Thinking of an SFF build with recycled parts

MTWest · 1 Aug 2009 at 23:00

Hi guys,

I'm thinking of gutting my old gaming PC and sticking its insides into a SFF case, but I'm not too sure about the build. Never ventured into the microATX domain before but I do want something that can play games well.

The old parts I'll grab from my old rig will be the Q6600, some RAM, HX620W PSU, 8800GTX, sound card, hard drive and an optical drive.

For the case I'm thinking of the Silverstone SG01-F seeing as this can now house graphics cards up to 12" so my 8800GTX shouldn't be a problem.

Next I'm thinking of a Zalman CNPS7500-CU CPU Cooler because of its low profile.

And that leaves the motherboard... if I only look through OCUK's offerings I thought maybe the MSI M3-F Intel G31, but I'm not sure if that's the way to go?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

RobH · 1 Aug 2009 at 23:29

I just moved a similar spec system into that case, check out my thread:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18033177

I went for the Asus P5N7A-VM motherboard as it was one of the only boards I could find that allowed 4 sticks of double-sided RAM. My memory was also on the QVL list as being supported in a 4 stick configuration.

Guardsmon · 2 Aug 2009 at 00:13

Wow MTWest, you're old rig is pretty much mine. I'm currently in the process of moving from my PC7 to matx setup. Haven't got the case yet - planning custom build, but got the mobo. P45-T2RS, mmmmmm. I've got a P5E-VM HDMI spare if you need one (pm me). I wouldn't get a CNPS-7500-CU, it pulls the air against the flow of the case.
Go for a zipang or shuriken.

MTWest · 2 Aug 2009 at 14:12

I quite like the look of that Asus P5N7A, seems like a good set of I/O and decent reviews for it too. As for the CPU cooler no Zalman then, but that Zipang looks quite big, do you reckon it would fit? The Shuriken looks like more of a safe choice seeing as it's smaller but it obviously don't move as much air as the Zipang...

RobH · 2 Aug 2009 at 19:09

Ever since I put my computer into a SFF I've been having a random reboot problem, just solved it today. The problem is the CPU heatsink that I bought. The iGPU on the Asus p5N7A-VM is built into the northbridge which is only passively cooled, the problem was that it was getting to 96 degrees whilst idle! It would reboot shortly after hitting 96 degrees, the actual chipset is rated for a maximum of 105 degrees but it shouldn't be anywhere near that at idle. The thing was that running something like Prime95's torture test would actually stop it from rebooting, leading me to think that heat wasn't the problem. Turns out that the stress on the CPU was causing the CPU fan to spin up higher, cooling the chipset. An important note in the motherboard manual was also discovered.

My SilverStone low profile heatsink is too slim, it doesn't kick out much air from the bottom to cool the chipset when running on low speed, it's the same height as the chipset's heatsink. It also turns out I could have kept the stock cooler as there is plenty of room to fit it in.

I would advise going with something that can cool the rest of the components on the board, especially in a SFF case. With the low profile cooler on 100% speed the chipset idles at 75 degrees and I would suspect even lower with a different CPU cooler.