Coolermaster 120 build £700

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Hi, looking to make a pc with this case to fit in my tv cabinet.

£700 budget.

Intel only.

No o/s.

No other bits, just the pc.


Concerns - Will cooling be a problem with this build and being fairly tightly fitted into my tv cabbinet.

I will be playing on a 32" tv, will this have an affect on performance? Is it much difference than on a smaller monitor?
 
Concerns - Will cooling be a problem with this build and being fairly tightly fitted into my tv cabbinet.

Hi Dot,

I changed the case to a similar Cooler Master model with front mesh panel, for better cooling. Not only because of the mesh, but the interior of the Elite 130 is designed for better airflow than the Elite 120. Video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlW6hw0WUpw

You'll need to find some means of allowing enough intake air around the case, and hot air extraction. To help with temps inside the case, a video card with reference cooler is best for these circumstances.

YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK Geforce GTX 770 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £227.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £131.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £79.99
1 x Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £68.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G1600HC9DC01) £59.99
1 x EVGA 600W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (100-B1-0600-KR) £49.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 130 RC-130-KKN1 Mini ITX Case - Black £45.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x LiteOn IHAS124-14 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £733.46 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
Cheers for the replys, ta for the tip on the case danny. With the build you have shown will it be able to play this list of games on med/high?

BF4
FF: Realm Reborn
Eve
League of legends
...and is it futureproof for upcoming releases?

It will be displayed on a 32" tv, is this still ok?

Also, I noticed youve specced me an nvidia card, is there amd rival that is better value for the price?

Thank you.
 
Cheers for the replys, ta for the tip on the case danny. With the build you have shown will it be able to play this list of games on med/high?

You're welcome. It should, yes. Depending on resolution of course. I just hope you don't get too much throttling (or any at all) from heat issues. Such tiny cases aren't really designed for high-performance gaming regardless of their manufacturer's claims. But there's always solutions to be found if that happens, like cutting a hole on the side panel where the card is and adding another fan there, on the exterior.


...and is it futureproof for upcoming releases?

Well, you know there's no such thing really, but yeah the Haswell i5-4's are one of the recent Intel 1150 socket-type CPU, and the GTX 770 is still one of Nvidia's latest (no 800 series yet).

Budget didn't let me get an overclocking mobo or CPU, but there wouldn't be much point in overclocking on a mini-ITX board and a tiny case anyway, I don't think.


It will be displayed on a 32" tv, is this still ok?

Not the best person to ask about TV's really, but if you give more info about what TV you've got hopefully someone will answer.


Also, I noticed youve specced me an nvidia card, is there amd rival that is better value for the price?

None of the 280X's on the OcUK website had a reference cooler. And the latest Radeon reference cards were reported to have had heat issues. Nvidias tend to run cooler/quieter. So for this kind of build it would definitely be Nvidia for me just to be on the safe side. I might be unaware of some good Radeon options for this build though. :) An equivalent Radeon would give better performance for BF4 at least but they are just about neck and neck really.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/amd-radeon-r9-280x-vs-nvidia-geforce-gtx-770-which-is-fastest
 
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Cheers, what would I use to cool the cpu? Would a h80 be ok?

Here's the thing, you could try it and see how it goes with temps in general (not just the CPU), and if it doesn't work out you could quickly try and re-sell it for £5 or £10 quid less than purchase price.

But in theory it's going to affect other parts negatively, given the small size of the case and where you intend to place it. And a non-overclockable CPU like that would be sufficiently (not great but enough) cooled by even the stock Intel cooler.

Also, I might be wrong but I don't reckon a 120mm water cooler like the H80 will fit in the front unless you fit it sideways. Have to bear into account the hoses and rad extending a few cm beyond the size of the fan itself. You'd have to find out. If it doesn't fit sideways, you'd have to remove the optical bay. And I can't see where else you could fit it, for sure, in that case.

I actually think the main issue will mostly be video card temps and motherboard (e.g. VRM's) temps. The 120mm rad on the H80 will lessen the air intake through the front of the case (more obstruction), as well as heat up the air inside the case a little more (by pushing the radiator heat inside it). Using the H80 fan in exhaust (pushing the hot air inside the case out through the rad) might be an even worse idea, because you could end up with bad overall temps and CPU temp.

It could work though, and if you have a hunch, go for it. I'd probably go for a good low-profile air cooler to be sure. That would leave the front fan more unblocked to intake cool air, and a slim 140mm fan would cool the CPU and mobo at the same time, sufficiently, together with the help of the 80mm side fan on the right (if it has enough room alongside it in the cabinet to do an effective job).

Whatever you do, don't focus on the cooling of just one component, to the detriment of others. The trick with this small case if you're going to use it for gaming will be to bring temps down in general just enough so none of them exceed recommended limits.

Just my opinion.

All that said, my recommendation is a good low-profile heatsink with a slim 140mm fan that has 120mm screwholes to fit on the sink:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Prolimatech Samuel 17 CPU Cooler £34.99
1 x Raijintek Aelous Alpha 140mm - Black / Black £7.99
Total : £48.96 (includes shipping : £4.98).



Note: - Maximum CPU cooler height: 65 mm

I just did a quick check with a 140mm fan and an ITX mobo (MSI Z87I) I've got here, and the 140mm fits within the mobo area and doesn't touch the GPU. The layout of this mobo and the one in your basket is practically identical so using a 140mm for added benefits should be no problem.

But I would first experiment attaching all the cables that need to go into the mobo, to see what the best direction to position the heatsink/fan is, so that the fan doesn't press down on any. And ideally, the ends of the heatpipes should point to the back of the case so the PSU fan can extract the heat they dissipate. That sometimes isn't possible though, but it won't affect too much if positioned differently.

Whatever you decide on, I hope you will post pics of your build. You've made me curious to see how it will all turn out. :D

Alternative fan:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex Fan - 140mm £14.99

 
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Tyvm for your reply mate, il read it in full when I get in from my nights shift :)

No problem mate. I love chatting about this stuff.

Not entirely happy with just the PSU exhausting. It doesn't really do a good job. Would try changing around the 80mm fan on the side to exhaust, perhaps. There are also some mini-ITX Thermaltake cases with better cooling options. Slightly bigger though, I think. Will have a look for some when the website gets back online (too many connections right now, it says).
 
Yes the slim heatsink and fan seems a better option :). Wouldnt like to game with just the stock cpu cooler doing it, just incase. Hmm I do have another problem though, with the pc in the cabinet it will only have about 2cm at most clearance from the top of the case, will this impact the psu? I have seen some peoples build with this case and they have their psu facing downwards, so the fan is blowing inside the case, that doesnt seem right. Clearance from left to right of cabinet is around 10cm each so the gpu will be fine.

Also, ive changed my mind about having an optical drive, wont use it much and I have an external one at the ready :)
 
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Yes the slim heatsink and fan seems a better option :). Wouldnt like to game with just the stock cpu cooler doing it, just incase. Hmm I do have another problem though, with the pc in the cabinet it will only have about 2cm at most clearance from the top of the case, will this impact the psu? I have seen some peoples build with this case and they have their psu facing downwards, so the fan is blowing inside the case, that doesnt seem right. Clearance from left to right of cabinet is around 10cm each so the gpu will be fine.

Also, ive changed my mind about having an optical drive, wont use it much and I have an external one at the ready :)

Hey again Dot. The PSU fan intakes into the PSU and exhausts out of the back of the PSU, so you will want to have the fan facing down anyway, I think. They aren't great at doubling as exhaust fans (they do blow a bit of air back out through the fan at the same time) but you will need it helping out, to extract the hot air which rises around that area (video card/mobo/CPU). So that should eliminate the concerns about clearance above the case.

What about the rear? Is there a means for the hot air the PSU pushes out where its vents are to go out the back of the cabinet somehow and then rise up behind the cabinet?
 
It will be displayed on a 32" tv, is this still ok?

TVs don't have resolutions past 1920x1080 besides the "4K" ones so it will be exactly the same to your computer as a 21" monitor with 1920x1080 resolution just that the pixels will be much bigger so viewing from close will be less clear as a result. If the TV is only "HD Ready" (1080i rather than 1080p) then you will probably only have the awkward laptop resolution of 1366x768.

Basically the computer provides your screen with pixels and despite being large TVs don't have more pixels than computer monitors.
 
Depends what gaming you are doing... if you play FPS multiplayer mostly then a higher refresh rate is helpful as the picture you see is "smoother" as a result but most people still manage fine without it so it isn't an upgrade worth making in my opinion. You will be better served with a low response time monitor for FPS gaming to make sure the frame you see on screen is being displayed to you as quick as possible to help aid your reaction time.

I prefer to get a monitor with better colour reproduction because I play single player games mostly. I used TFT Central to check what features I was interested in, their reviews are very good and in depth.

I would rather look for a low response time monitor than a bigger size screen. I'd also favour a computer monitor between 24"-30" with screen resolutions above 1920x1080 (2560x1600 for instance) rather than a 32" or bigger TV.
 
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