New Mini PC Build - What do you think?

[slayernine]

So I'm building a new multi-purpose-mini-pc and I'm interested in your opinions of the following build and how you would change or improve it.
:biggrin:


AMD A8-3850 Llano 2.9GHz 4MB L2 Cache Socket FM1 100W $139
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103994

ASRock A75M-ITX FM1 AMD A75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX $94
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157273

XFX HD-667X-ZHF3 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 $83
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150542

SILVERSTONE Sugo SG05-B BlackMini-ITX 300W 80Plus Power Supply (reusing old one)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163149

Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 2x$22
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139046

OCZ Vertex Series OCZSSD2-1VTX60G 2.5" 60GB SATA II(reusing old one)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227394

I've gone ahead and answered all the required default questions but feel free to ask me all sorts of things. eg. Why did you buy that dumb low profile kingston memory instead of some cheap G.Skill?

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. Gaming, Boxee (already got the remote), Internet surfing.

2. What YOUR budget is. No strict budget but $600ish.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from. Canada

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. I am a Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts. Sugo case and OCZ RMA replacement SSD.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads. Of course not

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds. Overclocking is entirely not required but at some point in the life of any computer I use I will probably attempt to OC it just for fun.

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with. 1920x1080 98% of the time and never higher than that.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it? As soon as it gets to my house from Newegg.ca which will probably take forever because it is not ncix

10. Don't ask for a build configuration critique or rating if you are thin skinned One second while I put on these fire resistant pants. There we go, all set.

Just for fun here are some pictures of my old mini pc which has a dead J&W motherboard, AMD X3 2.8Ghz, 4GB DDR2 SODIMM, ATI 4850. I will post more pictures showing the new build if I get my parts before this thread is dead. Again with newegg.ca it will be a long time I'm guessing as it stated international shipping on the invoice.

Picture One - Case Shot

Picture Two - Messy guts

 

[DaveSimmons]

Why Lllano with a dedicated GPU? You could go with an i3-2100 for better gaming performance. To be fair the A8 does offer 10 watts lower idle power (but 16 watts higher load power).

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/399?vs=289

 

[Ken g6]

Why Lllano with a dedicated GPU?

I think he wants to crossfire the two.

Though I tend to suspect that you'd do better if you got a G530 + mobo for the price of that Llano, and put another $100 toward a 6850 or 6870.

 

[slayernine]

I think he wants to crossfire the two.

Though I tend to suspect that you'd do better if you got a G530 + mobo for the price of that Llano, and put another $100 toward a 6850 or 6870.

Yes sir you hit the nail on the head, I supposed I should have mentioned this in my initial post. According to AMD literature combining an A8 processor with a 6670 produces an HD 6690D2 graphical sandwich. "AMD Dual Graphics" which offers supposed improved crossfire performance between certain combinations of APU's and 6000 series graphics cards.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/dual-graphics/pages/dual-graphics.aspx#3

The G530 does seem to get a considerable amount of praise around here for power consumption, price and performance. Maybe I'm just scared of things with the name Pentium As for a more powerful GPU (which did cross my mind) I don't really want this system to be really awesome at gaming because I have 3 other desktops with decent cards (5770, 6870, 5870). One thing on my wish list was finding a version of this graphics card that was passively cooled and would still fit nicely in my Sugo case. I didn't find one so I went with the XFX because it was single slot with a $25 MIR.

 

[slayernine]

Has anyone ever tried putting an Intel i5 2500K in a Mini ITX case? I was also considering this but thought it might get too tempting to overclock it which would produce way to much heat for a tiny case. Also it would have been overkill for a gaming htpc IMO.

 

[lehtv]

I'd rather get a Pentium G840 for $40 less (compare) and a 6790 or 6850 if you can afford the latter. Also if get i3-2100 if you can afford it.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If you're willing to spend more on the CPU I'd probably stop at an i5-2400 or -2500 and cheap H61 / H67 motherboard instead of paying extra for a Z68 mobo in mini-ITX and a 2500K.

With any i5 you get the extra 2 cores and Turbo Boost automatic overclocking, that should be good enough for the video cards you'd use with a SG-05, especially the model with just the 300 watt PSU.

And I'd rather have a good single GPU than crossfiring 2 puny ones.

 

[slayernine]

I'd rather get a Pentium G840 for $40 less (compare) and a 6790 or 6850 if you can afford the latter. Also if get i3-2100 if you can afford it.

I'm surprised how well the G840 does against the A8 but it certainly does not hold up in multi threaded tests.

 

[Bryf50]

If you are really set on doing the crossfire thing don't get that card. Spend the little extra to get a version with GDDR5 like its supposed to have.
Also seeing as how you have a 4850 in there don't expect to be too impressed by the igpu+6670 solution. Oversimplifying things a bit but you have 400sp+480sp in crossfire vs an 800sp gpu. Now of course the 6670 is clocked much faster and has an updated architecture but the igpu is running severely memory limited and crossfire scaling is not 100%.

 

[Zap]

Just for fun here are some pictures of my old mini pc which has a dead J&W motherboard

Friend of mine had a J&W AMD ITX board which mysteriously died after a mere couple months.

Has anyone ever tried putting an Intel i5 2500K in a Mini ITX case?

Yup. Plenty of people have, including myself (briefly). Works fine.

 

[mfenn]

I'm surprised how well the G840 does against the A8 but it certainly does not hold up in multi threaded tests.

None of what you've listed in the OP really needs a quad though, especially not a 100W one.

 

[mfenn]

Has anyone ever tried putting an Intel i5 2500K in a Mini ITX case? I was also considering this but thought it might get too tempting to overclock it which would produce way to much heat for a tiny case. Also it would have been overkill for a gaming htpc IMO.

An i5 2500K is a 95W chip, so it is pretty much in the same power envelope as the A8.

And I'd rather have a good single GPU than crossfiring 2 puny ones.

Agree 100%. Crossfiring two wimpy GPUs that have gimped memory subsystems is a recipe for terrible min framerates and microstutter.

 

[slayernine]

Friend of mine had a J&W AMD ITX board which mysteriously died after a mere couple months.

Well I may have been the cause of the failure as I used a triple core processor which J&W advised against because it was over 65w TDP. I think the triple core I used was a 85w TDP or something similar but under 100w. The southbridge on the board always ran extremely hot which no doubt influenced its demise.

 

[slayernine]

An i5 2500K is a 95W chip, so it is pretty much in the same power envelope as the A8.



Agree 100%. Crossfiring two wimpy GPUs that have gimped memory subsystems is a recipe for terrible min framerates and microstutter.

After listening to all this sage advice I'm somewhat regretful of my hardware choices. Probably should have posted first, bought later but hindsight is always 20/20 like that.


On a side note this build will be an interesting experiment with crossfire.

 

[ElFenix]

so... do you want to game on this or do you not want to game on this?

I don't really want this system to be really awesome at gaming because I have 3 other desktops with decent cards (5770, 6870, 5870).

maybe it'd be better to cram one of those desktops into this mini itx?

 

[slayernine]

so... do you want to game on this or do you not want to game on this?



maybe it'd be better to cram one of those desktops into this mini itx?

Yes... I'll just take a ATX motherboard and shove it inside a case that doesn't support it. I'm guessing you are suggesting to buy a mini itx board for one of my other processors? I could easily do that with the spare triple core I have sitting in my dead J & W build.

I guess I should state this build is largely for my entertainment and not about saving money.

 

[ElFenix]

Yes... I'll just take a ATX motherboard and shove it inside a case that doesn't support it.

I'm guessing you are suggesting to buy a mini itx board for one of my other processors? I could easily do that with the spare triple core I have sitting in my dead J & W build.

obviously.

I guess I should state this build is largely for my entertainment and not about saving money.

carry on, then

 

[slayernine]

so... do you want to game on this or do you not want to game on this?

Well to elaborate more on what I will use this desktop for would be a good idea. I want it to serve a couple purposes.

1. Run Boxee software hooked up to my 27" 1080 Benq in my bedroom to watch HD content. It will sit there and do this 90% of the time. It will be running 24/7 because I want it always available for use at a moments notice so idle power is important and I heard the A8 has a good low idle. The pentium options are probably similar as well.

2. For use as a spare gaming PC when my friends come over for weekend LAN's. We do this as often as twice a month during the cold Canadian winter up here in Edmonton. I like having reliable computers for them to use as when they bring their own computers they never have the right games installed and they are almost always experiencing some sort of driver issue/OS Instability/Hardware failure and it eats up valuable gaming time.

3. I also want to play retro games using PSX, SNES, N64, and Genisis emulators. Initially I won't use it for this much but I plan to do so more once I get more emulators setup. I've been craving some Final Fantasy Tactics and my actual playstation and FFT disk are getting old and finicky.


Anyone have any other good ideas for things to use an HTPC for? I really like building small systems as they are more challenging to put together due to the tiny cases.

 

[ElFenix]

well, since you've already got everything on order...

since it's always on i'd use it for automatic backup of important stuff from another computer.

 

[slayernine]

well, since you've already got everything on order...

since it's always on i'd use it for automatic backup of important stuff from another computer.

I was thinking about doing something like that for my parents for Christmas. They like many people don't understand the value of backups but do like the idea of having a computer hooked up to their television that can provide netflix and downloaded content.

 

[DaveSimmons]

> but do like the idea of having a computer hooked up to their television that can provide netflix and downloaded content.

For Netflix and Amazon you could get them a Roku or one of the newer blu-ray players with streaming support, those are easier to maintain and offer simple remote-control use instead of messing with a mouse (and Windows updates).

 

[Zap]

After listening to all this sage advice I'm somewhat regretful of my hardware choices. Probably should have posted first, bought later but hindsight is always 20/20 like that.

Right. Posting "here's what I already bought" inevitably turns into either a brag thread (if it were super high dollar amount) or a regret thread (since everyone will pick apart your choices).

 

[slayernine]

> but do like the idea of having a computer hooked up to their television that can provide netflix and downloaded content.

For Netflix and Amazon you could get them a Roku or one of the newer blu-ray players with streaming support, those are easier to maintain and offer simple remote-control use instead of messing with a mouse (and Windows updates).

I would give them a remote, mouse and keyboard.

Boxee remote for 90% of the usage. Its a very simple remote that has qwerty on the back of it.

edit: You can buy these for $40 and they have a fairly tiny USB reciever.

Keyboard and mouse for when they want to navigate to a websites with streaming tv episodes such as ctv.ca as much internet content for the boxee is derived from network television caters to USA networks. It is a big hassle in Canada to deal with content from the US that is blocked here due to laws and copyright crap. Roku suffers from the same issue to a larger degree and wouldn't be very usable in Canada.

 

[slayernine]

Right. Posting "here's what I already bought" inevitably turns into either a brag thread (if it were super high dollar amount) or a regret thread (since everyone will pick apart your choices).

You are entirely right, I expected people to pick it apart and they have. Not intending to brag about my hardware as what I bought is a quite moderate system. This thread has accomplished what I set out to do, which is get useful feedback and suggestions of how other people would approach this build.

After reading all the comments this is what I would change on the build. I would likely go with one of these newer Pentium processors and stick with a dedicated video card, likely a 6570 or 6670. The A8 is rather overkill for what I'm doing.

 

[mfenn]

Right. Posting "here's what I already bought" inevitably turns into either a brag thread (if it were super high dollar amount) or a regret thread (since everyone will pick apart your choices).

Too true. :awe: