Mid Budget Mini ITX build

[danielwalters1]

Hi everyone,

Please excuse my lack of knowledge as I am new to this

I am currently looking to construct a medium budget mini itx home media PC (less than £250-£300) using a case such as the Silverstone SG06S with 300W PSU.

However, I am unsure on what motherboard would be suitable for my needs. I plan to use an AMD A6 65w APU. I require a minimum of 3 USB ports, and at least 1 HDMI port + usual headphone jack etc. I also plan to install 4-8 GB of RAM, a slim optical drive and an SSD.

I would also like to have an internal Wi-Fi card without the needs for external antennas or dongles, however as yet I have not seen any that have this.

Any help or advice to suitable, affordable (less than £100) motherboards would be greatly appreciated. I also look forward to hearing any component recommendations you have.

Cheers all,

Dan

 

[younes-ea]

msi FM2-A55M-P33

It's a very nice motherboard and it has all the futures you need.
If you want wifi you can buy a cheap usb wifi modem or a pci wifi card.

 

[danielwalters1]

msi FM2-A55M-P33

It's a very nice motherboard and it has all the futures you need.
If you want wifi you can buy a cheap usb wifi modem or a pci wifi card.

Thanks for the advice it looks really good value for money. Apologies again for my lack of knowledge but would a pci wifi card require any external antenna?

Thanks,

Dan

 

[younes-ea]

look at here:https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQml-kW_3JYb1g9iZUdoqL815qV3qbLjd6ca7HE_0s1uSvc5GXw
It will look like that. If you dont want that you can always buy a usb wifi modem for 15 pound

 

[danielwalters1]

look at here:https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQml-kW_3JYb1g9iZUdoqL815qV3qbLjd6ca7HE_0s1uSvc5GXw
It will look like that. If you dont want that you can always buy a usb wifi modem for 15 pound

Thanks for that. I really wanted a clean look but I shouldn't have no problem with a single antenna. The only thing I noticed about that motherboard was that it didn't seem to have any HDMI port (although 6 USB slots would be fantastic.

 

[younes-ea]

Yeah most mini-its motherboards don't heave hdmi 🙁
but the ms FM2-A75IA-E53 heaves it
Same brand same futures only a better chipset

 

[younes-ea]

And the msi FM2-A75IA-E53 has build in wifi !


If you think an answer was usefull please select it as a answer

 

[Sangeet Khatri]

For 300 pounds, this is the best HTPC you can build. When you have extra money add another 4GB RAM and make that 8GB. That would be the one to go with. This build shall be just fine for HTPC. Believe me even the A4 is fine for HTPC unless you are gaming in it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A6-5400K 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£46.67 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: MSI FM2-A75IA-E53 Mini ITX FM2 Motherboard (£63.59 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£16.47 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£43.19 @ Aria PC)
Case: Silverstone SST-GD05B-USB3.0 (Black) HTPC Case (£76.86 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£34.99 @ Maplin Electronics)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£13.15 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £294.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-13 12:02 BST+0100)

If you think that the answer helped, then don't forget to select it as the best answer. It would be highly appreciated by me.

 

[danielwalters1]

Thanks all for your thoughts. I will select a solution in a minute. So am I correct in thinking that there is no way to achieve internal wireless like a laptop has?

Also, one other thing just saw the streacom f1 evo aluminium case. Very Mac esque! Am i correct that only a pico psu can be used for this, or can I use an alternative?

 

[Sangeet Khatri]

Wireless capability can be had for 8 dollars, so i think it is not a problem. You can get the wireless networking card at http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/tp-link-wireless-network-card-tlwn781nd for just about 8 dollars. So wireless networking is not a problem

 

[younes-ea]

Thanks all for your thoughts. I will select a solution in a minute. So am I correct in thinking that there is no way to achieve internal wireless like a laptop has?

Also, one other thing just saw the streacom f1 evo aluminium case. Very Mac esque! Am i correct that only a pico psu can be used for this, or can I use an alternative?

Well the 2nd mobo that i did suggest has build in wifi so no external card needed just like a laptop.
the msi FM2-A75IA-E53

 

[danielwalters1]

Thanks all for your thoughts. I will select a solution in a minute. So am I correct in thinking that there is no way to achieve internal wireless like a laptop has?

Also, one other thing just saw the streacom f1 evo aluminium case. Very Mac esque! Am i correct that only a pico psu can be used for this, or can I use an alternative?

Well the 2nd mobo that i did suggest has build in wifi so no external card needed just like a laptop.
the msi FM2-A75IA-E53

Yeah it looks really good and I will likely take that option. I understand that it has a wifi card but I will still have to use an external antenna??

Also, if I opted for a cheaper motherboard without a built in wifi and bluetooth card, could I still use a wifi dongle and bluetooth dongle for my mouse and keyboard etc?

 

[younes-ea]

Thanks all for your thoughts. I will select a solution in a minute. So am I correct in thinking that there is no way to achieve internal wireless like a laptop has?

Also, one other thing just saw the streacom f1 evo aluminium case. Very Mac esque! Am i correct that only a pico psu can be used for this, or can I use an alternative?

Well the 2nd mobo that i did suggest has build in wifi so no external card needed just like a laptop.
the msi FM2-A75IA-E53

Yeah it looks really good and I will likely take that option. I understand that it has a wifi card but I will still have to use an external antenna??

Also, if I opted for a cheaper motherboard without a built in wifi and bluetooth card, could I still use a wifi dongle and bluetooth dongle for my mouse and keyboard etc?

no you don't need an antenna as far as I know.

if they heave a usb bleuthooth and a wifi usb then yes