Advice on mITX Build M/B

mattgaunt

mattgaunt

mattgaunt

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Joined
20 May 2007
Posts
441
Hi All,

Im looking to pass on my old machine to the parents and put together a smaller box used primarily for coding, video / photo bits and bob. I tend to stick towards components that will last for years without any maintanence.

OS I have sorted and I believe the Corsair 250D will take my old Corsair 750W HX Modular PSU (although not sure if that is a wise idea or if the connections will fit).

At the moment my basket is looking like this:

KOV2kTy.png

The main component I'm lost with is the Motherboard, what do people think is best?

Does anyone have any recommendations on whether I should I use thermal past with the CPU cooler?

Thanks,
Matt
 
Assuming you'll be overclocking (K series CPU and AIO cooler), then a Z97 board is what you want.

htgJCuE.png

They're all pretty similar. Major differences include power regulation and board layout.

Also, if you are planning on overclocking, you'd be better off going with a better AIO such as the H80i or H100i (the 250D was designed around this one specifically). HX750 should be fine btw.
 
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The reason I went for the H55 is because I would love a quiet machine (as quiet as possible). But if temps are kept down and therefore the fans are kept kept lower then H100i sounds fair, can anyone coemt to noise levels (I'm not over the top about noise but just a nod of "its not actually that bad" would be appreciated).

After reading some reviews I think I'll stick with gigabyte. Seems like a good middle ground for features.
 
120mm radiator AIO coolers are not really the best choice for as quiet as possible. A large tower air cooler will be quieter (for which there is 120mm of clearance roughly).

I have a H60 V2 and it's by no means loud, but still audible. I suspect the H100i will be quieter.
 
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He won't fit a large air cooler in there though will he? Whilst I wouldn't usually recommend the AIO route, if the OP wants to stick with the mITX case then it could be the best option short of going for a full external WC loop.
 
mattgaunt said:
AIO sounds like best option, will go for the h100i with some higher quality fans (probably noctua).
Click to expand...

Yeah, you'll definitely need to replace the fans. I swapped mine for Noctua NF-F12's and love how much quieter they are and I think they're actually slightly better temperature-wise than the stock fans. I think my H100i pump is a bit noisy but I'm told they're sometimes quieter if you run the fans off the motherboard instead of the H100i header, but I've yet to try that.

Your PSU will fit but just a bit of advance warning: those ribbon-type modular cables are a pain to cable route in this thing, they're a bit too stiff and the SATA power connectors make it impossible to use both of the 2.5" drive slots at the same time.
 
Makhaira said:
He won't fit a large air cooler in there though will he? Whilst I wouldn't usually recommend the AIO route, if the OP wants to stick with the mITX case then it could be the best option short of going for a full external WC loop.
Click to expand...

Or get a better mITX case that wasn't designed almost purely to increase sales of your AIO coolers. :p
 
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