Portable HTPC and Gaming PC

[sub-80]

I want to build a HTPC that can play 4K movies @60Hz and I can take to my friends place to game.

First thing to decide:
Case: Corsair 380T vs Bitfenix Prodigy M [Mini-ITX vs Micro-ATX]

Update: April 5th, 2016
I have made a list. PLease choose and give your opinion:

1. Case: Corsair 380T [Mini-ITX] vs Bitfenix Prodigy M [Micro-ATX]
2. MotherBoard: ASROCK Fatal1ty Gaming Z170 [Mini-ItX] vs ASUS Z170M-Plus/ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VII GENE Z170/MSI Z170M MORTAR [MICRO-ATX]

• Pro of ASRock: Has a HDMI 2.0 on Motherboard so I can watch 4K@60Hz with only CPU
• All Micro-ATX can accommodate additional PCI-e cards e.g sound card, TV in Card
• ASUS ROG can take 2 VGAs at x8 while other at x4

3. CPU: I5-6600K
4. CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i GT

5. RAM: Corsair DDR4 2133MHz CL13 (2x8GB)
6. Storage: Master: Samsung M.2 850 EVO 256-512 GB (Not sure about size) & N/A with MSI Mortar Slave: Samsung SataIII 840 EVO 1TB
7. VGA: EVGA GTX 960

8. PSU: EVGA 450 -650w G2


Please note that this is not my main unit. It will be used as a HTPC at home and a gaming pc when I visit friends.


Regards;

 

[JeffMD]

First thing to decide is how much gpu you hope to support? what are you playing at your friends?

 

[sub-80]

The games we play
Fps games: Cod, far cry, battlefield
Rpg: Final Fantasy, tomb raider, shadow of mordor
Strategy: command and conquer

 

[sub-80]

I have made a list. PLease choose and give your opinion:

1. Case: Corsair 380T [Mini-ITX] vs Bitfenix Prodigy M [Micro-ATX]
2. MotherBoard: ASROCK Fatal1ty Gaming Z170 [Mini-ItX] vs ASUS Z170M-Plus/ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VII GENE Z170/MSI Z170M MORTAR [MICRO-ATX]

• Pro of ASRock: Has a HDMI 2.0 on Motherboard so I can watch 4K@60Hz with only CPU
• All Micro-ATX can accommodate additional PCI-e cards e.g sound card, TV in Card
• ASUS ROG can take 2 VGAs at x8 while other at x4

3. CPU: I5-6600K
4. CPU Cooler: Corsair H80i GT

5. RAM: Corsair DDR4 2133MHz CL13 (2x8GB)
6. Storage: Master: Samsung M.2 850 EVO 256-512 GB (Not sure about size) & N/A with MSI Mortar Slave: Samsung SataIII 840 EVO 1TB
7. VGA: EVGA GTX 960

8. PSU: EVGA 450 -650w G2



Please note that this is not my main unit. It will be used as a HTPC at home and a gaming pc when I visit friends.


Regards;

 

[sub-80]

Hello?

 

[SMOGZINN]

Not much to say about your build. Cases are a matter of personal preference. Any of those MB will work fine. For MB you are mostly just looking for the price to extras you want and will actually use ratios. Is 4k@60 that important considering that to use it you need both a 4k monitor and a 4k source, both of which are rare, and probably will be for the life of this build?

Samsung SataIII 840 EVO 1TB
...
EVGA GTX 960

Here is my main criticism. That is like a $450 SSD. Instead get a $150 512GB SSD and something like the 3TB WD Black WD3003FZEX for $150. You will have plenty of space for 4-5 games on the SSD and the HTPC stuff on the spinning drive. The difference between a HD and SSD will make no difference for HTPC stuff, and won't make much of a difference for most games. Take that $350 you saved and get a high end GPU. You will see much better gaming performance from a better GPU than you will from a secondary SSD. Most of the performance boost from a SSD is from having the OS on it. Save a little extra with a cheaper MB and you are in striking range of a GTX 980Ti.

 

[sub-80]

I currently own the 1tb 840evo which is 75% full with games. And I think 980ti for a temporary gaming pc (once a week gaming pc) is a bit much. My current main unit is
I7-5930k
Corsair H110i GTX
64gb GSKILL DDR4 (4x16gb)
ASUS X99-E WS/3.1
2×Gigabyte GTX 780 Ghz edition
Storage
1-512gb 850 pro m.2
2-1tb 850 pro sata3
3-2x 6xxgb wd black
4- 4tb wd black
Lite on slim bd-rw
Corsair AX1500I

As you said why waste money. Am already planning to upgrade my main unit when hbm2 comes out so I'll transfer the one of the 780 to this unit and until then I can remove on R9 280x/7950 from my mining rig.

The question I need to solve now is will I ever need a second
pci-ex16 slot or pciex1 or pci slot

 

[Ketchup]

As far as the case, I don't really think you want to go ITX. It's a big sacrifice for a small gain. I was just looking on Amazon, and a lot of the dimensions are very close. But those couple extra inches can make all the difference, especially if you want a good graphics card and possibly more than one drive.

As for response, your thread would probably get more hits in general hardware. You can always as a mod to move it if you wish.

 

[sub-80]

Sure