Gaming Rig, Mini ITX

Evd-Burner

Its been a few years since I've built my last PC. I have decided that I would like to go small form factor with this rig so I have chosen the BitFenix Prodigy case.




Looking for some overclocking advice and some general advice of what you think of my shopping list, is there anything I could get that is better at the same price etc.

1. What is your budget? 1200
2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming
3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No
4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Yes (2.5inch Hard Drive)
5. Do you need a monitor? Yes
5a. If yes, what size do you need. 22
5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future?
6. Do you need any of these peripherals? No
7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Definitely (Need some advice)
8. How can you pay? Credit Card/Pay pal/Bank Transfer
9. When are you purchasing? End of the month
10. If you need help building it, where are you based? No Help Needed

Here are the core items from the build, I will purchase from www.hardwareversand.de.

Gigabyte MITX Motherboard
Intel Core i5 3570
Corsair Vengeance 16GB
His ATI 7950
64GB SSD
Thermaltake 550W PSU
CPU Cooling System
Asus 22" Monitor
Betfenix Prodigy Case

Total 1200

There are a few other bits and bobs that make up the extra 100.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Yakuza42

Hey,

I would drop the ram down to 8GB and bring the SSD up to 128GB.
I've never bottle-necked my desktop's 8GB of ram, but even without storing any media etc. on my comp my SSD (128GB) is about two thirds full, and that's without many games.

I'm not 100% sure but from what I gather the 3570K is decent for overclocking but the 3*** series runs hotter than Sandy Bridge, especially in a Mini ITX. My case is a little smaller though, (Lian Li PCQ08) so maybe the Prodigy would be fine. Just from what Ive heard, you can get really good clocks (4.7 easily) on Sandy Bridge for less heat that the equivalent Ivy Bridge.

Evd-Burner

I only really want this machine for games. There are only 5-6 games that I play at the moment. Including the games and the OS i think they will fit on the 65GB ssd. I also have more 2.5inch hard drives that I will put in the system.
Are you sure about the ram, I'm half thinking that If I build this now with 8GB of ram, that in a year or 2 down line I would need more and the 8GB would go to waste.

For this case I really am not worried about cooling at all. Firstly I will have all of the 3.5inch bays removed and I will remove the 5.25 inch bay also. There will be a high performance 200mm fan at the front pulling in nice fresh air for the cpu and motherboard, the cpu will be water cooled. Also the graphics card and the PSU will be self contained in terms of cooling. To take the hot air out of the case there will be 2 x 120mm fans and 1 x 140mm fan.

Yakuza42

Evd-Burner wrote: »

I only really want this machine for games. There are only 5-6 games that I play at the moment. Including the games and the OS i think they will fit on the 65GB ssd. I also have more 2.5inch hard drives that I will put in the system.
Are you sure about the ram, I'm half thinking that If I build this now with 8GB of ram, that in a year or 2 down line I would need more and the 8GB would go to waste.

For this case I really am not worried about cooling at all. Firstly I will have all of the 3.5inch bays removed and I will remove the 5.25 inch bay also. There will be a high performance 200mm fan at the front pulling in nice fresh air for the cpu and motherboard, the cpu will be water cooled. Also the graphics card and the PSU will be self contained in terms of cooling. To take the hot air out of the case there will be 2 x 120mm fans and 1 x 140mm fan.

Yea I think this case will be fine, and the 3570K should be fine too, it's actually the reason that Im switching over to this case whenever possible. The Lian Li wont support a full size cooler or a 240mm rad. As for the RAM, I'm sure 16GB would do no harm, and probably would come in useful, but I'm not sure if it's necessary.

Looks like a nice little build once you can keep the overclocked 3570K cool. Good luck!

Evd-Burner

Thanks for the advice. Gonna have to get out the dremel to fit in a disk drive. Thinks of a drive like the macs use and uhave it under the case where it cannot be seen :P...

U_Fig

You say you deffo want to over clock

If you do you need to get a z77 motherboard not the h77 as you linked also you need the 3570k not the 3570 as you linked

Also 16GB of ram is overkill for gaming.. 8gb would be fine leaving more €€ for other areas..most likely towards the premium you'll pay when you change the above..

Also the liquid cooler I don't know much about it but the h100i is cheaper..

Apart from that It's a solid build although I personally like the be quiet PSUs I have some and have had zero problems the do a good line of semi modular ones also just a preference thing really..

Also 64gb is not a lot really I'd advise to try fit at least a 128gb boot SSD

RoverZT

I say go all the way and get a 7970, it will last you a long time.

RoverZT

Not sure about the monitor either.

Spending 400 euro on a graphics card and a 115 euro 5ms monitor, mismatch?

I use a 24" and find my old 22" samsung a little bit small.

Not really up to date on monitors, but this looks good.

http://lb.hardwareversand.de/24+inch/44475/ASUS+VE248H.article

Evd-Burner

@U_fig. Thank you for the advice. I will change CPU, Motherboard and to offset I will reduce ram as all seem to think it is overkill. If I have spare cash I might get the 128GB ssd.

@RoverZT. The reason I am not splashing out on a good monitor is because I am moving between 2 places all the time. In my main place I have a 22" Samsung 8ms monitor and in the other I have a Benq 19" (Not Widescreen) 16ms monitor. I am very happy with the 22" monitor but just wish to upgrade the 19", anything bigger would only piss the misses off :P. Is there a major difference between the 7950 and the 7970? I'm just wondering is it worth the price for only a little but extra performance that may or may not be noticed.

Evd-Burner

P.S I would love that monitor :P

Serephucus

Stick with a 7950. This one is widely regarded as being the best overclocker. You can surpass the 7970 if you get a good one. Just make sure it will fit in the Prodigy (I should I think, I'm just not sure).

Evd-Burner

Here are the changes to the shopping list...

Intel 3570k
Gigabyte z77 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance 8GB Ram

What do you think of the Gigabyte 7970?
I will see if I can shave off a few quid somewhere to be able to get it.

Evd-Burner

@Serephucus. What is the overclocking potential from the stock cooler on that card?

Serephucus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcKWzVkgspc

Skip to about 4:30 for OC stuff.

Evd-Burner

You have sold me on the card.

I now have the extra for a 128GB SSD.

Evd-Burner

Does anyone know how to use this piece of code?

JavaScript: var before = 'Here is your build\n'; var after = ''; var format = '{itm_quantity}{itm_name} {itm_price}'; var debug = false; function loadScript( url ) { if ( document.getElementById( "basket_parser" ) == null ) { var script = document.createElement( "script" ); script.setAttribute( "id", "basket_parser" ); script.setAttribute( "type", "text/javascript" ); script.setAttribute( "src", url + "?" + Math.pow( new Date().getMonth(), 2 ) + Math.pow( new Date().getDate(), 3 ) ); document.getElementsByTagName( "head" )[0].appendChild( script ); setTimeout( "loadScript('" + url + "')", 200 ); log( "Started loading script: " + url ); } else if ( typeof( init_script ) != 'undefined' ) { log( "Loaded." ); init_script(); } else { setTimeout( "loadScript('" + url + "')", 200 ); log( "loading ..." ); } } function log( string ) { if ( debug ) { document.body.appendChild( document.createTextNode( string ) ); document.body.appendChild( document.createElement( "br" ) ); } } /* loadScript( "http://fluffy88.com/scripts/basket_parser_dev.js" ); */ loadScript( "http://fluffy88.com/scripts/basket_parser.js" ); void( 0 );

I get an error 404.

U_Fig

the code is

javascript:var debug = false;function loadScript( url ){if ( document.getElementById("basket_parser") == null ){var script = document.createElement( "script" );script.setAttribute( "id", "basket_parser" );script.setAttribute( "type", "text/javascript" );script.setAttribute( "src", url + "?" + Math.random() * 10000000 );document.getElementsByTagName( "head" )[0].appendChild( script );setTimeout( "loadScript('" + url + "')", 200 );log( "Started loading script: " + url );}else if ( typeof( init_script ) != 'undefined' ){log( "Loaded." );init_script();}else{setTimeout( "loadScript('" + url + "')", 200 );log( "loading ..." );}}function log (string){if ( debug ){document.body.appendChild( document.createTextNode( string ) );document.body.appendChild( document.createElement( "br" ) );}}loadScript( "http://fluffy88.com/scripts/basket_parser.js" );void( 0 );

in some browsers you need to manually add "JavaScript:" before var without spaces or the inverted commas when you paste it in (chrome is one of these browsers)

Evd-Burner

Here is my build :P

Item|Price
ASUS VE228TR|€115.00
Thermaltake SMART M550W/ 80plus Bronze / Cable Management|€61.13
BitFenix Spectre PRO 200mm Lüfter - all white|€16.15
BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Gehäuse - weiß, ohne Netzteil|€72.79
BitFenix Spectre 140mm Lüfter - all white|€8.45
BitFenix Recon 5,25 Zoll Lüftersteuerung - weiß|€37.94
InLine Lüfterkabel Verlängerung PWM, 4pol Molex Stecker / Buchse, 0,3m|€1.26
BitFenix 3-Pin Verlängerung 30cm, sleeved weiß|€3.66
Revoltec Katlicht Kathoden Twin-Set weiß, 10 cm lang|€5.98
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€205.99
Gigabyte GA-Z77N-Wifi, Intel Z77, ITX|€118.08
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9|€41.57
Corsair Hydro Series H100i|€106.99
Club 3D Radeon HD 7950 royalKing, 3GB GDDR5, AMD Radeon HD 7950, PCI- Express|€286.86
SanDisk SSD 128GB S-ATA 600|€78.10
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1178.94

Yakuza42

Evd-Burner wrote: »

Here is my build :P

Item|Price
ASUS VE228TR|€115.00
Thermaltake SMART M550W/ 80plus Bronze / Cable Management|€61.13
BitFenix Spectre PRO 200mm Lüfter - all white|€16.15
BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Gehäuse - weiß, ohne Netzteil|€72.79
BitFenix Spectre 140mm Lüfter - all white|€8.45
BitFenix Recon 5,25 Zoll Lüftersteuerung - weiß|€37.94
InLine Lüfterkabel Verlängerung PWM, 4pol Molex Stecker / Buchse, 0,3m|€1.26
BitFenix 3-Pin Verlängerung 30cm, sleeved weiß|€3.66
Revoltec Katlicht Kathoden Twin-Set weiß, 10 cm lang|€5.98
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€205.99
Gigabyte GA-Z77N-Wifi, Intel Z77, ITX|€118.08
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz CL9|€41.57
Corsair Hydro Series H100i|€106.99
Club 3D Radeon HD 7950 royalKing, 3GB GDDR5, AMD Radeon HD 7950, PCI- Express|€286.86
SanDisk SSD 128GB S-ATA 600|€78.10
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1178.94

Looking good. I thought the Prodigy case came with its own Spectre Fans though?

Evd-Burner

It only comes with 2 x 120mm fans ASFAIK. I was just going to take them out and give to a friend who will be building in a month or so...

Yakuza42

Evd-Burner wrote: »

It only comes with 2 x 120mm fans ASFAIK. I was just going to take them out and give to a friend who will be building in a month or so...

Cool cool. Let me know how the case goes for you..thinking about getting mine in a while.

Evd-Burner

I will take plenty of pictures and will upload them here once the kit has arrived and I have completed the build. Expect 2 weeks from now I should think.

Thanks everyone for the help with the system, much appreciated.

U_Fig

Seems like a good build pretty similar to what I was thinking of getting a while back