M-ATX Gaming System

naknakkus

naknakkus

naknakkus

Associate
Joined
15 Nov 2008
Posts
737
Location
Aberdeen
Budget: up to £700
Uses: Gaming (BF3, Skyrim), Illustrator, AutoCAD, Photoshop, quietness, stability.

What I hope to re-use in the new build:
GFX - Asus Direct CUII HD6950 1gb. I'm worried that this 30cm, 3 slot monstrosity won't fit in most M-ATX cases.
RAM - 8GB Corsair DDR3
PSU - Corsair HX650

I guess the most pressing question is: what M-ATX cases can handle full length GFX cards?

It's been a while since I've built a machine, so I'm not sure about the differences between Sandy and Ivy bridge as far as price-performance goes.

Edit: The reason I want an M-ATX system is that I'm pressed for space at the moment and it'd be ideal if it could fit on top of a 40x40cm filing cabinet.
 
Here's an option,


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £259.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £89.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77M-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £86.99
1 x Sandisk Extreme SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive - (SDSSDX-120G-G25) £81.59
1 x Fractal Design Core 1000 Midi Tower Case - Black £32.99
1 x LG GH22NS90 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.98
1 x Alpenföhn Civetta CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1156/1155/AM2/AM2(+)/AM3/FM1) £15.98
Total : £600.61 (includes shipping : £11.75).



Case size (WxHxD): 175x355x420mm
Supports CPU coolers with height of 135mm
Supports graphic cards with lengths up to 350mm
Click to expand...
http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&prod=61

Cooler Size: 105x78x129mm
Click to expand...

Ivy bridge is better than SB, and similar price so go with IB :)
 
beejjacobs said:
Here's an option,
Click to expand...

Wow, that's a lot more computer for the money than I was expecting. I guess already owning a GFX card knocks off about £150. I should've also mentioned that I have a Blu ray drive that I can slot in as well, so I wouldn't need the DVDrw, saving another £18.

That case looks decent, though one of the user reviews does say it has a noisy front fan.

Thanks a lot for the list of components.
 
naknakkus said:
Wow, that's a lot more computer for the money than I was expecting. I guess already owning a GFX card knocks off about £150. I should've also mentioned that I have a Blu ray drive that I can slot in as well, so I wouldn't need the DVDrw, saving another £18.

That case looks decent, though one of the user reviews does say it has a noisy front fan.

Thanks a lot for the list of components.
Click to expand...

You're welcome.

Another case option is this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-132-TT&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=2044

Not sure if its a bit big for you though,
266 x 291 x 456 mm
Click to expand...

{I can't seem to find much info about cooler heights, I think you'd have to stick with the stock cooler - nothing wrong with that of course :)}
 
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naknakkus said:
So would you say that these improvements are worth going with i5 rather than the i7 in the first build?
Click to expand...

You did say gaming, but theres still money left over to get a i7:)

The erst of the improvements I listed are worth doing:)
 
naknakkus said:
I'm currently operating with an AM3 955 (3.2ghz) so I think even the i5 would be a pretty solid upgrade.
Click to expand...

I did that upgrade last year (955BE to a 2500K so similar) the difference was great, also the overclock-ability of these things are fantastic.
 
stulid said:
I did that upgrade last year (955BE to a 2500K so similar) the difference was great, also the overclock-ability of these things are fantastic.
Click to expand...

Would you say that overclocking is a no brainer, or could I just leave it and get much better performance than the 955? I think I'm more concerned about stability and quietness than all out performance.
 
Its so easy to overclock these "K" chips to 4.5Ghz I could get my 8 year old niece to do it.

I ran my 2500K 24/7 @4.8Ghz (fastest I did was 5.2Ghz)

I run my 3570K 24/7 @4.5Ghz (fastest I done is 4.7Ghz)
 
stulid said:
Both.

Say 4GHz± with the stock cooler is fine.

For 4Ghz all you have to do is increase the multi, no need to even touch the Vcore or LLC.
Click to expand...

More noob questions, sorry:
Is the stock cooler reasonably quiet, or is a big cooler necessary for quietness/coolness?
I've got a retail copy of Win7 installed on this machine - will it play nice if I install it on the new machine, or do I need to get another copy? Is the Win8 candidate usable as a substitute until it comes out?
 
Do a fresh install, always with such a hardware upgrade.

Never used the stock cooler, always had aftermarket solutions.

You can use the Win8 candidate, I did for a little while.
 
Though my cooler is hidden within a Define R3 I can still hear it. It's probably the loudest thing in the case.
 
The TJ08 is one of the best air cooled cases you can get. If you're looking to do some overclocking, it's definitely worth considering. You can fit an NH-D14 in there, and any length graphics card should be fine.
 
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