M-ITX proposed spec

migle20

migle20

migle20

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Joined
18 May 2011
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2
Hi guys, I'm miles and the biggest wannabe computer nerd this side of the atlantic.

I'm going to uni this coming september and want to create a budget itx system to suit me throughout the course of my course.
My current spec is of a computer my mate threw together for me a couple years ago from spares he had in his house:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 processor 3000+, which he's overclocked, but I'm not sure how much he did.
Mobo: ECS GS7610 mATX
RAM: Crucial 2GB kit (2x1GB) DDR 400MHz/PC3200
HHD's: 2x Maxtor 6Y120L0 120gb
GPU: ZOTAC 9400GT SYNERGY EDITION 512MB DDR2 LOW PROFILE DVI VGA
Soundcard: Audigy sound blaster 5.1
aswell as a 250w PSU, mid casecom case and a liteon DVD drive running on XP service pack 2

To get a feel of it's age, there's no SATA cables, only 40-pins :cool:
It does the job perfectly, but obviously it's dated and want a relative fast new machine that's compact to save me space within my halls.
I've recently bought a 23" HD monitor (quick code 165285) and my budget is £300, this is what I've drawn this up:

basket-3.jpg


caseinit.jpg


The postage on the case bring's the total of my build to £299.01 and I can but another sitck of 2GB ram when I can afford it. I plan on using the 5.25" optical drive I already have, before you realise I'm missing one ;).

Will I need a low profile CPU cooler? I know AMD's have massive ones as standard, just wondering if I could pull it off in this case.

I'm not a mad gamer, I've racked a few hundred hours on Left 4 Dead 2, hence the average graphics card. I'm mainly a music guy, and so the faster itunes loads the better. Got any thoughts/ideas/tweaks?
Sorry for overloading you, but I'm slightly excited *nerd*

Cheers
 
First off not sure if posting those pics are allowed? Maybe seen as linking to a competitor? Go to OcUK and do it again it may work out cheaper ;)

Not sure what the inside of that case is like but chances are you may well need a low profile cooler.

You can save at least £10 on the CPU by getting the X3 450, you lose 100MHz that you either won't miss or can overclock back really easily, thats £10 you've saved that can go towards more RAM.


edit: oh and if you want iTunes to load quicker, uninstall it and download foobar/winamp/mediamonkey/songbird etc etc. Basically anything is better than that bloatware.
 
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gropingmantis said:
First off not sure if posting those pics are allowed? Maybe seen as linking to a competitor? Go to OcUK and do it again it may work out cheaper ;)

Not sure what the inside of that case is like but chances are you may well need a low profile cooler.

You can save at least £10 on the CPU by getting the X3 450, you lose 100MHz that you either won't miss or can overclock back really easily, thats £10 you've saved that can go towards more RAM.


edit: oh and if you want iTunes to load quicker, uninstall it and download foobar/winamp/mediamonkey/songbird etc etc. Basically anything is better than that bloatware.
Click to expand...

You can't tell what shop it is unless you've been there before though.
 
If you go with that case you're going to have to cut up your low profile back plate on your GFX card as this case is single slot.

You are also limiting yourself for the future should you want to game any more - L4D2 might look OK at 1920x1080 with a HD5570 but maybe you want to play BF3 in November... that's not going to look pretty. Just a warning that upgrading your graphics will be hard in that case.

Anyway main thing you're missing is an OS but I'm hoping you've already got one... Any I'd spend another £16 and get 4GB ram.

Then again, you could argue to not get the GPU now, then get a Intel Sandy Bridge solution for the same price and then upgrade to dedicated GPU if you choose later on.
 
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