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The American Megatrends bios doesn't offer many customisable settings unfortunately, however for this specific system build we are going to be using the reference Intel Cooler. Overclocking isn't really an option.
The main options are included, such as configuring bios boot up drives and controlling fan settings – smartfan is recommended to ensure the system is as quiet as possible, when not heavily loaded. There are also a plethora of voltage and memory timing settings, but they worked fine with the Core i7 2600k on ‘auto'. We couldn't get the board to run our 2000mhz DDR3 memory at native speeds, however it ran at 1333mhz with fairly tight timings.
We enabled the Turbo frequency option, allowing for speeds up to 3.8ghz.
System validation is available here.
Software is installed from the supplied disc. Sapphire include all the necessary drivers and we particularly like the TriXX motherboard software as it gives quick access to important system temperatures. You can drag this software around the screen to suit (or disable it completely).
After our system is built, the score rates at 7.1 out of 7.9, with the lowest common denominator being the HD6670 graphics.
Now thats what im talking about !
Thats a hell of a nice little system, better than my big ass desktop rig 🙁
Id put in the new iceQ 6970 or something like that. let it kick some serious ass, but noise and wattage would rise a lot.
I think over £1000 is a bit much for any media center, but thats more a full fledged performance PC. that case seems pretty cool though.
Nice board from Sapphire, under £100 is a good price point
The board is fantastic. its put me in mind to build a high end, small computer for downstairs. id probably opt for the 2500k.
The PSU seems overpowered for the build, but at least it would be running quiet due to low overhead?. a method in the madness? obviously there for a better discrete card later if wanted.
I always meant to build a media center and never got tempted by Fusion or ATOM as my mate has an atom desktop he built for 200 quid. he has lost all his hair using it, its that bloody slow.
this board looks to be ideal for a new PC. its got everything you need,. well maybe except crossfire support.
Yeah thats lovely, nice job, I could live with that myself
Personally id go for a silverstone case, and use a 2500k with maybe a low noise card in the 68xx range.
AT first I thought the system was unbalanced, why put a low end video card in with a Core i7 2600k? I see however the point now, its to keep noise down to as low as possible, but still offering decent gaming. im surprised that card is as good as the tests show. very impressive from sapphire.
Nice system, my media center isn’t as powerful as that, but I really only use it for watching tv shows via the tv.
The 2600k is really a very good price now, just over £200 for 4+4 cores. wasnt it closer to £300 when it was released?
All very well, but where do you plug in the TV tuner (or more likely, TWO tuners)?
The problem with mini-ITX is that there just aren’t any slots to plug stuff into, which is a bit of a non-starter for a media centre. USB isn’t really the way to go for this kind of thing (hardly makes for a tidy system and it’s relatively expensive), so the only way to go is a larger mother board.