Spec me a mini ITX system

p4radox · 7 Jan 2012 at 12:56

I've been out of the game for about 3 years so I don't have a clue what represents good value these days.

My current system is an E5200 @ 3.8Ghz, 4Gb PC6400 and an ATI 4890 1Gb. This is inside a Lian Li PCA05b case which I really like, but I think it's time to go back to a smaller system. I used to own an Antec A-ria Micro ATX case which was ok, I now want to move to mini ITX.

Can someone do me the favour of speccing a system based on something like the Silverstone SG06? Budget is not crucial, but I want something "mid-range". I want to start playing games again, so a decent graphics card is essential.

Cheers

shadow_boxer · 7 Jan 2012 at 16:53

There aren't a whole lot of Z68 motherboards to chose from but the Zotac Z68ITX-A-E seems to get pretty decent reviews. It won't break any overclocking records with an i5-2500K but you should be able to get it upto around 4.5GHz with a reasonable cooler. Throw in an i5-2500k and a low profile (<78mm) CPU cooler or a closed loop watercooling unit. As for GPU. Really depends on your budget I guess and what you define as mid-range. I would consider something like a 2GB GTX560Ti or hang on for a while and wait to see how the 7800 cards are priced. Recycle your existing HDD & optical drive. Maybe consider an SSD? Remember the SG06 usually comes with a 300 or 450W PSU so that'd probably need replacing too. I'd look for something around 550-600W and modular.

jack.mitchell · 7 Jan 2012 at 17:10

I recently invested in a SG06 450w - H61 motherboard, i3 2120 - 8gb ram and plan to throw in a 2gb 560ti when they start reaching ~£100 second hand. It's cost just under £300 so far and will top out at £400 with the grapihcs card for IMO a very capable gaming system on the cheap.

Edit: this doubles up as a Linux based energy efficient HTPC so it was also built with this in mind.

gropingmantis · 7 Jan 2012 at 17:20

Are you willing to wait a bit till 7-series ITX boards come out? If so then wait. If not then as jack.mitchell said an H61/H67 with an i3 or i5, 8GB of RAM and a 560ti or 560ti 448 and you are golden.

Steer clear of Z68 IMO.

p4radox · 7 Jan 2012 at 18:49

Do you mean 7-series in terms of the chipset? What are the main differences between the different 6* chips out at the moment? Why do you say steer clear of Z68?

Sorry for all the questions, I genuinely haven't read anything about hardware for about 3 years...

gropingmantis · 7 Jan 2012 at 19:18

Yes 7 series chipset. The main difference is native USB3 but I would expect to see a decent Z75 board on ITX which should allow decent overclocking. Ivy Bridge has a lower TDP so should overclock better (That is what happened last architecture). The current Z68 boards do not allow very much overclocking and for the money I would rather go with a more stable H67 board from a company with better customer service for less money.