AMD a10-7850k budget Steam Machine

SilverStone Sugo SG05 Advanced Specifications
Motherboard Form Factor Mini-ITX
Drive Bays External 1x Slimline optical
Internal 1x 2.5", 1x 3.5"
Cooling Front 1x 120mm intake fan
Rear -
Top -
Side -
Bottom -
Expansion Slots 2
I/O Port 2x USB 3.0, 1x Headphone, 1x Mic
Power Supply Size SFX (included)
Clearances HSF 82mm
PSU SFX form factor
GPU 10" / 255mm
Dimensions 8.7" x 6.9" x 10.9"
222mm x 176mm x 276mm
Weight 7.8 lbs. / 3.52kg
Special Features USB 3.0 connectivity via internal header
Included 450W 80 Plus Bronze SFX form factor PSU

These are all the sizes you can review as i founded on a website and it says included psu !!!!

Dual graphics is very problematic because:

1) The current situation is horrible

2) Only one GPU that matches will work so there's a limited time in which a second card will be available.

It is probably a much better choice to build with a regular dedicated CPU, and addon graphics card. While I would recommend upgrading with a better graphics card in the future, a 2nd card in Crossfire or SLI (AMD vs NVidia) is also an option. Crossfire has issues (currently DX9 issues causing HALF the frame rate perception. I.e. showing 60FPS with only 30 real frames shown).

Crossfire is NOT the same as Dual Graphics either. Eventually it will be basically the same, but small architectural differences currently translate into large issues with driver support (major stutter etc).

My recommendation on PC parts:
This would depend on your budget slightly, but at about $600 you can put together something pretty nice using pcpartspicker that includes Windows 8.1 64-bit (I would add Start8 from Stardock for $5 to bypass the new Start Screen by default).

*I'll post this and look at a build. It may cost more than i thought due to the mini-ITX board and case.

Hi,
The first thing I think you should look at is a BENCHMARK of the A10-6800K APU:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/a10-6700-a10-6800k-richland-review,3528-5.html

Note the performance is well below a system with only an HD6670 graphics card. If you add another card for Dual graphics you can get above this, but even if you match the build I recommend with the 260X card you'll have the Dual Graphics issues and the cost will end up about the same.

I'll first just post my $610 build using the CPU and separate HD7790. If you choose an APU, drop the graphics card and CPU as everything else works with the exception of the main System RAM.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2HN7U

DDR3 memory for APU (2133MHz CAS9): http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f32133c9d8gab

*If you get any less than 2133MHz of DDR3 memory your APU performance will suffer as the GPU inside the APU uses this memory as it's VIDEO RAM. It scales quite linearly with modern APU's up to a little above 2133MHz so for example 1333MHz memory would limit you to about 1333/2133 thus you'd lose almost 40% of the gaming performance.

The same applies to using a SINGLE stick of memory. In fact, if you had only one stick of 1600MHz memory your performance would be (1600/2)/2133 approximately 40% of what it could be. There's testing that proves this. Again, only applies to APU's not a regular CPU only.

APU:
The best one listed was $140 and the A10-6800K. There are newer ones (not sure if for sale yet) but I'd expect them to be a little more. You can't get a good CPU and Graphics card for that price, but when you look at the TOTAL COST of the system it doesn't add a lot. For example, the same CPU I recommend for $90 + a $90 HD7750 is only $40 more but gives better performance. Unfortunately you can't Crossfire with a mini-ITX motherboard but I'm not a fan of that anyway.

The card I recommend considering how much you're spending costs $140 and is the Asus R9-260X 2GB card. Thus, your build with the APU would cost $520, and my much better performing build will cost $610.

Other points:
1) Power Supply - with the Silverstone case you mention, you require an SFX power supply and I suggest a 450W version. That costs $70 but the case only cost $40 so it's not too bad.
- The one I chose apparently has a 1x8-pin and 2x6-pin PCIe for graphics cards so you should have no issues there with graphics card support.
2) 8GB of DDR3 memory (2x4GB).
- again, 2133MHz CAS9 (not C10 or C11) recommended for an APU
- APU will use some of that

3) No non-stock CPU listed. I'd recommend a different model but you'd have to carefully check dimensions and obviously it adds to the cost. The stock one will be fairly noisy under load but you might find it adequate.

4) DVD drive:
Requires the slim 5.25" drive. Pcpartpicker is pretty good for compatibility checking.

Summary:
I wish you luck on your build, and I hope my parts list and explanation help you. I'm not sure if you can buy a newer, better APU elsewhere but I still think the CPU + addon graphics is the best way to go.

Here's a little math. It's a little rough, but it's VERY informative.

I had to use three different graphs as the A10-6800K and R7-260X weren't on the same graph. Adjust if you find a better APU than this one, though again more money affects the value.

I will ignore the CPU bottleneck for a minute and just do a rough comparison of the R7-260X to the A10-6800K GPU.

The HD6670 gets roughly HALF the performance of an HD7770: http://hothardware.com/printarticle.aspx?articleid=1799

The HD6670 is about 1.5X faster than the A10-6800K's GPU (benchmark in my comment above).

The Asus R9-260X is roughly 1.5X faster than the HD7770: http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r7_260x_r9_270x_280x_review_benchmarks,15.html

The difference comes to 4.5x (1.5x1.5x2) but we'd need a good INTEL CPU like the i5-4570 to see this.

Adjusting for the weaker, but much cheaper CPU I recommend, we may find it drops closer to a 3x performance advantage (on average), but WOW, even by going with Dual Graphics (and it's other issues) you'd be lucky to get much above HALF this performance!

That's basically the difference between 45FPS and 15FPS at the same quality settings.

I believe it comes to $545 roughly if I use the APU build, and $610 for my build. That's a 12% difference in price.

300% difference for 12% more!!!

Conclusion:
If you have any questions, or think I made a big mistake somewhere feel free to comment, but I think these numbers are pretty compelling.

Sorry it's all pretty lengthy, but I think it's good to be informed.

I should add that I don't recommend building a STEAMBOX yet as there's a very limited number of games (Linux ones) unless you also dual-boot Windows to use the Windows catalogue. There's also not much information on what games STEAMOS will get in the next year, but i think most will be Indie games.

If you also add the controller ($60 ?) and Windows (recommended) the system then costs $770. Considering it's really a console replacement it's hard to recommend this over the $400 PS4 currently. Sure, there are inexpensive games on Steam but that's a big difference in price as well. Something to at least consider.

I'd recommend waiting a year. By then, things will have changed:
- slightly cheaper hardware (possibly a good $500 pre-built)
- more games (really, not too great right now)
- refresh of controller quality
- good reviews on the current and future status of the console

I updated my post above...