About to pull the trigger on this mini-ITX build

David Koh

David Koh

David Koh

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Joined
12 Feb 2009
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137
Putting together my first mini ITX as a challenge and boredom. Eventually this rig will have the new 900 series ITX card in it but thats on preorder and I am impatient.

  1. Does the spec all over look good, I hear mixed reviews on PSU
  2. I have never used M.2 before so have speced a optical drive and 2.5 SSD since I know I can install windows on disc, there are comparable m.2 SSD 6gb/s that I could go for, whats the positive/negative and any recomendations?
  3. Thinking of going with windows 8.1 since I should learn it anyway and hear it has got a lot better
  4. They say no OC with mini ITX, in that case should I change the K series?

This will be the first time I have a second PC to play with (that is mine at least) so I will hopefully be using this to learn different OS's, networking ect, lots of projects. The first test will be can I stream my steam from my power desktop to this using my lan (hello micro Itx I can put in to the big screen in the lounge

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £185.99

Cooling: Noctua NH-L9i CPU Cooler Low Profile - 92mm £34.99

RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX316C10FBK2/16) £129.95

MoBo: Asus Z97I-Plus Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £105.95

PSU: Silverstone Strider SFX Gold 450w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (SST-ST45SF-G) £79.99

Storage: Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £60.98

Optical: Samsung SN-208DB/BEBE Slimline 8x DVD±RW SATA Drive - OEM £17.99

Misc: Akasa Slimline Optical SATA Cable (AK-CB050)£2.99

Case: Lian Li PC-TU100B Mini-ITX Cube - Black £71.99

£690.82 If you need to add or change I can set a "max" of £750 but its all price - performance for me
 
Looks nice. First off what GPU have you ordered? Does it fit in this case, as its pretty short. Looks around 190mm Max.

1) if above is good the spec is decent. The PSU is good for an SFX unit, which you need for this case. You seem to have got the slimline drive sorted. As there is only room for an SSD you may want to get a higher capacity one. The MX100 256gb is around £80 and a great drive for the money.

2) m2 drives are expensive. Don't bother.

3) Yeah 8 is pretty decent.

4) I think so. Not to mention H81 ITX boards are much cheaper.. Have a look at them. Pair it with a 4440/4430 and you'll be laughing.
 
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-013-PL I am looking at this m.2 at the moment, the idea of 0 cables excites me, and more performance, ill pay a premium for that, I see a crucial MX100 512 at this price point, which I can potentially pick up as well. The slimline optical in this case limits me to 1 2.5 drive if I am right?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-153-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1010

This gpu, in the mean time I hope to use the onboard GPU to use for installing a few OS (Im learning networking so Linux I want to learn, hoping to dual boot from the m.2 Windows/ other operating systems, but again something I have never done
 
You've actually got 2 x 2.5" drive bays, while using an optical drive.. Both at the bottom of the case.

With that in mind (for similar money to the m.2 SSD you could buy 2 MX100 256GBs and RAID0 them, the speeds should be better as the m.2 SSD, and obboiusly twice the storage space.

That's the 970 I had in mind. Looks good.

You would pay a hefty premium for m.2 as with using SSDs instead you can save around £100 on Motherboard and CPU..

Do you feel you need 16gb of RAM for what you'll be doing?
 
Once I am done with this pc my brother is bying the 970 and the rig off me, I just want a second machine to play with until then, the 8GB in my desktop does get quite full with game+chrome+others running so 16gB is on the safe side

Some more context: I am looking to expand my sysmin and networkadmin credntials by deploying some stuff in my home and tinkering, best way to learn in my opinion, As stated until my brother picks up the GPU I want to use this build to play with, hate the idea of playing with my only machine as if I bugger it up oh noes!

Yup 16GB more than what I need for this rig as just a second machine to play with but is future proofing it for when my bro takes it up as his gaming rig

In relation to the M.2, I'm looking to learn stuff, as I have never done raid think you just sold me on Raid 0 for this machine since I will be running nightly backup from nas at some point soon. the m.2 Im looking at is £160 So I should be able to get two 128gb for about £180 I think?

UPDATE

Settled on about £700 for the build but again have up to £1000 for thus build, GPU when it is released

My basket as it stands, At this point I have
- Dropped the m.2
- Stuck with z97 board as its £6 difference for wifi and Bluetooth and raid compatibility
- Gone with a single SSD as I have plenty to learn as it is and can upgrade
- Stuck with the i5- 4670k, I looked at prices and this puts the build to £703 :P whereas with the 3.10 i5 It was 670ish

QUESTION: Unless you see something drastically wrong the only part I am unsure of is the CPU (Mobo looks good to me), I have always bought OC parts (History is e8400, E8500, i5-2500k) and done my tunning once built. Since this is ITX, is this just stupid? Should I go for a cheaper part that can turbo? What kind of difference is turbo boost to a manual set OC?

On my brother is upgrading from an E8500c2d and 4ghz with 4gb ram and a 4970, pretty sure hes going to be blown away (This is a surprise build)

tiKnoiA.png
 
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I may have a better idea for you:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Z97I Gaming AC - Devil's Canyon i5 4690K CPU & Mini ITX Motherboard Bundle **£18 Saving** £277.98
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD316G2133HC11ADC01) £129.95
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x Lian Li PC-TU100B Mini-ITX Cube - Black £71.99
1 x Silverstone Strider SST-ST45SF SFX Series - 450 Watt Power Supply £61.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H60 V2 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060007-WW) £54.95
1 x Samsung SN-208DB/BEBE Slimline 8x DVD±RW SATA Drive - OEM £17.99
1 x Akasa Slimline Optical SATA Cable (AK-CB050) £2.99
Total : £707.42 (includes shipping : £8.00).



You said you wanted to 'mess around', well you can (just)get a watercooler in that case. That should give you a bit more ability to overclock. The motherboard bundle is cheaper and it also allows RAID and bluetooth aswell as wifi.

The PSU i specced will be fine, no need to spend anymore. Silverstone make stunning PSU's.

The RAM i've specced is faster and the same price, good brand too.

You may aswell get the 4690k, rather than the older 4670k.. Less money..

What do you think?
 
I had given up on the case as I had read review's that' it was going to overheat on low profile air, had not even considered water :D

I love what you have speced, Will go with that but with a Modular power supply else it's going to be mighty tight in there.

All the other ITX cases I looked at were hugh in comparison which was puting me off (i have a Bitfenix colossus ATX tower so to find out the ITX version is just as wide and more than half the height was not good.

Any reason to go with that ram over the FURYs, logical increments and reviews I read recommend them

Looked at the mobo, I lose the m.2, which shouldn't be an issue as I can't see a reason I would fill two SSDs (worst case drop the optical for another 2.5)

Other wise think Ill buy this and put the gpu in later

...but this case is tiny, not to be patronizing (since you are being amazing help, thank you so much) but are you SURE that cooler will fit? :D
 
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Yeah maybe modular is better with the CLC tubes too, but will you actually be removing any of the cables? Don't you need them all, as its a small PSU it has less cables. Non modulars are normally a bit shorter too..

The RAM is specced has looser timings but faster speeds, this will have more affect than timings.

Yeah, m.2 support isn't a huge loss. You can get reasonably priced 512/1tb SSDs now, so that's not a big concern.

I found a picture of the vase with a CLC in it. I think it was a project log called 'lunch box rig' or something. Have a look. There's not a lot preventing it, you just need to pur the PSU in last.

You wanted a challenge.. :)
 
:O am you answered this so late last night too, your the best. Think Ill contact overclockers and see what the score is on returns if it doesnt fit (i.e. no faulty return for like priced component or pay the difference).

Biggest annoyance with a project is taking the box from the courier, putting it together and have physical compatibility issues or software compatibility issues
 
@Threepwood - thanks man, Earlier in the thread when we talked about M.2 at 770ish read 600ish write for 155 is a trade off compare to running two SSD in raid 0 to get approx 900ish read 800ish write (Think those numbers are accurate) In summary for myself I would like an m.2 slot but it is not a requirement for this build, this case is going to require sensible cable management anyway, yes nice to have no data and power cables for the SSD, but I feel this meets my needs and can be upgrade to meet the m.2 speeds possibly

@Doomedspeed - The non modular has 7 cables as far As I can see, 1 24, 1 8, 2 pci, 1 sata, 2 peripherals
The modular has 5 cable ports, which should power all my devices, and is gold rated :P

Any OCUK rep able to confirm for me if I get a psu but it doesnt fit (i.e. modular is too large or wrong clerance) does OCUK support me returning the wrong sized one for the correct sized one? If its a price difference down I would imagine I have to pick up other items upto the value (i.e. this modular is £80 the other is £62, if I returned the 80 would I be able to get my £18 back? Would it have to be in store credit? Or would it be gone, cheers for reply :D

Update

Looking into similar threads that I can find seems that with GPU installed there is not enough air flow if you have a water cooler, so cutting the bottom and putting in a small slim fan to give air to the GPU is a possibility, loose one 2.5 bay buy SSD are resilient, mount them wherever :D.

The alternative is to stick to the noctua low profile cpu cooler

Which will give me better temps, thats the property ill focus on, temps, not noise

Update 2

Unless anyone can recommend anything that works better Im going to order this to play around with wait till next month to order the gpu
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