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

b.cummins

b.cummins

b.cummins

Associate
Joined
23 Mar 2006
Posts
906
Location
Guildford, Surrey
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 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?
Click to expand...

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 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.
Click to expand...

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?
 
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?
 
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?!
 
well, a lot of response to this thread in the time i've gone off to lunch and come back!

I think I can take away a few good points.

I was looking at silverstone cases as a preference in terms of pricepoints and the fact that most of them include PSUS which brings the cost down. Nice to see them recommended, looks like the best option to consider all my needs is the SG07.

It does still look a little tight in terms of budget trying to fit a 6870 into it, although it is a good shout.

With regards to sandybridge, I was looking at socket 1156 I believe? I think it was someone else who suggessted it. Given budget constraints SATA-III compatibility is not imperative, although it would be a nice bonus.

So far I'm quite convinced m-itx is the better option, so thanks for the input there.

now its coming up with the best hardware configuration in the £500.00 mark. The most important part of the build is the graphics card.

Is it feasible to build an M-ITX system around a sugo sg07 and an ati 6870?

If not i'd settle for a GTX 460 but how goes it for the rest of the hardware?

i'm really liking the look of the sg07 after having had a look at the reviews especially given the fact you can fit in quite a substantial cpu cooler; what kind of system could i build around this unit?
 
Tute said:
Well the biggest difference between the SG05/06 and the 07 is the size. The 07 can take graphics cards right up to and including the HD6990, whereas the 05/06 stop at about 10.25" so you need to take that into account.

Thing is, 10.25" will still get you some good cards. To my knowledge, without whacking out the dremel, there's the option of a GTX570 (EVGA and Zotac do 9" editions), GTX560 (something like the Gigabyte SOC or KFA2 LTD OC would pretty much match the GTX570) or on the ATI side, the biggest you can get in there is the HD6870. It's no slouch of a card though, get something like the Sapphire Toxic with it's hefty overclock and cooler and you're laughing.

Unless you plan on going for something that needs the extra length, I don't think the SG07 is necessary. I certainly tried switching to one about a month ago, but it's very very fiddly to work in compared to the SG05/06 and I ended up going back as fitting my H7O was a right bodge job and I didn't want to risk it in transit.
Click to expand...


out of the sg06/sg05 which did you prefer to work with?

The other thing to consider is, will a combination of an equivalent psu and an sg06/05 come to the same as or less than the sg07 combi?
 
This is all pretty good feedback, i like the sound of most of the system ideas being put forward.

Another thing I'm curious about tho, I wondered; is intel definitely the superior platform in M-ITX?
 
right so apparently he's wanting a system in the m-atx format, apparently it doesn't need to be TINY tiny and the fact that m-atx is cheaper is appealling.
So right, now I'm open to some ideas for a nice M-atx configuration..
 
Experimented a bit more with AMD builds and came up with this:

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus ATI Radeon HD 6850 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £131.99
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £104.99
Silverstone Sugo SG01B-F Evolution Aluminium Micro-ATX Case - Black £71.48
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard £69.98
OCZ StealthXStream 2 500W Power Supply £40.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £39.98
OCZ Intel Extreme XMP 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 10666C7 1333MHz Low Voltage Dual-Channel Kit (OCZ3X1333LV4GK) £33.98
Sub Total : £411.17
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £84.58
Total : £507.50


Would come within budget with free shipping :-)

I think this set up would offer a better 'bang for buck' than on intel hardware no?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom