Looking for Advice: PC/Steam Box

[KingDrool]

Hey Everyone,

I've never been a huge PC gamer, but I have dabbled with Steam on-and-off over the past few years and have always loved it. It seems that with Big Picture, I might finally get what I've always wanted: awesome PC games with a console-like experience.

For the next console generation, I'm thinking I'm just going to stick to WiiU and Steam, and skip out on the PS4 and Xbox720, or whatever they're called. In a perfect world, here's what I'd have:

A relatively inexpensive PC box hooked up to my TV that I set up so it boots up Steam immediately upon startup. In addition to being relatively inexpensive, I'd also like it to be low profile, taking up no more space than the average gaming console. I'd like to have it fit neatly near my home theater setup.

Any suggestions or recommendations from someone with more PC experience than me?

Thanks!

[Necromancer]

If you can, I'd wait for valve's steam box thingy.  If you can't wait, I'd look for something with one of AMD's APUs in it (Intel's integrated graphics can't compare); it's tough to fit very advanced hardware (like an i5 and discrete CPU) in a case as small as a 360/PS3, but you don't really need all that much horsepower for your TV, assuming it's 1080p and not some fancy 4K panel.

P.S. - I don't claim to be an expert on today's computer hardware, so take the above with a grain of salt.  Mmmm, delicious salt.

[CPTRAVE]

If you are building your own choose a motherboard with a simple graphic card to save you some cash, and get a low profile Graphic Card/video card,(SAPPHIRE HD 6670 1GB GDDR5 Low Profile) and of course a Mini ATX Case, since you do not want it that big. Oh don't forget an SSD, download your Operating system into SSD and get a regular Hard Drive for your files and stuff. If you ever get a virus or if the operating system gets corrupt all you have to do is redownload the operating system into the SSD. And you operating system will boot up super fast 

[Deletion]

When the Alienware X51 mini desktop was unveiled earlier this year it was rumored to be the Steambox. You can use it as a reference for the parts for your own build.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-x51/pd.aspx

[ProfessorProfessorson]

The APU tech AMD has going is fairly solid, but its still not what I'd consider to be enough to give you long lasting game performance. Even the best APU suffers on some games. You really are not going to be able to squeeze a good gaming ability on something console size, as that would be mini ITX, unless you got a case still somewhat big enough for a decent midranged graphics card and a mini ITX board that can use PCI-Express graphics cards.

Decent ITX cases:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119261

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112265

Basically you can grab something like that and a decent mini ITX board/cpu combo, stuff it with 4gb ram, hard drive, and a graphics card like the Geforce 650 TI (small card that packs some good gaming power), and you would be perfectly good to go for Steam gaming on your tv.

[Deletion]

Decent ITX cases:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112265

Good recommendation, Prof   The second case is the same one that houses my HTPC. I don't use the system for gaming, but you should be able to build a fairly powerful gaming system as the case can accommodate a full-size ATX power supply and long video cards by removing the lower portion of the hard drive cage. One thing I love about this case is that the intake and exhaust fans are barely audible while the components stay nice and cool.

Lian Li PC-Q08B Mini-ITX Case
PC Power and Cooling Silencer MK III 400W PSU
ASRock A75M-ITX FM1 Motherboard
AMD A4-3400 Llano 2.7GHz APU
Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1333
Samsung 830 Series 64GB SSD
Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB 5900RPM
Asus Blu-ray Reader DVD+/-RW
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 (1213) Dual TV Tuner PCI-E x1

[KingDrool]

Thanks guys. This info really helps!