Small Form Factor gaming rig - what ye think?

freestyla

Sold away my mATX Sandy Bridge rig few days ago and thought to stick only with the laptops.

BUT after few days I realized that I'm missing:
- occasional high-spec gaming
- instant access to my big storage
- secure feeling of having data redundancy in terms of RAID
and my room is just half empty without a "home server" :eek: which is weird because had at least one custom rig laying around since my first build in 1997

So time to get back to reality but this time in even more neat package - SFF mini-ITX setup - with a budget limit of €400 max.:
- Not overclocking (not CPU at least)
- 1x GPU is enough
- Future proof -must have 4 cores CPU, USB 3.0, PCI-E 3.0, RAID and decent PSU.
- No need for watercooling
- No need for DVD or Blueray
- as quiet PC as possible.

Have already:
- Asus HD 6850 1Gb 256-bit GDDR5
- SSD and a couple of 7200rpm HDDs
- Intel CPU cooler (left from 2500K)
- WiFi and Bluetooth sticks
- Windows 7.

This what I came up with:

8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance Low Profile blau PC3-12800U CL9 No HV20CO74DE 36,74 €

ASUS P8H77-I, Sockel 1155, ITX No HV1144UJDE 91,12 €

Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced, Mini-ITX, ohne Netzteil, USB3.0 No HV203F37DE 39,00 €

Intel Core i5-3470 Tray, LGA1155 No HV20T347DE 167,78 €

Thermaltake Hamburg 530W No HVR530TCDE 40,99 €

Shipping costs by UPS-Standard: 18,99 €
TOTAL: 395,60 €


First I had AMD components in a shopping cart, would have got 4 core setup for the price of Intel Core i3 setup, but AMD mini-ITX boards with AMD chipset don't come with the PCI-E 3.0.

I hope Asus GPU fits inside this small case, and that i5-2500K cooler fits on i5-3470 ?

tuxy

Looks like the case was designed to take a fairly long card.
2500k cooler will work fine, same socket.

Jonny7

I built one of these awhile back (mATX)

Just gotta make sure you get all the measurements right.. I needed a special low profile cooller for my CPU, that was okay but it was a close call with the coolling fins on the ram and one of the heatsinks on the motherboard

Then I needed to remove the hard-drive and fan caddy because, even though I measured my graphics card just right, I didn't account for the cable to have to stretch across other components and jut a good inch or so out the back of the graphics card.

I didn't get a modular PSU either so it was quite a tight squeeze in there.

freestyla

Jonny7 wrote: »

Just gotta make sure you get all the measurements right..

Will see that when parts arrive

Thanks for replies.

That's good to hear I can use old CPU cooler.
There's 7cm clearance between PSU and CPU and Intel stock cooler is 6cm ish.

Tight it must be in overall, especially with non-modular PSU.. Will spend some extra time routing cables inside the case.

I think the biggest challenge will be to get good balance between heat and noise.