Small form factor gaming PC £700?

hogan1

hogan1

hogan1

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Joined
26 Oct 2010
Posts
52
Hi all.

Looking for some build advice. Would it be possible to build a mini itx small form factor gaming PC which includes an i5 4690k, a gfx card such as the r9 290 and over clocking capabilities? Is that budget too low?
 
Yeah, Really something like this (i know its mATX but its still small) would be good.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 290 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £214.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x Corsair Carbide Series Air 240 High Airflow PC Case - White (CC-9011069-WW) £69.95
1 x Gigabyte Z97M-DS3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £53.99
1 x Silverstone Tundra Series TD03 Liquid CPU Cooler £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
Total : £833.42 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Did you need an OS too?

EDIT:

I managed £740.
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x VTX3D Radeon R9 280 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Corsair Carbide Series Air 240 High Airflow PC Case - White (CC-9011069-WW) £69.95
1 x Gigabyte Z97M-DS3H Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £68.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x Crucial MX100 128GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT128MX100SSD1) £54.98
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £53.99
1 x Silverstone Tundra Series TD03 Liquid CPU Cooler £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
Total : £743.41 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
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Went a bit over :p

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Z97I Gaming AC - Devil's Canyon i5 4690K CPU & Mini ITX Motherboard Bundle **£18 Saving** £271.98
1 x VTX3D Radeon R9 280 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini ITX Compact Gaming Case - Black (CC-9011047-WW) £71.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H60 V2 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £54.95
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £53.99
1 x Crucial M500 120GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT120M500SSD1) £47.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
1 x Samsung SE-S208DB/TSBS External Slimline 8x DVD-RW (TV Connect) - Black £21.98
Total : £792.90 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
This is almost identical to one I built (I used an i3). I don't overclock mine and use the stock cooler, but I don't need to overclock as it runs like a quiet dream. Card and processor never top 62C playing WOW. This case is small but cools brilliantly.

I originally worried this would be underpowered, compared to my signature, but plays everything I can throw at it at 1920p. 450w power supply is not an issue either. Idles at 85w and never exceeds 275w in use.

The downside is expansion and future proofing are - limited.

YOUR BASKET
1 x GALAX GeForce GTX 970 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM (97NPH6DT6XTZ) £249.95
1 x Intel Core i5-4430 3.00GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £137.99
1 x Silverstone Sugo SG05 HTPC Case with 450W Power Supply - All Black ( SST-SG05BB-450 USB 3.0) £99.95
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £58.99
1 x Crucial MX100 128GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT128MX100SSD1) £54.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
Total : £721.30 (includes shipping : £11.25).

 
How about this? It's pretty much a mix of the above:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Z97I Gaming AC - Devil's Canyon i5 4690K CPU & Mini ITX Motherboard Bundle **£18 Saving** £271.98
1 x MSI Radeon R9 290 Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £214.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini ITX Compact Gaming Case - Black (CC-9011047-WW) £71.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £53.99
1 x Silverstone Tundra Series TD03 Liquid CPU Cooler £49.99
1 x Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/120G) £49.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £807.91 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
I went down the Mini ITX route.

Coolermaster 130 is a nice small case and fits long graphics card too. If you don't want noise, a GTX 970 is definitely worth considering - or maybe even a cheap GTX 780. I have the same CPU, 4690k, but I went for a cheap motherboard. A CPU is rarely a limiting factor so overclocking is something I could do later - the 4690k was the same price as a 4670 at the time hence my apparently illogical decision.
 
@hogan1

Nice spec. If it were me I'd also go for an i5/Geforce 970 as the core components and tweak the rest of the spec around that. Would probably be worth finding another £30-40 for a 250gb-ish SSD but it does mean we're starting to creep slightly over budget! A larger HDD 2-3Tb and 16Gb of RAM would also be worth the extra outlay IMO but these things could easily be added at a later date.
 
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