Parts list
| Part | Cost |
| SilverStone SG06BB-LITE Black Mini-ITX Computer Case | $49.99 |
| Silverstone 450W SFX Power Supply | $69.99 |
| ASRock B85M-ITX Mini ITX Motherboard | $74.99 |
| Intel Core i5-4430 @ 3.0GHz 84W Haswell Quad-Core Desktop Processor | $189.99 |
| 4GB (2 x 2GB) G.Skill Ripjaws Series 1600 Desktop Memory | $0 (From previous build) |
| MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB | $129.99 - $10 Rebate |
| Samsung 840 EVO MZ-7TE120BW 2.5" 120GB Solid State Drive | $89.99 |
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit - OEM | $99.99 |
| Total | $694.93 |
Negatives of this build
- I would have preferred 8GB of memory for the gaming side of this box, but I was sticking to a tight budget and I already had 2 sticks of quality DDR3 1600 Mhz memory lying around. Re-purposing this memory allowed me to stretch my budget further and I can always upgrade later.
- The non pro version of Windows 8.1 does not include Media Center. I was aware of this and you should be too. Adding Windows Media Center requires you to upgrade to 8.1 Professional and this is not cheap (Around $100 at the time of posting).
- This PC is limited to 120GB of local storage. I traded storage space for lightning fast boot times and operation speed. I can always add a large secondary hard drive or build a Network Attached Storage (NAS) at a later time. Plus a NAS leaves me another build to look forward to and I do love my builds!
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The Guts
I chose the powerful and energy efficient Intel i5 4430 as the CPU to run my tiny dream machine. With 4 cores running at 3.0 GHz it can handle any load I may throw at the machine, while sipping the power at 84 watts vs. AMD's 95-125 watts. Also, Intel's Haswell series introduces a new ultra deep sleep using less than 1 watt of power; ideal for a media center PC.
The rest of the guts consists of fairly standard components: a lower-mid range graphics card in the GTX 650 Ti, only 4 GB of Ram (see negatives section above for explanation), an incredibly fast 120 GB Samsung 840 EVO solid state drive, and a lower priced ASRock ITX board. This is my first purchase from ASRock and so far I am very satisfied.
Media / Gaming Software Setup
Considering this build does not have a CD/DVD/Blue Ray drive, I had to install my selected Operating System, Windows 8.1, from a USB drive. This is easily accomplished by following some simple steps here. I have installed windows hundreds of times and this was by far the fastest install I have ever done. The ASRock motherboard automatically saw the only bootable option was the USB installer and booted into it. Windows 8.1 installed to the Samsung 840 in less than 15 minutes after I configured the standard options.
I immediately set windows 8.1 to enlarge everything in the display options, but much to my dismay, the start screen tiles were still very small on the largest option. Come to find out my TV display, not suprisingly as it is older and not a smart TV, does not support the "Make Everything Bigger" option in the ease of access settings. I found the workaround here. Merely adding HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\
LogicalDPIOverride with a value of 1 in the registry worked a charm.
I immediately set windows 8.1 to enlarge everything in the display options, but much to my dismay, the start screen tiles were still very small on the largest option. Come to find out my TV display, not suprisingly as it is older and not a smart TV, does not support the "Make Everything Bigger" option in the ease of access settings. I found the workaround here. Merely adding HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\
LogicalDPIOverride with a value of 1 in the registry worked a charm.
Once Windows was installed I immediately got to installing XBMC. If your not familiar with XBMC, it is an incredibly powerful, free media software that puts Windows Media Center to shame. It provides access to all different media formats and is very remote and TV friendly. It takes some time to configure the software to how you like it, but it is worth every minute.
Next on my list was gaming. For this I installed Steam and configured it to start in big picture mode for easy navigation with a remote or my wired Xbox 360 controller.
Performance-What did I get for my $700?
The Samsung SSD provides incredible Read/Write with 507.8 and 492.7 MB/s respectively. This makes the system feel incredibly fast and snappy. The boot time from a full shutdown is approximately 11 seconds from the time I press the power to start screen. This is actually less than the time it takes my TV to turn on. System resume from sleep is nearly instant at less than 1 second.On my old system, the aging 80 GB hard drive made XBMC feel slow and sluggish. This PC impressed me as XBMC ran smooth, seamless and fast. There was no lag navigating menus and the whole program just felt amazing; giving me a whole new appreciation for the awesomeness of the free XBMC.
Gaming in 1080p
To really test the capability of the system, I decided to attempt to play Titanfall, a really fast paced, intense, First person shooter. I turned all the settings to high, with the exception of AA. For the most part Titanfall played smoothly, but I did experience a few instances were I felt the frame rate stutter. That said the lowest frame rate was 25 fps, still playable.
PC Mark 6 Score
Summary
Overall I find this to be an incredibly awesome PC in a sub $700 category. It takes up very little space, looks inconspicuous, and plays almost any game I want, within reason. I am looking forward to picking and configuring my media center remote and perhaps doing a NAS (Network Attached Storage) build in the future. Overall, I rate this build a smashing success.
Feel free to let ask my any questions you would like or just drop an opinion in the comments!
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