First Mini-ITX Build, thoughts?

shipinabottle

shipinabottle

shipinabottle

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This is my first build so I was looking for some feedback, already have my Roccat Kone & Arvo, and a couple of internal HDD's.
Any help is much appreciated :)

Monitor - Benq XL2420T 24" TRUE 120Hz 3D Vision 2.0 Widescreen LED Monitor - £319.99

Graphics Card - MSI GeForce GTX 660 OC Twin Frozr 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - £189.95

CPU - Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail - £179.99

CPU Cooler - Zalman CNPS20LQ CPU Liquid Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1155/1156/1366/AMD FM1/AM3+/AM3/AM2+/AM2) - £75.98

Motherboard - ASRock Z77E-ITX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard - £123.98

Power Supply - Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 2 620w '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - £89.99

OS SSD - OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-60G) - £47.99

Secondary SSD (couple of games) - OCZ Agility 3 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-120G) - £79.99

Case - BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black - £64.99

RAM - TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38192M1600HC11DC) - £26.99

Total with VAT - £1,313.74
 
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Hey Banzai, yeah my previous full sized rig didn't have an internal drive because I found I rarely ever used it, so I thought I may as well continue that with this build. On the rare occasion it was needed I'd just an external one.

Thanks!
 
Looks good but i would take a 7850 over a none Ti 660 unless there's a specific reason for going nvidia, free games too.

Also if you get just one SSD you can have a far better far bigger one for £126 after cashback against the £128 you currently paying.

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £167.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) **BTS £20 CASHBACK** £146.99
Total : £326.38 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
Hi Gav, thanks for the suggestion. I see a lot of people going for the 7850 over the non ti 660. I was taking a look at some benchmarks and the scores seem to lend themselves to the 660, is there some specific advantages the 7850 holds?

Cheers!
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £339.95
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Midnight Grey £239.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 830 Notebook/Apple Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC256N/EU) **BTS £20 CASHBACK** £146.99
1 x ASRock Z77E-ITX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £123.98
1 x BitFenix Prodigy 'Yin' Mini-ITX Cube Case - White/Black £64.99
1 x OCZ ZT 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £63.98
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) £55.98
1 x Patriot Viper "Black Mamba" Generation 3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PV38G160C9K) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,272.53 (includes shipping : £14.75).

 
for 1300 quid,

didnt spec the 120hz screen as you'd never hit 120fps with ultra settings on a gt 660, so specced a dell 2412m instead. still a really really good screen.

from the $$$ savings,
get the gtx670 rather than the gt660 non ti.
dropped the psu wattage and cheaper too
got the 256gb sammy 830 rather than the 2 ssd that you specced. the sammy is faster than either of them, and similar price for a larger size (256 vs 180gb combined)

changed the cooler. added optical drive.

all in all, better all round spec imo, and cheaper ;p
 
Thanks for the spec tamzzy, I've adjusted my build to take on board those changes. My only question was about the SSD, I thought I should get the two, one for OS exclusive (no programs) and the other for a handful of games, in case there was a performance hit running the OS and games off the same SSD, do you think this would be the case or should I just go with the one?
 
go with one. the sweet spot for performance is actually 256gb due to how the nand chips populate the lanes.
with smaller capacity drives, there aren't enough nand chips to populate all lanes so they're actually slower! ;p
 
oh yea i just realised, actually you might wanna get the corsair h60 instead of the antec 620, cuz its easier to mount. (need to cut a bit of the end of the antec 620 backplate to fit the asrock mobo)
 
Why the Prodigy? It's huge for a Mini ITX case and you're not putting anything in that will use the space.

I'd personally go with a Silverstone SG05-450 for a cute dinky rig - will still fit the GTX670 suggested above and the 450W PSU bundled is a great unit.

As you're not using an internal optical drive, just whip the tray out and mount the H60 vertically and you're done - and just stick the SSD to the case floor or under the PSU.
 
Guys, if say using an 'unclocked' i7 in an itx case, is it necessary to use an aftermarket cooler? Could you not get away with one of the stock low profiles HSF's?
 
Banzai_Joe said:
Guys, if say using an 'unclocked' i7 in an itx case, is it necessary to use an aftermarket cooler? Could you not get away with one of the stock low profiles HSF's?
Click to expand...

Its not just to use a k series but if your pushing an OC you will struggle on the stock one. I use the nt06-e in my SG05 with a 3770k at 4.4ghz, runs fine at 4.6 but i wanted a little more headroom for when i forget to clean the filter
 
Thanks Gav, i actually meant that i'll have no need to overclock an i7, so assuming that the stock hsf will cope with airflow in such a small space.
However i'll check out the nt06-e that you use. Quiet is more important to me. Is it quiet?

edit: just looked at the nt06-e, hmmm....guess you could use it passively if not overclocking seeing as it doesn't come with a fan, "Fan not included for maximum flexibility"...:rolleyes:, what a rip!
But how the hell do you fit that thing? Doesn't look easy, unless it comes apart.
 
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Banzai_Joe said:
Thanks Gav, i actually meant that i'll have no need to overclock an i7, so assuming that the stock hsf will cope with airflow in such a small space.
However i'll check out the nt06-e that you use. Quiet is more important to me. Is it quiet?

edit: just looked at the nt06-e, hmmm....guess you could use it passively if not overclocking seeing as it doesn't come with a fan, "Fan not included for maximum flexibility"...:rolleyes:, what a rip!
But how the hell do you fit that thing? Doesn't look easy, unless it comes apart.
Click to expand...

It uses the PSU fan to pull air through and cool, on passive it runs cool enough to OC to 4.6Ghz but i run mine at 4.4Ghz so I have more headroom and don't have to worry about the dust filter getting full of dust. The back plate screws onto the board, its a little fiddly due to the Msata connector on the underside of the board but i didn't need to mod it. Then fit your 12V power lead and RAM as these are hard to get to later. Then the whole top part goes on in one with the copper pipes facing the GPU, then screw on the nuts to hold i in place.

EDIT: yup the Intel heatsync is fine at stock speed
 
so, using the nt06-e over the stock hsf, not only should it be quieter as there will be no fan running, it will also also room to oc should i want to?

Cool.....might go for that.
 
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