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- Joined
- 10 Dec 2012
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New mITX Gaming Rig
Hi Overclockers
So I’ve decided to give myself a new gaming system for Christmas. I’ve been running a Core2Duo E8500 for 6 years or so now (Yay Wolfdale!).
I want to try a mITX setup and I’d love to hear your thoughts and hopefully learn from your insight.
My proposed setup looks as follows:
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Z97I Gaming AC - Devil's Canyon i5 4690K CPU & Mini ITX Motherboard Bundle **£18 Saving** £265.98
1 x G.Skill TridentX Fan 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C9 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-2400C9D-8GTXD) £89.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini ITX Compact Gaming Case - Black (CC-9011047-WW) £71.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020060-UK) £59.99
Total : £501.44 (includes shipping : £11.25).
Ontop of this I’d like a H100i CPU watercooler. I’d go for the H105 as I’ve read it doesn’t come with some of the shortcommings/errors of the H100i, but it won’t fit in the 250D.
Currently I sport an Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom, but I doubt it’ll fit (it’s gigantic) and I haven’t been able to find any information on that. Seeing as I want to OC my CPU, I figured watercooling wouldn’t be such a bad idea in a mITX setup and I’ve read of people being able to push their 4690K to 4.4GHz as well as 4.6GZ while staying at around 60 degree celcius at full load.
Apart from this, I plan to reuse my GPU, which is a:
Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X (3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express)
which I’ve already checked in terms of size and through various sites, will fit.
And my SSD which is a:
Crucial M4 128GB SSD (CT128M4SSD2)
Furthermore, despite adding a CX600, I do have a CX750 in my current rig, but it isn’t modular - and I figured that is required when running mITX due to the decreased space and increased need for sufficient airflow.
My questions are:
Is it worth it to go with another case simply to get H105 over H100i? Heard of a few (if not many issues with H100i). mITX isn’t strictly necessary, I just liked the idea of a case only housing what is needed. My current case is an Antec 1200, which is insanely huge and I don’t use any of it’s features. But I’d rather go with an mATX or mid tower if someone has bad experiences with air flow in mITX or the likes.
Secondly, the PSU. Any thoughts on this? Is it worth the extra 60 quid to go with a modular - or could it be manageable with a non-modular CX750?
Lastly, parts-wise, are the motherboard, CPU, RAM etc. a good fit? I reckon it’s pretty solid value-for-money with decent OC capabilities. It’ll solely be used for gaming BF4 and the likes. Might even purchase CoD:AW if it runs as well as I hope.
Thanks in advance.
Kind regards,
Oliver
Hi Overclockers
So I’ve decided to give myself a new gaming system for Christmas. I’ve been running a Core2Duo E8500 for 6 years or so now (Yay Wolfdale!).
I want to try a mITX setup and I’d love to hear your thoughts and hopefully learn from your insight.
My proposed setup looks as follows:
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Z97I Gaming AC - Devil's Canyon i5 4690K CPU & Mini ITX Motherboard Bundle **£18 Saving** £265.98
1 x G.Skill TridentX Fan 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C9 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-2400C9D-8GTXD) £89.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini ITX Compact Gaming Case - Black (CC-9011047-WW) £71.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020060-UK) £59.99
Total : £501.44 (includes shipping : £11.25).
Ontop of this I’d like a H100i CPU watercooler. I’d go for the H105 as I’ve read it doesn’t come with some of the shortcommings/errors of the H100i, but it won’t fit in the 250D.
Currently I sport an Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom, but I doubt it’ll fit (it’s gigantic) and I haven’t been able to find any information on that. Seeing as I want to OC my CPU, I figured watercooling wouldn’t be such a bad idea in a mITX setup and I’ve read of people being able to push their 4690K to 4.4GHz as well as 4.6GZ while staying at around 60 degree celcius at full load.
Apart from this, I plan to reuse my GPU, which is a:
Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X (3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express)
which I’ve already checked in terms of size and through various sites, will fit.
And my SSD which is a:
Crucial M4 128GB SSD (CT128M4SSD2)
Furthermore, despite adding a CX600, I do have a CX750 in my current rig, but it isn’t modular - and I figured that is required when running mITX due to the decreased space and increased need for sufficient airflow.
My questions are:
Is it worth it to go with another case simply to get H105 over H100i? Heard of a few (if not many issues with H100i). mITX isn’t strictly necessary, I just liked the idea of a case only housing what is needed. My current case is an Antec 1200, which is insanely huge and I don’t use any of it’s features. But I’d rather go with an mATX or mid tower if someone has bad experiences with air flow in mITX or the likes.
Secondly, the PSU. Any thoughts on this? Is it worth the extra 60 quid to go with a modular - or could it be manageable with a non-modular CX750?
Lastly, parts-wise, are the motherboard, CPU, RAM etc. a good fit? I reckon it’s pretty solid value-for-money with decent OC capabilities. It’ll solely be used for gaming BF4 and the likes. Might even purchase CoD:AW if it runs as well as I hope.
Thanks in advance.
Kind regards,
Oliver
Last edited:
