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Custom Mini ITX PC

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  • Cases
  • Corsair
  • Motherboards
  • Systems
Last response: in Systems
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March 14, 2014 4:11:17 PM

Hello everyone
I was thinking about mini itx rigs like Corsair 250D and the like and i thought, I think i could make my own half the size.
I have only really brainstormed i few ideas. By the way this is in really early phases so dont hate.
Ok so a mini itx motherboard mounted at the bottom of this case, just an entry level haswell i5 or i3 with stock cooler, but it could have little grommets on side of case where you can attach a 120mm all in one water cooler, which is in its own ventilated enclosure. just some lower profile ram eg Crucial ballistic tactical LP. and a GTX 750 ti and the height of this GPU would be around the height of the case, I would choose one which doesnt need 6 pin connectors. and just a SSD mounted at the top of the case. 1 120mm fan blowing from one side of the case to the other, and maybe another on the top blowing down across the MOBO and GPU. Because i am very beginner to this i am not sure about the PSU, can you get Small ones? like real small?
Thanks everybody

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a b V Motherboard
March 14, 2014 4:24:17 PM

Unless you are super technical, building your own might not be a fantastic solution as in my experience, the finish is really tricky if you don't have a workshop full of tools to hand.

One thing that'd be useful is if you had an idea you needed help with, regarding layout etc, would be a quick MSPaint doodle or better, a Sketchup/proper CAD mockup. As it stands, it's pretty impossible to offer much advice on the layout specifics.

My first reaction to your rough specs are that ultimately, it's going to be a pretty low end machine, and a closed loop cooler won't make much sense. You'd be better served spending more on CPU/graphics if you want to push the gaming capabilities, or removing the radiator cooler entirely to focus on reducing cost/size.

There's a couple of standardised small form factor PSUs, namely SFX and flexATX, so you should look into the dimensions and limitations of those to see if they suit your goal. Basically, SFX is just like small ATX, so it might well fit the bill.
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March 14, 2014 5:05:33 PM

Thanks for the advice, I honeslty disagree with this being low end, Mid end at least, I have seen people maxing out bf4 at 30fps, Bioshock infintie ultra 45fps, Far cry 3 ultra 35fps and AC4 ultra 35fps with this orientation... I didnt realise maxing out game and getting acceptable frame rates was considered low end.
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a b V Motherboard
March 14, 2014 5:21:25 PM

Sorry that wasn't quite my meaning. What I was getting at was that in a higher end system, the cost of an AIO isn't that big a deal, as the gaps between graphics cards get bigger, and the performance/spend falls away. On a cheaper system, if the cooler isn't bringing much performance (in a non-overclockable system the difference is minimal) then you are far better served by investing more heavily in graphics, or in your scenario, chopping down the case dimensions to keep things nice and compact.

For the price, the GTX750Ti is a great card, especially when you consider it's additional power based benefits, and it's certainly capable of playing modern games at decent settings, but it is relatively low-mid end when you consider that a gaming PC is usually balanced towards graphics, and the upper price thresholds for graphics cards.
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