budget build around some spare parts

[Ruben Alonso]

Hi,
I am looking into putting together a small computer (both in size and cost) out of some salvaged parts and some new ones. Wife won't allow big spend or a large tower sitting in the middle of the living room. I must confess I am rather rusty when it comes to parts.

The requirements for the computer are:
- reasonably small in size.
- It will probably be locked in a cabinet
- it will need to be reasonably quiet

I have an i5-4460 and a fair amount of compatible memory, mostly on 4GB sticks.

I have access to hard drives and standard ATX PSUs. If I can stretch it, I would get:
- hybrid firecuda 3.5" 1TB. Little margin here as SSDs blow the budget.
- a new PSU. As I will probably upgrade bits over time I would rather get a 500W one, I have seen some kolink ones which are not tragically expensive but would certainly take advice.

I need to source (please feel free to recommend or thrash completely):
- case. I want something small. I have seen "Silverstone - Sugo SG11B MicroATX Mini Tower Case" which is a bit dear but seems to do the trick. It's discrete and small.
- board. I am having trouble finding something here. I will probably lean towards a B85 chipset as the H81 will only take 2 sticks. Most likely I am stuck with microATX, miniITX seem a lot dearer and I will probably have more trouble running all cables. I was thinking on a "ASRock - B85M-DGS" but don't have a strong preference.
- Cooler. It has to be reasonably quiet. I was thinking "Alpenföhn - Silvretta 47.1 CFM CPU Cooler". Again, ideas?
- GPU. This may not come on day one, but the whole point of the system is to be able to occasionally play games (I'm not a gamer, I've never owned a console). So I was thinking a basic geforce 1050 (Zotac - GeForce GTX 1050 2GB Mini Video Card).

Views?
Would I need any additional fans?
I might probably add a second HDD or an optical drive, but it seems really a very distant future.

Thanks for any ideas!
R

 

[Ruben Alonso]

thanks for the feedback. I know that the MB I will need to source elsewhere. H81 chipset does not have USB3 headers mid board and only 2 sticks of RAM. B85 does.
I will try to salvage a fan from somewhere and the GPU, I'll see if I can find something second hand. albeit older, it seems to be a better card than the 1050 but it's hard to get a good deal.

regarding the case, the holy inquisition would cut my thumbs with a mini tower, therein lies the problem

Thanks for the input

 

[Ruben Alonso]

Thanks for that. I had seen that case and I loved it, but thwre's some small print about the size of micro atx boards. So need to probably source the board first and measure carefully before getting the case or going miniItx which then puts up the price of the board.