Low budget HTPC MINI ITX BUILD that matches a GTX 580

[JoseWalrus]

Hi guys, I've built some rigs on the past... In fact, I own two different builds right now, one of them is my HTPC, acually I use it to watch blurays, play some light gaming on 1080p (like indies or games like darksiders run great, even Injustice plays fine at 60fps at that resolution) here are the specs of it.

- Core2Duo E7400
- Asus P5KPL-ASME
- 4 GB KingstonValue Ram
- Toshiba 320GB
-Thermaltake PurePower 550W
- EVGA GTX 580
- LG BlueRay RW
- VHS Case (Modded VHS that looks pretty awfull and is enormous)

Well, I know that this system is pretty old, I had it with a HD 4830 from Sapphire a couple of months ago, this is because I didn't want to spend a lot of money in a system for my living room, I have my one Rig with a i5-4670k and a R9 280X... the thing is that I got this GTX 580 from a friend and it was a bargain so I took it even thoug I have bottleneck in some games like batman arkham origins on the system, the hole thing cost me around $150 USD last year ($50 for the bluray drive)... without the GTX 580 obiously, well... the thing is that right now I want to upgrade it... actually is not really a big improvement, I mean I'm happy with the performance on this PC, but not with its apearence on the living room, so I saw this bitfenix prodigy case and I felt in love for it, so the next move is to purchase a system that is capable enough to match or improve the specs of the things that I have, but now in a smaller format because it will be a Mini-itx low budget build, I know that a bitfenix prodigy M exist and that everything I have will fit on it, but I want also to improve a little the parts that I have, so following the sprit of this beeing a low budget build I saw a mini-itx in new egg from ECS that has a 16X PCIE and cost around $40 bucks and also saw two different CPU's, first one the Celeron G1610 and the other the Pentium G2030 the difference between both is fairly nothing on price, but you think is better the Pentium for $10 more? and also ram, I know this is very important and both processors are compatible with 1333MHZ ram, so what do you recommend?

I really want to know what do you think after all I wrote, I mean, I need something that is not so powerfull, but enough to be in pair with my GTX 580 and following the "spent the less that you can" philosofy, recommend me pieces, I chose Intel because of the posibility to upgrade in the future and also I dont know if AMD have Mini ITX platforms, the only one that I saw was the kavini new platform but I read that is not so powerfull and I need something close to the processor that I already have on the RIG... so I'm not from the US but I can import the pieces to here but obiously the main porpouse of this PC will be a budget and friendly PC to watch movies and play some games, thanks in advance for your answers and see ya around.

 

[piasabird]

I have an E7200 downstairs running Vista. It is really slow and unresponsive. It is on a socket 775 and has DDR2 800 RAM. It keeps running but just barely. Wouldn't go there.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

If you're looking to spend as little as possible then I'd point you towards a Pentium G3258. It's newer/Haswell-based (vs Ivy Bridge for the G1610) and can be overclocked. You don't necessarily need a Z- chipset to overclock it, check cbn's thread over in the Motherboards forum for more info.

I got my G3258 for $60 USD. That's $10 more than a G1610 on Newegg.

As for ram... just get what's on sale and meets your capacity needs. Unless you're hell-bent on overclocking it for whatever reason.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Low budget and mITX do not really go together. What is your definition of "low budget"?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

How low budget?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/hPMJpg

Start with that and shave where you want, but I think you'll probably like that case.

 

[piasabird]

You shouldn't need a video card for a HTPC if you use a newer Haswell based processor and motherboard unless you want to play some more modern video games.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

You shouldn't need a video card for a HTPC if you use a newer Haswell based processor and motherboard unless you want to play some more modern video games.

He already has the GTX 580... unless he intends to resell it, might as well use it.

OP, we need a budget from you and whether or not you can definitely import the parts from the US before we can make any definite recommendations.

 

[JoseWalrus]

Thanks for the answers, I know that Mini-ITX and low budget is not always a good idea, however I realize that I can spend like $200+Import and get the 3 pieces that I need, that will be something like:

- MSI Computer Corp. Mini ITX DDR3 1600 LGA 1150 Motherboards H81I http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Technology-Modules-KHX1600C9D3K2-8GX/dp/B0037TO5C0/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=1-1&keywords=ddr3+1600
- Intel Pentium Processor G3220 3.0 GHz LGA 1150 BX80646G3220 http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Pentium-Processor-G3220-BX80646G3220/dp/B00EF1G9DW/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=1-1&keywords=pentium+1150
- Kingston Technology HyperX 8 GB http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Technology-Modules-KHX1600C9D3K2-8GX/dp/B0037TO5C0/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1409684272&sr=1-1&keywords=ddr3+1600

The other pieces I will keep them,

- Toshiba 320GB
-Thermaltake PurePower 550W
- EVGA GTX 580
- LG BlueRay RW
- Biftenix Prodigy

This will be the final rig and maybe I'll purchase an SSD, but not sure fore now, I'll keep the GTX 580 and I think this will be enough for some gaming at 1080p, tell me what do you think... or you think that the Pentium will have troubles handling the GTX 580?

 

[Charlie98]

I have a GTX560Ti 448 paired with my G3220, it's a pretty good match even for stuff like MW1/2 and BF3/4... with the understanding I'm not getting all the eye candy like I do on my i5/GTX760SC system. If it's possible, OP, get the G3258, not only is it newer tech, but it's a faster chip... even without OC'ing.

My only concern is the 580's noise level in HTPC role... that Prodigy case is small and heat buildup might be an issue.

 

[Burpo]

Depends on what GTX580 you have. If it has less than 2mb of RAM, I wouldn't keep it for a Mini-ITX game box. It's a power hog & makes lots of heat too..

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Depends on what GTX580 you have. If it has less than 2mb of RAM, I wouldn't keep it for a Mini-ITX game box. It's a power hog & makes lots of heat too..

Normally I would agree, but if he's in a country where "import from the US" is the best option to get computer equipment, there's a strong argument in favor of using what he's already got.

"A bird in the hand..." and all that.

 

[JoseWalrus]

A bird in the hand sounds like a different thing to me... XD... well, to answer the questions the GTX 580 that I have is a EVGA GTX 580 1.5GB with an Accelero Xtreme Plus II, that cooler is quiet enough to be a part of this build... and actually the card runs hot while you play but at idle when you watch movies its cool and quiet (Thats why I decide to keep it for the build). Talking about the import thing... yes... its a huge problem for us in central america (I'm located in Guatemala City), both ram and pentium G3220 I can buy them localy so that's the main reason of picking them, from there the only other processor that I can purchase locally will be a 4th gen core i3... but we are talking of $165 in a local store and a little bit more if I import it, the motherboard will be imported because in local stores theres no chance to get a mini-itx board... the G3220 is $68 here so that's the main reason of my choice over other processors... and as I told you before, I don't want to expend a lot on this buid, do you think that the GTX 580 will be bottlenecked by the G3220? if that is the case I can explore anothers solutions.

 

[mfenn]

The MSI H81I is a totally reasonable choice for a cheap Haswell mini-ITX board. However, I think the ASRock H81M-ITX is a better value at $60. It sports a better sound chip, NIC, and eSATA for $5 less.

The G3220 will bottleneck a GTX 580 in some CPU intensive games, but it's honestly not a terrible pick unless you want to spend ~$75 more on an i3.

 

[JoseWalrus]

Thanks for all the answers, that'll be great, the pentium will be enough, if I want to play a CPU intensive game I will use my desktop or the in home streaming feature from steam, thanks for all your answers... now the important part... purchase the whole thing... XD