Mini ITX Build

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22 Oct 2012
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Hey there, I'm putting together a PC that i can carry around reasonably for moving/LANs. Can you see anything wrong or to be improved with this?

The PC will be used for uni work and gaming, biggest concern i'm aware of is over drive space/speed/life if i were to uninstall games often. I want to create at least 1 PC that doesn't give me a nasty surprise before completion :). Some guidance would be really helpful.
Oh, and I was also wondering about DVD drives, will a USB one be alright for installing Windows or will i need to get a slim drive for the case?

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 770 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £233.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 3.20GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £134.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-14900C10 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX18C10BRK2/16-OC) £119.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £114.98
1 x MSI Z97I Gaming AC Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit - OEM (FQC-08289) £109.99
1 x Silverstone Strider SFX Gold 450w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (SST-ST45SF-G) £76.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £67.99
1 x Silverstone SST-ML07B Milo Mini ITX Case - Black £54.95
1 x Silverstone SST-NT06-PRO Nitrogon CPU Cooler £44.99
1 x Silverstone SST-PP05-E Short Cable Set For SilverStone PSU Strider Series 100% Modular £16.99
3 x Silverstone SST-CP11 Ultra slim SATA 6G Cable £6.95 (£20.85)
Total : £1,116.29 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
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I'd read into this power supply, I'm aware of other builds that have similar setups and i know that overclocking is out of the question. I don't plan to overclock anything which is part of the reason for the i5 choice.
I'm partial to the ML07 and its unfortunate that a more powerful sfx psu hasn't been released yet. I've heard a 600W version has been announced but a release date isnt given.
 
Thanks guys, gonna be ordering soon so im making the last minute changes on your advice. I was aware that the clearance for the cooler was tight so thanks so much for that info, i dont want to have the side off :p.
Oh sorry bane didn't mean to forget, I'm gonna attempt to be neat on the inside of the case, sleeving doesn't bother me much on a windowless case. If it takes me in the future so be it but for now we're going lazy :).

Changed the cooler to match yours cooper. Other things I've done are replace the second SSD for a WD 1tb hard drive, added a slim dvd drive, dropped down to an 8GB memory kit, and gone for the i5 4670k with the savings :D. Your i7 has inspired me to go bigger, we'll get wiggle room when the 600W psu comes out.

New Basket (also whats your opinion on the less memory)
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Geforce GTX 770 Gaming Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £233.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-Bit - OEM (FQC-08289) £109.99
1 x MSI Z97I Gaming AC Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Silverstone Strider SFX Gold 450w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (SST-ST45SF-G) £76.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £67.99
1 x Kingston HyperX 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX18C9BRK2/8-OC) £64.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD1003FZEX) HDD £59.99
1 x Silverstone SST-ML07B Milo Mini ITX Case - Black £54.95
1 x Noctua NH-L9i CPU Cooler Low Profile - 92mm £34.99
1 x LiteOn DL-8ATSH Slim SLOT Black 8x DVD-RW SATA Optical Drive £19.99
1 x Silverstone SST-PP05-E Short Cable Set For SilverStone PSU Strider Series 100% Modular £16.99
3 x Silverstone SST-CP11 Ultra slim SATA 6G Cable £6.95 (£20.85)
1 x Akasa Slimline Optical SATA Cable, 40cm (AK-CB050-40) £2.99
1 x OcUK Value AT/ATX "Kettle Plug" 2 Meter Mains Cable £2.39
Total : £1,060.67 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
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Changed to the faster memory, and yeh that should work.
My current PC has no dvd drive either but i can use my brother's to create the usb installer when the stuff comes so we can save a bit there :D.
Unless there's anything else I think I'm about ready to order :).
 
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Build has changed in a later reply, now using a 120gb ssd boot drive and 1tb hard drive. Original intention was less space for faster load times in games but i decided against it later. Lots of stuff has changed from the original basket and for the better in most places :).
 
Ok good progress so far and I havent lost anything, so far ive fitted the SSD to the back of the graphics card mount as well as the hard drive and power supply to their own mount.
Case looks amazing and it comes with a silverstone sticker badge im going to leave off.
BVsRNZn.jpg


Interior shot
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Screwed in SSD, it looks lonely next to that empty space.
p0n01JA.jpg


And finally a picture of the PSU assembly (and apparently a bit of a cat)
ugG3Rno.jpg


More to come soon, getting to the good stuff now :)
 
More Pictures :D

Beautiful lil motherboard
EYVVxBl.jpg


And a beautiful lil heatsink
LSQ5u72.jpg


Everything together (cpu is in there :P)
UIa8UMx.jpg


And noticed something on my memory
ecirMI5.jpg


So its all together in terms of the motherboard! now we need to assemble and hope nothing is dead :) for now its all in the anti static bag while I work. Heatsink was a lil tricky but the mounting system is incredibly simple and I'm happy with how well the fan cable is hidden.
 
Update again :D case came with no fans so I added the 2 I took out of my old case.

Graphics card fitted on mount
SxZaNsW.jpg


Motherboard in and IO attached
7utEziI.jpg


All together :D
7V9O71J.jpg


Next to its little big brother
q04jqDi.jpg


AND IT LIVES
CYXeYoJ.jpg


Current issues:
A wire is hitting the cpu area case fan (thankfully not the graphics card)
I need to make the OS install usb drive
 
Ahh I sorted it with good ol' electrical tape, was the wire of the fan on the case panel. I'm just struggling to make this bootable usb at the moment, the windows usb creator tool is saying the iso i got from the disc is invalid.
 
Oh brilliant I forgot about rufus. Thankya kindly :)
edit: and im downloading the iso just in case mine doesnt work, just waiting on a format.
 
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Hello again! The lil thing is amazing! CPU temp a comfortable under 35C at idle, GPU temp even better around 30 idle :D.
I dont know what else you'd want to see but I'm seriously impressed by mini ITX and especially that tiny Noctua cooler. Thanks again guys for the help in the beginning and I cant wait for a 600W SFX PSU :).

I'm still in a flood of windows updates and other driver stuff.
Any pictures/info you'd be interested in seeing that I can get reasonably?
 
Hey just did a run of LinX on default settings because I don't really know what I'm doing with it, here are the results and the max temperature reached.
7kPbzHO.jpg.png

And thanks again Cooper, looking forward to seeing your build and how you manage the cabling :)
 
Yep that cooler is amazing, I'll definitely need to look into overclocking guides at some point. Dont want to start a fire where a PC used to be :P
I can imagine the wait is painful but hang in there :) its my favorite PC of my bunch and I'm certainly gonna stick with this case and form factor for a long time.

EDIT: the motherboard includes MSI's OC Genie, I may push the button and report back what magic it does. I assume it would stay within reasonable limits with respect to the PSU capability, what bad is gonna happen if the PSU cannot deliver enough?
 
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The Silverstone fans I stole from a TJ07 are too loud and not worthy of this build. I'm going to replace them but I haven't decided on what yet. Most likely Noctuas to match the heatsink but damn they expensive.
 
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