Best Low Profile Gaming System < $1000?

[Grovest]

[fixed]HELP!

With my PS3 showing it's age and new consoles still almost a year off, I decided when AFox introduced a low profile 7850 to build another gaming PC (last one I built was nearly 10 years ago) instead of waiting for the PS4 to arrive.

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j...wysjL1OiJu-hs6yHw&sig2=sRn4HKKSq9SfOhyyFxjxGQ

I already have the video card and it blows my PS3 away. In my current my desktop (which is an older AMD
dual core system) it drives every game I've tried at 1080P with all settings at max staying well over 30 fps (many playing at close to 60 fps). That is without overclocking - overclocked I was able in increase the fps by nearly 25% in some cases - unfortunately in a low profile case I doubt that I'd be able to get rid of the heat generated or handle the power draw. Only down side was that it cost nearly $400 once shipping and taxes were included leaving only $600 for the rest of he components (excluding display).

Design Criteria / Restrictions:

■ The video card (AFox 7850) is oversized for a low profile: 9" long + two slots wide & needs Aux Pwr
■ System will dual as a HTPC for movies so needs BR drive & must be quiet
■ Needs lots of cooling (always a challenge in low profile designs)

Question #1: What motherboard to choose? Most expect cards no longer than 7.5".

Question #2: What power supply to choose? The AFox 7850 requires a six pin power connection.

Question #3: What case to choose? Most aren't designed to handle the heat from gaming.

Question #4: What storage to choose? Are SSD still overpriced? One drive or two?

Question #5: What wireless keyboard to choose? Need multimedia controls & at least 20' range.
(any reasonably priced ones around with built in pointing device - mice seem get lost in the sofa)

Question #6: What wireless gamepads to choose? Need support for at least 2 & at least 20' range.
(Yes I know most PC games play best with keyboard/mouse
but until Microsoft supports two keyboards when playing with
a second person to be 'fair' want to have two controllers so
both players have the same controller.)

Question #7: Any other suggestions or tips?

THANKS!![/fixed]

 

[smorizio]

you be looking at a standard 650w to be safe with that video card.
most small ixt cases people use this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=A7DYbeolPNw
they take standard power supplys. so your going pay few more dollars for small case and mb. the case will take your standard video cards. most standard cases now for gaming have one fan that pulls in the front and one or two rear fans that blow out and has grills for heat on the top or side. ssd the 120g ones do speed your system up. the 120g run about 100-140 for the good drives. if your saving money then pick up a 500g drive for games and movies or a larger hard drive.

 

[jmsellars1]

That card only pulls around 120W or so, 400W+ is fine.

That GPU is not going to be quiet, no way. I'd either settle for a weaker card or accept that it won't be quiet.

 

[camohanna]

How did you pay $400 for that card...

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Fg4T
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Fg4T/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Fg4T/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard ($94.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.48 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.14 @ Amazon)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($104.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($78.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Lite-On ihes112-04 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($54.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $590.55
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-22 16:43 EST-0500)

 

[Grovest]

How did you pay $400 for that card...

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Fg4T
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Fg4T/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Fg4T/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard ($94.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.48 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.14 @ Amazon)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($104.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($78.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Lite-On ihes112-04 Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($54.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $590.55
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-22 16:43 EST-0500)

The only place I was able to source the card was from England. $400 included shipping, brokerage fees (the idiot who shipping it rather than using Royal Mail shipping by UPS - stuck with $70 in brokerage fees). I know you can get full height 7850 for around half the price as the card purchased BUT the card is the only low profile card on the market so they get away with a hefty markup.

 

[Grovest]

That card only pulls around 120W or so, 400W+ is fine.

That GPU is not going to be quiet, no way. I'd either settle for a weaker card or accept that it won't be quiet.

Actually the card isn't bad for noise - definitely under 30db. I already have the card running in an older system and unless your sitting right on top of it you can't hear it unless you use the tools to turn the speed of the fan right up. I suspect that in slim case if may end up that the fan makes more noise by running faster since the case cooling on my old case is extremely good (around 250cfm flow through the case including excellent flow over the video card).

Do you think I could get buy with 300W? Considering the video cad is only around 120W and the rest of the system likely around 150W that would still leave some room to spare. Reason for asking is that the goal is to stay with a slim low profile case and can't seem to find one reasonably priced which will take more than 300W (other than over priced case like the Antec Microfusion which has 350W.

http://store.antec.com/Product/enclosure-veris_media/micro-fusion-remote-350/0-761345-15737-7.aspx

However around 300W lots of nice options are available such as:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004EMSH9Q?tag=intercept-kb-20

 

[jmsellars1]

If you get a 55W CPU like an i3 and the 300W PSU is a decent one you might be OK. Personally I'd get a bare minimum of 350W though. Preferably 380W-400W+

 

[Grovest]

Best answer selected by Grovest.

 

[Grovest]

Found a quality Media Center case with 350W which seems to be working well other than I had to replace the stock fans since the temperature was more than I liked. Did all I could to keep the power use down such as using 2.5" drives instead of 3.5" etc. and seems to be working. I checked the power draw while gaming and with even with the card overclocked it only peaked at around 280 so plenty of room for safety.

Thanks!