I got a Wii and X-Box, but when Starcraft came out, I was wishing for a small computer that I could just plug into my LCD TV (via HDMI) and just start playing. So now I am thinking of putting such a system together. I know this is not a new idea, but I want to get some mobo, memory and graphic card suggestions. I would want to use: 1) a really small case, as small as possible - I am even thinking of using a Home theater case 2) a micro ATX mobo, running 4 GB of memory 3) I would need to fit a descent graphic card in it, one that has HDMI and could play Starcraft, Quake Live/III and WOW. 4) I am looking to have the minimum power needed for the system, all I am going to do is run these games on it, and maybe play a movie I rip to it. 5) 5.1 sound minimum, I could use on-board sound but my home theater system has a great Onkyo SR607 receiver so the on-board sound would have to be good, but I could also use a sound card like the Fatal1ty X-FI I have in my full size computer. I don't want something too powerful, because it is going next to the game consoles in my living room TV stand, and I don't want it to be a thermonuclear oven cooking everything. Just a small box that I can use to play a few PC games in my living room. I am looking to build this up for around $600. Any feedback on the concept, any suggestions for the mobo, CPU and graphics card?
basically any mainstream mATX motherboard will do (it should support a 4 core CPU, good RAM (i.e. DDR3 at least at 1333MHz w/ Dual Channel) and PCIE 16x expansion cards). Any decent GPU will not be small, though and will probably be the biggest thing in the system (not only in terms of flat out size, but also in terms of sound and heat dispersion). A good card would be a HD5770 or something less (nothing less than HD57xx, since lower than that you will get nothing but lag).
