you may be better off with a console. Also you get to splash more cash on a TV.
I like the flexibility of a PC as well as the ability to rip my content to drives, as storage space in my flat will be an issue I cant have stacks of dvd cases. My library is pretty extensive and think that a NAS box would be pointless in a flat of its size.
Ah, fair enough. I assumed you had a laptop that could be used for ripping and stuff. My htpc is only a htpc so I run off the i3's GPU which is fine for bluray, but not great for games. As far as tv tuner goes, I have no complaints from my Kworld internal card (also has a low profile bracket). Cheaper but not as good for media. PS3 gets 4OD, iplayer, itv player, web browser and Dlan. Xbox gets the ability to be a noisy media centre extender.
Yeah sadly no laptop, yet! I will look into that internal tuner, I just realised I would be able to connect to the net via ethernet cable so I would have space for the tuner. So my last big question stands, can anyone recommend a cpu cooler, I fear the dark rock advance is too big for the arc mini case by at least 1mm which is a crying shame, what should i look at instead? I am intending to o/c but i want a quiet machine so the reference coolers are a no go. Anyone got a arc mini case that can comment, or at least a similarly sized case.
