M-ITX buid

GMac11

GMac11

GMac11

Soldato
Joined
3 Dec 2012
Posts
2,858
Location
Northern Ireland
Hi guys. This encompasses a few areas so wasn't sure if there was an exact category for it.

My situation is thus:
I have an I7 2600k ATX setup in a Fractal R4 case.
In days gone by I would have had 2 optical drives and several (up to 5) hard drives as well as GPU and Sound card etc.

My current setup at home has meant I haven't had to use my PC as much and when I do it's only for gaming.
The system is now down to 2 SSD's, GeForce 770 and one blu ray drive.

Sooo, I have been looking at building a M-ITX build out of what I can however I seem to be hitting stumbling blocks in any direction.

My main reason for ITX is because I want as small a case as possible so I can easily move the PC from the office to the living room for communal gaming (or into the heat of the fire moreso!)

Now, I am finding it impossible to a Z77 ITX board to allow for overlocking. Having realised this I know OC'ing a 2600k isn't really necessary but if you have a 'K' CPU it is always nice to have the headroom.

So I have 2 main alternatives which are, buy an H61 board and forget about the OC or move to M-ATX instead. My gripe with this I can't find a small enough MATX case that I would want.

The secret third option is just upgrade the whole bally lot but I know my 2600k has a good couple of years in it yet.

Anyone out there have any suggestions RE a good MITX board or a small MATX case (preferably in the dimensions of the Cooler Master Elite 130)?

Thanks in advance.
 
EDIT: Aimed mainly at Micro-ATX.

I was in this position struggling to find a Micro-ATX motherboard.
The benefits to it though are that you have the option of Z68 & some Z77 boards.

If you want something tiny, the Corsair 240 is very small & amazingly built, I very much enjoyed building in it as it has a feature for everything.

A good board you can normally grab for cheap is a MAXIMUS IV GENE-Z - Very good board and perfect for the 2600k.
 
The Elite 130 is a highly overlooked MITX case which I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to most people. Why is it not suitable for your purposes? There aren't many MITX cases smaller than it as far as I'm aware, so if you're really looking for portability then it may be one of your best options.
 
theMilitant said:
The Elite 130 is a highly overlooked MITX case which I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to most people. Why is it not suitable for your purposes? There aren't many MITX cases smaller than it as far as I'm aware, so if you're really looking for portability then it may be one of your best options.
Click to expand...

Oh the Elite 130 is ideal and it is the one I want but I'm hampered by the fact I can't source a good MOBO for it.
 
What about selling the 2600K and Gigabyte mainboard?
They money should make buying a M-ITX Z97 and new CPU not quite as painful?
 
Ronald said:
What about selling the 2600K and Gigabyte mainboard?
They money should make buying a M-ITX Z97 and new CPU not quite as painful?
Click to expand...

Well yeah as I said that was option 3 so I won't rule it out.

If I was going down that route I would probably only go i5 though. The 4690K Devils Canyon looks the business but it's at best a side grade from what I have performance wise.

It may have the added benefit of running cooler mind you and for gaming i5 is plenty I know.
 
Last edited:
theMilitant said:
The Elite 130 is a highly overlooked MITX case which I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to most people. Why is it not suitable for your purposes? There aren't many MITX cases smaller than it as far as I'm aware, so if you're really looking for portability then it may be one of your best options.
Click to expand...

Moved to SFF - my bad :D

At the minute I have decided to just get a new CPU and board - i5 4690k to be precise and a Z97 MOBO that I am as yet undecided on.

Can I ask theMilitant, do you own the Cooler Master Elite 130? And if so can you recommend a cooling solution/product for it?

Cheers.
 
Last edited:
Sad to see perfectly capable parts just disappear from the market, I use an MSI Z77 MITX board with an OC'd 2500k in a small case and it all works brilliantly, disappointing that if I ever wanted to build something similar it would cost me a fortune for a new board and CPU.

Same goes for the all-in-one boards with Celerons and AMDs E350, they make for awesome little HTPCs but they were released and disappeared in no time at all, I still have a Gigabyte E350 board here waiting to use in something, when I used it as my main PC the onboard graphics could even cope with mild gaming!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom