£300 ($500) Media and browsing only build for living room

[shinobivs]

Approximate Purchase Date: within 4-6 weeks

Budget Range: maximum of £300

System Usage from Most to Least Important: playing music, watching video, browsing

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: No need to buy one, I have windows 7 here.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Scan.co.uk, ebuyer.com, amazon.co.uk (whatever is heap in the UK)

Location: Wales, UK

Parts Preferences: Not fussed as long as it performs well

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Additional Comments: PC is going to be sat next to my sky box in the living room, has to run silently and be small and reasonably stylish case wise. Needs HDMI output to hook up to my tv and possibly optical audio out to connect to my stereo.

I've not put together a new build in quite a while so as much help would be greatly appreciated. I've been told the new AMD A series is due next month, am I best off waiting for that to release?

I currently have a spare 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 HDD ready to use on the build which should be sufficient for the time being.

 

[malbluff]

Something along these lines might well suit:

Case: Asus TM-210 Mini tower Micro-ATX Black/Silver £ 21.58 @ Scan
Mobo: Asus P8H77-M LE Micro-ATX £ 69.32 @ Scan
CPU: Intel Core i3-3225 3.3GHz Dual Core Ivybridge £110.56 @ Scan
OptDr: LG GH24NS90 DVD/CD £ 16.76 @ Scan
PSU: Be Quiet SFX 300w Micro-ATX £ 37.25 @ EBuyer

TOTAL £255.47

That leaves some change, if you want to swap out optical drive to blu-ray, or any other add ons. That Ivybridge i3 has good on board graphics, which is capable of some light gaming. Confess I have no experience in building in case size, so would suggest waiting for further comments, in case I have omitted something. eg. Not sure what ventilation is like, as to whether additional/changed fan is advisable.

 

[shinobivs]

Thanks for the reply malbluff. I was starting to think no one was ever going to comment haha.

I was aiming for a mini-itx setup more than a M-atx. I did start putting a list of components together myself and came up with the following so. Take a look and any advice or pointers would be great.

CASE
Silverstone SG05B USB 3.0 Sugo Black Mini ITX Case with 300W PSU
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silverstone-sg05b-usb-30-sugo-sff-mini-itx-black-with-300w-sfx-psu-80-plus
£77

CPU
Intel Core i3 2120 3.3GHz Socket 1155 3MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004FA8NXM/?tag=hydra0b-21&hvadid=9556678269&ref=asc_df_B004FA8NXM
£90

CPU COOLER
Akasa AK-CCE-7106HP Intel Aluminium/Copper CPU Cooler for S775/1155/1156 Low Profile
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/akasa-low-profile-low-noise-copper-core-heat-sink-fan-for-micro-mini-itx-htpc-intel-s775-1155-1156
£10

MOBO
Zotac H61-ITX WiFi Socket 1155 onboard graphics (CPU required) 8 Channel Audio mITX Motherboard
http://www.ebuyer.com/341236-zotac-h61-itx-wifi-socket-1155-onboard-graphics-cpu-required-8-channel-audio-h61itx-a-e
£75

CASE FAN
Enermax UCTB12 T.B.Silence Case Fan Twister Bearing Super Silent 11 dBA Batwing Blades
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm-enermax-uctb12-tbsilence-case-fan-twister-bearing-super-silent-11-dba-batwing-blades
£7

RAM? - any suggestions

Also I don't need an optical drive, planning on booting and installing windows off USB

in total works out around £259 without RAM

Any thoughts?

 

[malbluff]

Seems fine, but you should seriously consider the i3-3225 CPU. Slightly better performance overall, but MILES better graphics. To get the best out of it, would be better to couple it with a H77, or possibly B75 mobo, but, to be honest with you, I'm not sure what is good, with that chipset, for m-atx.

 

[spat55]

I'd get a;

CPU: i3 3220 (£95) or a celeron G555 (£40)

i3: http://www.ebuyer.com/393554-intel-core-i3-3220-3-10ghz-skt1155-3mb-cache-boxed-bx80637i33220

Celeron: http://www.ebuyer.com/393561-intel-celeron-g555-2-70ghz-skt1155-2mb-cache-boxed-bx80623g555

Mobo: MSI H61M-P31 (£36)

http://www.ebuyer.com/387086-msi-h61m-p31-g3-socket-1155-vga-dvi-8-channel-audio-matx-motherboard-h61m-p31-g3-

Case: Casecom CM-431 (£18)

http://www.ebuyer.com/265748-casecom-cm-431-shiny-black-microatx-case-cm-431

 

[spat55]

You don't need a CPU cooler for this, it's a waste of money, also spend less on case.

 

[shinobivs]

Cheers for the suggestions guys. The issue I have with some of the MOBO's is they don't have optical audio output (or SPDIF output).

Also looking for a mini-itx case rather than micro-atx. The system is going to sit next to the sky box so can to fit in and look half decent.