SFF Desktop for movies

[Nonpossible]

My wife and I were using my old Dell Inspiron N7010 laptop for waching Netflix and movies and also for general storage, family photos etc. I ended up selling it and now I want to replace it with a mini-itx build that could lay horizontally and fit in an entertainment stand.

Anyways, I'm wondering what might be the cheapest option for building this around a SilverStone RVZ02B case. It doesn't need a GPU and doesn't need an Optical Drive, and I'm thinking an i3-6100 or 7100. Can this be done with a 400 dollar budget?

 

[boosted1g]

i3-6100 is a good choice. I would say to get a pentium g4560 or 4620 but once you get a 2xx serries baord that is m-itx you are paying just as much as you would for the 6100.

If you were not needing netflix I would say to run libreelec (linux Just-Enough-OS build of Kodi) instead of windows.
Since you do need netflix you will need MS Windows, although you can get a windows version of Kodi and get netflix plugin for it which will make for a very remote-friendly and very "pretty" front end for your movies (it also gets all the info and movie posters of your media).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($108.37 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H170M-ITX/DL Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($55.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($31.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $251.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-27 11:03 EST-0500

 

[user11464]

The G4560 is probably the best price-to-performance CPU there is right now. $60 and it has Hyperthreading. It's the little engine that could lol. Also saves you quite a bit of money compared to an i3. Put that extra money into a higher capacity SSD, and a modular PSU to aid with the small-form-factor limitation.

 

[boosted1g]

The G4560 is probably the best price-to-performance CPU there is right now. $60 and it has Hyperthreading. It's the little engine that could lol. Also saves you quite a bit of money compared to an i3.

Until you factor in the cost of a b250/h270 m-itx motherboard vs m-itx h110 motherboard.

 

[user11464]

The G4560 is probably the best price-to-performance CPU there is right now. $60 and it has Hyperthreading. It's the little engine that could lol. Also saves you quite a bit of money compared to an i3.

Until you factor in the cost of a b250/h270 m-itx motherboard vs m-itx h110 motherboard.

... but there is no real getting around that if you want to use Kaby Lake. Personally that is a fair trade-off to me. You have more options and generally nicer motherboards in that case also.

 

[bloodroses]

What about something like this since I was pricing out a similar type of setup myself a few days ago?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4620 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($61.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Hitachi Travelstar 1TB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone RVZ02B-W HTPC Case ($90.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Certified SFX Power Supply ($41.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $306.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-27 11:26 EST-0500

The biggest possible issue is having to update the bios to support the newer chip (if it hasn't already been done)

 

[Barty1884]

While the G4560 is a great option, the cheapest board that'll support it (or any other KabyLake) without a BIOS update is $90.... makes it a little less appealing.

$400 really depends what you need in there. Storage and an OS? It can barely be done.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4500 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($72.65 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H170M-ITX/DL Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($50.38 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($22.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Silverstone RVZ02B HTPC Case ($72.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Certified SFX Power Supply ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Total: $401.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-27 11:24 EST-0500

Doesn't give you a lot of storage though - and only a dualcore @ 3.5GHz.

If you already have an SSD or HDD, then it's a much better performer for a little over budget:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($108.37 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H170M-ITX/DL Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($50.38 @ Amazon)
Case: Silverstone RVZ02B HTPC Case ($72.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Certified SFX Power Supply ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Total: $414.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-27 11:25 EST-0500

In an ideal world, I'd pick up a G4560, but the cost of the MB offsets the price of the CPU, as has been mentioned.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($61.99 @ Jet)
Motherboard: MSI B250I PRO Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($89.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($50.38 @ Amazon)
Case: Silverstone RVZ02B HTPC Case ($72.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Certified SFX Power Supply ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Total: $402.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-27 11:27 EST-0500

All of these are a single 1x8GB module, which is a little less than ideal - but on a budget, and for your uses, it's fine.

 

[user11464]

The G4560+B250 combo would still be on average about $10-20 cheaper than the i3-6100+B150 combo. He is definitely going to want an SSD over an HDD, and a modular PSU is a must if you want it to stick with the theme. You eliminate the clutter of two useless PCI power cables, and one useless SATA power cable. Those take up a lot of room in my mid-tower case once bundled up and zip-tied together, so they would absolutely be a pain in the *** in a small-form-factor build.

 

[Nonpossible]

These are all great suggestions. Thanks everyone. I actually already have a 3.5" 1TB WD Caviar Blue drive, but I was leaning toward a Samsung Evo 850 since I have used those in the past and love them. And yes, I would prefer a modular PSU.

 

[Nonpossible]

While the G4560 is a great option, the cheapest board that'll support it (or any other KabyLake) without a BIOS update is $90.... makes it a little less appealing.

$400 really depends what you need in there. Storage and an OS? It can barely be done.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4500 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($72.65 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H170M-ITX/DL Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($50.38 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($22.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Silverstone RVZ02B HTPC Case ($72.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Certified SFX Power Supply ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Total: $401.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-27 11:24 EST-0500

Doesn't give you a lot of storage though - and only a dualcore @ 3.5GHz.

If you already have an SSD or HDD, then it's a much better performer for a little over budget:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($108.37 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H170M-ITX/DL Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($50.38 @ Amazon)
Case: Silverstone RVZ02B HTPC Case ($72.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Certified SFX Power Supply ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Total: $414.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-27 11:25 EST-0500

In an ideal world, I'd pick up a G4560, but the cost of the MB offsets the price of the CPU, as has been mentioned.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($61.99 @ Jet)
Motherboard: MSI B250I PRO Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($89.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($50.38 @ Amazon)
Case: Silverstone RVZ02B HTPC Case ($72.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Certified SFX Power Supply ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Total: $402.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-27 11:27 EST-0500

All of these are a single 1x8GB module, which is a little less than ideal - but on a budget, and for your uses, it's fine.

The 400 dollar budget is flexible. I was just trying to limit myself before going crazy and ending up with a 700 dollar machine that is overpowered for its purposes.

 

[Barty1884]

I wouldn't go too crazy. i3+H110/B150 or G4560+H270/B250, 8GB DDR4 and a 120GB SSD should be more than sufficient.

While it's rare I'd look to a low SSD, for a predominant 'movie machine', it should be sufficient. A 250GB+ is always nice, but doesn't appear to be a necessity here.

For an SSd, I'd look to budget options for this build (A-Data's SP550, CS1311 from PNY, Z400s from Sandisk). While an 850EVO is nice, you're unlikely to see any noticeable 'real-world' difference for your intended uses.

Those options are in the ~$50 range for 120GB, ~$70 for 240GB right now. You're in the $80-$100 range right now for an 850EVO (120-250GB)