RTS focused SFF rig

[37Chillies]

Hi

I'm keen to get back into rts games dota/ war-game/ coh2 etc and want to build a small, discrete & quiet rig to sit on my desk. Looks like mini-itx would be the way to go??

got a copy of windows 7 and an Intel SSD 320 160GB that's a few years old but unused. Have external nas + HDD's for photo storage etc so only needs enough space for OS, steam + games.

What would you recommend for around the £600-700 mark?

A long time lurker so hoping you guys can help me out!

 

[Bane]

Do you have a case style and aesthetics preference? E.g. cube/shoebox, mini tower, or HTPC style with potential for vertical standing.

Not sure how much graphical power current RTS's need, as the graphics card will be the loudest part.

 

[37Chillies]

Thanks for the quick response... I'm quite easy on the form factor to be honest. The desk is fairly large so i could arrange things to work with either a box or vertical. I'd certainly rather a classic style rather than brightly coloured etc.

As for noise, happy for it to make a noise during games more that it would be great if it was silent when idle.

That make sense?

 

[37Chillies]

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK GeForce GTX 970 "NVIDIA 970 Cooler Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £305.99
(£254.99) £305.99
(£254.99)
Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £191.99
(£159.99) £191.99
(£159.99)
Asus Z97I-Plus Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £105.95
(£88.29) £105.95
(£88.29)
Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD30EZRX) HDD £84.98
(£70.82) £84.98
(£70.82)
Silverstone Strider SFX Gold 450w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (SST-ST45SF-G) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Silverstone SST-SG08B-Lite USB 3.0 Sugo Mini-ITX - Black £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £47.99
(£39.99) £47.99
(£39.99)
Noctua NH-L9i CPU Cooler Low Profile - 92mm £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
Silverstone SATA III Cable 50cm Angled / Straight - Black £4.99
(£4.16) £4.99
(£4.16)
Submit Sub Total : £755.72
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
UPS Access Point
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £152.74
Total : £916.46

I have 160GB SSD, Windows 7, screen, keyboard and monitor (1080p).

Does this build look like it might work?? Cobbled together from looking at other threads but think it would work ok.

 

[Bane]

I'm not in to providing spec suggestions, but your example seems over kill for RTS games. However, I don't know how demanding current RTS games are.

I reckon my around £450 (that includes price to replace motherboard with ASRock H97-itx/ac) build from early 2014 would do, with a newer graphics card added on and a different case to suit your needs.

I was going to spec a similar build to mine, but prices have either gone up or are just higher than elsewhere. But I did pay a very good price for an ASRock H97-itx/ac motherboard that was cheaper than Asus H81i-plus.

I used an i5-4570S that has a lower base frequency for desktop use, and the same turbo frequency when under load as non-S suffix processor. But none are stocked here, and never models are out now anyway.

Remember Broadwell is due this year, so might be worth getting a cheap dual core processor for the short term. Depending on how demanding current RTS games are.