New mid-range gaming HTPC

[Malo]

As my kids are growing up and looking at playing more complex games than some basic web stuff and some low-end indie games on Steam, they're starting to use my wife's and mine gaming PCs more. Their old 'family' computer died awhile ago and I've been contemplating what to do for them.

My current HTPC is an aging A6-3650, W7 Kodi PVR. It's been fine so far for its uses, which includes streaming Steam games to my TV for some occasional lounge gaming. However that of course makes my main desktop unusable whilst that is being used. So I'm looking at instead upgrading my HTPC to a full gaming system.

Intel Core i5-6600 CPU
MSI H110 Motherboard
16Gb DDR4 RAM
MSI 960 4Gb Gaming GPU

I was looking at the R9 380 as well however the power/heat levels would be considerably higher from what I can tell and since it's a HTPC, I'm future proofing myself more over the R9 with HDMI 2.0, DP 1.2, HEVC 10bit 4k decode in the 960. I don't need to worry too much about the gaming performance at possible 4k later on as that's not the purpose of this upgrade, merely to play modern 3D games at acceptable quality levels.

 

[homerdog]

I assume the PSU is up to the task of powering a discrete GPU?

 

[Malo]

I did check the PSU and it's a 400w. It's just up to the task.

And OMG I hadn't cleaned my HTPC in awhile

 

[smw]

Have you thought about waiting for Polaris? Supposedly very power efficient and also comes with HDMI2.0a (support for High Dynamic Range), DP1.3 (higher bandwidth) and decode/encode for 4k HEVC. It should be coming in a couple of months.

 

[Malo]

Have you thought about waiting for Polaris? Supposedly very power efficient and also comes with HDMI2.0a (support for High Dynamic Range), DP1.3 (higher bandwidth) and decode/encode for 4k HEVC. It should be coming in a couple of months.

I'm definitely considering it now. Some things happened and now this is off the budget. Choice and competition is good so hopefully mid-late this year I should have some more options when I decide to do this again.

 

[Blazkowicz]

You can easily assemble the PC with the i5 6600 and its integrated graphics alone, enjoy some much improved gaming (e.g. anything modern running at 720p on the TV) and wait things out for the GPU or delay the decision and expense.