First build m-itx advice

achu · 12 Oct 2015 at 10:47

Hi, first post here.
My laptop has failed on me after 6 years of use, so I decided now is a good time to try my hand at building a PC myself as a replacement.

I don't want another laptop as I find the cost to power ratio way too low, so I thought an m-itx build is probably the closest I can get to a laptops portability. (only moving around the house with it).

So for this post I was just wondering if anyone had any recommendations for components that have a good bang to buck ratio, to start I'm looking at cases.

Budget: 400 (flexible)
Use: I have a main desktop, but I'd obviously like it speedy, and be able to handle current gen games to some degree. Maybe a bit of a console killer?
Would ideally like a case that supports large video cards, for convenience.

Looking at:
-Bitfenix prodigy
-Thermaltake core v1
-Cougar qbx
-Corsair 380t (bit expensive)

Does anyone have any experience with these cases, or any recommendations for a build? Open to suggestions.

Cheers

Danny75 · 12 Oct 2015 at 10:53

Crazy price on BitFenix Phenom White till Wednesday. They are really nice cases, built with two of them.

YOUR BASKET
1 x BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX Cube Case - Arctic White £34.99

Only advice is to use a normal-size PSU (150mm depth) and to consider how many fans need powering as ITX mobos don't tend to bring many fan headers. i.e. Sort out molex fan adapters or whatever.

achu · 12 Oct 2015 at 10:57

Thanks for the speedy reply.
Thats a really nice case! Does it support full length cards? EDIT: Just read it does.

Why a normal size PSU over a small for factor variant?
I hadn't considered the number of fans, I think its maybe case dependant?

Quartz · 12 Oct 2015 at 11:34

Shuttle have just launched their Skylake-supporting series of SFF boxes.

http://www.shuttle.eu/products/mini-pc/sh170r6/

achu · 12 Oct 2015 at 11:45

Sorry about my lack of knowledge, this is a bare bones package right, so comes with the new skylake cpu? Then I would need a GPU on top, won't this be fairly expensive?
Couldn't find info on price.

Quartz · 12 Oct 2015 at 11:51

achu said:
Sorry about my lack of knowledge, this is a bare bones package right, so comes with the new skylake cpu? Then I would need a GPU on top, won't this be fairly expensive?
Couldn't find info on price.

It's only just been announced, so prices will be forthcoming.

The Shuttle box is a case, PSU, CPU cooler, and motherboard combo. You add CPU, GPU, RAM, and storage.

Danny75 · 12 Oct 2015 at 11:56

achu said:
Why a normal size PSU over a small for factor variant?

Normal as opposed to PSUs over 150mm in depth, there are some 180/200mm's out there, for example. Normal "ATX" tend to be a better choice than SFX, if you can fit one.

achu said:
I hadn't considered the number of fans, I think its maybe case dependant?

Yes, but also on the motherboard and how many fans it can run. You'd need to power at least three fans with that case, for example. 2 x case fans and 1 x CPU cooler. So if the motherboard is short of fan headers you can use molex adapters for example.

achu · 12 Oct 2015 at 12:01

EDIT: Thanks for the explanation Danny. Either going to go for the Bitfenix you linked or the Core V1, which is actually slightly smaller but can only support GPUs up to 260mm whereas the Bitfenix can support up to 330mm.

I see thanks for the clarification Quartz.
In terms of CPUs, would going skylake bust my budget. I might be wrong, but with it just releasing, and needing new Mobo and DDR4 memory, sounds like it could get fairly expensive?

I'm also trying to decide if I should go AMD or Intel for the processor. Heard I should be going for quad core as an increasing number of games are able to make use of multiple cores, and thats mainly what its for. Is this correct?
So maybe a locked i5?
I also keep hearing about the intel pentium g3258 for budget systems, however I have no experience with overclocking.
Any thoughts?