Mini ITX Build - Programming, Linux and some gaming

Dancer

Dancer

Dancer

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17 Mar 2003
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351
Location
London
I'm doing my first Mini ITX build as I want a small machine that takes little space and is easy(ier) to transport. I've been researching, but appreciate any help from experienced dudes here.

Budget: around £500 (ideally less)
Purpose: Dual boot (separate SSDs) Windows/Linux for visual studio C++/C# development (second priority will be as mobile gaming rig).

I'm thinking something like this, but welcome any alternative suggestions or criticism of my choices/compatabilities:

 
Could you increase the budget at all? That's quite limiting for £500?

Will try a spec however.

Could change the case, but would be ideal for mobility.

YOUR BASKET
1 x **B Grade** Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £119.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
2 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow V+200 Drive SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (SVP200S37A/120G) £89.99 (£179.98)
1 x Asus P8H77-I Intel H77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 MiniITX Motherboard £83.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £69.95
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020047-UK) £49.99
1 x Patriot Intel Extreme Masters 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVI38G213C1K) £49.99
Total : £661.87 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
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Thanks for trying. :)

By all means if a few extra ££ will make all the difference suggest some quality stuff, but I'm less concerned about top performance and more interested in a cheap, quiet, quality mini ITX solution which has adequate power for visual studio, maybe some video editing and playing modern GPU intensive games at decent settings (not ultra of course, but medium to high). If that is not possible with £500 then I'll just do less gaming :)

PS! Any Linux experts who can say if 64GB SSD is enough space for one of the main distros (debian, ubuntu, mint...?) mainly for learning, probably some apps like open office writer, gimp, notepad++ and light development work?
 
Linux should fit onto a 64GB partition without an issue. Ubuntu takes up say 8GB I think when installed, so you have a lot of breathing space. A single 120GB SSD should cover you or the 250GB SSD above partitioned will work even better.
 
Some good ideas there I wouldn't have thought of.

Is the Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz really that much better than the cheaper Pentium G2120 3.10GHz? Especially as I note the nice motherboard you picked is not an overclocker (which is fine with me).

@snips86x: Why the BitFenix Prodigy? I did read reviews about it and it seems like a really nice box, but more expensive and a bit chunky (+ complaints about plasticky parts breaking) which is why I ended up with the Coolermaster.

@ThaReaperGuy: Thanks, I might go with one 128G and one 64G just to keep them separate for the modularity/swappability aspect, then again the Samsung 250GB which Incrauze suggests looks to be a good deal...
 
The prodigy is one of the better cases out there for the m-itx builds. I know the BitFenix Survivor is very plastic like and not as well built. There are other case's out there, but this has to be one of my fav's. Personal preference :)
 
snips86x said:
The prodigy is one of the better cases out there for the m-itx builds. I know the BitFenix Survivor is very plastic like and not as well built. There are other case's out there, but this has to be one of my fav's. Personal preference :)
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THe prodigy is very adaptable, thats what makes it such an awesome case. You can fit a big air cooler in, you can watercool, it can be a server, as such.. a lot of things are possible.

The price it pays for this trait is being pretty big for an ITX case, nearly as big as my mATX TJ08-E.

I like the CM120 as a small ITX case,
 
I was thinking about building something similar and I just don't think it's worth getting an itx. It probably won't be that quite in which case you'll want to put in the floor so may aswell get an ATX case.
 
neocon said:
I was thinking about building something similar and I just don't think it's worth getting an itx. It probably won't be that quite in which case you'll want to put in the floor so may aswell get an ATX case.
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Yes, keeping it as quiet as possible is a concern, but for me size is also an issue as space is limited and I need to transport it occasionally. Gaming for me is not the priority anyway as I have my midi-tower rig for that, although I want it to be as capable as possible for use by friends and to for when traveling.
 
NZXT Vulcan is a nice little case to use, has a handle for portability and is quite small. Saw it being reviewed on Youtube and might be of interest to you, don't think OcUk have it stocked however.
 
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