Compact gaming machine - Thoughts on this build?

DrFunkyMonk · 12 Mar 2015 at 13:54

Gentlemen,

I'm looking for some feedback on the shopping basket below, essentially looking for a near complete rebuild into a smaller, more portable case but without compromising on power too much.

Below is what i've come up with so far, although I will very soon have the money to complete it, i'm not sure if it's worth holding off for a different graphics solution.

There's also a pair of 3.5" drives going in, and possibly an old SSD as a cacheing drive for them.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 980 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £449.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £269.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £109.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11T3K2/16) £109.99
1 x MSI Z97I Gaming ACK Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £89.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini ITX Compact Gaming Case - Black (CC-9011047-WW) £75.95
1 x EVGA SuperNova G1 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (120-G1-0650-XR) £69.95
1 x Samsung SE-506CB/RSBD External BluRay-RW / DVD-RW Drive - Black (Retail) £59.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack (CO-9050008-WW) £22
Total : £1,382.82 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Any comments/critique would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

pantbash · 12 Mar 2015 at 18:16

I have very similar build, one thing you could think of is a m.2 drive for OS (120 GB)

Saves you a bit of case space.

The whole build should run v smooth.

DrFunkyMonk · 13 Mar 2015 at 13:51

That's not a bad idea at all, I did notice the m.2 slot on the board spec, but figured i might invest in the future.

I'm a little concerned about heat from the graphics card, the dimensions of the MSI are quite wide so i'm not sure if it'll have enough space to vent, or even if it's worth just going with a reference cooler.

deano-5 · 13 Mar 2015 at 16:03

Get this RAM instead
YOUR BASKET
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/16) £95.99
Total : £104.69 (includes shipping : £7.25).

If you are only gaming, a 4690k would be fine

DrFunkyMonk · 15 Mar 2015 at 12:11

Thanks for the help people, i've made a couple of adjustments, the i7 was more of a prestige thing really, and just because it was within budget.

Does anyone know if the Plextor M6e is compatible with the M.2 slot on the motherboard? I can't seem to find a lot information on compatibility.. I've also added the reference 980, am I right in thinking it'd probably be better for cooling to have the reference design, considering the size of the case?

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 980 "Reference Design" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £449.99
1 x MSI Z97I Gaming ACK - Devil's Canyon i5 4690K CPU & Mini ITX Motherboard Bundle **£12 Saving** £285.98
1 x Plextor M6e M.2 PCI-E 256GB Solid state Hard Drive (PX-G256M6e) £172.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/16) £95.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £89.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini ITX Compact Gaming Case - Black (CC-9011047-WW) £75.95
1 x EVGA SuperNova G1 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (120-G1-0650-XR) £72.95
1 x Samsung SE-506CB/RSBD External BluRay-RW / DVD-RW Drive - Black (Retail) £59.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack (CO-9050008-WW) £22
Total : £1,339.92 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Thanks again for the help.

OracIe · 19 Apr 2015 at 16:45

Yes, the M6e is compatible.

Yup, you're right in terms of reference cooler being best as it will exhaust out the back of the card rather than into the case.

pdaboy · 20 Apr 2015 at 09:34

DrFunkyMonk said:
Thanks for the help people, i've made a couple of adjustments, the i7 was more of a prestige thing really, and just because it was within budget.

Does anyone know if the Plextor M6e is compatible with the M.2 slot on the motherboard? I can't seem to find a lot information on compatibility.. I've also added the reference 980, am I right in thinking it'd probably be better for cooling to have the reference design, considering the size of the case?

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 980 "Reference Design" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £449.99
1 x MSI Z97I Gaming ACK - Devil's Canyon i5 4690K CPU & Mini ITX Motherboard Bundle **£12 Saving** £285.98
1 x Plextor M6e M.2 PCI-E 256GB Solid state Hard Drive (PX-G256M6e) £172.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/16) £95.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £89.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini ITX Compact Gaming Case - Black (CC-9011047-WW) £75.95
1 x EVGA SuperNova G1 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (120-G1-0650-XR) £72.95
1 x Samsung SE-506CB/RSBD External BluRay-RW / DVD-RW Drive - Black (Retail) £59.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack (CO-9050008-WW) £22
Total : £1,339.92 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Thanks again for the help.

Personally I'd still go for an i7 as GTA V has shown the cpu to be a bit of a bottleneck with an i5 resulting in the loss of approx 10 fps.

MichaelAwkward · 20 Apr 2015 at 09:43

A loss of 10fps from what though? 100fps? 50fps?

Is it really worth £100+ extra?

pdaboy · 20 Apr 2015 at 16:04

MichaelAwkward said:
A loss of 10fps from what though? 100fps? 50fps?

Is it really worth £100+ extra?

Depends on the settings used. Although they have brought out a patch to reduce cpu usuage. I'd still go i7 though as it will future proof the pc.