Would this badboy be adequate?

Logsi

Logsi

Logsi

Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2005
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I've not made a PC for years so forgive my ignorance to all this lovely new hardware. My last PC before switching to a Mac was a heavily clocked Pentium D at 4.2Ghz, some Asus mobo which name escapes me with a X1900XT-X. I think it's 3dmark06 score was like 6-7k. Which was pretty top end back then.

Now, I want to make a little rig tucked away that is tiny but powerful enough to play WoW, Starcraft 2 and some other old or upcoming games. When i say i want a small rig i do really mean miniscule. I even think M-ITX is too big!

I've come up with so far;

Lian Li PC-Q07B

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-180-LL

XFX 5670 1GB or 512MB (single slot)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-176-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673

Corsair 400w PSU

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-017-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-292-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=

Core i3 530 2.93Ghz

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-311-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=

G Skill Ripjaw 4GB 12800

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-042-GS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Scythe Shuriken BIG

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-026-SY&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395
Click to expand...

Now, i plumped for the better CPU cooler so i could overclock the chip. The only thing that worries me about the build is the graphics card. It doesn't look like it performs aswell as it should but there isn't any other high performing single slot card apart from maybe a 4850, which is quite power hungry.

This august a single slotted 5770 is coming out so i may wait for that and see what the reviews say.

Is there anything else i could replace parts with? The budget is around £400-450. I have a HDD and ODD already.

Thanks.

EDIT - I could perhaps buy a Lian Li PC-Q08B for dual slot GPU's but the case itself is twice the price of the 07.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-186-LL&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=187

In my opinion though the 08 case is too big.
 
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single slot gpus, especially high performance ones are pretty rare thou tbh, so ur already pretty limited with your choise.

are you at close to your budget with the current built ?

as a powerful gpu would increase the price as well, so if you ur close to ur budget, i doubt u'll get much better anyways

also, i dont know the case too well, but it looks like it doesn't have a lot of depth, which would also limit your gpu choise, a lot of the highend ones are very long

it costs abit more, but have u thought about this case

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-063-SV&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=1092

gives your more choise over gpu's however it comes with a 300w psu, which might not be enough for some of the more power hungry gpus, a 5770 should be ok thou, perhaps even GTX460, althou that might be pushing it. Apperently u can get a 400w version however
 
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I know there are single slot GTX 260s, but a single slot 5770 would be much better as it runs a lot cooler than the 260! The 5670 isn't THAT bad of a performer though. Around gts 250 performance and I'm sure it overclocks well :)
 
Thanks for the very informative information! Much appreciated.

The main reason i'm looking at the 07 case is that it's tiny! I really want a very small PC that also packs a punch.

Will investigate more. My current computer is a MacBook Pro wired up like a desktop PC. As long as it better than 7k in 3dMark06 i'm laughing!

---

Is the RAM chosen adequate enough for a good overclock on the CPU? And is the Rev B Scythe as good as the BIG for cooling?

---

Thank you very much for that link above! :D
 
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The rev b should be okay if you look for an SFX PSU, the Silverstone one I mentioned comes with a full adaptor panel. It won't be as good as the BIG simply because the fan is smaller, but I doubt it'll be far off.

Oh yeah I didn't notice the RAM! I doubt you'd get it in past the cooler with those heatsinks on it (although it does look like that mobo has more horizontal clearance than the Zotac in the german build) You might be ok with the corsair xms stuff. If not at least it's fairly easy to remove the heatsinks, but I'd go with the Corsair stuff just so you've at least got a fighting chance of keeping them on.

In terms of OCing in that sized case, try it, but the increased heat is really going to be your limiting factor - I don't know much about OCing so can't comment on the RAM's suitability.

Also, it might be worth looking at the Zotac H55ITX-A-E if you wanted wifi instead of USB3.0 (However, as above, this probably has less RAM clearance)

Please, please, please post up pics if you decide to go through with the build... Really interested in ITX (specifically Q07) builds atm - would love to see how well the GPU sits in there.
 
Will definitely keep this updated if so. The main draw for me to make a new PC at the moment is the tiny form factor and size of the ITX cases!

If i don't go ahead with this in the next couple of weeks i'll get it done in the next couple of months! FUnds permitting of course! :D
 
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