Tasked with building a mini-game rig, some input please!

b.cummins · 17 Mar 2011 at 13:00

Right so I've undertaken a project to build a small pc unit for the purpose of gaming. I've had many years experience building in midi towers of all sizes (for the ATX form factor) but I'm yet to build a system based on m-atx and m-itx.

The system will need to support a fully fledged Pci-e gfx card like a GTX 460,

i'm looking to build on the 1156 chipset and have about 4gb ddr3 installed - so won't need much higher than a 380w psu (tho i don't know if they do modulars at this capacity)

Anyway im thinking matx might be a better platform, looking to build using a silverstone sugo SG01

Anyone got any thoughts? I'd like to know who does the better m-atx boards, what the difference is between m-atx and m-itx in terms of performance and therefore where my best bang for buck lies in a budget of about £500.00

Cheers

pumaz · 17 Mar 2011 at 14:40

For £500 you can build a nice mini-itx gaming rig, IMO matx really isn't that small. I'm building a mini-itx gaming/htpc rig based on a sugo Sg05. What res willyou be gaming at?

b.cummins · 17 Mar 2011 at 15:41

pumaz said:
For £500 you can build a nice mini-itx gaming rig, IMO matx really isn't that small. I'm building a mini-itx gaming/htpc rig based on a sugo Sg05. What res willyou be gaming at?

i'd imagine the highest expected output would be 1680x1050, but in the everyday probably not much more than 1280x1024.

what's the difference between the form factors in terms of matx and itx? is there a significant difference in chipset limitations, or is it simply that the itx cases seem to be barebones only?

sharingan_sasuk · 17 Mar 2011 at 22:36

I shall be following this thread every now and again as I'm also looking to build a mini-ITX (or mini-ATX if need be) gaming rig and my budget is around £500-700. I've looked at a few specs ranging from a Phenom II X4/Radeon 5770 to i5 2500K/Radeon 6950 which I can flash to a 6970. Them Silverstone Sugo SG-07 cases look nice! I plan to get a 22 or 24 inch monitor so alI'll be gaming at 1680x1050 also, or 1920x1080.

b.cummins · 18 Mar 2011 at 08:20

sharingan_sasuk said:
I shall be following this thread every now and again as I'm also looking to build a mini-ITX (or mini-ATX if need be) gaming rig and my budget is around £500-700. I've looked at a few specs ranging from a Phenom II X4/Radeon 5770 to i5 2500K/Radeon 6950 which I can flash to a 6970. Them Silverstone Sugo SG-07 cases look nice! I plan to get a 22 or 24 inch monitor so alI'll be gaming at 1680x1050 also, or 1920x1080.

it'd be nice to crack out 1920x1080 performance on such a tiny unit, i don't think it would be too hard. Never actually factored in using an AMD chipset and i was actually looking to get a GTX 460 to handle the graphics, should probably hand high res gaming quite nicely!

so anyone have an opinion on whether to use the mini-itx / m-atx form factor?

gropingmantis · 18 Mar 2011 at 09:46

Go mITX!
If you don't need loads of USB ports or a dedicated soundcard or multi GPU you save so much space.
I've got an i5-2500K and 6950 on mITX and its awesome.
Although my case (lian-li q08) is a touch big will be downsizing soon to a q06 as its tiny and means I can fit any size cooler or GPU I want.

b.cummins · 18 Mar 2011 at 09:54

would you say there's a considerable difference in performance between m-itx and m-atx?

gropingmantis · 18 Mar 2011 at 10:00

Not really. Most mITX boards these days offer PCI-e x16 and the new SB boards have USB3 and SATA-III. The only thing you'll miss out on if you go SB is overclocking as only H67 chipsets are available but Gigabyte should be releasing P67 mITX soon, I know that a fair few of us on here are eagerly awaiting that.

Its basically just having loads of USB, PCI and SATA ports that you forgo.

Isn't there some sort of ridiculous OC record set by someone with the Gigabyte H55 mITX board? Will try to find a link.

b.cummins · 18 Mar 2011 at 10:14

i'm actually after a board on the 1156 chipset.

So boards from SB don't OC at all? or is it a chipset limitation?

gropingmantis · 18 Mar 2011 at 10:17

Its just a chipset limitation but an OCable chipset will go mITX soon.

The Gigabyte 1156 mITX boards can OC as well as any other 1156 board.

See here http://hwbot.org/article/news/gigabyte_announces_winners_of_the_gigabyte_h55_mini_itx_overclocking_contest_on_hwbot

b.cummins · 18 Mar 2011 at 10:49

sounds good :-)

incidentally, what kinda case/psu for mitx will be able to house a set up with a gtx 460?

i'm guessing i'll need at least 450w?

gropingmantis · 18 Mar 2011 at 10:55

SG07 comes with a 500W which should be enough.
The Lian-li q-08 is a nice case but it is very big.
I don't think any other mITX specific cases will fit a 460 or other large card but Lan Gear are working in an mITX case that looks really good.

A 500W power supply should be more than enough I would have thought. I have an 850W, I really only wanted the Seasonic X-650 but found the AX850 for cheaper and they are basically the same PSU but with different power outputs and different names.

b.cummins · 18 Mar 2011 at 11:01

I've had a peruse of the options and it seems an m-itx solution is actually more expensive than m-atx

this seems to come down to the case/psu and motherboard requirements.

I'm looking at a budget of £500.00 that has to factor 4gb ddr3 ram, 1tb hdd, GTX 460 and an intel i3. Seems easier on m-atx but this just doesn't seem right?!

gropingmantis · 18 Mar 2011 at 11:18

for ITX I came up with this:

and mATX this:

edit: I'm a retard, with the SG01 its still under £500 and that is a pretty small case.

There is a premium to pay for tiny stuff as the market is smaller (pun intended).

Tute · 18 Mar 2011 at 11:42

You can save £60 by going for an SG06 and it'll all still work. In fact, i'd recommend doing that and swapping the GTX460 out for an HD6870 using the money saved.

gropingmantis · 18 Mar 2011 at 11:46

If you go for a 6870 then I would try to get hold of the SG05-450 for ultimate tinyness and that would bring the price under £500 for an ITX build and the SG05 looks nicer....but thats my opinion. Either way he needs one of the 450 versions as im not sure the 300W PSU would be enough if you want to overclock....or would it?

Participant · 18 Mar 2011 at 11:51

b.cummins said:
I've had a peruse of the options and it seems an m-itx solution is actually more expensive than m-atx

this seems to come down to the case/psu and motherboard requirements.

I'm looking at a budget of £500.00 that has to factor 4gb ddr3 ram, 1tb hdd, GTX 460 and an intel i3. Seems easier on m-atx but this just doesn't seem right?!

It does seem right, ITX is more expensive that uATX as it's significantly smaller, so you're paying for the fact that more stuff was engineered into a small space.

Personally if I was speccing an HTPC / small gaming PC, I'd want it to be SMALL, otherwise I might as well not have bothered.

Participant · 18 Mar 2011 at 11:55

Tute said:
You can save £60 by going for an SG06 and it'll all still work. In fact, i'd recommend doing that and swapping the GTX460 out for an HD6870 using the money saved.

Eh? SG06 is more expensive. And I doubt an HD6870 would fit in the SG06?

Tute · 18 Mar 2011 at 11:57

Robbie G said:
Eh? SG06 is more expensive. And I doubt an HD6870 would fit in the SG06?

How do you work that one out? The SG07 is much more expensive on account of coming with a 600W PSU. Which is unnecessary in this instance.

And it does - it's snug, but it does.

Guardsmon · 18 Mar 2011 at 12:25

Why do you need to go SandyBridge if you are planning on putting a GTX460 in there and only an i3?

In terms of performance/cost you'd probably do better with the H55 chipset and you can OC that as well and not have to wait and pay for the Gigabyte P67 board.

But certainly mITX is a lot nicer size than mATX. I have a Cubit3 (mITX) and V354 (mATX) and the size different is a LOT (about 3x if not more)