This is an update post to follow up my post from September 2017: GPU Update for a HTPC
Soooo, as it turns out the current market situation did not let me buy a 1050ti for around 150$. Since Dark Souls remastered is in the pipeline and there are many titles coming up in 2018 I went back to the drawing board and started from scratch.
As was pointed out in the OP “polishing a turd” wasn’t realistically going anywhere, especially since the original pc was using some weird ATX form factor you can’t even get PSUs for these days.
The result, I build a new system from scratch and the whole thing did only cost me about 50€ more than getting the single slot 1050ti. So, upsides? Many! I had a spare Radeon HD 7950 Boost lying around and thus decided to switch to a setup where I could use double height cards.
The final setup:
CPU: Intel Core i5 4570
RAM: 8 GB DDR3
MOBO: ASRock H81M-ITX Mainboard
PSU: Sharkoon SilentStorm SFX Bronze 450W
Case: Sharkoon Shark Zone
GPU: Radeon HD 7950 Boost
I bought RAM and CPU used for around 100€ and adding the remaining stuff I ended up at around 250€ for the whole setup. Given, the GPU and storage are not included since those are spare parts, but I think I got a really great system for a more than reasonable price. This concludes my HTPC upgrade journey and the only thing I have left to say is that it was absolutely worth the time and effort!