M-ITX Devils Canyon build

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Not done a build thread before and to be honest it's probably going to be pretty much like every other m-itx build in this case.

Let me start with saying there's nothing really wrong with my current rig but my Mrs has been moaning at me for a long time about how her laptop can't cope with games and suggesting she have mine and I build myself a new one (or in other words she's given me permission to faff with computer bits).

This will be a slow build as money is tight but I don't want to skimp too much as I want this to last a good number of years. I don't mind and expect to have to replace the graphics card a few times though.

So here's what I have so far:

UPDATED
Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini ITX Compact Gaming Case
SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply
Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X Rev2.0 WindForce 3X OC 3072MB GDDR5
Gigabyte Z97N-Gaming 5 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard
Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
Samsung SE-218CN/RSBS Ultra Slim External DVD-RW Drive - Black
Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit
Crucial MX100 512GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter

Here's what's left to buy:

UPDATED
Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £169.99 Decided not enough benefit for spending £100 more on an i7
TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £65.99 Decided didn't need 16GB
Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £59.99 FOR OS DRIVE



Some pictures (there's something wrong with my phones camera I think):

 

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Bit hard to say until I've got everything on it and played with the bios. First impressions are that it's not a bad looking board but I do wish the audio header wasn't next to the pci-e slot, not sure how i'll route that cable yet but having said that I might not plug it in as I've never used front audio on a case to date. It comes with a stand alone aerial that stumped me but having read the manual it's a dual wifi and Bluetooth one which are features I didn't realise it had.

 

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I didn't set out to go m-itx, in fact I was going to go for a corsair 450D purely based on the space inside, good air flow and good reviews but the more I looked at pictures/video reviews the more I disliked the appearance. What it came down to was that m-itx cases just look nicer so it was a case of finding one that would fit what I wanted inside. I'm very happy with the 250D, I think it looks great.

 

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External drive arrived. Chose it for the brushed aluminium top that matches the 250D case perfectly.

 

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Literally nothing to spare

 

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Not a mistake Air coming in has to be cooler than air going out so why would anyone want warmer air blowing over the rad.

 

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I know I could get away with an i5 and 8GB but I want an i7 and 16GB. I don't build a pc very often and usually it's just the graphics card that gets upgraded. If it wasn't for my mrs wanting my pc and telling me to build a new one I'd stick with what I have (i5 and 8GB) but I may as well build a new one to last a good number of years and I think an i7 and 16GB gives me the potential for a more future proof machine.

 

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I wasn't planning on swapping my desk but....

It's a gloss white Linnmon top with Adils legs and the metal draw unit is a Helmer all from Ikea.

Just need to finish my build now!

 

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Hard drive arrived and I've got windows 8.1 ready to go.

That just leaves the memory and processor to get.

 

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I love those little Corsair cases, and that picture of your desk setup looks awesome. How are those speakers by the way, a friend of mine was thinking of buying them, he's read a few reviews which have all been positive but he said he'd really like to hear from someone that actually has them. If you could let me know what you think of them I'll pass on your comments cheers

Sorry, missed your post. Speakers are excellent. I can't have them too loud because of the neighbours (they go very loud) but I think the bass and treble are spot on.

 

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Not much of an update really, build is on hold for a few months whilst we save for a new car. Had to wall mount my screen as the desk started bowing! It's now resumed its shape thankfully.

 

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Followed a few threads on the net using this case for builds and it seems as nice as the front panel is, it does restrict air flow a great deal so I think I'll be running it without. With this in mind I've swapped the fan out for something a little less dull looking and managed to squeeze a 200mm bitfenix spectre pro in. Also relocated the radiator fans to the outside but will probably swap those out as well to something that looks a bit nicer. I intend to take a dremel to the case and mod the side panels and remove the plastic fittings on the front where the front panel is held on, alternatively I may try cutting the front panel so it's still there as a surround. I'll see how things go. I've bought some brushed aluminium sheets that may get used to tidy the front up should I cut the plastic fittings off. Should be getting the ram and cpu in the new few weeks.

 

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Not seen your thread, do you have a link? I decided against an LED fan, I may add LED's to the inside of the machine at some point though. This is the fan I've used: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-034-BX&groupid=701&catid=2331&subcat=2335

It's a very snug fit, looking at it I doubt it would have fit with the radiator fans on the inside. I actually moved the radiator fans anyway, seems the flow would be better with them on the outside rather than having to pull through the case then the dust filter and then the radiator and additionally they were butted right up against the motherboard which I wasn't happy about. I will be swapping the fans though, grey fans just look ugly.

Ignore the mess, obviously I will tidy that up once the other components are in.

 

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I decided there was no point using this case if I wasn't going to keep the panels on as I chose it for looks as much as what I could fit inside so I've squeezed the radiator fans inside which actually fit ok with the 200mm fan up front. I'll just have to see how the temperatures fair.

I intend to finish this build this week but it won't be with the i7 and 16GB as originally planned. Reading reviews and looking at benchmarks I acknowledged that there really was no point having 16GB when 8GB is still more than enough for gaming and it would appear that an i5 4690k will handle games just fine for a few more years at least and why shouldn't it, my i5 760 isn't struggling yet and that's 4 years old now and running at stock 2.8.

Having looked at my game drive on the current pc it's almost pushing 500GB with only a handful of choice games installed so I've decided to have a separate SSD again for the OS and programmes and keep the MX100 512GB for games only.

So my to buy list now stands at:

Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £169.99
TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £65.99
Crucial MX100 128GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT128MX100SSD1) £52.99

 

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Noticed the write speed on the MX100 128GB is pretty low so going for a Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO instead.

 

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No idea on temps yet! This is still a build in progress, should be buying the missing bits later this week.

 

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So I was faffing about last night and span the 200mm bitfenix fan by hand and it's a good job I did. The fan blades protrude outside of the fans case and it caught the pc case as it spun. I've had to refit it with some rubber washers which is now a super tight fit what with the radiator fans right next to it.

 

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Last bits arrived yesterday. Should have been friday but somehow they ended up at the wrong DPD hub.

 

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Pics to follow later. The 2 F8s were for exhausts but due to the H100i's tubes being in the way I could only fit one. This is my first MITX build and I underestimated how fiddly it'd be. Had to take the radiator out completely to install the RAM. Screwing the pump bracket to the mounts was pretty hard as there's very little finger space. With fitting the 200mm front fan I found I'd restricted access when installing the graphics card so had to try a few angles before managing to get it in. Plugging the SSD cables in and cable management was time consuming.

 

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With such a small case there's not much to show! Picture makes the cables on show look worse than they are. The braided ones are flat on the bottom and the others are out of the way as much as possible. I managed to cram all the power cables under the drive bay section.

The Samsung 840 EVO SSD is so much faster than my old corsair F60. Windows 8.1 now boots in approx 3 seconds, it used to take longer and that's without any fast boot options turned on. If I turn my pc on and then press power on my tv/monitor windows is actually on the desktop before the screen has turned on.