720p and 1680X1050 are quite low resolutions, aka easy to get good performance with lower end hardware. heck, even my 500$ laptop can max games like crysis2/bfbc2 at 720p. but with a dedicated gaming system u might be a little more demanding.
basically at such lower resolutions u want a rly good processor as with most gpus that would fit in your budget u will be CPU bottlenecked in alot of modern games.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ilya  How small do you want it? Is noise a factor?
Do you want something slim and small like the Antec ISK300? Or will something like a Lian Li PC Q08/09 be small enough? |
this is very important, ofc it would be hard to fit 1000$ worth of hardware in an isk300 even if u wanted, but many "cube fragbox" cases can fit an itx board+a good gpu costing u about 1000$ and give good performance. otherwise you could go for the minitowers or other matx only boxes (could even go multi gpu with this but 1000$ would be hard but not impossible) but ofc these are bigger.
from the fact that u are going to be using this with a TV and that you used to be mac guy, i'm going to go ahead and assume u would go for something with pleasing simple looks, not too loud, basically something that would fit nicely under a TV?
if thats the case, then id suggest either the Lian Li PC-V354 for m-atx or Silverstone SG05 for m-itx. for an m-atx build def go with sandy bridge, but if you go m-itx...there arnt rly good lga1155 m-itx boards at a good price atm and since its smaller you have less place for cooling so id suggest going with the cooler and cheaper phenom II build, ofc nothing stopping you from doing this with m-atx to save money (ive done it on a full blown gaming rig) but currently SB performance>AMD.
Small form factor dedicated gaming rig for <$1000; is it possible? (please help!) 
April 22, 2011, 09:11 PM
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