Advice on building Micro PC for music, video, streaming etc

[i6pwr]

My criteria is:

Easily portable
1080P graphics output for TV streaming
Storage for music, movies, 2-3TB drives with redundancy

My desktop PC (Sniper) is just too cumbersome to move around, I feel I can get more from a Micro size case than a laptop or am I wrong in thinking this?

I would like to have a system I can play all my music, hi res files and maybe some DSD conversions, as well as maybe even a few games on my Plasma TV.

I have an i5 processor laying around looking for some work, I was thinking a Micro ATX with graphics card small enough and capable enough.

I believe a desktop will be far cheaper to build, trying to capitalize on this weekends sales.

All input and criticism appreciated.

 

[tsnor]

What generation i5?

Get a video card with 4K acceleration like GT 1030. If you are not gaming this will handle streaming up to 4K. 3D unit is too slow for gaming.

Plenty of "lan party" cases that are easy to move around if you plan to do this often.

Get two 3tb drives in the case set up with windows "Storage Spaces". This gives you protection against single drive failure. You may want to look at 4TB to 6TB drives vs 3TB. See the additional cost vs space trade-off. (note I use both "Storage Spaces" and an external HW raid5 array. Given size of drives today and cost of a good hw raid setup, using two drives mirrored of the right size seems to make more sense. Having windows duplicate the data vs quasi-HW raid like intel chipset raid (IMO) makes things easier on a failure.) I'd also throw in a cheap 240gb SSD as a boot device.

Laptop would work except for the redundant 3GB drive requirement. You'd need to use external storage which would be a real pain if you moved things around. Laptops that meet your needs are QUIET, low power and cheap. They start at $300 at best buy.

You can use Linux MINT or other distribution if you want. That would change your approach to storage duplication. I use both Mint and Windows and would spend the money for a windows licence for this use. (example, my PLEX server is windows based). Others would save the $$ and be happy on Linux.

Final thought, MANY intel 3rd gen and later SFF business desktop refurbs on the market with win10 licences cheap. If your i5 is old you might do better with a SFF pre-built, adding in a low profile gt 1030. Just make sure you can stuff two drives in the case (one can go in the external bay if you don't need a DVD drive.

 

[i6pwr]

Sorry, the i5 is a 3450.

 

[tsnor]

Sorry, the i5 is a 3450.

not a bad i5. Plenty strong enough for your use case.