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$600 Steam/HTPC living room build, Prodigy Case

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  • Home Theatre
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January 17, 2014 8:17:02 PM

I've refined what I'm looking for a bit from my last thread.

This will be an always-on machine running Windows 7, as a Plex server/transcoder for 1-2 clients, and occasional gaming box for Steam Big Picture.

Since it will be right by the couch, I want it to be quiet.

The space I have to put this in is 10.75" wide by 15" deep (almost unlimited height).
I've found some cases that I like that would fit that space:
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Nelluk/favorites/#obj_1500...

I'm leaning towards the Prodigy Mini-ITX though. It seems like it will have relatively good airflow compared to the cheaper entries.

This is what I've put together:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($62.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus H81I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: PNY Optima 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($36.99 @ Microcenter)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($82.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($79.98 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $551.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-17 23:15 EST-0500)


This is my first build so I don't know if there are any pitfalls here or any obvious upgrades to make. I have another $50 in my budget for upgrades if necessary.

Can anyone make a faster/quieter build in those constraints?

More about : 600 steam htpc living room build prodigy case

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January 17, 2014 9:20:22 PM

it is a revision of your build, with better price/performance parts selection
2x 4GB ram
white prodigy case, cheaper
cheaper psu
260X. because newer gen Radeon has mantle that will be utilized in the future

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($62.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus H81I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.97 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($82.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 2GB Video Card ($135.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (White) Mini ITX Tower Case ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $585.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-18 00:18 EST-0500)
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January 18, 2014 5:57:46 AM

If your dimensions are correct, the Prodigy case might not be a good choice. It's a little longer than 15" deep once you allow for cables at the back, which might not be too much of a concern (it'll poke out a little), but if the side sections are flush (like in a cabinet or something) then you won't have easy access to the front panel as it's located on the side. If you have it on all the time then I guess it's not a massive hassle to pull it in and out if required, but it's worth bearing in mind if you want to use the headphone jack/front USB etc.
Given you don't need all of the space it provides, nor the airflow/rad support, you are perhaps better off in a more conventional small case like the Elite 130 as it's cheap and should do the job. It's even deeper, so you are going to get it poking out but at least in this case the front panel stuff is within reach. The Elite 110 is also worth a look as it's really tiny, but it also has the front panel on the side and is a little limiting on graphics cards.
There are some really nice ITX cases which would comfortably fit in the space, but given your on a tight budget they aren't really appropriately priced. In case you want a look anyway, the Cubitek Mini Cube, EVGA Hadron Air, Lian Li PC-Q33, Silverstone FT03-Mini, SG05 and SG06 would all offer various pros and cons, but are ultimately a bit dear.


There's nothing wrong with either build mentioned, you can make a case for just going for a single 1*4Gb stick of ram on the logic it won't slow you down massively and you can always add a second later as it's a pretty easy upgrade. Definitely stick with 1600Mhz though, no reason not to these days.
A lot of the value in a build like that is that if you want to, at some point you can stick an i5 in it and maybe a stronger graphics card and you suddenly have a pretty powerful gaming machine. If you only want to spend this much money though, the AMD alternative of an X4 750K/760K has to be worth consideration as it's not much more cash for a quad core. It's more power hungry and it's single threaded performance isn't amazing, but depending on how much stuff you have running, it could be a nice option.

As for graphics, at $110 the HD7770 doesn't make much sense. They are selling off a lot of 7000 series graphics cards so there's a lot of deals around. You can pick up a really nice HD7790 for $95 after rebates http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-hd7790dc2o... which as a value for money prospect is a lot nicer. It's essentially the same chip as in the 260X, but half the memory and not quite as fast.
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January 18, 2014 6:06:04 AM

AMD Radeon said:
it is a revision of your build, with better price/performance parts selection
2x 4GB ram
white prodigy case, cheaper
cheaper psu
260X. because newer gen Radeon has mantle that will be utilized in the future


Thanks. A couple of things:

  • I posted the same request for advice on Reddit and the upgrade suggestion there was to go for an i3 instead of the Pentium, for Plex streaming purposes
  • That PSU is modular and I've heard that you should avoid modular PSU's in this case. (I don't even know what modular/nonmodular PSU means, just parroting what I've read elsewhere)


  • I have an updated build with the i3, cheaper mobo with better reviews, and the white case on sale:

    PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

    CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Microcenter)
    Motherboard: ASRock H81M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($70.98 @ SuperBiiz)
    Memory: PNY Optima 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($36.99 @ Microcenter)
    Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($84.99 @ Microcenter)
    Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Microcenter)
    Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card ($109.99 @ Amazon)
    Case: BitFenix Prodigy (White) Mini ITX Tower Case ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
    Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Amazon)
    Total: $562.91
    (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
    (Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-18 09:05 EST-0500)


    Any insight into how quiet this may be?
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    January 18, 2014 6:25:38 AM

    Thanks for the detailed information Rammy.

    The space is not very restrictive, (just a corner next to a cabinet basically)
    My concern with the Cooler Master series is a review of the 130 which made the internals temps look significantly higher than in the Prodigy.
    I haven't seen that Elite 110 yet before now, though. I really like it on paper. Do you have any sense of how loud a system like this would be?

    I chose the 7770 GPU because it is what is recommended at that price point in Tom's Best Graphics Card for the Money January 2014 at that price point. I did not include the 7790 because it uses Mail In Rebate, which I am ignoring for cost considerations.

    See my other reply for an updated build using the i3 and give me any more feedback. Thanks again!

    Rammy said:
    If your dimensions are correct, the Prodigy case might not be a good choice. It's a little longer than 15" deep once you allow for cables at the back, which might not be too much of a concern (it'll poke out a little), but if the side sections are flush (like in a cabinet or something) then you won't have easy access to the front panel as it's located on the side. If you have it on all the time then I guess it's not a massive hassle to pull it in and out if required, but it's worth bearing in mind if you want to use the headphone jack/front USB etc.
    Given you don't need all of the space it provides, nor the airflow/rad support, you are perhaps better off in a more conventional small case like the Elite 130 as it's cheap and should do the job. It's even deeper, so you are going to get it poking out but at least in this case the front panel stuff is within reach. The Elite 110 is also worth a look as it's really tiny, but it also has the front panel on the side and is a little limiting on graphics cards.
    There are some really nice ITX cases which would comfortably fit in the space, but given your on a tight budget they aren't really appropriately priced. In case you want a look anyway, the Cubitek Mini Cube, EVGA Hadron Air, Lian Li PC-Q33, Silverstone FT03-Mini, SG05 and SG06 would all offer various pros and cons, but are ultimately a bit dear.


    There's nothing wrong with either build mentioned, you can make a case for just going for a single 1*4Gb stick of ram on the logic it won't slow you down massively and you can always add a second later as it's a pretty easy upgrade. Definitely stick with 1600Mhz though, no reason not to these days.
    A lot of the value in a build like that is that if you want to, at some point you can stick an i5 in it and maybe a stronger graphics card and you suddenly have a pretty powerful gaming machine. If you only want to spend this much money though, the AMD alternative of an X4 750K/760K has to be worth consideration as it's not much more cash for a quad core. It's more power hungry and it's single threaded performance isn't amazing, but depending on how much stuff you have running, it could be a nice option.

    As for graphics, at $110 the HD7770 doesn't make much sense. They are selling off a lot of 7000 series graphics cards so there's a lot of deals around. You can pick up a really nice HD7790 for $95 after rebates http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-hd7790dc2o... which as a value for money prospect is a lot nicer. It's essentially the same chip as in the 260X, but half the memory and not quite as fast.


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    January 18, 2014 7:07:36 AM

    Obviously an i3 is better than a Pentium, but it's pretty task dependant. Both are dual cores after all, sometimes they will be very close in performance. Personally, I can't see a single budget level where I would buy an i3 for any build, as it's just too expensive relative to how good it is. In a standard CPU comparison, the FX6300 (or similar) is likely to be a better buy, and if the budget will stretch, a cheaper i5 might make a lot of difference. In your case the FX CPUs go out of the window, but the X4 750K/760K are between the Pentium and the i3s in price and are an interesting alternative.
    Given you are probably wanting to keep power+noise levels fairly low, the Intel offerings are probably the way to go. As I understand it (really not my field) plex streaming is pretty low end stuff, you don't need much power. I'm not sure why you would need an i3 over a Pentium, but it's worth looking into seeing if there are benchmarks to compare.

    For graphics, I'd definitely go with the HD7790 over the HD7770. The Tom's guides are a good baseline, but they can't take into account changes of price on specific items, only the overall model range. It's a $5 price difference, as both have $20 rebate options, and it's definitely worth an extra $5. If you want to spend more there are other options, but at that level it's pretty hard to beat. Additionally, it is a two fan cooler, and likely to be pretty quiet.


    There is nothing wrong with the Elite 130 really. It has no exhaust fans, which is very unusual, and instead has two intake fans. It's a bit of an awkward solution so it's never going to have the best temperatures, but given you are talking about a low end Intel CPU and a low-mid range graphics card, we aren't talking about anything that needs great airflow. It'd be absolutely fine. Comparing it to the Prodigy is kinda unfair as they are quite different in size (double really) and if you fit it with some decent fans the Prodigy is better than the vast majority of big towers. The Node 304 is much like the Elite 130 but with better airflow, it's not cheap though.
    The Elite 110 is really nice, but it's pretty limiting on the graphics card front, maximum length 210mm. I have a guide of ITX cases with their limiting dimensions so I'll link that at the bottom if you want to compare any others.

    For what you are trying to achieve, the Node is pretty nice as it has a built in fan controller so you can adjust the volume levels pretty easily. It is pretty expensive relative to the Coolermasters, but it might be the best option.

    One thing I'm a little surprised nobody has brought up, including me, is the SSD. I'm as much of a fan of SSDs as the next guy, but given you have an system which is always on, you might be better off ditching the SSD altogether. The main benefit it would give you is noise levels, as I'm not sure how much of the speed you will really use. An extra $80 on the budget gives you a huge amount of options. Worth a think.
    Building an ITX system. Information and FAQ
    ITX Builds There have been an ever increasing number of questions regarding ITX builds, and given my interest in the topic I have been answering quite a lot of them. My aim with this guide is to type less, and hopefully cover more ground. I aim for... See full content
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    January 18, 2014 7:45:00 AM

    Lots to think about. Here is another revision of the build:
    - Node 304 case
    - 2x4gb ram
    - 7790 card
    - no SSD

    PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

    CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.98 @ OutletPC)
    Motherboard: ASRock H81M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($70.98 @ SuperBiiz)
    Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.97 @ NCIX US)
    Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($82.99 @ NCIX US)
    Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7790 1GB Video Card ($114.99 @ Newegg)
    Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case ($98.62 @ TigerDirect)
    Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
    Total: $597.52
    (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
    (Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-18 10:43 EST-0500)

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    January 18, 2014 7:47:47 AM

    Rammy said:


    For what you are trying to achieve, the Node is pretty nice as it has a built in fan controller so you can adjust the volume levels pretty easily. It is pretty expensive relative to the Coolermasters, but it might be the best option.


    Updated build in my previous reply, but one thing I forgot to mention: Part of the reason why I chose the Prodigy case was that it seems like it will be relatively easy to build in. Since this will be my first build and I have large masculine hands, I'm a little concerned about running into problems. The Node 304 looks very nice, though.
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    January 18, 2014 8:02:30 AM

    I wouldn't say the Prodigy is super easy to build in. The horizontal motherboard is great, but it means you need to have everything attached before you fit it in, and then screwing it down is pretty awkward. Once it's in, you are good, but it's not the easiest case I've built in. The Node is a bit fiddly, got those modular bracket things for HDDs, which you can just take out mainly, but I wouldn't worry too much.

    NCIX seem to have a discount on the Node at the moment. Looks like if you are buying memory from there anyway, you might get free shipping on the lot.

    I'd go with the CX430M over the CX430, as it bins a couple of cables you won't be using. Having said that, at $20 (if you rebate it) the CX430 is pretty amazing value. If you want a bit more quality the Rosewill Capstone 450-M or XFX Core 550 are just about reachable. Capstone won't go in a Node though, XFX should.
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    January 18, 2014 8:53:31 AM

    Updated with CX430M and using NCIX as the vendor for the case. I was a little hesitant to put their low price on the list because A) i've never heard of them B) they don't give shipping cost until I register and C) they make me pay extra for insurance if I want it. But I assume they must have a decent reputation around here if they are one of the vendors on PCPartPicker.

    I will probably start making purchases later today or tomorrow, if you have any additional feedback. Thanks again!


    PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

    CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Amazon)
    Motherboard: ASRock H81M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($70.98 @ SuperBiiz)
    Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.97 @ NCIX US)
    Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($82.99 @ NCIX US)
    Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7790 1GB Video Card ($114.99 @ Newegg)
    Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case ($72.99 @ NCIX US)
    Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ Microcenter)
    Total: $576.90
    (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
    (Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-18 11:51 EST-0500)
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    January 18, 2014 9:11:07 AM

    I'm not in the US so I can't really speak with any confidence about retailers, but I haven't heard any bad things really. Unlike newegg, for example, who seem to get a pass on the "it's cheap" logic.

    The build looks good. The only other thing that popped into my head was whether or not you might want built in Wifi, as it hasn't been mentioned so far. For that you'd need something like the Gigabyte GA-H87N-WIFI, which is quite a bit more expensive.

    One other thought, is that the Node has excellent compatibility for tower CPU coolers. As you aren't overclocking, this isn't something you need, but based on experience the Intel stock cooler, while not terribly loud, is a little whiney relative to most case fans. If somewhere down the line you decide you'd like to reduce it's base noise level, you have a lot of options for upgrades in this area.
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