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[New Build] MicroATX Slim Audio/Emulation/Video Home No Gaming, Budget <800$

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deicidereigns

Junior Member
Approximate Purchase Date: 1-3 Weeks, or can wait for Holiday Sale -- not in hurry.

Budget Range: Less than 800$ please.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Running GNS3 (routing/switching/network hardware/software emulation for home testing), making/converting HD videos, watching videos, listening/converting lossless audio, browsing internet.

Are you buying a monitor: No.

Parts to Upgrade: Motherboard, CPU, Ram, Power Supply, Case, SSD for OS/Booting (will use my other hard drives for storage/main use), Nice audio (I'm an audiophile, entire library lossless), optimal drive for reading CD/DVD/Bluray, room for extra network cards nice but not required. Sorry if I missed something. Please feel free to ask.

Do you need to buy OS: No. But my office has some extra Window's 8 licenses, should I go ahead and upgrade?

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg, Amazon, other shopping advice welcome.

Location: Oklahoma City, OK

Parts Preferences: MicroATX Slim Case, no gaming card needed, no floppy drive please!

Overclocking: No.

SLI or Crossfire: No.

Your Monitor Resolution: 1200x1024 (17'')

Additional Comments: Please ask me any questions. Your questions will help to make my purchase better.

Current build: Intel Core 2 Duo e6400, ATI Radeon HD 3850, 3GB Ram, Windows XP (plan to upgrade -- should I go ahead an move to Windows 8 or stick to 7?), WDC WD6400AAKS-22A7B2, ST3160023AS. I have a Rosewil RD 450-2DB -- can this work with my new system?

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Want to get rid of large tower, better computer for making HD video files (currently takes me 2-3 hours for 20-30min. 720p video), and capable of running complex GNS3 systems for testing (it's important to my job). Current computer is about 6-7 years old

Thank-you very much for any help.
 
ITX is the new MicroATX for small non-gaming systems.

i5 3450 $195
ASRock B75M-ITX $90
Samsung DDR3 1600 8GB $35
Crucial M4 128GB $110
Reuse HDD $0
ASUS BD-RW $60 AR - ASUS drives are usually pretty well regarded for ripping, but folks who are more knowledgeable can chime in here
Reuse PSU $0
Lian-LI PC-Q07B $70
Total: $560

With the rest of the money, I would suggest getting an outboard DAC. That's going to be far superior in terms of audio performance than any PC sound card and will be portable between machines.

This case only has room for 1 3.5" HDD, 2.5" HDD/SSD, and one 5.25" HDD, so if one of your existing drives isn't enough storage, pick up this Seagate 2TB drive.
 
If you're an audiophile, then you will want to either use an external DAC (using SPDIF to connect to a receiver) or an external USB sound card.

How small do you want it?

Win8? Sure. As far as (most of) your software is concerned, it is just like Win7, except with a different user interface.

HD video? Consider putting part of your budget towards a new monitor. 😛

Antec ISK 110 $90
ASUS P8H77-I mini ITX motherboard $100
Core i5-3570k $215
Samsung 8GB DDR3 $35
Seagate 750GB 7200RPM 2.5" HDD $85
Crucial M4 256GB SSD $200
=$725

I choose the K CPU because it has more EUs in the graphics, in case your video software takes advantage of that. Otherwise, any Core i5 3XXX will work.

The Crucial SSD is often on sale for $30 less. Alternately get the 128GB version, often on sale for around $80.

Put your WD 640GB HDD in a USB 3.0 enclosure for backups and offline storage.

EDIT: Darn you mfenn. Beat me by a minute! 😛 Pretty good setup too.
 
Zap said:
EDIT: Darn you mfenn. Beat me by a minute! 😛 Pretty good setup too.
Click to expand...

:ninja: Good build in your post as well. It really comes down to how much the OP is willing to pay for a little faster CPU and graphics and a bigger SSD.
 
Thanks you two. I'll think over all the options you've given me. The option of no disc drive & disc drive is killing me! haha :biggrin: (really don't want to buy ton of external stuff -- defeats purpose of small box for me)

This may be a dumb question, what does this mean?

mfenn said:
ITX is the new MicroATX for small non-gaming systems
Click to expand...
I noticed that you both picked out ITX motherboards.

Zap said:
If you're an audiophile, then you will want to either use an external DAC (using SPDIF to connect to a receiver) or an external USB sound card.

How small do you want it?
Click to expand...
Very small please.

Zap said:
The Crucial SSD is often on sale for $30 less. Alternately get the 128GB version, often on sale for around $80.
Click to expand...
Both hard drives can often be on sale? So I should wait?
 
deicidereigns said:
The option of no disc drive & disc drive is killing me! haha :biggrin: (really don't want to buy ton of external stuff -- defeats purpose of small box for me)
Click to expand...

How often will you use an optical drive? I've probably used my optical drive around 10 times in the entire year. I have a USB external drive that I can use when needed. I even install Windows from a USB 3.0 flash drive much faster than it can install from a disc.

deicidereigns said:
This may be a dumb question, what does this mean?

I noticed that you both picked out ITX motherboards.
Click to expand...

Yup. If you want it "small" then ITX is the way to go. "ITX is the new mATX" is probably a reference to all those things you hear about something being "the new..."

Wikipedia: The new black

"_____ is the new black" is an expression used to indicate the sudden popularity or versatility of an idea at the expense of the popularity of a second idea. It is the originator of the phrasal template "X is the new Y". The phrase seemed to have started in the 1950s or 1960s. Since then it has often been used for ironic or humorous purposes.
Click to expand...

Basically years ago computer enthusiasts were just "discovering" that they can make a micro ATX computer around as good as an ATX computer, without having to "give up" much due to the smaller size.

These days, many people are discovering that mini ITX can give them what micro ATX (and to a lesser extent ATX) gives, but at a smaller size. For instance look at this checklist.

* Can handle the highest end SINGLE graphics card for great gaming performance.
* Can overclock to "normal" overclocks (typically 4.5GHz-ish on Intel platforms).
* Can handle 16GB RAM.
* Can handle 3, 4 or more internal drives.

If you answer "yes" to all the above, you're probably thinking of an ATX tower case or maybe micro ATX. Well, mini ITX can do all that, in a smaller space! About the only thing it can't do is handle dual graphics cards (but you can get a dual GPU card).

deicidereigns said:
SSD : Crucial M4 64GB SSD $70
2.5" HDD : Western Digital Scorpio Blue 1TB 2.5" HDD $90
Click to expand...

Note that the WD Blue is a 5400RPM HDD. The one I specified is 7200RPM. I do not know if it matters much for video work, but thought I'd point it out.

Decent 120GB/128GB SSDs have been on sale for around that price, so I would definitely hold out for a sale. You just have to be able to take advantage of a sale IMMEDIATELY as not only do they go out of stock quickly, some stores (Amazon, I'm looking at you 😡 ) raise prices sometimes within the HOUR. What may help is to have a range of acceptable drives that you buy as soon as the price point is hit. I'd say hold out for $80 for a 120GB or 128GB drive. Acceptable (to me) are Crucial M4 (but NOT the v4), Samsung 830, Intel 330, any Plextor, Kingston HyperX 3K, various Corsair. Right now you have just missed all the hot deals from Black Friday and Cyber Monday so pickings are slim. Best bet right this second is a Kingston V+200 (not to be confused with V200 missing the +) 120GB at Tiger Direct for $90.

Besides the higher capacity and lower cost per GB, the higher capacity drives will outperform the lower capacity drives because of the way they work (64GB drive only uses 4 NAND modules, 128GB uses 8).

Crucial M4 64GB versus Crucial M4 128GB
 
Zap said:
Yup. If you want it "small" then ITX is the way to go. "ITX is the new mATX" is probably a reference to all those things you hear about something being "the new..."

Wikipedia: The new black

Basically years ago computer enthusiasts were just "discovering" that they can make a micro ATX computer around as good as an ATX computer, without having to "give up" much due to the smaller size.

These days, many people are discovering that mini ITX can give them what micro ATX (and to a lesser extent ATX) gives, but at a smaller size. For instance look at this checklist.

* Can handle the highest end SINGLE graphics card for great gaming performance.
* Can overclock to "normal" overclocks (typically 4.5GHz-ish on Intel platforms).
* Can handle 16GB RAM.
* Can handle 3, 4 or more internal drives.

If you answer "yes" to all the above, you're probably thinking of an ATX tower case or maybe micro ATX. Well, mini ITX can do all that, in a smaller space! About the only thing it can't do is handle dual graphics cards (but you can get a dual GPU card).
Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I meant. If you want to build a small system, there is really no reason to look at MicroATX unless you have some specific needs (lots of drives, more PCI slots, etc).
 
deicidereigns said:
Hey, just wanted to update that I have these items in my cart. I took ideas from both your builds:

Case : Antec ISK 110 $90 (is the power supply enough?)
Motherboard : ASRock B75M-ITX $90
CPU : Core i5-3570k $215
RAM : Samsung DDR3 1600 8GB $35
SSD : Crucial M4 64GB SSD $70
2.5" HDD : Western Digital Scorpio Blue 1TB 2.5" HDD $90
Total: $590

If you guys approve then I'll go ahead and purchase these.

Thank-you.
Click to expand...

I would swap the CPU to the 3470 that Ken pointed out to save a few bucks. The K CPU does have a better IGP than the non-K, but I don't think that matters for your situation. Agree with Zap on the SSD. Get a 128GB version if at all possible.

Ken g6 said:
Actually, I'd go with a 3470 from Amazon if you're not overclocking. At $189 it's the best bang for the buck I've seen.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:
 
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