Gaming Mini-Pc For Tv.

fustrun

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Feb 3, 2012
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Hey guys !
I want to put a mini pc or a nettop in my living room since my samsung SMART tv is pretty dumb 😛
I would like to play HD videos and movies that i will be streaming from a NAS but i would also like it to pack a punch when it comes to gaming, i am pretty new to this "Mini Pc" field and especially when it comes to mobile GPU's now what i have seen is that most of them come with either an Intel HD 4000 gpu or a Nvidia ION GPU, what would run better on a i5 or i7 processor.
Having poking around i found this - http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4581#ov
Basically i prefer something small but if it's bigger it's not too bad as long as i can lay it down on a shelf (A4 size or PS3 thin size) would be ok.

Thank you !
 
If your planning a gaming htpc, I would have to recommend an AMD 6800K APU over anything Intel can offer at the minute when it come to graphics and it's true the Intel cpu is superior to AMD, 6800k will easily meet your needs..

So with a mini itx motherboard you could easily build yourself a small compact pc
 
The i5/i7 series are great processors, but for your purposes are complete overkill. They do pack a punch in gaming if paired with a powerful discrete graphics card. Both intel's HD 4000 and Nvidia's ION are very weak graphics solutions, and the intel processors would be wasted for gaming with them.

This build has the best integrated graphics around. I included a blu-ray reader, and and SSD large enough to hold the OS and some games as well. I'll post a build with discrete graphics later.

I used a 1x8gb module instead of 2x4's in case you ever wanted to store something besides movies on your NAS, using the machine as a file server. The machine takes a very slight gaming hit in exchange for the ability to expand to 16gb RAM (better for file server) later. Also it was cheaper :)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-6800K 4.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($143.98 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M-ITX Mini ITX FM2 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: AMD 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($44.54 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Sandisk 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($34.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: Pioneer BDC-207DBK Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($45.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)

Total: $574.44
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
 
The discrete card build here is much more powerful for gaming, and also has a longer CPU upgrade path in exchange for using considerably more electricity and suffering a very slight versatility loss (dual core CPU below with more powerful individual cores as opposed to quad above with weaker individual cores).

(the integrated graphics build above will use 144w peak, the discrete system below will use 239w)

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Pentium G860 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($67.99 @ Mac Mall)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H61N-USB3 Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: AMD 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($44.54 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Sandisk 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($34.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: Pioneer BDC-207DBK Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($45.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)

Total: $608.44
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
 
So the gigabyte box i linked is a waste of money ? i thought the more powerfull the processor the more powerful the GPU becomes since their integrated together . .
@quilciri thanks for the time for the build but it's too big, and would propably run very hot, i want to put it behind the TV or hide it in a drawer.
Another example of the size would be this, http://www.zotacusa.com/zbox-ad03-blu-ray.html

Thank you again for your answers !