New SFF build

dog_pig

I'm looking to switch from my regular ATX to a micro-ATX SFF case.

The components I'll be bringing over are:

Intel Q9450
Powercolor 4890 1GB
4GB Kingston HyperX PC8500 DDR2 (2*2GB)
Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB SATA-II
X-FI XtremeMusic PCI
OCZ Modstream 520w PSU

I want this to be as mobile as possible so it's easy to bring back home from uni and to LANs etc. The motherboard has to be an all right overclocker as I want to be able to run the CPU at about 3.6GHz.

I've done a bit of research and have come up with these two motherboards:

http://www.google.co.uk/products/cat...147&sa=title#p

and

http://www.google.co.uk/products/cat...263&sa=title#p

I'm open to other suggestions though.

Regarding the case I'm really at a loss as to what to go for so can someone suggest one that'll be small and keep everything relatively cool inside.

Cheers

Solitaire

The only way to get a full-height graphics card in a SFF case is to blow a squillion quid on a Shuttle

There are plenty of full-height mATX cases out there, but they invariably end up huge. NZXT Rogue anyone? :P

Best chance for not-so-gigantic-ness is one of the mATX Silverstone Sugos. The SG01/02 fall somewhere between cube cases and LANboxes but are smaller than either. Though invariably larger than you'd first expect :rolleyes: The SG03/04 are oddball micro-tower cases. Tiny enough to... still fit a few watercooling rads. Nuts. They're also pretty pricey and the handle on the SG04 is fugly. The SG05/06 are actually mITX cases and too small for any normal mobo. If you could find a decent mITX mobo with a PCIe slot though... the SG05/06 might still fit the HD4890! (just!)

As for mobo... just look up any mATX LGA775 you like the look of (P43 or higher) and hunt down a review to see if you can see any sign of OCing capabilities. Note that I can't think of an mATX LGA775 with any heatsinks on the voltage regulators so be careful with OCing a 95W quad on them!

dog_pig

Solitaire wrote: »

The only way to get a full-height graphics card in a SFF case is to blow a squillion quid on a Shuttle

There are plenty of full-height mATX cases out there, but they invariably end up huge. NZXT Rogue anyone? :P

Best chance for not-so-gigantic-ness is one of the mATX Silverstone Sugos. The SG01/02 fall somewhere between cube cases and LANboxes but are smaller than either. Though invariably larger than you'd first expect :rolleyes: The SG03/04 are oddball micro-tower cases. Tiny enough to... still fit a few watercooling rads. Nuts. They're also pretty pricey and the handle on the SG04 is fugly. The SG05/06 are actually mITX cases and too small for any normal mobo. If you could find a decent mITX mobo with a PCIe slot though... the SG05/06 might still fit the HD4890! (just!)

As for mobo... just look up any mATX LGA775 you like the look of (P43 or higher) and hunt down a review to see if you can see any sign of OCing capabilities. Note that I can't think of an mATX LGA775 with any heatsinks on the voltage regulators so be careful with OCing a 95W quad on them!

Cheers!

Well I had a look at Shuttles and this one (http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-128-SH) seems to be reasonable enough.

Would I be able to get all my components working in it?