Mini-ITX Build for Secondary Computer

theMilitant

theMilitant

theMilitant

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Joined
14 Aug 2014
Posts
1,070
Hi general hardware. Currently looking to build a small rig that can be used by all family members for general purposes. Hoping to spend a maximum of £500 here.

I've already decided on the Cooler Master Elite 130 case as I have experience with it and love it (so that's £42 of the budget gone). I've got an 850 watt Corsair PSU currently lying about doing nothing so that will go in there as well and I also already have an SSD for the machine. Windows/peripherals are NOT needed.

Motherboard/ CPU/ CPU cooler/ RAM/ GPU are the components I need here. Squeezing as much CPU power into the machine as possible should be the priority. I may well decide to get a 2nd hand GPU so if you ignore the GPU consider a max budget of £400 please.

Thanks :)
 
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mickyflinn said:
Maximum cpu horsepower gonna be an i7 plus 16gb ram but takes you over £400 you may also need a cpu cooler. Otherwise drop to an I5

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £439.93
Click to expand...

This, but get the £260 oem version of the i7. Could get a h110 itx board for a lot less if not planning on overclocking.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I may well just go for the i7 build, but need to find a quiet low profile CPU cooler to fit in the case. There's around 8cm of clearance between the CPU and the bottom of the PSU on the Elite 130. Any recommendations?

Pandemoni0m, I may well decide to overclock this a little in the future so would like to have that option open to me. Think I probably will get an OEM CPU though, thanks.
 
Just for general purposes? Absolutely pointless getting an i7 for that.

I'd go with these:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £318.96
(includes shipping: £0.00)
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Includes a non overclockable i5 but gives you a super quick SSD and 80 quid more for a better gpu. The performance you'd gain from overclocking isn't really worth factoring in with your budget given this cpu includes a heatsink. You could go with Skylake but some of the lower end boards are DDR3 and require different voltages, so you'd need to research that.
 
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I had a troublesome time cooling a 4790k in a elite 130 with air cooling. AIO is the way to go in the CM 130 if you intend to overclock. If not air will do on non K cpu's.
 
Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys. Went with mickyflinn's build as quoted below, minus the GTX 960 and with 8GB of RAM instead of 16. Parts arrived today, I'm hoping I'll have the time to build it tomorrow :)


mickyflinn said:
i5 with gpu

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £518.02
(includes shipping: £11.10)
Click to expand...
 
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