Would this be a good Home Theatre gaming computer?

[FuturDreamz]

FZ MicroATX HTPC Wishlist - Newegg.ca

Because I'd have to upgrade everything on my computer anyways, I just sold it and now I plan to build a new setup.

I believe this would be a pretty powerful system, and I think cooling would be sufficient.
Any thoughts or advice?

 

[Erick Aguilar]

Home theater yes. Gaming, not so much. you are limiting yourself a lot making it as an htpc design.

 

[Thorsen]

I would be worried about heat as well. Also, the 7750 isn't going to be as good for gaming. The 7850 is much better, and the 6850 is better than the 7750. Video Card Comparison - GPUReview.com

PassMark Software - Video Card Benchmarks - Video Card Look Up

the other thing to think about is noise. you want this as quiet as possible. Is the form factor needed? or could you go with a mid size tower instead? because that would allow you better airflow with more fans running at lower speeds. Also, with a mid-tower, you could use a water cooling heatsink for the CPU which would lower noise, and temps easier.

 

[FuturDreamz]

I would be worried about heat as well. Also, the 7750 isn't going to be as good for gaming. The 7850 is much better, and the 6850 is better than the 7750. Video Card Comparison - GPUReview.com

PassMark Software - Video Card Benchmarks - Video Card Look Up

the other thing to think about is noise. you want this as quiet as possible. Is the form factor needed? or could you go with a mid size tower instead? because that would allow you better airflow with more fans running at lower speeds. Also, with a mid-tower, you could use a water cooling heatsink for the CPU which would lower noise, and temps easier.

I wouldn't be using it for extreme gaming; currently Portal and Portal 2 are the most intensive games I play.

I do want this formfactor, because then it would tuck underneath a tv easily. But with this I do require a low profile video card, which neither the 7850 or 6850 are available in.

I can also drill holes in the pci blanks to improve airflow.

 

[Thorsen]

The components look good. the heatsink you picked looks good too and will be quieter than the one that comes with the i5. the 7750 isn't bad, just didn't want you to get it if you were going to be playing newer FPS games. it will be fine for Portal2 and decent for BF3...

AMD Radeon HD 7770 and 7750 Video Card Reviews - Battlefield 3 - Legit Reviews

I would say go for the 7770, but it doesn't seem to have low-profile cards. Not sure if any Nvidia cards the are better are low-profile.

 

[FuturDreamz]

The best low profile Nvidia cards I found were using the GT 640 which performs a bit worse than the 7750.

that being said, I'm going to get a couple of these, and I'll drill holes in the bracket for the VGA port.

 

[Thorsen]

Looking at the case pictures, Im not sure where you are going to mount the SSD and HDD. it says there is only 1 internal 3.5 bay. Edit I guess in the space for the external. not sure if you will need a 3.5 mounting bracket for the SSD or if it will go in the same spacing....

Expansion
External 5.25" Drive Bays 1.
External 3.5" Drive Bays 1.
Internal 3.5" Drive Bays 1.
Expansion Slots 4.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

But with this I do require a low profile video card, which neither the 7850 or 6850 are available in.

This is a single-slot 6850 (there is also one from powercolor but I'd not trust them), and I found a a review of a single-slot 7850 from the same manufacturer.
The company is a spinoff of Foxconn, not that it matters a lot, as they make 50% or more of anything electronic anyway.

I'm not recommending anything, just providing what Google told me.

EDIT: nevermind, you were looking for low-profile, not single-slot.

EDIT2: Aha! found them. AFOX makes low-profile 7850 and 6850 as well!

 

[FuturDreamz]

Looking at the case pictures, Im not sure where you are going to mount the SSD and HDD. it says there is only 1 internal 3.5 bay. Edit I guess in the space for the external. not sure if you will need a 3.5 mounting bracket for the SSD or if it will go in the same spacing....

Expansion
External 5.25" Drive Bays 1.
External 3.5" Drive Bays 1.
Internal 3.5" Drive Bays 1.
Expansion Slots 4.

I've had this case before. I just velcro the SSD to the bottom of the ODD.

 

[FuturDreamz]

EDIT2: Aha! found them. AFOX makes low-profile 7850 and 6850 as well!

Well those are certainly big monsters...

They do include molex to 4-pin adapters so that won't be a problem, but I calculate that the PSU would be operating at maximum capacity; while with the 7750 I'd have about a 40W buffer.

Aside from the fact that those cards are pretty expensive and tricky to get to Canada, I think I might stick with the 7750. I'm not really an extreme gamer. I have a large collection of Wii games (almost all from Nintendo), and I barely play my Xbox in comparison (just got Assassin's creed).

 

[bobafetthotmail]

dunno, that case includes a power supply but I'm usually wary of PSU included in cases...

Also, unless you really really really need 16 GB of ram, take only 8 as that's still overkill for a HTPC and console-like gaming rig. And again, you don't need any heatsink on that ram (naked ram should be cheaper), and heatsinks may be annoying in tight quarters like that case.

 

[FuturDreamz]

Yeah I couldn't make up my mind on which colour I liked better. I do like the samsung low profile RAM, but it's currently out of stock in newegg.ca

 

[bobafetthotmail]

no, not low profile, i mean fully naked, like this.
It's not that much cheaper though.

 

[FuturDreamz]

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model MV-3V4G3D/US
Is what I was referring to. It's low profile, fully naked, very overclockable, and 98% of reviewers gave it 5/5 eggs.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

it's now in stock.
Although I doubt you want to overclock ram in a HTPC, and more than 1600 MHz it's more or less useless even for a normal rig if you use a socket 1155 CPU.

 

[FuturDreamz]

it's now in stock.
Although I doubt you want to overclock ram in a HTPC, and more than 1600 MHz it's more or less useless even for a normal rig if you use a socket 1155 CPU.

It's in stock at newegg.com, but it's not even listed at newegg.ca