£1500 portable gaming PC build

[Bug One]

These two are not what I was looking for. I want a GTX 1080 in order to future proof my pc.

Yes, the 1080 is £3000 - but the 1070 version is £1500 - and doesn't require all the OTT custom water cooling - plus is absolutely tiny and professionally built - so perfect for moving around.

Buying a 1080 or a 1070 will have NO difference to the longevity of your PC. That's all about socket types, RAM standards, storage space etc. Plus, do you think you can tell the difference between 197fps and 245fps? Enough to warrant double the cost?

 

[Shui Mo Qing Hua]

Yes, the 1080 is £3000 - but the 1070 version is £1500 - and doesn't require all the OTT custom water cooling - plus is absolutely tiny and professionally built - so perfect for moving around.

Buying a 1080 or a 1070 will have NO difference to the longevity of your PC. That's all about socket types, RAM standards, storage space etc. Plus, do you think you can tell the difference between 197fps and 245fps? Enough to warrant double the cost?

I guess you're right. But I think the costs will come out cheaper if I buy the components individually than to have it custom built haha.
Does a 1080 really require water cooling inside a mini-ITX case or is fans suffice? One of the main reasons of me getting it is so that in the future I can still use it for my next pc.

 

[mickyflinn]

This is a case i think would be good option, with plenty of cooling options.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Mini-ITX Chassis with Window - Black= £62.99

​

 

[Shui Mo Qing Hua]

This is a case i think would be good option, with plenty of cooling options.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Mini-ITX Chassis with Window - Black= £62.99

​

RIP, small cases and cooling doesn't go well together.

Although I must say I really like this case. The orange looks so beautiful!

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/bitfenix-prodigy-mini-itx-cube-case-magma-orange-ca-100-bx.html

It is a tiny bit bigger than the case you suggested, but the cooling should be good too.

 

[mickyflinn]

Ok this is my build with my case but you can pick whichever case, all the below will fit in the that orange mess

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Mini-ITX Chassis with Window - Black= £62.99
• 1 x Gigabyte GA-Z270N-Gaming 5 Intel Z270 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Mini-ITX Motherboard= £164.99
• 1 x Samsung PM961 Polaris 256GB M.2-2280 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive= £119.99
• 1 x Inno3D GeForce GTX 1080 HerculeZ Twin X2 8192MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card (N1080-1SDN-P6DN)= £469.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD416G30= £119.50
• 1 x Toshiba P300 1TB 7200RPM 64MB Cache High Performance Hard Drive (HDWD110UZSVA)= £40.99
• 1 x Bitfenix Whisper M Series 650W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply= £86.99
• 1 x Antec H1200 Pro Kuhler 240mm AIO Liquid Cooler= £69.95
• 1 x Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz (Kaby Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £349.99

Total: £1,498.58
(includes shipping: £13.20)



​

 

[Shui Mo Qing Hua]

Ok this is my build with my case but you can pick whichever case, all the below will fit in the that orange mess

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Mini-ITX Chassis with Window - Black= £62.99
• 1 x Gigabyte GA-Z270N-Gaming 5 Intel Z270 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Mini-ITX Motherboard= £164.99
• 1 x Samsung PM961 Polaris 256GB M.2-2280 PCI-e 3.0 x 4 NVMe Solid State Drive= £119.99
• 1 x Inno3D GeForce GTX 1080 HerculeZ Twin X2 8192MB GDDR5X PCI-Express Graphics Card (N1080-1SDN-P6DN)= £469.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD416G30= £119.50
• 1 x Toshiba P300 1TB 7200RPM 64MB Cache High Performance Hard Drive (HDWD110UZSVA)= £40.99
• 1 x Bitfenix Whisper M Series 650W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply= £86.99
• 1 x Antec H1200 Pro Kuhler 240mm AIO Liquid Cooler= £69.95
• 1 x Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz (Kaby Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £349.99

Total: £1,498.58
(includes shipping: £13.20)



​

Oooo thanks for the build!

one thing though, is the intel core i7 worth the extra money for the performance?

and just out of interest, could any liquid cooler fit inside the rvz02?(or other strong coolers) because I really like the portability of that case.

 

[BinnsY]

What about the EVGA one then, am I literally paying £30 extra for the brand whereas the card is identical?

And also the case you suggested said the CPU cooler is limited to 58mm, yet the cooler's dimension was 97mm x 97mm x 47mm. Would it fit in this case?

Yes, you are literally just paying for the brand. Possibly a slightly better warranty, but in terms of performance and cooling they will be identical.

58mm referes to the height of the CPU cooler. The dimensions you list are width, depth and height, i.e. 47mm being the height. With 47 being significantly less than 58 you should have no issue.

If you really want to fit this in a suitcase (presumably with other things) as well as carrying keyboard / monitors I really don't see why you would want a cube case. Something like the raven is going to be so much smaller and easier to pack the two won't really be comparable. You also mention having both an SSD and a HDD but again this is something my suggested spec in the raven already had. In fact, the NVME SSD I suggested is considerably quicker than any traditional SSD as it fits in the motherboards m.2 slot (hidden on the back of the board). Effectively meaning you can have a much faster SSD equivalent, a 2.5" hdd for data, and keep a drive bay empty to put another 2.5" hdd or ssd in at a later date for expansion.

In regards to your question about coolers inside something like the silverstone case I really don't think you can get much better than the one I suggested. In all honesty I think your spec is becoming somewhat of a fantasy. Your asking for huge power, with super high end cooling, in something small enough to go in a suitcase. Realistically this just doesn't all go together. If you want the ultra portability you have to accept that things are going to run just a little bit hotter and things will be a little more cramped. That cryorig cooler will be more than capable of keeping something like a 4670k cool at stock clocks and will even support a modest overclock. By the time you are at a GTX 1080, overclocked core i5, nvme ssd, and large storage drive all in a tiny case that can fit in a suitcase this is really as good as it gets. If you want more than this you need to drop your suit case requirement and just buy a normal tower.

 

[Shui Mo Qing Hua]

Yes, you are literally just paying for the brand. Possibly a slightly better warranty, but in terms of performance and cooling they will be identical.

58mm referes to the height of the CPU cooler. The dimensions you list are width, depth and height, i.e. 47mm being the height. With 47 being significantly less than 58 you should have no issue.

If you really want to fit this in a suitcase (presumably with other things) as well as carrying keyboard / monitors I really don't see why you would want a cube case. Something like the raven is going to be so much smaller and easier to pack the two won't really be comparable. You also mention having both an SSD and a HDD but again this is something my suggested spec in the raven already had. In fact, the NVME SSD I suggested is considerably quicker than any traditional SSD as it fits in the motherboards m.2 slot (hidden on the back of the board). Effectively meaning you can have a much faster SSD equivalent, a 2.5" hdd for data, and keep a drive bay empty to put another 2.5" hdd or ssd in at a later date for expansion.

Thank you for the explanation haha, and yeah I will probably go for the raven, as long as my cooling for it is adequate. I also get your logic for the spare 2.5'' bay.

The only problem now is the cooling. The case limits the size of the coolers, so do you think liquid cooling is needed? Also, does the GPU get cooled too or is the cooler people talking about for the CPU?

 

[mickyflinn]

one thing though, is the intel core i7 worth the extra money for the performance?
.

Probablly not, depending on what games you play and if they use hyperthreading or programs use use.

could any liquid cooler fit inside the rvz02?(or other strong coolers) because I really like the portability of that case.

No its a slim tower which have there compramises so no watercooling .

Ask yourself a question how many times a year do you have to move your pc and how much of a hassle is it.

 

[Shui Mo Qing Hua]

Probablly not, depending on what games you play and if they use hyperthreading or programs use use.




No its a slim tower which have there compramises so no watercooling .

Ask yourself a question how many times a year do you have to move your pc and how much of a hassle is it.

I'll have to transport it like 6 times per year? it'll be some hassle so I'll rather use the raven case.
So what you're saying is that there's no good solutions for the cooling since the case is too restricting?

 

[mickyflinn]

I'll have to transport it like 6 times per year? it'll be some hassle so I'll rather use the raven case.

So what you're saying is that there's no good solutions for the cooling since the case is too restricting?

No im not saying that , im saying there are not many other cooling soloutions than the one specced with the case that bimmsy sugested.

 

[BinnsY]

Thank you for the explanation haha, and yeah I will probably go for the raven, as long as my cooling for it is adequate. I also get your logic for the spare 2.5'' bay.

The only problem now is the cooling. The case limits the size of the coolers, so do you think liquid cooling is needed? Also, does the GPU get cooled too or is the cooler people talking about for the CPU?

You won't be able to put liquid cooling in a case like that as it simply doesn't have the space. As I've mentioned in the post just before this, that cryorig cooler is essentially as good as you will get in a small case. Remember even the stock intel heatsink is capable of cooling a CPU in a confined pace perfectly adequately. You only need after market cooling if you are overclocking or really want cool temperatures. As long as you only apply a modest overclock or leave a CPU at stock you will be fine with a small after market cooler.

In regards to graphics card cooling I think we covered this earlier on? The whole reason for speccing the founders edition card is that it's cooler specifically exhausts it's heat directly outside of your case within itself. IE the heat is generated on the gnu, enters the heatsink, and then the fan is specifically designed to blow that heat straight out the back of the case all inside the graphics card. Again this is perfectly adequate and specifically designed to allow the card to run in a confined space as it doesn't need room around it to dump the heat into the case.

The cooler people are talking about is specifically for the CPU you don't need to buy after market coolers for your GPUs as these are all designed to cool themselves either by exhausting their heat straight out the back of the case (like the founders edition which is perfect to use in a small case but lets the GPU run a bit hotter) or by exhausting the heat into the case and then waiting for the cases airflow to dispel it. (This is perfect in a bigger case as it allows the GPU to run cooler, but you need plenty of airflow to actually exhaust the heat which a small case will not have)

 

[Shui Mo Qing Hua]

You won't be able to put liquid cooling in a case like that as it simply doesn't have the space. As I've mentioned in the post just before this, that cryorig cooler is essentially as good as you will get in a small case. Remember even the stock intel heatsink is capable of cooling a CPU in a confined pace perfectly adequately. You only need after market cooling if you are overclocking or really want cool temperatures. As long as you only apply a modest overclock or leave a CPU at stock you will be fine with a small after market cooler.

In regards to graphics card cooling I think we covered this earlier on? The whole reason for speccing the founders edition card is that it's cooler specifically exhausts it's heat directly outside of your case within itself. IE the heat is generated on the gnu, enters the heatsink, and then the fan is specifically designed to blow that heat straight out the back of the case all inside the graphics card. Again this is perfectly adequate and specifically designed to allow the card to run in a confined space as it doesn't need room around it to dump the heat into the case.

The cooler people are talking about is specifically for the CPU you don't need to buy after market coolers for your GPUs as these are all designed to cool themselves.

Ah I understand now. Thank you for all the help you've given me!

 

[Quartz]

What about the EVGA one then, am I literally paying £30 extra for the brand whereas the card is identical?

EVGA have a good reputation when it comes to returns. They also have a step-up program which may or may not apply here.

 

[Bug One]

You don't want water cooling if you're lugging it around in a suitcase.

 

[Shui Mo Qing Hua]

One last thing:

The case only comes with 2 USB ports which is definitely not enough. Would I be able to do something with the optical drive bay that my case has and transform it into more USB ports or will I have to look for stuff like the USB splitters that you plug into the ports?

 

[mickyflinn]

One last thing:

The case only comes with 2 USB ports which is definitely not enough. Would I be able to do something with the optical drive bay that my case has and transform it into more USB ports or will I have to look for stuff like the USB splitters that you plug into the ports?

There will be usb ports on the back of the motherboard/case so u wil be able to plug in there.

 

[BinnsY]

One last thing:

The case only comes with 2 USB ports which is definitely not enough. Would I be able to do something with the optical drive bay that my case has and transform it into more USB ports or will I have to look for stuff like the USB splitters that you plug into the ports?

Just because your asking questions like this I would also suggest you spend some time reading reviews on the hardware you want and that you watch some basic PC building instructional videos. It's of course fine to ask basic questions like this, but just judging by some of the things you are asking if you start trying to build hardware like this without giving yourself a bit more education first I think you will find the process much more difficult than it needs to be. Seeing things like this in video form will likely improve your understanding massively.