New build (mini ITX)

[Barron2110]

Hey guys I'm currently the owner of a Acer aspire g7200. As many of you know these are an absolute animal in terms of size. They don't fit under regular desk etc. so I'm looking to downsize to BitFenix Phenom mini ITX case so I can have it in my sitting room in the tv stand.

I'm a gamer, however the main game I play is world of Warcraft which isn't the most demanding. However I do have sky rim etc and I am looking at some new releases maybe in the future. I'd like to be able to play wow at a consistent 60 or so FPS so I don't have any screen lag etc while raiding and have my settings turned up for spells etc.

I'm wondering if u guys can help me build PC to do this for as cheap as possible. One question I do have is if the gtx card in my g7200 could be used in this case/motherboard to save me some cash and just upgrade it in the future to save a nice chunk of money. If so I'd be over the moon.

All my old build pcs have been AMD but it's been about 7 years since I've built a PC or looked at any new stuff so I'm well out on today's stuff. So is AMD still king or or Intels i5/7 better?

Like I say it must be in the bitfenix mini ITX case. And if I can fit my old gfx card in for now it's a massive plus. CPU wise which ever will get me the biggest bang of my buck. Also would like it run as silent as possible as not to annoy the misses/kids haha. Around £500 would be my target, anything less is bonus. Anything more is achievable providing misses ok it. lol.

Cheers fella's.

TL;DR.
EDIT: moved over to the idea of ATX Mobo in the dead silence case. Proposed build near the bottom.

 

[Barron2110]

What does the build need to include? OS, Peripherals, Monitor, GPU?

OS yeah. I'm on vista at the minute and really don't like the new windows but guessing I'd have to deal as vista would limit performance on new chips etc would it not? If I could use my old vista copy that would be a bonus.

I have monitor etc so just rig and possibly so if I could not use vista

 

[Barron2110]

should have really mentioned the gfx card in my current PC is the Radeon HD 4850. Will this fit into these boards? As for my current HDD I would be more than happy to use that as it has a lot of personal stuff on, pictures of the kids etc. so I can save some money there if it will for into the mini cases.

Also I have no experience with SSD. Are they the best to install windows and games on with their superior loading times?

I can just use my DVD Rw from my machine too as I'm guessing there all standard size and fit the mini cases.

 

[Barron2110]

Just to save money. My HDD will fit in the case, so to save more money and make my misses doubles happy would it be ok to go with the SSD to save the £65? Or would you recommend keeping it to improve the load time on windows? Just looking to trim stuff to the basics as I can always pick up a SSD and transfer windows on that eventually couldn't I?

 

[Barron2110]

Off the top of my head no. It only has 2 DVI inputs so it will just be 1. So it should fit nicely. Guess if google fails theres one way to find out haha.

As for one of my previous questions will running Vista decrease proformance any/if at all? Never used windows 7 but ive heard bad things about it. And as for 8...bleh!!! Feels horrible.

That is a good point regarding the dvd drive as i've never actually used mine for a long time. Everything is digital these days.

Can anyone improve on these builds or these as good of a spec i can ask for?

 

[Barron2110]

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £157.99
1 x Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT240M500SSD1) £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Aero Cool Dead Silence Gaming Black Mini Tower Windowed £72.95
1 x EVGA 600W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (100-B1-0600-KR) £49.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G1600HC9DC01) £49.99
1 x Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £16.99
Total : £567.98 (includes shipping : £11.75).




Windows 8 can be removed from the basket to bring it down below budget, and a free trial of the same can be used for 3 months. At which point you can tell your missus that you need to pay for it now.

Put in the Aerocool DS case for consideration instead of the Phenom. Pretty much the same size. It already brings a 200mm fan and all. And with a micro-ATX mobo you can even add a soundcard or whatever, if needed.

PSU will handle any single GPU on the market right now, for any future graphics upgrade, and is quiet.

240GB SSD to get started. You could add a HDD later on if you need more storage room.

I like the look of your setup. Would it be possible to use a smaller SSD just for windows. As I can re use my HDD from my old system for my games etc.

I will more than likely re use my DVD RW if at all considering most stuff is digital download these days.

Also was thinking of using my old Power supply as I'm sure it is around 500W, but would u recommend keeping the one u suggested?

EDIT: google returns results search of continuous power supply of 750W? Which I guess is more than enough. But will it fit in this case? Also I'm guessing my current PSU is part of all the noise my system makes.

Sorry for all the questions just want to get this right first time and it's been awhile since I've done it all lol

 

[Barron2110]

Yes. If you don't intend to use the SSD for games, then get a smaller 120/128 GB. Samsung, Kingston HyperX and Toshiba are good choices, in that order (more or less).




That case will fit PSU's up to 16cm Length and up to 17cm Depth (up to 19cm including protruding cables).

The 120GB SSD should fit windows and wow on no problem at all. Everything else I'm more than happy to put onto my HDD.

I'll have to break open this case and measure the PSU, should fit I think. Will be a nice addition if so seeing as its 750W it'll handle a better GPU when I get the extra ££ to upgrade. Definately like the look of the aero cool case compared to the original prodigy one I seen.


P.S the Haswell Intel chips whats the difference between them and a standard i5? i guess more clockable or something? Also If this PC is no longer in use can I install Vista onto the new system and use my old CD key? I'd rather stay away from 7 and 8.1 as i've heard bad things as long as it wont affect performance.

 

[Barron2110]

4850 to run wow at 60 fps best of luck , i have a prodigy build on same budget at the mo forget i5 and go i3 4130 and 750 ti from ocuk 99 quid thats atleast 20 quid cheaper than anywhere else

Guessing the card couldn't handle it? I'd be open to getting a better gfx card if people can recommend a decent one that doesnt cost an arm and a leg ^^

 

[Barron2110]

After a few nights looking at it I think I'm leaning more towards the aero cool dead silence case. I like the layout a lot more. Although that uses a mini atx board iirc. Also the board mounts on a nice level so there is no heavy gfx card weight adding pressure to the board. Is there much difference between them? I noticed OC have a sale on at the minute for a mini atx board intel i5 and ram for around £250 which sounded like a bargin.

Its looking more likely 500 is my budget, maybe 600. Depends on how much she spends on the settee haha.

Another noob question. If I'm running the i5 just at normal clocking speed will it come with its own heatsink or will i need to get one seperate to cool it? Or will the cooling inside of aero cool be enough with the 200mm front fan and 120mm rear fan. Also is it worth installing the 2 120/140mm fans at the top for added cooling? Assuming i use silent fans as I dont want a really noisy machine

 

[Barron2110]

Also hono ive just looked at my HDD and its a Serial ATA (SATA?) So it should just transfer straight across. Which means i have windows at the ready for now and at a later time i can just add a SSD and windows 8? Might just be easier to do it all in one go tbh...to many decisions lol

 

[Barron2110]

Yip it's Sata. You can use it but a fresh install of the OS would be wise, Vista is naff so I would just use the windows 8.1 trial.

The retail CPUs come with a stock heatsink and 3 year warranty. The OEM can be cheaper but they do lack the heatsink and only have a 1 year warranty, the idea is that the saving can help pay for a decent heatsink.

Mini-Itx mobos can have the CPU socket located close to the PCI-E slot so picking aftermarket heatsinks can be tricky as some would over hang blocking the slot you want to use for the GPU.

Case is a personal preference but I would lean to using an mATX mobo, that Aerocool DS can use mATX btw. The mATX mobos have more DIMM slots for RAM aswell as extra PCI slots too, so you have more room for expansion. Mini-itx builds tend to work out more expensive fella to be fair.

Looks increasing likely that I'll lean towards the ATX rather than the mini ITX also looks like windows 8 too. I'll just have to bear through it lol.

I see thanks just wondering if using after market fans will be quieter than the standard ones. I've seen a few things kicking around the internet about using rubber fans as they as a lot more silent? Any truth in this as I'd of thought plastic ones spinning at higher RPM should be quite silent too

 

[Barron2110]

This looks like the build I was going to go ahead with. What's your guys thoughts?

CPU/Mobo/RAM bundle
GFX
SSD
Power supply
Case

It's on the cheap side and in budget with windows added on. Seems like a decent system to run my games at decent FPS. Which version of windows will this run? I'm guess 64BIT.

Sorry for the links, but I'm using my iPad at the moment.

 

[Barron2110]

The CX range of PSU are poor.

MSI cards with the TwinFrozr seem to have a habit of losing oil from the fan bearings.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 270 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £142.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Silverstone Strider Plus 500W Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (SST-ST50F-P) £59.99
Total : £272.57 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Thanks for the info. I've swooped them over to the gfx card and the 550W PSU you suggested. And it's actually slightly cheaper too. Double bonus.

If there any bench mark sites or anything I could get some figures for this setup. I think it will preform quite well for a cheap build?

 

[Barron2110]

IIRC, 32bit windows will only use ~3.5gb of ram, so you'll need 64bit to get the best of the 8gb included with that kit.

That bundle includes a non-K variant of the i5, which I believe means you won't be able to overclock (this probably won't be an issue, just worth noting).

Tbh, I ran WoW on a 4850 at 1680x1050 with decent graphics settings for two years before I got round to upgrading, so if you think you can put up with it not being on ultra for a few weeks it might be worth using your old card and putting the money towards a better CPU? WoW in general is more CPU intensive than many single player games, and in many cases will be held back by the CPU long before it maxes out the graphics card.

I'd be open to a suggestion on a better CPU as it looks likely I'll be buying the stuff in stages. The reason I picked the bundle as I thought it was a good price for what u get? Unless u can suggest better indivually

 

[Barron2110]

Just looking at some different things online and a few reviews.

Is it worth dropping the gigabyte card I have in my basket for the Sapphire Radeon R7 265 As I'll be using my PC in my sitting room on my 37" LED Smart TV via HDMI. Also saves me about £40. Says it's highly Overclockable, although I have no experience over clocking gfx or CPUs

 

[Barron2110]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/R7_265_Dual-X/24.html

Judging by that a 270X is 21% faster, a 270 non X is just a slightly downclocked version of a 270X.

Really handy. Looking at possibly buying Titan fall as well so better gfx probably will come in more handy for latest titles.

Also with the standard cooling inside the dead silence case will there be any need to buy a bigger CPU cooler or will the standard one it come with plus the 2 be enough cooling ?

 

[Barron2110]

The stock cooler supplied with the bundle will tide you over, it wont be hard to swap out for a bigger one either, most cases have a hole in the tray to give access to the back of the board.

Awesome wasn't sure that's all suppose you can never have to much cooling lol

 

[Barron2110]

Can I have your thoughts on the below specs guys. Not sure if I can do a AMD ITX alternative, or if it would be better. But budget has dropped so looking at the AMD budget plan instead and im torn between Kaveri CPU with GFX and no card till I can afford it or the Piledriver 3.9Ghz and MSI R9 270 GFX. Thoughts? Want to order sometime this week but need some feedback on it first

Option 1:
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Kaveri 7850K 12 Compute Core APU w/ Radeon R7 Graphics (4 CPU + 8 GPU Compute Cores) - Retail £131.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Aero Cool Dead Silence Gaming White Mini Tower Windowed £72.95
1 x Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SH103S3/120G) £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £53.99
1 x Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 AMD 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard £49.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H60 V2 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £49.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX24C11T3K2/8X) £45.95
Total : £561.25 (includes shipping : £17.85).



Option 2:
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 270 Gaming Edition OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £127.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6350 Black Edition 3.90GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £95.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Aero Cool Dead Silence Gaming White Mini Tower Windowed £72.95
1 x Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (SH103S3/120G) £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £53.99
1 x Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 AMD 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard £49.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H60 V2 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £49.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX24C11T3K2/8X) £45.95
Total : £653.24 (includes shipping : £17.85).



Any improvements or concerns?