Going small

Hi guys, looking for a bit of advice regarding a potential new build.

I have a 2500k @4.6ghz, 980ti, all housed in a HAF-X tower.

The PC is located in my lounge and my wife always says, its a 'monstrosity'. Over the last few months I have been considering changing the case and while I am at it removing the last of the mechanical HDD, optical drive, and really downsizing the system.

I am really liking the look of the Fractal Design Define Nano S, although I do not think this will fit my Thermalright Silver Arrow cooler.

My biggest gripe seems to be the lack of decent audio on mini boards. I currently have a PCIE XFI titanium for my SP2500 speakers and love it. I would not be willing to run these speakers from onboard codec. Any suggestions?

Thanks

tintin82 said:

Hi guys, looking for a bit of advice regarding a potential new build.

I have a 2500k @4.6ghz, 980ti, all housed in a HAF-X tower.

The PC is located in my lounge and my wife always says, its a 'monstrosity'. Over the last few months I have been considering changing the case and while I am at it removing the last of the mechanical HDD, optical drive, and really downsizing the system.

I am really liking the look of the Fractal Design Define Nano S, although I do not think this will fit my Thermalright Silver Arrow cooler.

My biggest gripe seems to be the lack of decent audio on mini boards. I currently have a PCIE XFI titanium for my SP2500 speakers and love it. I would not be willing to run these speakers from onboard codec. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Click to expand...

To be honest bud it might be an idea to let us know what you actually want to do with it? Is it a media player, a gaming PC....

Well not all on-board is created equal, for a start. The ALC889 I had on a previous Gigabyte matx motherboard was completely satisfactory, and sounded good to my ears.

Sadly I moved on to an Asus board, and the on-board audio is not as good (but I'm still using it).

When I upgrade to Zen I'll be looking for a board with a good sound chip again.

Btw, you don't have to go for Mini-ITX. The Silverstone TJ08-E is a very good matx case, with support for proper tower coolers (up to 165mm in height). That's enough for a Noctua NH-U12S, for instance. The Silver Arrow is 160mm isn't it? So that's fine.

Or you could go for another Silverstone matx case... the Sugo SG09/ SG10.

The mini ITX cases are problematic for full sized coolers, but also full-sized power supplies too.

ultralaser said:

To be honest bud it might be an idea to let us know what you actually want to do with it? Is it a media player, a gaming PC....

Click to expand...

Apologies, high end gaming, heavy OC. Keeping the 980ti.

If sound is a concern an external or portable USB DAC could be an option.

Yeah I was just looking at Fiio DAC's. I have no idea about DAC's, all I know is that my X-fi twinned with my SP2500 sounds great.

The main aim of this is to downsize and simplify my set up, so an external DAC is not ideal.

Maximus VIII Gene Intel Z170 looks pretty decent audio. Possibly go down that route with a Prodigy case.

An Audioquest Dragonfly is tiny - and the newer Black and Red models use very little power so can even be used on the go with a mobile phone.

You just plug your speakers jack into the DAC and plug the DAC into a USB port - no drivers required.

Does she call it a monstrosity because of its size, or because it is a horrible looking case? Perhaps clarify, if it is the latter it will be much easier to resolve... Put it in a Fractal or soemthing.

A bit of both! But mostly the sheer size. I must admit though I would like something a bit sleeker than the HAF-X.

I've gone from a luxe to an evolv itx. The size makes such a huge difference. It's unbelievable how much you can get into it and tbh I was never a huge sound buff so maybe I am missing that but I don't miss anything from my atx to my itx.

Acme said:

Does she call it a monstrosity because of its size, or because it is a horrible looking case? Perhaps clarify, if it is the latter it will be much easier to resolve... Put it in a Fractal or soemthing.

Click to expand...

Thanks to your suggestion I have just ordered a Fractal R5. I showed it to the Mrs and she said she really liked the design to the point where she wouldn't care about the size let alone it being the lounge. So everyone is happy!
Cheers, never looked at Fractal cases before, looking forward to the R5!

I've had an R5 for 2-3 years and really like it ... but I'm considering downsizing from that! I guess it's a slippery slope...

Just get the silverstone grandia GD09, like a big Av receiver that fits up to ATX boards and very high end gear.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Silverstone Grandia GD09 Home Theatre Server Case - Black (SST-GD09B)= £69.95

Unless you really need it to look like an Xbox in size with the raven case for example then £80(from here anyways) is all you'd need to spend rather than essentially a neew system round what you keeping.