Budget HTPC Gaming PC

[Tim Humphreys]

I am looking to build an HTPC that I can still game with on a budget. Mt plan is an I-5 4690K processor, with a Radeon R9 270 GPU. My question is is there an inexpensive decent looking HTPC case that will allow for these components and still keep it cool enough for gaming?

 

[Outlander_04]

The i5 is much more processor power than you need to get the best from the R9 270 . To save heat and power you could switch to an i3

Silverstones GD05 , 06 , 07 ,08 depending on looks and whether you are using ATX or m-ATX board all have good cooling .
Not entirely cheap though .
And the HTPC format limits the cpu cooler choice , so OC's on a K sku i5 would be limited

 

[filippi]

+1 Outlander_04. A $100/54W-tdp i3-4150 is a great option for your HTPC.

 

[Tim Humphreys]

My thought with the I5 is that when it comes time to replace the GPU, my processor is still up to snuff with gaming requirements. If I downgrade, you would recommend the I3 over say an AMD FX 6300? Also I found this case and think it might be a solution. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119292

 

[filippi]

For a HTPC its haswell i3 over any fx amd.

 

[Outlander_04]

There are no good mb's in m-ATX size for AMD FX

The i3 wins too when you factor in the much lower power draw . I do not know any quiet low profile coolers that can handle the heat of a quad or X6 .
I used a Pentium G3220 in my HTPC build and a Noctua NH-l12 with the top fan removed . Working very well in a silverstone GD05

 

[mdocod]

The i5 is much more processor power than you need to get the best from the R9 270 . To save heat and power you could switch to an i3

Wrong.

The execution performance required of the CPU to play a game at a particular frame rate is very nearly the same regardless of which GPU is selected. (except in cases where the driver/API overhead changes with a different GPU).

Doesn't matter if we use an R7 260X or an R9 280X. Both can play most games at 1080P@60hz. The difference is that the former will do so with low or no AA, and low-medium detail settings, the latter will do it with AA and high-ultra settings. In either case, whatever CPU is required to achieve the goal FPS remains the same.

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Tim,

My advise is to select your CPU based on your FPS goals in the games you want to run on this machine. Attempting to "match" the CPU to the GPU, rather than to the compute workload, is a fundamentally flawed approach to selecting computer hardware. If you want to maintain 60FPS in compute intensive games like BF4 multi-player, you'll want the i5 in there regardless of what GPU is selected.

FYI: The R7 250X, R9 270, and R9 290, can all play BF4 at 60FPS but with different visual quality settings.

Performance originates with the CPU, not the GPU. The CPU workload for a given FPS can not be "adjusted" up and down with settings, the GPU workload can.

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The only way to adjust the execution requirements for a given FPS in a particular game is to change the API, or the driver. If you want to be able to drop from an i5 to an i3 without a performance penalty in compute intensive games, you'd have to use Mantle or Nvidia's proprietary DX11 enhanced drivers.

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IMO, the GTX760 ITX from MSI would make the better HTPC GPU for a compact case at this time. The short length gives you more options for cases, and Kepler cards have better video decoder hardware than AMD cards. The reduced overhead of the driver for DX11 titles would just be icing on the cake, and while that would allow a reduction in CPU to achieve similar results, I would actually advice an E3-1231V3 for an HTPC as it would give the machine more flexibility in terms of doing streaming/captures as well as making it better suited to transcoding a video collection to the HTPC for instant-access.

For the

 

[Outlander_04]

Id suggest you match the power and heat , and subsequent noise , to the environment you are going to use the computer in .

If you want a compact HTPC case and for it to be near silent while you watch a movie you will have to make compromises on the processor and graphics card. If you use an R9 270 , you will not get a huge increase in game performance switching from an i3 to an i5 as you would with a more powerful graphics card . Probably you would get no increase in game performance at all .
Where you draw the line is dependent on how you intend to use the pc .

 

[mdocod]

Outlander is basing his assumptions of performance and the relationship between the CPU and GPU on the same sort of reference that is used to generate GPU benchmarks. Those repeatable conditions in single player sequences, with graphical details fixed across all GPUs and set higher than most of the GPUs in the comparison would be comfortable to play at anyway. The problem with this assumption, is that in the real world, you're going to adjust the visual quality to get the frame rate you are comfortable with regardless of what GPU is in the machine. Furthermore, the compute workload in real world conditions is always much higher than in those repeatable "sequences" used for bench-marking.

If you go with Outlanders suggestion on the i3, you'll have ~30FPS minimums caused by the CPU bottleneck in compute intensive DX11 games with ANY GCN GPU. By contrast, in many of those same games, the i5 will maintain ~50FPS minimums, again, the GPU doesn't matter at this point because whatever GPU you buy, you are libel to adjust visual quality settings to get into that comfortable 50-60+FPS territory that most gamers shoot for regardless. The i5 can play BF3/BF4 and other compute intensive multiplayer games at ~50FPS minimums on the DX11 API with GCN hardware, the i3 can not. The only way you WON'T experience the difference between the i3 and i5 in these conditions is if you intend to bury the compute bottleneck under a render throughput bottleneck at 30FPS regardless. If the goal is to produce a machine that can do ultra quality at 1080P, then the i3 is a great CPU selection for the 270X, as the effect of the i3 will be buried under a GPU bottleneck limited to ~30FPS anyway. If the goal is to get 60FPS@1080P, then you can buy any GPU you want from about a GTX750Ti/R7 260X up to a flagship GPU, they can all do 1080P@60FPS. The difference will be the visual quality. However, the i3 will dip much lower than the goal FPS much more often than the i5, and there is nothing you can do to solve this with "settings."

 

[Outlander_04]

You type a lot , but say very little