Budget Gaming build/media server

whatawaster

Hi all,

I have a gaming PC that I built around 5 years ago that is now very tired, and a HTPC that is of a similar age that is also giving me problems. I am hoping to build a machine that will replace the functionality of both if this is possible.

I have 2 TB of tv shows and movies on hard drives which I will migrate over to the new machine. I have an SSD on the HTPC but it is only 64gb so I will probably look to get a larger one.

Intended uses - 1) games: Cities Skylines, GTA V, Fallout IV, Dark Souls, Fifa

2) Office work

3) To be always on an house all my media and stream it to various plex devices in the house (this may change in the future when I may look again at a dedicated media server). So would help if this was as low-power as possible.

Budget - I'd like to keep it as low as possible. I'd say 600 euro as a guideline but there is some flexibility there.

Build
So here is what I have come up with. I am not going for HWVS for obvious reasons. I have put together a machine on DABS, but if there are better sites to buy from I'd be happy to look elsewhere.

Processor - Core i3 4170 - 130
Motherboard - Asus H81M-Plus - 60
SSD - Crucial 250gb BX100 - 94
PSU - Corsair 550W VS550 - 57
RAM - 8gb Kingston HyperX - 42
GPU - GTX 950 - 186

Total - 570

I have no case as I have no idea what to go for - any recommendations would be appreciated.

Is this motherboard ok, or is there a better one to go for?
Is the PSU sufficient?

Any other changes or improvements I could make?

Thanks

Digital Solitude

Handy wee machine, no changes I'd make. Probably worth going over budget for a good Antec or BitFenix case

Lu Tze

If its going to be on all the time, but you want a powerful processor for gaming maybe consider the quad core i5 with the "t" suffix, like the 4590t which has a tdp of 35 watt versus 54 watt for the i3 you listed. Not sure what the real world or idle power draw comparison between the two is like, might be worth looking it up.

grindle

Exactly the same components comes to €525 delivered from mindfactory. Gives a bit of room to upgrade to an i5 4460 for any future GPU upgrades.

whatawaster

grindle wrote: »

Exactly the same components comes to €525 delivered from mindfactory. Gives a bit of room to upgrade to an i5 4460 for any future GPU upgrades.

Thanks, haven't come across Mind Factory before. Are they similar to HWVS? Do they accept credit cards?

levitronix

whatawaster wrote: »

Thanks, haven't come across Mind Factory before. Are they similar to HWVS? Do they accept credit cards?

I ve something similar in my setup HTPC and gaming pc all in one , I have a bitfenix phenom its about the size of a speaker and looks like a speaker no flashy buttons or lights , just blends in the living room

grindle

whatawaster wrote: »

Thanks, haven't come across Mind Factory before. Are they similar to HWVS? Do they accept credit cards?

Better. As long as you're spending over €300-400 they're consistently cheaper than everybody else and that's taking into consideration their crazy-high €30 delivery.
Cases and monitors have to be bought elsewhere unless you're also spending €300-400+ on those to justify the €30 extra delivery charged for those (they have a separate warehouse for large components).

I've always clicked 'Paypal', not sure about CC payments.

whatawaster

I've done a slightly different build on Mindfactory -

Core i5 - 4460 - 176
AsRock H97 - 69
16gb Crucial Ballistic - 75
250gb Crucial BX100 - 82
Gigabyte GTX 950 - 163
500w Corsair CX Series Modular - 65

Total 630 - so a bit more expensive, but I have a better processor, double the RAM and a modular power supply which I would prefer.

Really not sure about Motherboards - is there anything to look out for / avoid when it comes to these.

In terms of cases - thinking about the Antec One from Amazon - have seen plenty of positive reviews of this.

grindle

whatawaster wrote: »

Really not sure about Motherboards - is there anything to look out for / avoid when it comes to these.

Same as usual for most things - avoid the lowest-of-the-low brands.
ASRock are usually the cheapest good budget brand.

If you want use the USB 3 ports on the front you'll have to make sure the motherboard has that connection on it (if not, that particular case comes with an adapter to convert the ports to USB2 which'll be on the mobo anyway).

I always prefer to get motherboards with TOSlink for setups that're being used for gaming or home theatres as a lot of people have surround sound nowadays.

The 950's SLI benchmarks look good so that'd be an easy & cheap upgrade in the future if necessary, but your mobo has to be SLI-compatible.

Digital Solitude

Any H or B series board will do you once it has SATA ports for your drives.

No need in 16gb RAM imo

Antec One is a fine case

whatawaster

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Any H or B series board will do you once it has SATA ports for your drives.

No need in 16gb RAM imo

Antec One is a fine case

Interesting. Will 8gb RAM suffice for playing a game while plex transcodes video in the background?

Digital Solitude

whatawaster wrote: »

Interesting. Will 8gb RAM suffice for playing a game while plex transcodes video in the background?

Maybe not actually, probably worth the €50 to be safe. Hadn't thought of that

whatawaster

Final build (without case which I will be ordering separately)

Processor: i5 4460 - 168
Mobo: MSI B85-G41 - 66
RAM: 16gb Crucial Ballistic - 74
SSD: 250gb Crucial BX100 - 81
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 950 - 163
PSU: Corsair CX Series Modular 500w - 65

Really just looking for reassurance before I click "buy".

I've read some bad reviews on the Corsair CX series, but also many good reviews. Any concerns I should have? Always thought they were a reputable brand for PSU's?

grindle

whatawaster wrote: »

I've read some bad reviews on the Corsair CX series, but also many good reviews. Any concerns I should have? Always thought they were a reputable brand for PSU's?

It's on Tier 4 of the PSU Tier List.

The SeaSonic SLII 520w is Tier 3 and it's €10 cheaper on Mindfactory at least.