mini itx pc build

[fozzer14]

Hi i am looking to build a mini itx pc for the living room. it will be used for running kodi browsing the web that sort of thing. my budget for this is £200-
£230 max.

any help much appreicated

thanks in advance

 

[Mikel_4]

At US$ 300 probably impossible unless you look from used or certified refurbished and use linux OS.

 

[fozzer14]

parts

Asus AM1I-A Socket AM1 VGA DVI HDMI 8-Channel HD Audio Mini ITX Motherboard


Corsair Vengeance 4GB DDR3 1600Mhz Memory Module CL9 1.5V

1

Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 2.5inch SSD


Corsair VS Series 350 Watt Power Supply



AMD Athlon 5150 1.6GHz Socket AM1 2MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor



Cooler Master Elite 110 Case "RC-110-KKN2, USB 3.0, Mini-ITX


all these part are £205.88 at amazon

would this be ok for a media center

 

[badboyrog2]

thats the best i can do

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Z22sm8
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Z22sm8/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£63.90 @ Eclipse Computers)
Motherboard: Asus H81I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (£54.98 @ Novatech)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£20.99 @ Novatech)
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£38.39 @ Novatech)
Case: Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX Tower Case (£36.48 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£49.99 @ Novatech)
Total: £264.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-14 19:02 GMT+0000

 

[fozzer14]

whats wrong with he parts i picked badboyrog2 thanks

 

[badboyrog2]

Corsair VS Series 350 Watt Power Supply ...JUNK PSU

Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 2.5inch SSD...JUNK SSD

AMD Athlon 5150 ... poor performer and high heat consumption

 

[fozzer14]

AMD APU Athlon 5350
Corsair CP-9020101-UK CX Series CX450M ATX
SanDisk SSD PLUS 120 GB

how qabout with thses changes

 

[badboyrog2]

CX450M ...good one
sandisk ssd plus ....did you tried with adata sp550 120 ssd?
athlon 5350 ...still amd apu low performer

 

[Mikel_4]

AMD APU Athlon 5350
Corsair CP-9020101-UK CX Series CX450M ATX
SanDisk SSD PLUS 120 GB

how qabout with thses changes

So you already own LCD, keyboard+mouse, speaker, and Windows?

 

[deadfish]

You dont need the latest and greatest at all.
I would buy all old stuff... you can run kodi on a 1.5 Intelchip if you wanted, all you really need is a decent videocard that plays 1080p at a minium... decent sound.. and probably about 4 gigs memory.

I would use OPENELEC for the OS. forget about using windows with this suggestion... so you can kiss off doing other things with it.. but you could drop in retro games.

 

[fozzer14]

mobo:http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/INTEL-DG41MJ-Mini-ITX-Motherboard-LGA775-Socket-T-E54659-205-REF-B187-/262692140458?hash=item3d29abf5aa:g:VjMAAOSwHMJYELgt


cpu:http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Pentium-D-915-2-8-GHz-Dual-Core-HH80553PG0724MN-775-LGA775-SL9DA-Processor-/192019800190?hash=item2cb545a07e:g:b-8AAOSw-kdXzxWH

ram:http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4GB-2-X-2GB-CRUCIAL-DDR2-800-PC2-6400-240-PIN-RAM-/182353842626?hash=item2a7522d1c2:g:FXIAAOSwux5YKchP

psu:http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Antec-TruePower-2-0-TPII-430-430W-ATX-Power-Supply-/302135706978?hash=item4658b10562:g:9GsAAOSwLnBX8DAI
gpu: Asus Nvidia GeForce GT 740 Graphics Card (2GB, DDR3, PCI Express 3.0 already own will this be ok wil it work with this board
ssd: Sandisk SSD Plus 120GB SATA III 2.5inch SSD


case:Cooler Master Elite 110 Case

would this be ok deadfish make any neccesary tweaks cheers

 

[deadfish]

You should be fine. Thats basically what I got but not a mini-itx DuaClore Intel overclocked to 3.5 4 gigs ram, xfx 780i motherboard and 4 gigs 800mhz ram.. gtx 560 frozn twin video card. It plays 1080p and thats good enough for me.
I would try and future proof your box and find a older motherboard with 1000 MB network card. but 10MB is fine... you dont have wifi on that board you picked.

 

[fozzer14]

Asus AM1I-A Socket AM1 VGA DVI HDMI 8-Channel HD Audio Mini ITX Motherboard


Corsair Vengeance 4GB DDR3 1600Mhz Memory Module CL9 1.5V

Cooler Master Elite 110 Case "RC-110-KKN2, USB 3.0, Mini-ITX


AMD APU Athlon 5350 Quad Core Processor


SanDisk SSD PLUS 120 GB

Silence 500W Black Edition ATX PC Power Supply PSU With 12CM Silent Fan

hi will this psu fit in the case it has a 180mm length limit thanks

 

[deadfish]

Honestly... I would get a Raspberry PI and be done with it.. for under $100.

 

[stree]

parts

Asus AM1I-A Socket AM1 VGA DVI HDMI 8-Channel HD Audio Mini ITX Motherboard


Corsair Vengeance 4GB DDR3 1600Mhz Memory Module CL9 1.5V

1

Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 2.5inch SSD


Corsair VS Series 350 Watt Power Supply



AMD Athlon 5150 1.6GHz Socket AM1 2MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor



Cooler Master Elite 110 Case "RC-110-KKN2, USB 3.0, Mini-ITX


all these part are £205.88 at amazon

would this be ok for a media center

You are tending to overspec this build, gives you no advantage and just costs you more than it needs to.
First of all, motherboard: The MSI MS1 will do all you need, well proven stable board, and cheap, plus it has a mini Pcie which Asus does not . Handy for wifi card etc.
5150..fine, if for browsing, undemanding video, netflix etc.. 5350 is more capable and not much more expensive. The savings you can make on the other hardware will more than soak up the extra cost of a 5350..
Stock cooler is fine, but Gelid do a fine AM1 cpu cooler.
Ram. First, the AM1 chipset cannot run any ram over 1333, so no point getting anything any faster, just go budget kingston, that will be more than adequate.One stick will be fine, no dual channel on AM1 chipsets either. I suggest Kingston 4GB 1333, get 2 if you think 8GB would be better...
SSD. again no need for latest fastest bells and whistles, there will be no discernible difference in use between highest and lowest spec SSD.shop on price,reputation and length of warranty, ignore performance levels. For this exercise I would go with Samsung 850 EVO 250GB, cheap enough, top quality brand and good management software free.
Power supply: Now this really sticks out to me as being misunderstood here.
Lets just look at what power the setup is likely to consume with maximum load..........
Athlon 5150 or 5350..(25 watts)
SSD EVO 850 250GB
Kingston DDR3 1333 4GB
Gelid slim silence cooler
MSIAM1 MB
if you run this through PCpartpicker you will get 79 watts.............repeat 79
So why oh why, a 450 or 500 watt power supply? When you see a TDP figure in watts related to a CPU, this is not the wattage it uses, it is its theoretical limit..... you are unlikely to ever ever get near that figure,
So for PSU just keep it simple and use a 120watt Pico.......easy, tiny cool and silent.
Cost? Careful shopping will see costs way under £200

 

[bahnstormer]

I just thought I'd share as I was looking to build something that would be able to play any media format with ease, plus later I wanted to be able to leave it encoding video's (tidying up my media server) this build thread got me thinking (and spending), but given what your requirements are, I'm sure you could do this for well under £200!

CPU - I only considered IvyBridge w/IntelHD4000 integrated GPU's- seemed to be the sweet-spot for performance and price, especially for RAM+motherboards!
i3 3225 (£45 inc P&P, eBay)
or if you're near Crawley: i5 3335S w/IntelHD4000 integrated GPU (£55 eBay, but local pickup only)
Mobo - Asus P8H61-I/RM/SI (£39.95 eBay)
RAM - 2x8Gb Kingston Ultra Low Profile1333Mhz (£59 eBay) - overkill, but 8Gb was mostly ~£40!
Cooler - Thermaltake Gravity I1 (£13.50 Amazon)
Antec ISK 300-150 mini ITX case (lots ~£50 eBay)

I had the advantage of a 240Gb Crucial MX200 SSD + Windows 10 already, but I'll dual boot it with a USB3 Linux stick anyway (64Gb for £15 on Amazon), so you could just run Kodibuntu/similar on a USB stick....

Everything else is a fresh build and priced up today.

Based on the build that I'm just doing, but going for a slightly lower spec CPU (but still HD4000 GPU) and less RAM, you could make a budget Kodi build for <£180!!
£45.00 CPU i3 3225 (eBay)
£13.50 cooler Thermaltake Gravity I1 (Amazon)
£40.00 mobo Asus P8H61-I (eBay)
£16.00 RAM 2x2Gb (eBay)
£50.00 case Antec ISK 300-150(incl.PSU) (eBay)
£15.00 OS drive USB3 64Gb (or ~£40 for a SSD?) (Amazon)
£179.50 total, inc P&P.

If you wanted to spend the full budget, you could spend an extra £22 on the RAM (£38 for 2x4Gb Kingston DDR3, eBay) and an extra £32 (£47 for a 120Gb Samsung EVO750).

That takes you up to £233.50.

Honestly, I'd do the 8Gb RAM and leave out the SSD for now (£201.50 total).

If you're worried about CPU performance: the i3 above is comparable to the AMD 5350, but the i5 3335 (approx £10 extra) absolutely leaves the AMD standing!
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-3335S-vs-AMD-Athlon-5350

 

[bahnstormer]

The other bonus of the Kodi-Linux USB stick is that you can build and configure it on your desktop/laptop and the only config that you need to do on the HTPC is to set it up to boot off USB.

This means that if you have a few of those USB sticks (buy a couple of spares @ £8 for a 32Gb!), then it gives you a great way to take the drive over to your PC, ghost it and make a copy to tinker with

A real bonus as I always have great ideas on things I want to do, but then get in trouble with the missus when we can't watch Amazon Video / Sky Go 'cos my tinkering has gone wrong and I can't get things back to where they were...

Clash avoidance: just remember that if you're using 2x USB sticks that are just ghosts of each other.... be careful if you boot them at the same time.

If you are running the one on your HTPC while watching a movie with the missus and have a brainwave about tinkering with the backup version... you might just kill the movie!

If it's a laptop, just boot it in aircraft mode so there's absolutely no chance of knocking the HTPC offline!

http://kodi.wiki/view/Linux

 

[bahnstormer]

I've had a few thoughts and figured you might be best off just getting started with the basics and feeling your way forward from there... I was digging around last night and came up with some MUCH cheaper options!

As a starter:
Asus P8H51 mobo with Intel G630T and 4Gb RAM and cooler! @ £60 eBay HERE


Realan E-mini E-C3 Mini-ITX incl 120W PSU @ £40 eBay HERE

OR
A larger, but 300W PSU'd mini ITX case @ £40 eBay HERE

64Gb Sandisk Ultrafit is now up to £20 amazon HERE

£120 total...

Granted, that CPU is not the fastest, but it's comparable to the i3 3110 that I'm upgrading from that that is absolutely fine - only reason I'm upgrading is that the laptop my 3110 is in is smashed to pieces, no screen and is literally falling apart!

Once you're getting a feel for what you want, you will probably want to put put one of the later Ivybridge CPU's in it for the HD4000 GPU and possibly more RAM if you want to give the GPU more RAM... the comparison of the i3 3225 versus this CPU is still reasonably favourable - HERE, so maybe better until you think you need a i5 like the 3475 HERE - just keep an eye on total power usage if you go for the smaller PSU's!

Maybe even an SSD, especially if you get hold of a Win7/Win10 license.... but then you can re-use the USB stick elsewhere...

 

[bahnstormer]

The main item I'm still researching for mine is the case: I'm weighing up size vs portability and if you're willing to sacrifice a little on size, then the choices get cheaper and more flexible.... especially if you have an old PSU knocking around!

e.g. <£50 for the Cooler Master Elite 130: Cooler Master site HERE on amazon HERE

BUT it still needs a PSU!

With that you could re-use an old Blueray/DVD drive knocking around... and you have an option to put high end graphics in later....

 

[bahnstormer]

Not sure if anybody is reading this, but here's my total spend:

CPU i5 3570K £79.00 eBay auction
Cooler Scythe Kozuti SCKZT-1000 £26.50 amazon retail
Mobo Asus mini ITX P8H61-I REV3 £40.00 eBay Buy It Now
RAM 2x4Gb Corsair Vengence 1600 LP £40.00 eBay auction
Storage 250Gb SSD - Crucial MX200 £60.00 Crucial.com retail sale
Case Antec ISK 300-150(inc 150W PSU) £35.00 eBay auction
TOTAL £280.50

Slightly different agenda to fozzer's (the thread-starter), but still not far off a fairly tight budget even though the spec was significantly over the requirements of a basic Kodi HTPC.... it would be VERY easy to save £40 on the SSD (60Gb 2nd hand SSD or USB3 pen drive is plenty for Linux!!) and save £15 on the cooler (e.g. £12.50 Thermaltake Gravity) and another £30 or so by going for an i3 (3225) or lower spec i5 CPU... I'd recommend anything on this Intel ARK list.

Following those, you'd get below £200 very quickly!

My plan is to have the default boot off the SSD straight into win10, but then have USB boot prioritsed above the SSD, so I can plug in a USB3 pendrive and setup Kodi on that, so I can tinker offline (on my laptop, etc) and then step back in to try out the settings on the HTPC, when I'm ready.... always with the option to just reboot straight back into win10.