Computer Setup

Is it mostly meant to stream from your main PC? Only because I can't imagine the pentium can run most current games at a high rate.

Nope, I game straight up with it. It's a dual core G2120, btw. Sure, I dial back some settings, mainly AA. Yeah, the Pentium isn't the best but the way I see it, not to many games actually fully utilize a quad-core processor or hyperthreading anyways. Plus, it kept me around that $500 total price goal I was aiming for. That said, I do want to upgrade once the Ivy Bridge prices drop a bit more (I built this pre-Haswell).

How does it perform? Just for speculation what games can you/can't you run at full resolution? Nicely built though. It's a beaut.

I've been able to play most things pretty well at 1080p with a few settings dialed back, mainly AA. In the past year, I've been through BS-I, FC3 Blood Dragon, Tomb Raider, Borderlands 2, Dishonored, and a moderately moded Skyrim. As a cord-cutter, it's been great as an alternate way to watch hockey as well.

I've been without cable for almost two years now. Roku ftw. Without breaking any coolcomputersetups rules, lets just say there are certain websites, that are easily google-able, which stream live sports feeds.

You wouldn't be breaking any Coolcomputersetups rules by naming the site. There are coolcomputersetupss entirely devoted to file sharing and specific torrent trackers.

How did you fit the graphics card in?

The HD7750 is a single slot GPU. Not the best low end video card out there, but the only one at the time that was single slot and didn't need any additional 6-pin power connections. Kind of painted myself in a corner as far as upgrades go though as the case only has space for a single slot PCI card.

I recently build an ITX gaming/browsing computer, and it was a huge pain in the ass installing everything. There's really no easy way to screw in the motherboard, and the PSU is so cramped on top of the CPU cooler. Your cable management seemed like some sort of effort, rather than stuff it all in the only available space underneath the CD drive. Well done for keeping the hardware under $500! I really like this build.

Thanks! The price challenge was the most important thing for me, especially at the time when the new consoles were coming out and the only Steamboxes we knew about were those Xi3 things. If you've already got a controller and are comfortable with straight Steam OS, you could easily keep a build like this under $500. This was my smallest build for sure. It's the only way my wife would agree to it as it would need to look like a game console up there on the mantle. Yeah, in order to do ANYTHING inside, I need to remove the PSU.

I like it, very nice.

Are you running windows with Steam in Big Picture mode... or did I miss the release of the Steam Linux Beta iso ?

Does it load it automatically on boot or do you have to load it up each time?

You can start Steam automatically on boot by adding an entry in msconfig with an extra handle to get it to start in Big Picture mode.

What tempts does this thing run at? I would assume that CPU cooler can't move much air.

Which is why I got that additional 120mm. At load, temps are around 60C. Fun fact: That 120mm is not actually screwed in. The tension on the brackets in the case actually keeps it in place.

I have that same graphics card. can't believe something that light, cheap, and quiet is more powerful than the old 8800gtx ultra.

Whats that thing just under your tv?

This looks like a really fun project. I wonder how it goes with an AMD APU

Not sure if this counts as a gaming setup, but this is my Steambox I built last year. The idea was to keep costs low to compete with the price points of the new consoles coming out at the time as well as basically play some Bioshock Infinite on my big screen.
Specs include a Intel 3.1Ghz Pentium, ASRock B75M-ITX mobo, 8GB GSkill Low Profile Ram, 500GB HDD, Low Profile Sapphire Radeon HD7750 1GB and a Apex MI-008 case

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