First ITX build, would like advice.

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Xibyth

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So first and foremost, my max budget is $850. I want an ITX system for LAN parties and when I have 3K to drop I will build a legit gaming rig, and this will basically be an overpowered blueray player and media server. Take a look at the parts and tell me what you think and give me some recommendations. BTW I won't be doing watercooling since it will be moved around a lot.

BitFenix Prodigy Midnight Black / Black Steel / Plastic Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case

ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+ FM2+ / FM2 AMD A88X (Bolton D4) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Mini ITX

GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 FTW w/ ACX Cooling Video Card

AMD A8-6600K Richland 3.9GHz Socket FM2 100W Quad-Core Desktop Processor - Black Edition AMD Radeon HD 8570D AD660KWOHLBOX

HyperX XMP Blu Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory Model KHX16C9B1RK2/8X

SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE120BW 2.5" 120GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Cooler Master V8 GTS - High Performance CPU Cooler with Horizontal Vapor Chamber and 8 Heatpipes

BitFenix Spectre LED Red 230mm Case Fan

2x COUGAR CF-V12HB Vortex Hydro-Dynamic-Bearing (Fluid) 300,000 Hours 12CM Silent Cooling Fan (Black)

In addition I will be using a Corsair CX430 power supply I have lying around, and a WD black 1TB HDD. Also an NZXT Grid fan hub.
 
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Rammy
I'd second the whole "APU+discrete card doesn't make much sense" mantra, as a lot of their value comes in the graphics. As a stand alone CPU (which they are when you connect a graphics card) they are usually pretty low end.
If your plans meant that you would remove the graphics card at some point, then it wouldn't be such a bad idea, but as it stands you are definitely better off considering the 750K/760K if you want better value, i3/i5 if you want performance/lower power options.

I'd also be a bit hesitant about that combo of cooler and motherboard. Firstly, ITX boards are a headache for compatibility, so any board that doesn't have a perfectly central CPU socket with no interefering features will have issues with larger coolers. The...
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AMD Radeon

AMD Radeon

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no point using AMD apu + dedicated gpu :)

use i5 haswell instead :shakehand

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($174.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus H81I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($76.79 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($69.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($149.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $596.74
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-22 22:52 EDT-0400)
 
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Xibyth

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The i5 you recommended is an APU as well. It's also 3.2GHz total slower and only used 16w less power. I will take the memory and SSD into consideration though if you can personally verify the quality of them. Besides, in an ITX system almost every CPU is an APU. Just the way of it.
 
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Rammy

Rammy

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I'd second the whole "APU+discrete card doesn't make much sense" mantra, as a lot of their value comes in the graphics. As a stand alone CPU (which they are when you connect a graphics card) they are usually pretty low end.
If your plans meant that you would remove the graphics card at some point, then it wouldn't be such a bad idea, but as it stands you are definitely better off considering the 750K/760K if you want better value, i3/i5 if you want performance/lower power options.

I'd also be a bit hesitant about that combo of cooler and motherboard. Firstly, ITX boards are a headache for compatibility, so any board that doesn't have a perfectly central CPU socket with no interefering features will have issues with larger coolers. The board you picked has a pretty great CPU socket location, but the memory isn't at the edge of the board so it'd definitely be a potential problem. Secondly, I've never fitted an FM2 CPU cooler, but the orientation of the bracket on this board sits at 90degrees to that of most, and I don't know if that means you will end up with the cooler facing the wrong way, if it fits at all. This image shows what I mean.
 
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Xibyth

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I looked into compatibility with this motherboard and case and made sure it would work, believe me I was wary at first but actually seeing it all together allayed my concerns. And thank you for the CPU selection, I think I will go for the 760K now. Its $23 less and only .4 GHz slower, but at the same time no shared memory hogging up my systems. I looked for a long time but didn't see those guys.
 
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Xibyth

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I looked into compatibility with this motherboard and case and made sure it would work, believe me I was wary at first but actually seeing it all together allayed my concerns. And thank you for the CPU selection, I think I will go for the 760K now. Its $23 less and only .4 GHz slower, but at the same time no shared memory hogging up my systems. I looked for a long time but didn't see those guys.
 
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Rammy

Rammy

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That's cool, often it is literally a case of finding someone who has used the exact same motherboard+cooler combo to get a good image, and on the slightly more unusual coolers (and motherboards) that can be very tricky.
Just to confirm for my own reference - you can rotate the FM2 fitting bracket and it isn't locked to a particular direction?

As for CPUs, I don't think the clock speed is terribly relevant as these days it's a pretty secondary factor in performance, and given you are presumably overclocking, you should be able to smooth out any big differences anyway.
 
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Xibyth

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I won't be overclocking this, and as for Intel or AMD I've never seen a real difference in performance at the same clock speed unless you can find a hyperthreaded Intel for this system (let me know if you do (seriously that would be sick)). And yes you can rotate it. As for the motherboard another reason I chose this cooler is the two towers on the side are raised quite a bit so even with say the trident series ram they would still fit directly under the tower. Also for looks and noise control. Also why I won't be using the stock fans at all.
 
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