Mini-ITX Upgrade

[JRJ]

Looking at upgrading my current mini-ITX build which is housed in a Silverstone SG13 which I want to keep, although it's sufficient for day to day office tasks it's really showing its age with photo and video editing, it also doesn't meet the requirement for Windows 11 upgrade, current spec is below, where can I go with it, haven't touched it in about 6 or 7 years.

Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i5 4690K @ 3.50GHz
Haswell 22nm Technology
RAM
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 799MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard
MSI Z87I GAMING AC (MS-7887) (SOCKET 0)
Graphics
SyncMaster (1680x1050@60Hz)
2048MB ATI AMD Radeon HD 6670 (MSI)
Storage
111GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 120GB (SATA (SSD))
111GB OCZ-AGILITY3 (SATA (SSD))

 

[JRJ]

@Tetras @covenantuk thanks for the replies both, initial bottleneck is the Windows 11 upgrade, I've not run Photoshop or Lightroom in about 4 years while life got busy but during bulk editing then it started showing its age so I'm anticipating the latest versions being worse.
Budget wise I don't really want to go over £1k, I don't need top of the range just something pretty decent that'll last a few years.
New monitor is on the shopping list and is a seperate budget to this
PSU is a Silverstone 300w or 350w off the top of my head, likelihood is this will need to be factored in as well.

 

[JRJ]

Thanks both, I'll take a look through those over the weekend, @Tetras I'll take onboard the 13500 comment also.
I think I'll download the latest Adobe software this weekend and see if I can test my current setup a bit better, I know scratch drives are no longer needed for Lightroom Libraries so other stuff has more than likely changed.

 

[JRJ]

Revisiting this again as I never got around to upgrading, 7 months went quick

I've been playing around with setups on ************ and only seeing a few £100 difference between high end and mid spec systems but not sure if it's complete overkill or just future proofing, I'm likely to be using this for the next 6-8years so don't mind spending now if required.

I'd still like to keep the SG13 as I can't really find anything similar but I know it'll be tight.

So top end I've come up with

Intel Core i7-14700K 3.4 GHz 20-Core Processor

Asus ROG STRIX Z790-I GAMING WIFI Mini ITX LGA1700 Motherboard

Crucial Pro 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-5600 CL46 Memory

Western Digital Black SN850X 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive

Gigabyte EAGLE GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB Video Card

I'm hoping the Noctua NH-L12S will be enough, this is my starting point/upper end? Anyone have any observations?

 

[JRJ]

You could drop to the b760 versions of that motherboard and save yourself a £100+ but you get less ports so do a comparison.,

64gb memory makes sense and take a look at Zotac models of the GPU as they offer a 5 year warranty if registered within 30 days otherwise it's 3 years.

There are contradictions on max GPU length on the out case on the sugo site it says 270mn/10.6" but the gigabyte eagle 4060ti is 272mm so be aware.

GeForce RTX™ 4060 Ti EAGLE 8G Specification | Graphics Card - GIGABYTE U.S.A.

window.isNuxtPage = true;GeForce RTX™ 4060 Ti EAGLE 8G Specification | Graphics Card - GIGABYTE U.S.A. (function (w, d, s, l, i) { w[l] = w[l] || []; w[l].push({ ...

www.gigabyte.com

The Zotac I reccomended is only 225mm in length.

Zotac GeForce RTX 4060Ti Twin Edge 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Order Zotac GeForce RTX 4060Ti Twin Edge 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

The NH-L12S will make the 14700k throttle if fully loaded but an undevolt or power limit restriction mite help.

Thanks @mickyflinn the b760 is the other MB sat in my basket, with the Noctua cooler and case there's no hope of overclocking currently, but with a case and cooler swap later down the line it's doable, head versus heart battle.
Thanks for the GPU suggestion would be a much easier fit, the 272mm is possible with a very slight mod but shorter would be easier.
I do have the ability to mount a 120mm AIO in the front of the case but reviews for that size say they don't offer any benefit over air cooled.

 

[JRJ]

You don't want to be overclocking you should ideally be looking to undervolt as the intel chips are at there Thermal limit.

What size/form factor PSU do you have ?

Currently a 300w SFX PSU which will need upgrading as well and will stay SFX size.

 

[JRJ]

Do you even need the graphics card? Intel's IGP is pretty capable.


For multithreaded load with a modern i7? Not likely, but you could power limit it as mickyflinn suggests.

See here:

Intel Core i9-14900K Raptor Lake Tested at Power Limits Down to 35 W

There's no denying that Intel's Core i9-14900K is a power hog. This article examines the power, performance and thermals effects of limiting its power consumption, with very interesting results. Additionally, we investigate undervolting to determine if efficiency can be optimized even further.

www.techpowerup.com

Thanks @Tetras I'll take a read.

Graphics card, heavy lightroom/photoshop and some video editing, assumed I would need something decent?

I think I need to stop being stubborn and explore new itx case options.

 

[JRJ]

So I've been bouncing between NR200 max and A4 H20 reviews overnight and I think I'm going to go with the A4 H2O, overall capacity is the same as the SG13 but gives me room for a 240mm AIO.

 

[JRJ]

It depends. For 2D, if you're using features that are GPU heavy (e.g. photoshop has an AI denoise), or an app that funnels a lot of work to the GPU, then yes, but the IGP is more than powerful enough to handle a 3D viewport and QuickSync is stupidly powerful for the small cost in getting the IGP over a F/KF.

If you have managed to survive with the HD 6670, then it suggests you weren't using many/any GPU accelerated features.

For video editing: you might want to watch this:

Is UHD770 iGPU enough for video editing? | Intel 12900k iGPU Performance in Premiere Pro

Checking out the video editing performance of Intel i9 12900k but without a dedicated GPU. Is the UHD770 iGPU enough for video editing?Sponsor Message: Spi...

www.youtube.com

I wouldn't really say surviving, I've barely used Adobe products over the last 4 years whilst building a house and didn't really notice it much using the Capture one express from Sony, but using the trial version of LR and PS with the new AI features really showed its age with simple AI removal taking about 10mins for some images.

 

[JRJ]

So just to update this, I went on a spending spree last night and ordered the following -

Coolermaster NR200P Max which includes a Coolermaster 850w SFX PSU and 280mm AIO
Intel i7 14700k
Asus Rog B760-i motherboard
64GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5-5600
WD Black SN850X 2TB M2 SSD

Just working out which 140mm fans to replace the stock fans with plus I'll add 2 120mm to the bottom of the case.

Left to buy - a new GFX card this ones been the tougher choice to decide on so will run internal GFX until I can decide, also need a new monitor.

Case is a little bigger than I originally planned (A4 H2O) but factoring in the limitations of AIO on that case the added space and extra fans should keep the toaster a little cooler.

 

[JRJ]

Hmm, yeah, I don't know how the IGP will do with those, but will be very interested to hear your experiences while you're using it.

If everything arrives before I decide on a card I shall let you know, I've read more in the last few days on GFX cards than any part of the build

 

[JRJ]

you can watch instead....he's pretty much covered most cards over the last couple years, so if you search his back catalogue you'll prob come across a less powerful card if you go that way

Thanks @Craig_d1 I'll take a look, swinging towards the XFX SPEEDSTER QICK 319 AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT 12 Go GDDR6 looks like a nice compromise of cost v VRAM and decent enough for super casual gaming, it's just at the upper end of card sizes for the case.

 

[JRJ]

For gaming, this is a good card (at the right price), but RDNA 2 is often a step down on RDNA 3 with productivity workloads (e.g. it has no AI cores, which RDNA 3 does), so you might want to check that out. E.g. The 7600 XT 16GB is slower purely for gaming, but it might be faster for you.

@Tetras thanks for the info, after bouncing between reviews and YT today I've settled on and ordered the ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon™ RX 7700 XT OC Edition 12G, with some cashback from ASUS it should come out just under £350 which I think is pretty decent.