Budget Mini-ITX Motherboard and Case

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JOOK-D

JOOK-D

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Aug 28, 2013
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Hey,

So I'm looking at finding a Mini-ITX Motherboard under £120 (preferrably £100) to pair with an i5 3570k/4670k.

It doesn't need SLI/xfire compatibility. USB3 would be good if possible and good overclocking capability is quite necessary.
Also any recommendations for a case? The cheaper the better. :)

Any recommendations? Thanks in advance (it's been a while since I've built my own intel build).
 
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JOOK-D

JOOK-D

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Aug 28, 2013
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UK I'm afraid :( I'll have a look at them and see the prices here, thanks for the suggestions.

And as for the OCing, I'm aware. I'll be looking at getting an AiO, probably a corsair h series, at some point in the future if it manages to fit in the case. I guess it's dependent.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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Most any Z87 based motherboard will oc decently, and there is little to chose among them in that regard.
I do not much like all in one liquid coolers when a good air cooler can do the job.
A liquid cooler will be expensive, noisy, less reliable, and will not cool any better
in a well ventilated case.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling, it just puts the heat exchange in a different place.
The orientation of the radiator will cause a problem.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
google "H100 leak"

That said, a small form factor case may be the exception where a all in one cooler might be appropriate.
What case did you have in mind?
 
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JOOK-D

JOOK-D

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Aug 28, 2013
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The case will come later probably some time after the New Year (I'll use my current ATX one which houses my AMD rig in it for now) - but I've been looking at the likes of Bitfenix, mainly the Prodigy, Phenom and Colossus. There is also the possibility of the Coolermaster 120 and the Lian-Li Q0xx series of cases, though, being a Mini-ITX novice, I'm not sure of the pros and cons of each.

As for the cooler, do you know what kinds of ones I'd be looking at? The main reason I was looking at AiO was because of the space restraints, but if they'll cause me more trouble than their worth I might be looking at avoiding them.
 
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JOOK-D

JOOK-D

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Aug 28, 2013
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Alright, thanks a lot. :)
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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The main problem with the Q08 is that you will need to use either a downdraft air cooler or an all in one cooler.
I have researched that case extensively, and bought one. There are some lengthy forums on builds with that case so you can see what it is all about. My conclusion was that if a conservative oc with a 4670K in the 4.0-4.2 range is ok, then a good downdraft cooler will be ok.
The 140mm intake fan provides plenty of airflow.
If you use a liquid cooler, I would orient the radiator to exhaust at the top.

Be careful of the prodigy case, it is large, about the same size as a M-ATX Silverstone tj08-e.
 
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