Building a small system please advice

[Xellos2099]

I am helping me friend building a small system, he is using ti for: photoshop, watching HD video, etc. Budget is around $600. My plan plan to get window 7 and office form his college so they should be cheap. Country is USA, no real brand preference but Intel is a good idea. Planning to build within a week or 2. No overclocking planned. NO gaming planned. Plan to reuse dvd drive and hard drive. My friend prefer small system like shuttle.

Case, Shuttle $199 Shuttle SH61R4 or $270 Shuttle SH67H3

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856101124
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856101117

Cpu
Core i5 2500k LGA 1155 Boxed Processor -$179 (This part is up to debate)
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0354589

Ram
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233196

 

[Puppies04]

Fill in the sticky thread from the top of this forum.

 

[Ken g6]

The biggest problem with the Shuttle components is that they're expensive, but not overclockable. A (minimally) overclockable option would be this case and this board. Should you not want to overclock, you could get this board cheaper instead.

Edit: For tiny cases without much cooling, I have to recommend low-voltage RAM, $50. If you don't care about the cooling, you can get even cheaper RAM.

 

[Ken g6]

Just noticed the Shuttles come with a PSU. Here's a $40-with-shipping Seasonic. Put together with the cheaper mobo, that's equivalent to the higher-end Shuttle for less than the lower-end Shuttle.

 

[Xellos2099]

Not really planning to overlock, the only reason I chose 2500k is the hd3000.

 

[mfenn]

I say to get a SFF Optiplex like this 790 with i5 2400, 4GB of RAM, 500GB HDD, and Windows 7 Pro 64-bit for $560. You get a complete system that is very small (basically the same volume as a shuttle) and will definitely have parts available down the road should something break. By the way, that $560 includes 3 years of NBD on-site service.

 

[Xellos2099]

Won't the HD 2000 be slow for HD video?

 

[lehtv]

It'll play 1080p, no problem.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I say to get a SFF Optiplex like this 790 with i5 2400, 4GB of RAM, 500GB HDD, and Windows 7 Pro 64-bit for $560. You get a complete system that is very small (basically the same volume as a shuttle) and will definitely have parts available down the road should something break. By the way, that $560 includes 3 years of NBD on-site service.

link is dead/broken

 

[mfenn]

link is dead/broken

Yeah Dell Outlet links tend to do that. I described it in detail so that the OP can do a search for a similar machine.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Yeah Dell Outlet links tend to do that. I described it in detail so that the OP can do a search for a similar machine.

:thumbsup:

 

[Zap]

My friend prefer small system like shuttle.

Shuttle systems are huge! Check this out at half the size. ()

Won't the HD 2000 be slow for HD video?

No.

 

[piasabird]

Not much in the video department. What kind of monitor are you going to use? If you are going to watch videos you might try a small HDTV, in which case you should be using HDMI for both HD Video and HD Audio.

This is just my thoughts on the subject.

I would stick with the i-5 2500k and HD 3000. I think it is worth it.

I think every computer should have HDMI.