How about this RVZ01 build?

joey_vendetta

joey_vendetta

joey_vendetta

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1 Mar 2015
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Greetings denizens of the internet,

I'm getting ready to build a RVZ01 (link) based system and wanted to get some feedback on my component choices. At the moment I am looking at the following:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor

Motherboard: Asus Z97I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard
(WiFi is a must for this build)

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
(Not sure whether to go for higher speed RAM. Probably needs to be low profile)

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
(Silverlink recommend slower spin speed disks to help prevent overheating)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card
(I know the KFA2 GTX 970 is also supposed to be good/quiet but I wanted a big brand so I'd have a better chance of getting a second one in the future for SLI - in a different config/case of course)

Case: Silverstone RVZ01B Mini ITX Desktop Case

Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply
(Is 450W enough?)

Other: Silverstone SST-PP05-E Short Cable Set

Est Total: £880

Haven't settled on a cooler yet but it would need to push air down on to the CPU/MB rather than draw it upwards.

I haven't built anything in this form factor before so any (sensible) feedback gratefully received.

Thanks people! :)
 
Hi and welcome to the forums. :)

The psu will be enough. It's a decent unit built by Enhance Electronics with 444w on the 12v rail. I would estimate your build to pull 300w or less. There have been several reports of fan noise though.

One thing you should change though is the ram. You need a pair of sticks for dual channel to work so if going with 8Gb (more than enough for any gaming build) so you want a 2x 4Gb kit. Everything else looks good.

The cpu cooler needs to be 83mm tall or less so you are looking at a top down cooler anyway. Something like the Raijintek Pallas or Scythe Big Shuriken 2 would be ideal.
 
As already mentioned definitely get a 2x4GB RAM kit over 1x8GB for the extra bandwidth.

You may be better off going for a blower-type cooler on your graphics card, since there's very limited space around it in the RVZ01 and having a cooler that dumps heat into the case will probably not work out well - there's a lack of ventilation above where the card goes so it'll probably just recirculate hot air.
 
I agree with the blower cooler gpu suggestion. That's a extremely cramped case and while the 970's are pretty cool you don't want it dumping it's heat into the case as it will already have the heat from the cpu cooler to deal with.
 
Thanks for the input so far people. I appreciate you taking the time to respond. :)

Excellent point about my memory selection - thanks! I was thinking one stick to make room for expansion later but hadn't thought about bandwidth at all. I'll change that for sure.

The blower style GPU cooler suggestion is an interesting one. I REALLY appreciate the feedback but, for the sake of a healthy discussion, I'd like to suggest a couple of counter arguments:

1) I'd understood that these cases were designed use a positive pressure approach to airflow, with all fans pulling air into the internal volume to be exhausted through the numerous side/top/bottom vents. I think the key to this argument is the number/area of these (non-fanned) vents which should allow air to escape the case freely (especially as the pressure in the case will be higher than outside).

2) Pushing air out of the GPU compartment will setup an air current from the intake (over CPU) to the exhaust (under GPU) which you could argue would actually keep the warm air (from the CPU) in the case for longer. If everything is configured to draw air in and throw it directly at a component which requires cooling then this air stream should override any secondary 'wash' from the other fanned volume.

This positive pressure approach also helps to prevent dust getting inside the case. ...that said I would rather have dust inside my case than fire! ;)

Once again, THANK YOU for the input so far!
 
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