Even Dave James’ fat hands are nimble enough to build a
mini-pc, so why not let a little machine into your living room.
Storage Samsung 840 EVO 500GB ($428) Samsung 840 EVO mSATA
120GB ($146)
These days, it’s all about solid-state storage and Samsung
is still ruling the SSD roost. You’ll ideally want as large an SSD as you can
comfortably afford to drop into your build; after all, space is at a premium,
and you don’t want the graunching sound of a spinning HDD growling out from
under your TV either.
The
Samsung 840 Evo solid-state drive offers overall
excellent performance, top storage space, and useful bundled software
The 500GB 840 EVO is currently at a decent price and will
offer all the storage you really need in a SFF gaming build. The 120GB mSATA
drive offers a similar level of performance, but in a tiny form factor that
attaches straight to the board. If you’re using it as a Steam streaming box
then 120GB is perfectly adequate.
Power Silverstone Strider E 500W ($67)
The bargain Silverstone PSU will power the high-performance
parts we’ve put together for the more expensive, larger-scale build, with
capacity to spare. You could use a lower wattage build, but PSUs are more
efficient when they’re not stretched to their limits. The Silverstone has all
the connections you’ll need for a small form factor PC, and is a standard size
compared with heftier, higher-capacity PSUs.
This 500W
power supply offers half the power and significantly less connectors,
but may just offer exactly what you need for your computer.
The Antec ISK 310 comes with its own external power brick,
so there’s not a huge amount of PSU heat being generated inside the small
chassis. It’s only 150W, but at peak platform draw the AMD APU was only pulling
some 140W.
Memory Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB ($140) Crucial Ballistix
Tactical 8GB ($118)
On the small form factor side, the low-profile Ballistix
Tactical kit from Crucial is an excellent option, in both performance and
space-saving terms. Even the most awkward of CPU coolers is unlikely to get in
the way of the minimal heat spreaders and they’ll happily run at 2,133MHz.
Corsair
Vengeance DDR3 memory modules are designed with overclockers in mind.
AMD’s APUs love high performance memory. The Corsair
Vengeance Pro kit will go up to 2,400MHz and a little beyond, which will
actually do good things for the integrated graphics performance of your AMD
system. However, an Intel rig with discrete GPU won’t see much benefit from
quicker RAM.
The
Crucial Ballistix Tactical Series delivers the latest features at a price you
can afford.
Chassis Corsair Obsidian 250D ($120) Antec ISK 310 ($120)
The PC case you opt for is probably the most important
decision you make regarding your build. The chassis you choose will dictate the
limits on what components you can use in your ickle system – the most important
being what you do with your graphics.
Corsair
Obsidian Series full-tower and compact computer cases
We’ve used the Corsair Obsidian 250D for the discrete GPU
option as it enables you to use any full-scale card alongside a mini-ITX mobo.
If you’ve chosen the integrated route, Antec’s ISK 310 is a svelte little
chassis and is capable of housing a mini-ITX Kaveri setup with no issue.
Antec
introduces the ISK 310-150, designed exclusively for Mini-ITX motherboards
