Games - definitely not. That's why I have an Xbox 360!
I've avoided Intel in all my system builds since that DX4-75, but AMD just seems a pricier option for what I'm doing with it now. And I can always add a GPU card later if requirements change.
G530/G620 is just a simple toss-up whether I want to spend the extra £10. I probably will. The power savings with the T versions seem pretty irrelevant as you say. When I said "under full load", I probably meant "normal load". 90% of the time it'll be idle anyway.
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It seems the biggest problem will be choosing a case and the more I look into this the more confused I get (ah, the joys of learning). I just found out that mini ITX is smaller than micro ITX.... that just does not make sense
WS, thanks for the info about the riser cards in the LC05... I didn't even consider that problem. Do all low-profile cases use riser cards? If not, why not?
The Apex MI-008 looks good but I can't source them in the UK and the PSU is 110V anyway, so that's simply not an option for me.
I like the Silverstone styling in particular and the Milo ML03B is my current benchmark. EDIT: won't fit the shelf
The 140mm shelf is open air, and I guess I could fit quieter 120mm case fans into a slightly taller case, although 100mm height and 440mm width looks perfect alongside the amp, and that seems the most suitable location anyway. I would be severely limited by the max 100mm height of the drawer shelf, although the rear of the drawer shelf is open, vents up behind the TV, so I could squeeze in a 95mm height case, e.g. SS LC19, as long as any vents on top of the case are towards the rear. But that particular case is costly and wouldn't that height cause more problems with needing a riser card for PCI-e?
The LC05 on eBay is (currently, with no bids, ends today) £35 delivered inc PSU so that might be a very cheap stop-gap option for me. EDIT: won't fit the shelf
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I looked briefly at picoPSU, for silence and space reasons, but they seemed prohibitively expensive at about £100... and I've got space for a wide case.... however I've just seen some on eBay UK for about £35 and up for 160W, which is very cheap, although would those also incur extra cost for a separate external power pack??
I didn't realise they were also more efficient... that makes sense... no fans!