$1000 MiniITX Workstation/Gaming Machine

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
B

Briskk

Honorable
Feb 12, 2013
42
0
10,540
Hey guys. As my old computer is slowing destroying itself, I'm planning to build my very first PC, which will be used primarily for school work, some light gaming (League of Legends, Battlefield 3, Guild Wars 2), and some very light video editing and rendering. As this is my first config. I would like some opinions from other more experienced builders. Here is what I came up with.


PCPartPicker part list: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/Sr21
Price breakdown by merchant: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/Sr21/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/Sr21/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.79 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard ($99.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($57.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($129.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($87.50 @ Vuugo)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($201.50 @ Vuugo)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($79.99 @ Canada Computers)
Case Fan: BitFenix Spectre Pro 156.3 CFM 230mm Fan ($19.99 @ Memory Express)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX)
Total: $991.73
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-22 22:03 EDT-0400)


I'm curious to know what the benefits of picking this CPU over the 3570K is, is it just hyper threading? Now I've heard a lot of good things about the 3570K, but since I'm not very confident with overclocking and I'm on a fairly tight budget so changing to a overclock friendly board and buying a heat sink would cut fairly deep into my budget. I have checked that my motherboard will be compatible with the Xeon.

Any suggestions? Tips? Should I change any of my components? Perhaps the OCZ Vertex, I've heard some rumors of OCZ being not really a reliable brand.


Thanks for the help!

P.S. I live in Canada.

P.S.S. Would it be worth to wait for Haswell line of Xeons? I heard that Haswell is more focused on power efficiency and graphics but since the Xeon I will be buying won't have integrated graphics, is there any reason to even wait for the Haswell Xeon?

P.S.S.S. I have a HD 5770 in my current PC, would it be a reasonable decision if I just stick with that and get a better CPU, or some other part?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
jmsellars1

jmsellars1

Splendid
Dec 31, 2010
3,916
2
23,465
The Xeon sacrifices overclocking and integrated graphics in favour of hyperthreading. This sounds perfect for you, you won't be doing a lot of overclocking in a mini ITX build anyway and you're running dedicated graphics.

That PC will be very efficient, it should only consume like 200W under load so a lower wattage, higher quality PSU would be better. The Seasonic G Series 360W would be good. Cooler, quieter and more reliable than the Corsair and still plenty of power for this setup.

I too have heard and seen the problems caused by OCZ SSD's. I tend to stick to Intel, Samsung and Crucial, they seem to have the best reputations for reliability with SSD's. My Samsung 830 had one or two hiccups but nothing major, just one or two BSOD's shortly after installing my OS. Since then it has been rock solid.

Just a couple more things:

- Check the dimensions of the Prodigy, it isn't all that small for a mini ITX case.
- That build probably won't be very quiet, let me know if you would prefer something quiet and I could help.

EDIT: The HD 5770 is fine if you don't mind lowering the settings on your games. You will want the GTX 660 for maxed settings though.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
B

Briskk

Honorable
Feb 12, 2013
42
0
10,540


What would you suggest if I would like a quieter PC? I'll have this sitting right next to me while I do homework etc. the quieter the better, but I don't want to sacrifice cooling or aesthetics. Are you sure 360W is enough? Nvidia has 450W listed under the 660 as the minimum amount of power needed.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
jmsellars1

jmsellars1

Splendid
Dec 31, 2010
3,916
2
23,465
Yeah it's fine, Nvidia have to take into account that people will run it on cheap nasty 450W PSU's that are actually something like 300-350W continuous power, not to mention terrible quality a lot of the time. Especially in OEM systems. If you're still unsure, you could go for the s12ii-430 instead. The rest of the G series is modular and won't fit that case.

Try a PSU estimator, comes out at around 260W+. The Xeon should max out at around 60-80W, the GTX 660 at around 100-130W and maybe 80W for the rest of the system including mouse/keyboard and fans etc. Typical usage will be a lot less than that as well, not to mention Seasonic PSU's are fantastic quality and I wouldn't be surprised if you could run that one at 400W all day.

There's not a lot I can suggest for quietness if you're not willing to make any sacrifices really. I don't think this will be ridiculously loud, just not quiet either.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom