Mini ITX build

glynf

Hey all,


Our soon to be 10 year old wants an xbox to play Minecraft for her birthday. Which is not happening; she's getting a PC instead and she gets to build it too, never too young to start


1. What is your budget? €500 ex. Vat

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Minecraft, browsing, and streaming from a NAS

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes.

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No.

5. Do you need a monitor? No.



5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? 1920 x 1080 & no.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? - No.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? - N/a.

8. How can you pay? Credit Card.

9. When are you purchasing? In the next 10-12 days.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? - N/a.



Ideally, we want something small & quiet, no monitor required-it will be hooked to 1080p TV for now. The plan so far:

Case: EVGA Hadron Air Mini ITX Case with 500W EVGA GOLD PSU Fitted

CPU: Intel Core i3 6100

M.B: Asus H110I plus D3 mITX

RAM: Corsair Memory Vengeance Jet Black 8GB DDR3 PC3-12800

SSD: AMD 240GB 2.5" Radeon R3

GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SSC ACX LED GAMING Graphics Card 2GB

Budget is €500 max excluding Vat, I already have mouse & keyboard.


Not sure about what GPU and could do with a few suggestions-not bothered if its AMD or Nvidia.

Again this will be used for Minecraft, browsing, and streaming from a NAS so it does not need to be super powerful. It would be ideal if it copes with 1080p gaming medium/high settings for the next 2 years or so.

The other thing is what CPU cooler to get, damned if theres going to be a manky intel stock one going in.


TIA.

Digital Solitude

Nothing wrong with Intel's stock coolers.

I'd get a 470 over the 960 for newer architecture etc but could be a few weeks before they're available, 960 will be grand otherwise. You could go with something as weak as a 750 now tbh and upgrade in time when she wants a more powerful PC, Intel HD4000 will handle Minecraft no problem.

Build is sound in general though

TerrorFirmer

I would lean towards it being over-powered, but then again I know Minecraft can be modded to the hilt these days and be actually a bit taxing on a system. I'd say it's a solid enough build, you could wait as DS suggested for the RX 470 from AMD but I think that card, like every other release in Europe from both vendors, will be overpriced.

The 960 starts at €170 or so, I wouldn't spend serious cash on a 960 at this stage, a cheap model will be fine. Maybe even consider a GTX 950.

Also agree that the stock cooler is fine. Also might as well go for a DDR4 board when you're going Skylake, shame to limit a new platform with older memory.

glynf

Cheers lads, would gladly wait for the 470, integrated graphics might handle minecraft in the meantime-must have a look. DDR3 was to keep cost down, is there much of a performance bump to be had going DDR4?

Digital Solitude

They're about the same price to be fair

K.O.Kiki

In addition, Intel doesn't recommend standard 1.5V DDR3 for Skylake; only 1.35V DDR3L or DDR4.

glynf

So based on the advice above, I went with Skylake board and ordered:

• EVGA Hadron Air w/ 500W PSU
• Intel Core i3 6100
• Samsung 250GB 750 EVO
• MSI Intel B150I GAMING PRO
• 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2400 MHz
• EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB ACX
• Windows 10 Home 64Bit

All in €650 inc. delivery ex. Vat.

glynf

Quick update/build log for anyone interested in the Hadron; it’s a quality case, great build quality and well riveted together. The main drawbacks are the lack of cable management room-as in none, and the non-modular PSU.

I decided to remove the dual 3.5” HDD cage, this involved drilling out ten rivets, four of which were behind the front facia plate; this is plastic and is glued on, so had to be careful removing same.

Stock case:



Hard drive cage removed:


After removing the cage, I was left with two unpainted sections on the motherboard tray. I thought about spraying it, but then decided to cut up the plastic HDD trays and screw this onto the case as a mounting bracket for the SSD as well as somewhere to hide cables. For fixings I drilled and tapped for 3.5mm screws. For brackets I used some of the plastic offcuts from the cage.

Couldn’t find a file so I used a 4” grinder instead; I mean, what could possibly go wrong

New SSD mount:




Test fit:




Mboard in, to make sure it fits.




Finished, works well for hiding cables:



To minimise cables I cut the two Molex power cables out and put jelly crimps on the ends. This looked messy, so I stripped the PSU to hide the taped up ends.


PSU before modding:




PSU internals:



Finished job




To tidy up the look of the audio header cable I used black insulation tape, and some of the sleeving from the Molex cables to hide the green & white power & LED cables. Not much to be done with the USB header cable, will try and hide it down the bottom at the back of the PSU. Just need to build it now.
Ready to fit board again:



Next job is to fire it up, hope it still works as warranty is now out the window

glynf

All done, nice little case to build with. Front of the case is a dust & finger print magnet, other than thatr v.good build quality.

http://i.imgur.com/v3ZiJ6d.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/Cc0ojps.jpg?3

Got the upgrade fever now...Thinking of doing a mATX build in a Caselabs Bullet BH4 for myself

Eoinmc97

Looks good to me! How loud is that stock Intel fan btw in the Hadron?

glynf

Cheers, it’s extremely quiet overall, though it’s not been under much of a load; ordered an Arctic Freezer 11 Low Profile cooler to fit anyway. The two case fans are also extremely quiet, just as well as its going to be located beside the telly.