Spare parts HTPC

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Spaghetti

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Dec 29, 2020
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I've been using a full ATX system mounted open-air to a single panel of plywood as my HTPC for several years now. It's quiet, but quite ugly, and I'm thinking of building something that's actually in a case. I've already got a lot of relevant parts, but no complete system, and I'd like some thoughts on what the best way to complete it is. The parts I already have are at the end of the post. My use case is mostly streaming and music, but I run a full windows installation and sometimes use this machine as a backup desktop (though not for gaming). Connections are HDMI for the TV and USB sound out to my amplifier (although having optical out instead would be a plus).

My main problem is that I only have full ATX motherboards, and nobody makes a half-height case that fits one. I think these are my choices:
1. Is there anywhere I can get an mATX LGA 1155 or AM3+ board these days?
2. If not, what new mobo/CPU is reasonable given that I already have a case that fits an mATX board and a full size PSU, and have a good low profile CPU cooler?
3. How would a cheap prebuilt mini-PC compare to the other options?

These are the relevant parts that I already have:

Case:
SilverStone ML03

A pile of standard PSUs:
SeaSonic x650
Corsair CX 430
Antec EarthWatts 430
Antec EarthWatts 350

Two low profile video cards:
GeForce GT 610 (fanless, double-wide cooler)
Radeon HD6450 (fanless, single-wide cooler)

Two low-profile CPU coolers:
Noctua NH-L12
Noctua NH-L12S

A pile of standard size internal CD/DVD drives (I do want one of these in the finished system)

Two CPUs, but I only have full ATX motherboards for them:
i5-2500k
Phenom II x6 1090T
Some RAM compatible with the above CPUs:
2x2GB DDR3 1600
2x4GB DDR3 1066
 
You're going to have to shop around for a reliable itx motherboard for that 2500k (given how old they are), but if you are successful, that would be your best choice.

Stay away from Phenom (sucks a ton of idle power, and very few ITX mobos ever made).

Also, if your current TV is 1080p, just t use the HD3000 integrated in the chip. The HD 610 is a rebranded Fermi processor (so the same res limits as your IGP), and the AMD card has the same problem

If you have a 4k display, the cheapest you can run that it is if you buy a GT 710 - that features an HDMI 1.4 port (and you can use the Nvidia trick to run it at 60hz at 4:2:0)

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-kepler-4k-hdmi-1.4,27117.html

This is probably the cheapest all-in-one pc that is somewhat future-proof (full HDMI 2.0 port, respectable cpu and gpu, and similar ram to your spares)

https://store.minisforum.com/collections/intel®-celeron®-series/products/minisforum-gk41-mini-pc
 
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That's kind of what I was afraid of. I've looked for mATX boards for the 2500k and the choices are ~$80 for a new board on a lousy chipset or $100 for a used one that probably won't work.

Maybe the best course of action is just giving in and buying a small full ATX case. I have space for something wide, but not tall. Silverstone's GD09 might work but it's ugly. The PC-011D mini has just about perfect proportions but no disc drive (and I'd need an SFX PSU). The Thermaltake Core G3 is almost what I'm looking for but it also has no disc drive and doesn't appear to support half-height GPUs without a riser. If only the ML03 was about two inches wider...
 
EVGA's SFX PSUs are on sale today, that was enough to convince me to go order one and a Core G3. Better to buy a case and PSU that I can reuse for ~$150 than throw away $100 on a motherboard for a ten year old CPU.
 
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