Rome 2 build - my first ever build (mini ITX) need advise

blinky88 · 13 Jun 2013 at 23:29

Hi all, first post here.

As a consequence of my ridiculous excitement for Rome 2 Total War, I've decided to dedicate an entire PC to it!

I've chosen an ITX build because I am a very big fan of the small size.

My aim is to be able to run Rome 2 Total War at close to maximum settings comfortably (I'll settle for 'high' instead of 'ultra'!).

My budget isn't infinite, it's around the £800 mark, so I may have compromised on a few components, but here is my build:

Bitfenix Prodigy
ASUS P8Z77-I motherboard
MSI GTX 660 Ti Twin Frozr edition
Intel i5 3570K
Xigmatek Dark Knight CPU cooler
Corsair Vengeance Low Profile (1x8GB)
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
Corsair TX650 PSU

My main questions are:

Are all the components compatible?

What's the consensus on the Xigmatek Dark Knight? Is the Corsair H100i worth 2x the price?

Will the Corsair TX650 fit into the Bitfenix Prodigy? Is the CX600 a better option due to short length? (140mm as oppose to TX650's 160mm). However, I have seen multiple complaints about the CX600's fan noise, and also I thought it might be a good idea to go 650W in case I decide on upgrading my GPU in the future. I really don't know if my thoughts are correct, that's why I'm here!

Thank you all.

stulid · 13 Jun 2013 at 23:30

Hi and welcome.

Looks good, but,

Corsair Vengeance Low Profile (1x8GB)

You want a dual channel kit for that board, so 2x4GB = 8GB

JCX50 · 13 Jun 2013 at 23:39

Welcome!
I personally think there are some changes to be made:

RAM, like stulid said: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-033-TG&groupid=701&catid=8

PSU, I have heard problems with non-modular PSU's not having much room, try this one: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-148-TT&groupid=701&catid=123

Depend on how far you want to OC your CPU, as long as you don't go mad with it, the Dark Knight is a very good cooler for the money and looks amazing. My friend runs an i5 3330 at stock and it gets up to 45* under 100% load.

blinky88 · 13 Jun 2013 at 23:39

stulid said:
Hi and welcome.

Looks good, but,

You want a dual channel kit for that board, so 2x4GB = 8GB

Hi there, thank you for your comment. The reason I chose 1x8GB is because when I eventually have the money, I'd like to upgrade to 2x8GB (overkill probably, but hey).

Or does the motherboard actually require a dual channel kit?

Thanks again

stulid · 13 Jun 2013 at 23:42

blinky88 said:
Hi there, thank you for your comment. The reason I chose 1x8GB is because when I eventually have the money, I'd like to upgrade to 2x8GB (overkill probably, but hey).

Or does the motherboard actually require a dual channel kit?

Thanks again

It doesn't "require" it, but if you are like you say going to get another then ok.

blinky88 · 13 Jun 2013 at 23:50

JCX50 said:
Welcome!
I personally think there are some changes to be made:

RAM, like stulid said: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-033-TG&groupid=701&catid=8

PSU, I have heard problems with non-modular PSU's not having much room, try this one: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-148-TT&groupid=701&catid=123

Depend on how far you want to OC your CPU, as long as you don't go mad with it, the Dark Knight is a very good cooler for the money and looks amazing. My friend runs an i5 3330 at stock and it gets up to 45* under 100% load.

Thank you. That is what I feared with the PSU. That Thermaltake looks good and seems to have good reviews, cheers for the suggestion! I've never looked much past Corsair but this one seems legit!

honosuseri · 14 Jun 2013 at 00:09

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795QC3G2M) £249.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £167.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £103.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy 'Yin' Mini-ITX Cube Case - White/Black £69.95
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (S (HD-255-SE) £62.40
1 x Thermaltake Smart Series 530w Modular '80Plus Bronze' Power Supply £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £49.99
1 x Xigmatek Dark Knight SD-1283 Night Hawk Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £34.99
Total : £801.85 (includes shipping : £10.50).

500W or there abouts is ample for a single GPU setup, modular is advised for any rig to be fair. Mobo is voltage locked but you should easily break 4Ghz, the 7950 GPU will overclock well and it does dump the heat out of the case. HDD is B grade but gets you greater capacity. Can't see why you'd need 16GB for a gaming rig TBH, rather than buying more RAM an SSD would be the next logical upgrade

Kill_Phil · 14 Jun 2013 at 04:17

+1 - 8GB ram is more than sufficient, and as you will see from my sig, can fit in the corsair CX 500w just needs a bit of shove, just make sure you check demensions before buying if going for a different one