Hi,
Wanted to post my build here and say thanks to everyone who helped answering questions I had.
The Goal:
A small living room PC dual booted with openelec (Kodi) and windows for gaming. The PC will be an always on machine for media playback that can also be booted to windows for heavy gaming. The PC should be quiet while playing media as it is not resource intensive but obviously might kick up to audible levels when gaming. This is to replace my current Alienware Alpha.
Limitations:
The area it's going is 32x27x32 cm (W x H x D) with the front and sides closed off with an extra 5cm open clearance at the back. Yes I lock my PC in a cupboard
. This limits case choices especially since I wan to fit my router and a USB DVB-T tuner in the same area.
The thing I wrestled most with was the case choice as it needs to fit in such a small confined space but still keep itself cool enough. The ideal case was the Q21 as it's tiny, I also considered a Kolink case but settled on the SG13 as a happy compromise that's somewhere in the middle.
Final Parts:
Case: Silverstone Sugo SG13B Mini ITX
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB SC
CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz
CPU Fan: Noctua NH-L9i
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 140mm
Motherboard: MSI B150I GAMING PRO Mini ITX
Ram: Kingston Savage 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory
Boot SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB
Data HDD: 2TB 2.5 (Already owned)
PSU: Corsair CSM 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX
Final price came to just shy of £650
Performance:
CPU is between 40-50C for HTPC duties and the CPU/GPU both get in the 70-75C with heavy gaming. It's high for sure, but it's not bad for the confined space. Fans are a little noisywhen gaming for my liking but lower than my PS4 and my old alienware alpha so it's an improvement. When just watching TV or streaming tv/movies it's silent.
It holds a steady 60FPS on ultra for most games I've tried at 1080p, it can get drops but mainly when the CPU bottlenecks on a few titles. May upgrade to an i5 some point in the future but overall it performs fantastic, much better than my old 860m and PS4.
Parts ready to go:
Some initial cable management before the PSU is in
Getting busy, putting the drive bay on was a mistake had to remove it to fit the PSU!
All nice and neat with the PSU in minus the cables
Managed to get some clearance for the 140mm to the CPU once the PSU was in but it's super tight
Cable management on the GPU side isn't too messy
On the other side it's a different story! Everything is bunched to the corner with some ties at the top of the chassis
Final size comparison, around 2x PS4's, it's not as wide or deep but quite a bit taller
Away in it's cupboard with the router and usb tuner, out of sight you would never know it's there
Wanted to post my build here and say thanks to everyone who helped answering questions I had.
The Goal:
A small living room PC dual booted with openelec (Kodi) and windows for gaming. The PC will be an always on machine for media playback that can also be booted to windows for heavy gaming. The PC should be quiet while playing media as it is not resource intensive but obviously might kick up to audible levels when gaming. This is to replace my current Alienware Alpha.
Limitations:
The area it's going is 32x27x32 cm (W x H x D) with the front and sides closed off with an extra 5cm open clearance at the back. Yes I lock my PC in a cupboard
. This limits case choices especially since I wan to fit my router and a USB DVB-T tuner in the same area.The thing I wrestled most with was the case choice as it needs to fit in such a small confined space but still keep itself cool enough. The ideal case was the Q21 as it's tiny, I also considered a Kolink case but settled on the SG13 as a happy compromise that's somewhere in the middle.
Final Parts:
Case: Silverstone Sugo SG13B Mini ITX
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB SC
CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz
CPU Fan: Noctua NH-L9i
Case Fan: Noctua NF-A14 PWM 140mm
Motherboard: MSI B150I GAMING PRO Mini ITX
Ram: Kingston Savage 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory
Boot SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB
Data HDD: 2TB 2.5 (Already owned)
PSU: Corsair CSM 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX
Final price came to just shy of £650
Performance:
CPU is between 40-50C for HTPC duties and the CPU/GPU both get in the 70-75C with heavy gaming. It's high for sure, but it's not bad for the confined space. Fans are a little noisywhen gaming for my liking but lower than my PS4 and my old alienware alpha so it's an improvement. When just watching TV or streaming tv/movies it's silent.
It holds a steady 60FPS on ultra for most games I've tried at 1080p, it can get drops but mainly when the CPU bottlenecks on a few titles. May upgrade to an i5 some point in the future but overall it performs fantastic, much better than my old 860m and PS4.
Parts ready to go:
Some initial cable management before the PSU is in
Getting busy, putting the drive bay on was a mistake had to remove it to fit the PSU!
All nice and neat with the PSU in minus the cables
Managed to get some clearance for the 140mm to the CPU once the PSU was in but it's super tight
Cable management on the GPU side isn't too messy
On the other side it's a different story! Everything is bunched to the corner with some ties at the top of the chassis
Final size comparison, around 2x PS4's, it's not as wide or deep but quite a bit taller
Away in it's cupboard with the router and usb tuner, out of sight you would never know it's there
