Small Build Spec Help

chrismscotland · 13 Aug 2015 at 23:52

I'm looking to spend around £1000 on building a small form factor gaming PC to replace a 2-3 year old Lenovo Y580 laptop but I'm a bit lost with specs, GPU/CPU these days and I wondered what people would recommend?

McGraw · 14 Aug 2015 at 00:00

chrismscotland said:
I'm looking to spend around £1000 on building a small form factor gaming PC to replace a 2-3 year old Lenovo Y580 laptop but I'm a bit lost with specs, GPU/CPU these days and I wondered what people would recommend?

Mine was about £900 (everything below only) a year ago and I really wanted the case as it was to go under my front room tv.

A lot depends on your case requirements. There's nothing nvidia better than the 970 as far as I know that fits in my case.

Maybe a 6600k, 970 and 16gb if going itx.

Danny75 · 15 Aug 2015 at 14:10

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18686769

chrismscotland · 9 Oct 2015 at 20:17

After some thought I'm relooking at a decent Small Form Factor build after deciding that I'd rather buy a tablet (SP4) and have a fairly powerful desktop than spend a fortune on a gaming laptop that won't move.

I'm planning to use this attached to my existing Dell 24" 1080p screen so 4k isn't critical, I'd probably like to go down the Sky lake route as I might as well if I'm going to build something but not too concerned about a top top end GPU as this is going to replace an ageing 660M powered laptop.

Can anyone suggest a combination of bits?

McGraw · 9 Oct 2015 at 22:16

Which apps/games?

chrismscotland · 9 Oct 2015 at 22:47

Game wise the most graphical thing I play is probably Battlefield 4 at the moment, for other things though its heavy photo processing and probably video this year too.

McGraw · 9 Oct 2015 at 23:55

I'd go 6700k and look at 16gb minimumram if you'll be doing video. My board maxes at 16gb, I'm not sure about z170. There is an x99 itx board but it came out after I went for my build and the reviews I later read made me glad I didn't have the choice.

GPU I would say Nvidia for ITX every time. The 970 for 1080p is plenty.

Get a couple of SSDs and use one for adobe scratch. I hate it when I run out of scratch space on my c drive.

chrismscotland · 11 Oct 2015 at 16:48

I've been having a look at possible configurations today but I'm finding myself a bit lost with Motherboards, if I'm looking at a i7-6700K Skylake Chip and I like the look of the BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case what motherboard(s) should I be looking at?

Danny75 · 14 Oct 2015 at 11:24

chrismscotland said:
I've been having a look at possible configurations today but I'm finding myself a bit lost with Motherboards, if I'm looking at a i7-6700K Skylake Chip and I like the look of the BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case what motherboard(s) should I be looking at?

Z170 ITX.

The Prodigy micro-ATX case is the same size as their mini-ITX. There are more Z170 micro-ATX motherboard options at present.

chrismscotland · 14 Oct 2015 at 19:57

Is this a decent/sensible mix of bits?

Capture by Chris Mitchell, on Flickr

McGraw · 14 Oct 2015 at 21:47

I can't see it on my work blackberry.

Any chance of a list

chrismscotland · 14 Oct 2015 at 21:55

Gigabyte Geforce GTX980 4096MB
Intel Core i7-6700K
Samsung 500GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E500B/EU)
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Red (CMK16GX4M2B3000C15R)
Gigabyte GA-Z170N-WIFI Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Mini ITX Motherboard
Logitech G602 Wireless Gaming Mouse (910-003823)
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM (WD1003FZEX)
BitFenix Prodigy M MATX Cube Case - Midnight Black
Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK)
Phanteks PH F140SP 140mm Fan Orange LED - Black / White
BitFenix Alchemy Molex to 3pin x3 Fan adaptor 12V 20cm - Orange
Cooler Master Nepton 240M 240mm Radiator/2x120mm Silencio Fans CPU Liquid Cooler

McGraw · 14 Oct 2015 at 22:08

Looks good to me but the 980 is in a funny place at the moment.

The 980ti is a lot better and the 970 isn't much worse.

Depends on cost I guess.

chrismscotland · 14 Oct 2015 at 22:20

McGraw said:
Looks good to me but the 980 is in a funny place at the moment.

The 980ti is a lot better and the 970 isn't much worse.

Depends on cost I guess.

I might take a 970 for now, I'm going no higher than 1080P just now and I assume anything that really needs the power (say GTA V) would be fine with the 970 at that res.

McGraw · 14 Oct 2015 at 22:52

Yeah just knock a few settings down in GTA.

Danny75 · 15 Oct 2015 at 11:26

Can get yourself a big 230mm Spectre Pro fan for the front. But hang on, your pic shows a mini-ITX, and your list shows micro-ATX Prodigy. Guessing you're going for the mini-ITX because of the mobo you've chosen.

Would change the PSU to an EVGA 550W GS. Better quality for the hardware you're getting, and longer warranty.