Struggling with M-itx motherboards!

OhPascal

OhPascal

OhPascal

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16 Oct 2011
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I have been trying to finalise a m-itx gaming build for some time now and still cant seem to settle. The person who asked me to look into it gave me an absolute tops budget of about £1000 and they need a screen (they don't need keyboard mouse etc.) Probably wont be doing any overclocking as I figured I may have to stick to the stock fan to stay in budget. Consequently I struggling to navigate the performance differences of the m-itx motherboards. Especially now the Haswell selection has entered the fray !

Any help with this build will be greatly appreciated !:D

Here are some over budget ideas I had already...
Haswell_Rig.jpg


Rig_2.jpg


Rig_3.jpg
 
Might need to go with the Z77 (Ivybridge) side to this as Haswell doesn't have a massive selection of boards available to choose from. A i5 3570k will still perform very well.
 
Case and mobo currently out of stock. Gpu comes with 8 free games.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** £249.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £179.99
1 x Samsung S24B150BL 23.6" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £129.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £103.99
1 x XFX Pro Series 650W XXX Edition Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £74.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy 'Yin' Mini-ITX Cube Case - White/Black £69.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £53.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
1 x Thermalright Macho 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £968.77 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** £249.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £179.99
1 x BenQ GL2460HM 24" Widescreen LED Slim Bezel Monitor - Black £137.99
1 x Gigabyte H77N-WIFI Intel H77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £89.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £83.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy 'Yin' Mini-ITX Cube Case - White/Black £69.95
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £54.98
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
1 x Alpenföhn Civetta CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £12.98
Total : £1,005.79 (includes shipping : £12.50).



The full shabang!

Edit: Is a H board however, so you won't be able to overclock, Shall arrange a Z board in there.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **NEW REVISION** £249.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - OEM £179.99
1 x BenQ GL2460HM 24" Widescreen LED Slim Bezel Monitor - Black £137.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £103.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £83.99
1 x BitFenix Prodigy 'Yin' Mini-ITX Cube Case - White/Black £69.95
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020059-UK) £54.98
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £49.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £43.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
1 x Alpenföhn Civetta CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £12.98
Total : £1,019.80 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Extra £19. Persuade your friend!
 
Last edited:
So if I abandon Haswell and stick to Ivybrigdge I'm still undecided between the P8Z77-I Deluxe and the Z77N. What is the performance gulf between the two ?
 
Just to throw a spanner in your works guys as rock has released a m-ITX board with a85x chipset for the new AMD chips and can be found on ****** and amazon, sorry OCuk you guys didnt even list it.

Ive not had a chance to try it yet but the specs are ok for the price of around £75 and the AMD chips are also a little cheaper than intel so the combination of saving would bring you under budget and the AMD A8 5600k comes with a low profile cooler.
 
No - the K version allows for overclocking, without the K you cannot.

There are a couple of performance benefits on the non-K version too, so if you are sure you'll never want to overclock, that's the one to go for.
 
Ok this is a slightly revised version, stuck with Reapers screen suggestion. Just kind of changed out the PSU to a Seasonic one and the card to the Sapphire as I have always been a big fan of both though if anyone has any thoughts to the contrary please tell me ! Going Haswell just seemed more sensible than investing in older tech when your just about to build someones first rig. However does anyone have any experience with how the supposed higher thermals play in a m-itx case ?

Rig_4.jpg
 
You've still used the overclocking processor?

The CPU is no problem at stock clocks, there's no heat issue until you start increasing the voltage for overclocking.
 
Yeh I chose to keep the (k) to maybe add an aftermarket cooler or see what they think about slightly upping the budget to include one and maybe clock it up a bit later down the line. But otherwise what do you think of the build ? Seemed sensible to not completely rule out overclocking
 
Sure, if you think you may do it in the future then get that one.

I think that the XFX PSUs are rebadged Seasonic ones, not sure though.

The build looks good. Make sure that graphics card includes the mega bundle. I'd include an SSD, even if it's a small one just to install Windows onto.
 
Well I went Seasonic because on the Haswell compatible psu's page it was a choice between Seasonic or Corsair and Seasonic seemed a better option
 
I just saw you've got the OEM CPU. That doesn't come with a cooler so you'd need to buy one separately or get the retail version.

Also, the MSI 7950 Twin Frozr is £10 cheaper and is very good.
 
Yeh thanks I totally forgot the OEM don't come with fans, so cheers for reminding me ! Picking up an earlier point though (without having to start a new thread), does anyone have any recommendations for Haswell CPU coolers that wont fit inside this build ? I have had a look at the Coolermaster 212 evo and NH-L12 but again like the mobo's couldn't seem to pin down a strong contender !
 
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