Build for Movies and Light Gaming

[qhfreddy]

I am considering doing a build for watching movies (replacing the aging DVD player) and some light gaming. Also, I want to use it for storage of photos, videos, and general backups. Budget would be around about 1350USD, but going over that would not be too much of a problem. I don't need peripherals or the screen included, I will be using a 1080p TV Screen. I want something that is as quiet as possible.

This is what I am looking at ATM:
- i5 4430 (3GHzx4)
- ASRock H87 Pro4
- Corsair XMS3 2x4GB 1600MHz
- EVGA GTX 660
- Corsair CX600 V2 PSU
- Intel 520 series, 180GB SSD
- 2x WD Black 2TB
- Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu Ray Read/Write
- Corsair 300R case

A few things I want to address specifically are the CPU, I decided to go with a Haswell because the price is almost the same as a 3330 and I'd assume the performance would be up by a few percent over the older CPU. I want to know if the 4 core would be good, or if it would be a bit of overkill, I do plan to be using it for light gaming with relatively demanding games such as BF3, but don't need it to run over 60FPS with medium-low settings.

I'm not sure about the motherboard, I think the ASrock would be a good value board, any suggestions on other cheap boards, doesn't need to be a Z87 because I don't need a k series CPU. Keep in mind that I will probably add a few more HDDs in the future (probably not RAID) so I do want at least a decent amount of SATA connectors.

An SSD would be nice for putting the OS and some programs, I guess it would not need to be as fast writing as a 520 series one, but a fast reading one would be ideal, any suggestions on that?

Is that a good disk drive?

Corsair 300R seems to fit perfectly in the space I have to put the PC, also it matches the furniture reasonably well, might get a no-fan side-panel for it.

As for the cooling, I don't expect the 4430 to put out a lot of heat so I doubt a H100 would be necessary, but any other quiet alternatives? The room I will have it in does tend to get rather hot in the summer (25-30c).

As far as sound, I suppose having a sound card would be good considering it is a Media playback PC, any good suggestions for that? Something that is reasonably cheap, has good sound, and is compatible with a lot of sound hardware? I am not all that in tune with all the audio stuff, so far I have stuck with integrated audio and found it adequate, but I think a sound card would complement such a build well.

Thanks in advance for the help

 

[Feronix]

Quad core is a bit overkill, but if it's within the budget I'd personally just go for it. That way you're sure you'll have enough performance.

If silence is one of your goals, definitely buy an aftermarket CPU cooler. The Intel ones can get quite loud. It depends what price range you are looking at but usually anything BeQuiet or Noctua will offer you good performance at low sound levels.

For the price of that 300R you could also get a Cooler Master Silencio 550. I'm not sure if you like the look, but it's optimized for silence.

The GTX 760 isn't much of an upgrade over a 660 but if you have neither I'd recommend the 760. It's a tad faster and shouldn't be (much) more expensive. EVGA is a great brand, but once again, if you're looking for silence it might not be an optimal choice. EVGA use the stock cooler design which tends to get loud under load. Their new ACX cooler (dual fan) is pretty silent, and there is a GTX 760 card with one. Of course there's nothing wrong with brands like Asus or MSI either!

If you're only going to be running one card (and maybe a sound card), have you considered going m-ATX? m-ATX motherboards are usually a bit cheaper so that way you can shave some dollars off and still have the ability to run a GPU and dedicated sound card.

I don't have much knowledge about sound cards myself but I've heard that you can't go wrong with cards from the Asus Xonar range. They come in at different price ranges so you can just pick one that suits your budget.

 

[s3ns3]

the stock intel cooler is very silent i might say. amd stock coolers are the loud ones.if you aren`t satisfied with it you can buy a small noctua later couse i don`t know what else runs quieter then the stock intel at a low price.as Feronix mentioned,get a card with an aftermaket cooler.msi twin frozr,gigabyte windforce...the gtx 660 is a good card.also you can get a way better PSU. a build like this with 2xgtx 660 will use under 400W in load so with just one card a good 400W will do. i recommed the seasonic G 450W ,it has much better electronic and efficiency.the G 550W one will be enough if you want to get another 660 in future but i doubt that

 

[qhfreddy]

I was considering the GTX 660 Signature 2, that one was about $50 cheaper than the ACX 760. The GTX 660 is just within the price bracket I want to spend for the GPU, I will consider the 760 and 755/750/750Ti when they are released, depending mainly on the price.

I was looking at mATX cases, but many of them are somewhat more restricted in airflow and HDD space, the 300R seems like a very good option for the price, and you can't seem to go wrong with Corsair
I'll take a look at that CM case though.

 

[MacLeod]

$1350 for a movie and light gaming rig is a good bit of money. You could spend a lot less and get what youre looking for.

If you dont mind going AMD, you can save a good bit. Here is one using a Phenom II X4 965. Yeah its a little long in the tooth but its more than enough performance for moderate gaming and video and pictures. I paired it with a pretty beefy, 8+2 power phase Gigabyte 970 motherboard so itll be well built and last a long time and you can upgrade it to a Steamroller next year if you want to.

I went with an Antec Three Hundred case cause its a great case with good room but isnt that big. Since youre going to be using this for movies and stuff, thought you might want a smaller case and not take up much room but its still big enough that you can do plenty.

I used a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo because its quieter than the stock fan and in case you get the itch and want to do a little light overclocking one day when youre bored, youll be set.

I went with a Plextro M5 Pro SSD cause I really like them and they are very solid performers. 4GB of Seagate hard drives and a very well built XFX Pro Series 450 watt power supply.

I used a MSI 7870 GHz Edition cause at $195, its hard to beat for value and will play anything at pretty high settings at 1920x1080.

$990

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1ciQD

If its gotta be Intel, here is one using an i3-3220 for $937.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1cj0y