Mini PC - would this be any good?

[Encolpius]

Case
Silverstone SG01B-F Mini-ITX Case + 450W PSU
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500S Quad Core (2.7GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H61-I: Mini-ITX, LG1155, USB 3.0, SATA 3GBs
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6870 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
750GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD7502AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Sound Card
ONBOARD 10 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS-N (150Mbps) 3dBi HIGH GAIN USB ADAPTER
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
21.5" WIDESCREEN LED TFT - 1920 x 1080, 5MS, D-Sub, DVI-D (£89)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£10)
Speakers
LOGITECH S120 2.0 BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£9)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity 1

Total Cost - £838.00 (which is just about my budget or thereabouts).

I thought about getting a mini PC rather than a lappy because I could get more for less yet don't have the space to squeeze in a full sized desktop system. So, firstly, would this be any good? I've not bolted together a desktop PC in years and years, you see. I'm not wasting anything or bottlenecking or owt or likely to have anything cook itself? For the record I don't plan on overclocking. I do plan on playing some moderately recent stuff (including The Witcher 2) and want to be powerful enough so that if anything in the near future takes my fancy.

Also, I note that the HTPC option has the option of Ivy Bridge. Any possibility of having Ivy Bridge in a mini PC with this case? I'm assuming that the reason for no Ivy in this setup is a lack of quality boards that would fit Ivy Bridge?

 

[mantadog]

You can fit an ivy bridge chip into any H61, H67 or Z68 motherboard so it's not a case of the motherboards not supporting it. Earlier in the week the HTPC option had no Ivy bridge options, i posted in a spec further down this page about a HTPC and at that stage it had no ivy bridge processors available in the configurator, a mod shortly posted saying they were updated. I presume they are working through old stock first, you could always drop them an email or a phonecall and ask for it to be updated and i'm sure it would be done.

The spec itself as it stands now is pretty solid and should meet your needs perfectly well.

 

[Encolpius]

Super. I'll probably get myself this then in the near future (once I get paid, that is) and an Amazon basket of fun to test out on it when it arrives. Then if a year down the line something super awesome comes out that won't run on it I can just plink in an Ivy.

 

[mantadog]

ivy bridge is a step in performance, but nothing huge, to be honest it wouldn't be worth swaping the chips unless you found one free to a good home or something. So long as your bot expecting ultra settings in BF3 that PC will play anything you like a decent settings for a couple of years i would say.

 

[Encolpius]

Funnily enough, Battlefield 3 holds no interest whatsoever for me. Sorry, but no.

 

[mantadog]

Well no problems then , should play anything you have in mind

 

[Encolpius]

Okay, so, I've been fiddling around with the configurator and found this HTPC spec:

Case
Antec NSK 2480 HTPC Case + 380W PSU
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3450S (2.8GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8H61-M LE/USB3 (NEW REV 3.0): M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 - DVI,HDMI,VGA (Special Offer)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
21.5" WIDESCREEN LED TFT - 1920 x 1080, 5MS, D-Sub, DVI-D (£89)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£10)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £793.00 including VAT and delivery.

This is about forty quid cheaper, but what worries me is that such a small box might cause it to cook itself. Any thoughts on this? Also, although the configurator says everything will be fine, isn't the power supply a wee bit small?

EDIT: Also, how strong are these HTPC cases exactly? The dimensions are reminiscent of the old 1990s flat "pizza box" cases that you'd balance the screen on top of. If I was to do that with an HTPC case, as space is at a premium for me, would I be likely to crush it or otherwise hurt it?

 

[PCS]

The Antec NSK 2480 HTPC Case is much taller than a pixzza box, it's more like 4 pizza boxes stacked on top of each other.

It is absolutely fine for cooling and the power supply is more than capable of coping. The CPU only takes 65W and the GPU 150W, the RAM 20W, the HDD 25W, the ODD 25W, the WI-Fi card 7W, the motherboard <50W, and this is with everything maxed out. The system will probably tick over using around 200W, which is half your PSU capacity.