Gaming SFF?

K1LLSW1TCH · 1 May 2010 at 16:48

I started a thread similar to this before but now have a few extra bits and pieces together in my desktop PC and would like to transfer them into a smaller form factor but still retain the functionality that my PC currently has. At the moment I'm using my PC purely for games with a bit of browsing thrown in on the side, what I want to do is transfer my CPU, graphics card, RAM and HDD into a sff but I have no idea on what kind of motherboard, case or PSU I should be looking at.

At the moment I've got an E8400 with the stock cooler, a Radeon 5850 and 4GB of OCZ Gold DDR2 800Mhz. Can anyone offer a bit of advice on which motherboard would be appropriate for those components and then which cases and PSU's I have a choice of using?

Cheers in advance.

pcAnywhere · 1 May 2010 at 17:37

You'll need to hunt down a ZotacLGA775 mobo, like the Zotac GeForce 9300-ITX-I-E. This supports 775 CPUs and 16x PCI-E cards.

Cases - Lian li and Silverstone both do small cases designed for mini-itx and are available from OC.

K1LLSW1TCH · 1 May 2010 at 17:57

pcAnywhere said:
You'll need to hunt down a ZotacLGA775 mobo, like the Zotac GeForce 9300-ITX-I-E. This supports 775 CPUs and 16x PCI-E cards.

Cases - Lian li and Silverstone both do small cases designed for mini-itx and are available from OC.

Cheers, I'll look those up, what else would I have to look out for?, I'm a bit concerned about heat, especially from the CPU, I'm running the stock cooler at the moment and the heatsink on that looks pretty big, are there any that are better and smaller? Also I was looking at the Sugo, would that be a decent choice in your opinion? Oh and one other thing I'd need to put into the build would be a PSU, I'm not sure the one I've got at the moment would fit, it's from an Alienware PC and as far as I know it's a 1000W Coolermaster PSU, not sure if that would fit into a mini itx type case?

Tute · 1 May 2010 at 18:18

You mean something like this?

HD5850 in there, with an i5-650. I obviously use an LGA1156 board, but the Zotac would take your CPU, GPU, and RAM, and all you'd need is a case.

The one in the picture is an SG05-B. Excuse the HDD and ODD, it's a temporary solution while my new SSD is on it's way.

Lemons_Mufc · 1 May 2010 at 18:42

Tute said:
You mean something like this?

HD5850 in there, with an i5-650. I obviously use an LGA1156 board, but the Zotac would take your CPU, GPU, and RAM, and all you'd need is a case.

The one in the picture is an SG05-B. Excuse the HDD and ODD, it's a temporary solution while my new SSD is on it's way.

just curious, this doesnt take a normal power supply does it? so what one have you got in this case? and doesnt a standard hdd fit?

Tute · 1 May 2010 at 18:52

Nah, it's the included 300W PSU. It's probably close but the HD5850 runs without incident. The i5-650 is quite low wattage, I wouldn't fancy my chances with a Q6600 for example.

The case fits one 2.5" and one 3.5" HDD, as well as a slimline optical drive.

TheRedZealot · 1 May 2010 at 18:57

Zotac 9300 and either the new Lian-Li PC-Q08, Silverstone SG05 or Silverstone SG07 would probably be your best bet.

Lemons_Mufc · 1 May 2010 at 19:16

so im guessing the 300w PSU could hande:

Intel Core i3 530 2.93GHz
Corsair 4GB (2X2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz
Zotac H55-ITX
Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 5770

also whats the smallest out of the Q08 and SG05? im debating on which one to get

TheRedZealot · 1 May 2010 at 20:11

The 300w supply should handle all that fairly well, with power saving options you should not be using much power at all at idle, probably around 70w.

The SG05 is the smallest out of the two, the Q08 is almost mATX size really.

K1LLSW1TCH · 1 May 2010 at 20:18

Tute that's brilliant. In that case I should be fine with the Zotac board mentioned, the standard PSU and the Sugo that I was after in the first place, although I may upgrade the PSU shortly after. It's going to require me buying a new copy of Windows so I may as well splash out on Windows 7 and get a new HDD at the same time.

TheRedZealot · 1 May 2010 at 20:25

Doesn't the 300w PSU included only have 1 6pin PCIe cable?

Tute · 1 May 2010 at 20:32

There's a 450W PSU for the SG05/06 due in a matter of weeks. Should be a simple swap over, but as shown the 300W is very good, you can pretty much go right up to 280-290W from what i've seen.

And yes, there is only one 6-pin PCIe cable. But that's what molex-PCIe connectors are for!

K1LLSW1TCH · 1 May 2010 at 22:38

Tute said:
There's a 450W PSU for the SG05/06 due in a matter of weeks. Should be a simple swap over, but as shown the 300W is very good, you can pretty much go right up to 280-290W from what i've seen.

And yes, there is only one 6-pin PCIe cable. But that's what molex-PCIe connectors are for!

Well I'll probably wait until the new PSU comes out if it's fairly soon.

Hopefully I'll be able to pick up the case, motherboard, HDD and a copy of windows for under £300

Tute · 2 May 2010 at 00:11

Well it's either that or wait for the SG07. It'll be bigger, but comes with a very beefy PSU (~600W) and it can take upto an HD5970.

Depends what you're looking for really. I think the HD5970 would be massive overkill for me, hence why i'm just staying with the SG05.

Given you already have an HD5850 i'd recommend just doing the same unless you yearn for more power.

Quick tip though - attach the PCIe connectors BEFORE you put the card in, as you stand zero chance of attaching them when it's already in the case!

K1LLSW1TCH · 2 May 2010 at 00:25

Tute said:
Well it's either that or wait for the SG07. It'll be bigger, but comes with a very beefy PSU (~600W) and it can take upto an HD5970.

Depends what you're looking for really. I think the HD5970 would be massive overkill for me, hence why i'm just staying with the SG05.

Given you already have an HD5850 i'd recommend just doing the same unless you yearn for more power.

Quick tip though - attach the PCIe connectors BEFORE you put the card in, as you stand zero chance of attaching them when it's already in the case!

Good tip and no doubt I'll forget by the time it comes round to ordering all the bits.

I find that my current hardware is more than powerful enough for the games I play so I think I'll get the SG05 and make do with the 300W PSU. If you say it's more than enough power for the 5850 then that's alright by me. You mentioned the bundled PSU only has 1 power connector and the 5850 requires 2. I can just take one out of my current rig and that should do the job shouldn't it?

Also I don't know if you know much about this but I'm going to ask anyway; What would you recommend CPU cooler wise? Am I okay sticking with the stock intel HSF? It's been fine for me so far and has kept everything nice and cool but I'm a bit worried as to wether I'll need extra cooling power when I make the switch to the SG05.

EDIT: Tute, before I forget, have you got any other pics of inside of the case? Just curious as to see how much space is left when that 5850 is in there, also which cooler are you using on your CPU? Cheers.

Tute · 2 May 2010 at 11:51

K1LLSW1TCH said:
I find that my current hardware is more than powerful enough for the games I play so I think I'll get the SG05 and make do with the 300W PSU. If you say it's more than enough power for the 5850 then that's alright by me. You mentioned the bundled PSU only has 1 power connector and the 5850 requires 2. I can just take one out of my current rig and that should do the job shouldn't it?

I wouldn't call it "more than enough" - CPU choice is important with the 300W PSU and an HD5850. I would say the E8400 is fine though.

Yeah, any molex to 6 pin PCIe connector will do.

Also I don't know if you know much about this but I'm going to ask anyway; What would you recommend CPU cooler wise? Am I okay sticking with the stock intel HSF? It's been fine for me so far and has kept everything nice and cool but I'm a bit worried as to wether I'll need extra cooling power when I make the switch to the SG05.

I'm using the Intel stock cooler as it does a fine job and is inaudible. I just left it all at stock and turbo mode clocks the CPU up as and when it sees fit.

There are a few options - you could have a go with an H5O (although I can't see how it would fit with an HD5850), or something else on air. I believe there's a Scythe cooler than fits with a slim 120mm fan, or you could go passive with something like a Silverstone NT06-E.

EDIT: Tute, before I forget, have you got any other pics of inside of the case? Just curious as to see how much space is left when that 5850 is in there, also which cooler are you using on your CPU? Cheers.

There's not a lot of space to work with at all. I've not got my PSU cables sleeved so they certainly make it look really messy in there. When I get my 450W PSU i'll take the time to sit down and sort them out properly, but i'm not sleeving a PSU I won't be using for much longer.

I can put more pictures up later, but i'm not at home at the moment.

gt_junkie · 2 May 2010 at 13:21

I've been considering the limitations of the 300w supply in the SG05 and have entertained the idea of using something like a 120w pico psu for the board, cpu and ram along with the 300w psu for the gpu and system drives.

I'd use a dual psu 24-pin adapter cable to connect the two so they worked in tandem.

Not as elegant as a single psu solution but i thought it would provide extra headroom for clocking and general reliability.

gt

K1LLSW1TCH · 2 May 2010 at 13:37

Last time I checked OcUK didn't have any SG05's in stock so what I've decided to do is just wait for the 400W to come into stock and go with that. Think I'll stick with the Intel cooler on the CPU and a single 2.5" HDD, I'd like 2 HDD's but I think with the graphics card I'm using I'll need to save all the power I can. Not too keen on passive cooling I'm not convinced that it would be a good option for me given the usage that the machine is going to get, I'm not too comfortable having all that hardware in such a tiny space and having the brain of the outfit being cooled passively might be a bit risky, especially with the heat that my graphics card will probably be generating.

One other thing that's slightly annoying is that I can't even find the Zotac board mentioned on OcUK's site, I've found it on other E-tailers sites so unless OcUK are getting it in stock soon I may have to shop elsewhere. Pics would be great Tute but if you can't get them up today then that's fine.

gt_junkie said:
I've been considering the limitations of the 300w supply in the SG05 and have entertained the idea of using something like a 120w pico psu for the board, cpu and ram along with the 300w psu for the gpu and system drives.

I'd use a dual psu 24-pin adapter cable to connect the two so they worked in tandem.

Not as elegant as a single psu solution but i thought it would provide extra headroom for clocking and general reliability.

gt

I'd try something like that but the point of me downsizing is so that I can keep everything neat, tidy and with as little mess as possible. I think that does sound a little inelegant there with the 2 PSU's so that's why I'm going to stick with the 300W or possibly the 400W if it comes out any time soon ie within the next few weeks. If I find the 300 isn't enough I'm sure I can pick up a more powerful PSU if my desktop one doesn't fit in the Sugo either.

Tute · 2 May 2010 at 14:48

I don't think i'll be able to get them up today, I won't be home until at least 9-10pm tonight and i'll just be shattered, got a 6am start on Monday.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask though, i'll be checking this all day.

K1LLSW1TCH · 2 May 2010 at 20:40

Tute said:
I don't think i'll be able to get them up today, I won't be home until at least 9-10pm tonight and i'll just be shattered, got a 6am start on Monday.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask though, i'll be checking this all day.

6am start? Sheesh! :eek:

No problem, I've decided to buy within the next 2 to 3 weeks. Decided on the current SG05, the Zotac 9300-ITX and a Samsung 400GB 2.5" Sata drive. Along with my current E8400, 4GB DDR2 and the 5850 it should make a pretty decent little machine. I'll probably be needing some cable sleeving as well to keep it all neat and tidy. Do you find your rig gets pretty hot with the side panels on?