Mini-Itx Build- sub $2500 AUD

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FrostyTheSandcastle

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Apr 23, 2014
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Hi guys, im looking at downgrading, yet upgrading my system to a mini-itx build.

In the budget i need, a monitor, preferably 24inch or above (touch screen if it can be included), windows 8.1 and the computer.

I will be over-clocking the system, just not yet. All parts will be purchased from http://www.pccasegear.com/ .

Help much appreciated. Thanks.

The use of the system:

Gaming>School Work>Web Browsing>Other random computer tasks
 
Solution
Rammy
Wouldn't recommend either of those builds. The Bitfenix mATX cases are pretty poor in layout compared to their ITX versions, and if you include an optical drive, you can't use the extra expansion slots of a mATX board (not for SLI at least) so you are better off with the ITX versions 99% of the time.

Also, both versions of the Phenom lack the ventilation of the Prodigy, which does limit it's potential a little as a high end build.

Personally, I'd hit these notes (for a predominantly gaming build, if you actually want to spend the full $2500)-

  • ■ Get a monitor bigger than 1080P, or scale your budget back. You can comfortably build a great 1080P gaming build for half your budget.
    ■ Ditch touch screen as a preference. For gaming it...
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Rammy

Rammy

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Sep 3, 2012
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This is pretty much on the money if you want to spend your entire budget, it's also pretty easy to adjust the price/performance ratio by scaling back on the graphics card (and PSU, to a point). I'd agree with the poster above me that if you are using a single 1080P display (even a nice one like the one in EcoMCGs build) then a GTX780Ti is massive overkill.

What I would suggest is that if you are me, sooner or later you'll want to run something off even a secondary HDD, so a Barracuda or Caviar Black/Blue is a better all rounder.

Also, if you are planning to overclock, then I'd select a different motherboard to the one included. With all of the other components taken into consideration, you do not have access to even medium-sized air coolers, or 240mm rad based coolers like the H100i. Most other Z97 motherboards will be better than the MSI for this reason- Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WIFI, ASRock Z97E-ITX, ASUS Z97I-PLUS and if you are spending silly money on a PC anyway, then the incoming Maximus VII Impact (Z97 version) will be coming soon. All four of those options should enable you to install medium-large air tower coolers (think say Hyper 212 to NH-D14 as a range, though check compatibility lists too).

It's also worth considering the new i7-4790K and i5-4690K as CPU options.
 
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Rammy

Rammy

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Sep 3, 2012
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Wouldn't recommend either of those builds. The Bitfenix mATX cases are pretty poor in layout compared to their ITX versions, and if you include an optical drive, you can't use the extra expansion slots of a mATX board (not for SLI at least) so you are better off with the ITX versions 99% of the time.

Also, both versions of the Phenom lack the ventilation of the Prodigy, which does limit it's potential a little as a high end build.

Personally, I'd hit these notes (for a predominantly gaming build, if you actually want to spend the full $2500)-

  • ■ Get a monitor bigger than 1080P, or scale your budget back. You can comfortably build a great 1080P gaming build for half your budget.
    ■ Ditch touch screen as a preference. For gaming it has little-no function, and personally I don't see the appeal when you have a keyboard and mouse in hand. WQHD/UHD/4K monitors are falling in price all of the time so I'd suggest looking towards those - 2560*1440 or some of the ultra-wide options might be the best bet.
    ■ You probably only need an i5, so if you want to save some money, it's a good option.
    ■ You probably only need 8Gb of memory.
    ■ If you go with a really tiny case like an EVGA Hadron Air, the reference (Titan) cooler cards are a really good option. In a Prodigy with a vented side panel- get one with a custom design (2-3fans) like the EVGA ACX, Gigabyte Windforce or Asus DirectCU.
    ■ If you decide you don't want to overclock, go cheap(er) on cooling, it's a waste otherwise. The stock cooler will work fine, but if you want to take the edge off then a cheaper tower cooler like a Hyper TX3/Hyper 101 is a pretty safe bet for compatibility and will give you a nice boost to temps.
    ■ 700W is far more than you need for any ITX system. There's a company that ships a pre-made GTXTitan+i7 system with a 450W SFX PSU, which gives you some measure of what is achievable. I'd suggest sticking to the 500-600W range where possible, and considering 600-650W if you want a feature or the price is compelling.
 
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FrostyTheSandcastle

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Apr 23, 2014
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Thankyou for this feedback, what would you suggest to be a good build for 1440p gaming in a mini-itx form factor? Im not sure how to overclock so I was thinking of going with the devils canyon cpu's. I believe they have higher reference clock speeds?
 
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Rammy

Rammy

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I won't go into it here, but overclocking is very straightforward these days, most UEFI systems have an automatic option which works fairly well. That said, it's by no means essential.
The new CPUs are fairly similar in most ways, and it's not like at stock speeds the old ones had any issues with overheating. From an overclocking perspective, the new TIM (and other tweaks) seems to make a solid boost to overclocking potential.

I knocked this up in PCpartpicker, and it's missing items from pccasegear, but as a rough idea-
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/FmZ9t6
Obviously it's a little over-budget, but I did include overclockable items, a cooler and an SSD.
There's a lot you can fiddle with though, new CPUs, cooler options, motherboards, monitors.
Most significantly, it's graphics. The GTX780Ti is never good value for money, but it appears in Aus it's worse than usual. I'd seriously consider looking at this as an alternative, as it's far better value for money.
 
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kowashie

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i would switch the graphics cards.. but keep the rest of the build.. Very solid and you'd get great performance ^ stick with rammy's build but switch the graphics card to the r9 290x.. the 780 TI is just way to much for the performance difference ...
 
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