Cheap SFF Gaming PC

GoogalyMoogaly

GoogalyMoogaly

GoogalyMoogaly

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Hi guys,

I'm looking to build a SFF gaming PC (in case the title didn't give it away).
It's not going to be my main gaming PC so I don't want to spend too much on it if I can help it.

The spec I'm thinking of is:
My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £642.15
(includes shipping: £11.70)



​


I also have a 128GB SSD I'll reuse and a reference GTX 980.

Without spending too much more is there anything better I could get?
I'm tempted by the i5 7500 and a H270 motherboard instead of the AMD items. My concern is the height of the cooler.

Are there any cheap low profile CPU coolers that are decent (for AMD and/or Intel)?

Thanks.
 
what level of gaming you intending to do?

the 1200 & 1300x are both 4 core 4 thread processors which offers a nice saving unless you really need 8 threads? and will offer a good level of gaming where quads benefit, i question the power supply though, the 980 will be the hungriest for power at like 178w plus, so pretty much half the power right there and is suggested to have a 500w psu, you might be okay if you dont overclock.

and depending on price and how much performance you want whether its for overclocking or not then you wouldnt go wrong with either of these.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £129.46
(includes shipping: £10.50)



​
 
ExoMale said:
what level of gaming you intending to do?

the 1200 & 1300x are both 4 core 4 thread processors which offers a nice saving unless you really need 8 threads? and will offer a good level of gaming where quads benefit, i question the power supply though, the 980 will be the hungriest for power at like 178w plus, so pretty much half the power right there and is suggested to have a 500w psu, you might be okay if you dont overclock.
Click to expand...
Hoping you're wrong, but worried you're right.
I was working on about 180W for GPU and 65W for CPU, which would leave 205W for everything else and overclocking.

ExoMale said:
and depending on price and how much performance you want whether its for overclocking or not then you wouldnt go wrong with either of these.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £129.46
(includes shipping: £10.50)



​
Click to expand...
Well the Noctua, Raijintek and Arctic won't fit in the case, which is a requirement for me.
Did consider the Cryorig C7 and the Noctua NH-L9a, but their both pricey.
Wondering about the Raijintek Juno-X?
 
i was listing the coolers under £50, theres probably 1 or 2 more above that price that supports AM4. low profile coolers are not that widespread so not too much choice really, not on OC anyways.

as for the graphics card, if you keep it stock should be okay, but 178w is like the minimum in some cases i believe, mean having 200-210w spare is good as such, but not if you going to overclcock, from the figures based on assumption of being accurate, thats 240w for gpu + cpu, so with anything else it probably wont be too much over 250, but thats stock, havent done too much overclocking to know how much power gets increased, just feel a 450w might be pushing it,
 
Just did a quick test...
Ran 6 threads of Prime 95 and Unigine Heaven 4.0 at the same time. Power meter got to 275W.
GPU and CPU were at stock.
Also didn't run Heaven 4.0 all the way through so might have gone up a bit.

Having some CPU temp issues as it seem the stock AMD cooler can't even keep the CPU cool at stock.
 
A 450w PSU ought to be enough for pretty much any single GPU system. I used to run a 980 Ti overclocked on a Silverstone 450W SFX-G power supply with not a single hiccup, and that Corsair unit is meant to be better quality as well. Most people tend to buy PSUs waaaay more powerful than they need really, so I wouldn't worry about it for your listed specs.
 
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