New PC build for the living room TV

I hope this is the right place. Wasn't sure if it should go in technical support or not, so I kept it in general.

I'm looking to price out a build for a new PC that I can use to play the game on my living room TV. However, I'm looking to keep it in a mini-itx enclosure because I have a spare case laying around (as in never used) and it'd be a bit more aesthetically pleasing than a big bulky box.

I know I can look *at* the game's minimum and recommended specs for playing it, but I want to hear back from the players because I'm betting that other people have had the same idea as I.

What kind of options do I have for playing the game at 1080P/60fps/DX11 with at least medium graphics settings? Remember, mini-itx build. I have the case and PSU waiting to be used. I'd rather not hear AMD vs Intel debates, but advice from both sides. The cheaper, the better. This'll be a dedicated Kodi/FFXIV box.

TV's are not same as Monitors, mainly this is with the refresh rate, if they say 120hz they are using tricks to get 60hz to do 120, meaning your TV is not truely 120hz or 60 even, there is a site that tests this for TV's I'll edit this once I find it, and it is helpful if you game on a TV for your pc, not really an issue with Consoles since they can't get 120hz games :P

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/input-lag

I play this game at max on a relatively cheap pc, amd 8350 does great at this game, at the time was only 230dollars, got a 7970 radeon also does great at this game, probably don't need much to make this game play great, I play at max and at 34fps on average in raids it spikes to low 90's when I'm off in the world. Keep in mind this game is an MMO after all and not very graphic intense. AMD or Intel will do good. AMD I think beats intel on the cheaper processors though, at least till you get into the higher end processors. In short it's not really about AMD beats INtel or reverse of that. Go with what your wallet allows. You'll only really see major differences in say i3 vs i7 you know the extremes. 8350 vs an i7 only looking at a few fps differences, sometimes up to teens. But bang for the buck still sides with AMD for now.

A friend has a $300 basic box that he uses to play at his girlfriend's house. It runs the game at 30 FPS on all low settings. It's also noisy as all get out.

Probably looking at closer to $500 if you want the performance you're asking for. AMD will be cheaper. Mini-ITX limits you considerably since your video card can't be longer than 6.75 inches and can't be double slot. Since you want it on your TV, no need for speakers or a monitor. But let's do a theoretical build here....

MSI AMD Motherboard $79.99
FM2+ Processor so you can use that PCIe 3.0 $129.99
8 gigs of decent RAM 55.99
120 GB SSD $47.99
Optional Windows 10 in case you don't have an OS lying around $99.99
Base Build is $313.96, bump that to $413.95 if you need Windows.

Card options:
This is a good card but it'd be a really tight tight squeeze in that case. Radeon R9 285 $229.99
Not nearly as good a card, also a tight squeeze. Radeon R7 240 $112.77
Card one will range you from $543.95 to $643.94.
Card two will range you from $426.73 to $529.72

Card one has 3x the performance of Card two but since it's not low profile, you take the risk of it not fitting. Both cards are at 6.73 inches so they'll juuuuust fit the length of that mini-ITX motherboard, but without the height dimensions of your case I can't guarantee card 1 will fit.

Disclaimer: I'm a trained PC technician but all this is the digital equivalent of back of the envelope. Prices linked can change and stuff can be possibly found cheaper elsewhere besides NewEgg. Also I'm human and prone to dumb mistakes, so always get a second opinion.

You severely limit your video card options if you are planning a mini-ITX build. It looks really nice under the TV but just be aware of this.

Fortunately FFXIV is not a demanding game client at 1080p, even in DX11. You can get away with using a small GTX 970 in your mini-ITX gaming PC and for the most part FFXIV will stay close to 60fps locked at 1080p with all settings maxed in DX11 except maybe during Hunts. You also get a free copy of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain with a GTX 970 purchase right now.

You'll want the fastest Core i5 or i7 you can fit into your mini-ITX case with an appropriate CPU heatsink/fan combo. Skylake is coming next week and this is a good time to do a new gaming PC build for that reason. In general, MMO clients are very CPU-bound in many situations and there is no instance where I can recommend a person buy any kind of AMD CPU no matter what their budget is but in terms of gaming PCs you are looking at least at a mainstream quad-core version of Core i5 and there is literally nothing in the line of CPUs that AMD makes which is competitive for gaming PCs.

So maybe a Core i5 or i7 6000 series (Skylake), make sure it's a quad-core processor. I'm not good at Intel processor model numbering these days but I think it will be like i5-6500 or something similar. Pick out a decent motherboard with the new Z170 chipset for Skylake. You'll want 8 GB of GDDR4 RAM minimum, I do not recommend gaming PCs go with 4 GB of RAM in this day and age. A small form factor GTX 970 like one of these cards will fit nicely in a mini-ITX case. Since you'll probably be outputting over HDMI to your TV, the card already has the output you need for video and audio.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Illya

You severely limit your video card options if you are planning a mini-ITX build. It looks really nice under the TV but just be aware of this.

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Not necessarily.
A Mini ITX case doesn't have to be a cube. It can be short, but long as well.

Silverstone & Lian Li, for example, have a few cases that can fit cards over 10.5 inches long. (SG07 - SG13, PC Q35, PC Q25, PC Q28...etc.)

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YjrkZL
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YjrkZL/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H55 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($72.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($48.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($102.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($169.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $519.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-01 16:32 EDT-0400

That motherboard supports the higher end intel cpus btw so you can always go I5 if you wanted to or just add it towards this.

If the cost here is too much, just notch the GPU down to a 750ti which is around $100 give or take.

You could always move the savings from the GPU towards a better CPU.

That cpu just to inform you is dual core, but very powerful cores and they can be overclocked hence the added cooler to support that. A quad core is ideal non the less but the game apparently can run fine with that CPU in moderate areas from the sounds of it. (this game doesnt actually support all 4 cores anyways).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Meya

TV's are not same as Monitors, mainly this is with the refresh rate, if they say 120hz they are using tricks to get 60hz to do 120, meaning your TV is not truely 120hz or 60 even, there is a site that tests this for TV's I'll edit this once I find it, and it is helpful if you game on a TV for your pc, not really an issue with Consoles since they can't get 120hz games :P

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Can one really see the difference between 120 and 60, maybe its these old eyes but I sure can't. Input lag is all but eliminated with the TV on game mode, and I could hardly tell a difference in image quality. I guess if you're looking for it, you may see it, but under normal circumstances its negligible. I have my PC hooked to an old 52 inch LED lit LCD TV and there is really no difference from the monitor.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eye_Gore

Can one really see the difference between 120 and 60, maybe its these old eyes but I sure can't. Input lag is all but eliminated with the TV on game mode, and I could hardly tell a difference in image quality. I guess if you're looking for it, you may see it, but under normal circumstances its negligible. I have my PC hooked to an old 52 inch LED lit LCD TV and there is really no difference from the monitor.

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If you owned a 120 Hz monitor you will be able to, if you own a 60 Hz monitor then it won't display anything above it other then ingame response.

I see a few really good responses here, thank you. I've been building my own rigs for a number of years, but for this particular game I wanted to get differing opinions so I could weigh out my options a bit more and I believe I have a more reasonable idea on what I need to do. I just need a lump sum of cash to fall into my lap now so I can get everything all at once instead of what's going to be a piece here and a piece there.

Again, thank you for your input.