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Mini ITX Build Overview

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July 19, 2014 3:07:58 PM

Hey guys after my last post which i had really great replies and feedback from i decided to go for the Corsair Obsidian 250D Mini ITX case. Now im about to order the parts but would due to my lack of knowledge i would appreciate if you guys could go over and "fine pick" the parts as this build will last me for the next 4 Years atleast and i worked my ass off save up for it :D .
Ill just start linking and stating the parts i have picked and please feel free to criticize any of my choices. When it comes to power needs im a Heavy gamer and like to play the latest games (Battlefield series, WoW, Metro and a few other intensive games) and am a sucker for eye candy. I will be using only 1 1080p monitor and do not plan on using dual monitors ever. Before i non-stop type my story ill just get to it :

CPU:
Intel Core i5 4690K 3.5GHz (This should do me for gaming, will overclock it and only the price difference from the 4670 is hardly anything)

Motherboard:
Asus Maximus VI Impact Z87 Socket 1150 HDMI DisplayPort 8 Channel Audio Mini ITX Motherboard (I really love the layout and look of this board and also it comes with a "standalone audio card, my past experience with onboard audio has not been great which is one of the main reason this board is what im leaning towards)

Graphics Card:
EVGA GTX 780 Superclocked 3GB Reference Cooler (I would go for the cheaper ones but after looking around abit i keep hearing reference cooled ones are better for small cases where there isnt much airflow due to the hot air blowing out the back of the system, also the card looks really nice with that green nvidia logo :D )

PSU:
Corsair RM 750W Fully Modular 80+ Gold Power Supply (Im really not sure what to get, ive been told the "AX" series are the best since they use the seasonic oem unit, but this one is a decent price and seems to fit, then again im clueless when it comes to PSU's)

Hardrive:

Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 6Gbps (really good price, is it a decent drive though? not sure)
Planning on getting a second HDD, something cheap and decently fast( need some suggestions)
Cooling: Corsair H100i (only reason i picked this being that it fits perfectly with the obsidian 250d, if there are any better solutions please say)

I think that pretty much covers the main components, when it comes to fans i was thinking of the corsair sp120 ones (with the coloured rings on them)but i prefer to have the system looking nice without hindering performance. And please note i do have a budget of £1100 ($1800) which im currently right at but i prefer to save some if it is possible without loosing significant performance.
Thanks for reading guys and hopefully you can assist me in building my final PC which ive been looking forward to for a few years now.

More about : mini itx build overview

July 19, 2014 3:17:08 PM

Crucial MX100 is an excellent drive, but if it's going for similar money get a Samsung 840 EVO instead - it will make for a quicker system drive
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July 19, 2014 3:26:27 PM

snowctrl said:
Crucial MX100 is an excellent drive, but if it's going for similar money get a Samsung 840 EVO instead - it will make for a quicker system drive


Checked out the Evo 840 but that is nearly double the price of the Crucial so that is out the equation when it comes to budget
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July 19, 2014 11:48:45 PM

Fine, get the MX100 then, u won't regret it (I hav the 512GB version)
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July 20, 2014 3:09:21 AM

Case - I like the 250D, but it basically only makes sense if you plan on using a H100i. If you want options/flexibility, it's not great in that regard. The main other downside is it really is very wide, but I'd assume you've already taken that into consideration.

CPU - nothing wrong with a K-series CPU by any means. If you don't plan on overclocking, or it isn't an area you desperately want to push, then it does open up a huge area in which to save money though. £74 saved on a CPU plus anything up to £100 saved on your motherboard plus up to £80 saved on your cooler. Add in potential savings on memory and PSU, and the "real" difference between an overclocking and a non-overclocking build of roughly comparable performance could be £250-300, and to most people that's a big pile of cash.

Motherboard - As mentioned above, it's a luxury. It's a great piece of kit, but it's ridiculously expensive - you can pick up a Z87/97 board for half the price. The sound features are significant, but keep in mind that modern onboard sound is pretty good, and without actually buying it you won't really be able to perceive the difference (if at all). For me it'd be a really tough thing to justify, especially considering the Maximus VII Impact should be arriving very soon with the updated Z97 chipset (it won't add much/anything, but it may well cause the VI's price to drop).

Graphics - The 250D isn't a case which specifically requires a reference cooler. If you want one, then go for it, though the "Superclocked" variants are identical in design to the standard reference models, but they come pre-overclocked. In terms of value:p erformance, you are likely to get better results with a non-reference design.

PSU - A 750W PSU is basically pointless in an ITX build, and the RM series aren't great by any means, so I really wouldn't recommend the RM750. A 500W PSU will cover your build, though if you are looking towards higher efficiency units and fully modular units then you are kinda forced to step it up to ~600W or so which isn't the end of the world. I'd probably be shopping within the XFX XTR550/650, SuperFlower Leadex Gold 650W (officially too long, but I think it fits fine), or maybe a Seasonic M12II 650. If you want to save money, something as cheap as an XFX Bronze 550W will work fine.

Fans - Don't buy SP fans for the case, as they are for radiators really. Your H100i will come with a variant of them already installed. For case fans, you want the AF version which look similar at a glance but have a very different fan profile more suited to this type of work.

Quick version - graphics cards are the primary dictator of gaming performance. Some games, especially online ones, will show some nice results from CPU overclocking, but even then it's unlikely that a stock clocked i5 would become a significant bottleneck. You can do an all-in GTX780+i5 on ITX from around £700 which will perform very similarly to your build in most games, so there are savings to be had if it's something you want/need to do.
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July 21, 2014 1:25:38 PM

Rammy said:
Case - I like the 250D, but it basically only makes sense if you plan on using a H100i. If you want options/flexibility, it's not great in that regard. The main other downside is it really is very wide, but I'd assume you've already taken that into consideration.

CPU - nothing wrong with a K-series CPU by any means. If you don't plan on overclocking, or it isn't an area you desperately want to push, then it does open up a huge area in which to save money though. £74 saved on a CPU plus anything up to £100 saved on your motherboard plus up to £80 saved on your cooler. Add in potential savings on memory and PSU, and the "real" difference between an overclocking and a non-overclocking build of roughly comparable performance could be £250-300, and to most people that's a big pile of cash.

Motherboard - As mentioned above, it's a luxury. It's a great piece of kit, but it's ridiculously expensive - you can pick up a Z87/97 board for half the price. The sound features are significant, but keep in mind that modern onboard sound is pretty good, and without actually buying it you won't really be able to perceive the difference (if at all). For me it'd be a really tough thing to justify, especially considering the Maximus VII Impact should be arriving very soon with the updated Z97 chipset (it won't add much/anything, but it may well cause the VI's price to drop).

Graphics - The 250D isn't a case which specifically requires a reference cooler. If you want one, then go for it, though the "Superclocked" variants are identical in design to the standard reference models, but they come pre-overclocked. In terms of value:p erformance, you are likely to get better results with a non-reference design.

PSU - A 750W PSU is basically pointless in an ITX build, and the RM series aren't great by any means, so I really wouldn't recommend the RM750. A 500W PSU will cover your build, though if you are looking towards higher efficiency units and fully modular units then you are kinda forced to step it up to ~600W or so which isn't the end of the world. I'd probably be shopping within the XFX XTR550/650, SuperFlower Leadex Gold 650W (officially too long, but I think it fits fine), or maybe a Seasonic M12II 650. If you want to save money, something as cheap as an XFX Bronze 550W will work fine.

Fans - Don't buy SP fans for the case, as they are for radiators really. Your H100i will come with a variant of them already installed. For case fans, you want the AF version which look similar at a glance but have a very different fan profile more suited to this type of work.

Quick version - graphics cards are the primary dictator of gaming performance. Some games, especially online ones, will show some nice results from CPU overclocking, but even then it's unlikely that a stock clocked i5 would become a significant bottleneck. You can do an all-in GTX780+i5 on ITX from around £700 which will perform very similarly to your build in most games, so there are savings to be had if it's something you want/need to do.


Hey , thanks for the detailed reply, i made some changes after more searching around and managed to cut around £200/$340 off the initial price, when regards to the CPU , i have always been over-clocking the CPU's i owned and will continue to do so hence why i went for the K series. When it comes to the motherboard tbh with you i for some reason "fell for" the maximus board and thought why not treat myself for once instead of always going for the midrange boards, im a sucker for the theme and design of it when i watched the review vids and it really stood out to me as a board i will keep for years to come. I noticed personally when using onboard audio the sound difference compared to standalone cards on headphones and also remember having issues with the driver of the onboard actually crashing my system from before somehow leading me to get a standalone soundcard which sorted it, since then i have been wary of onboard.
Graphics Card: Decided that the 780 was just not worth it in the end and that a 770 is not far behind it (10-15) fps from what benchmarks show and that the 770 is the best performance for money, on-top of that i read of word that the 800series are soon to come and rather invest in one of those. When it comes to the cooler i still do not think that the 250D has loads of space compared to the standard ATX cases and cooling to accommodate a non reference design cooler so i thought i would take the safe route and blow the hot air out the back of the system instead of inside that small enclosure.
I did a lot of searching and im surprised you say the RM series isn't good, i didn't find any bad reviews , it is gold rated and and delivers 53 amps on the 12v rail if i can remember and also corsair PSU's are pretty reliable looking at the RMA rates. I did want to get an "AX" series which i hear are the best due to the OEM seasonic units they use in them but they just cost too much, i was watching a oc3d video of the guy powering his full system with a 450W RM from corsair and that kinda lead me to conclude they were decent.
With fans are the SP 120 high performance ones not good? im really not sure anymore when it comes to fans, and i really dont want to buy those fugly noctua fans that everyone says are amazing, i want my system to look nice. Use to have noctua fans in my old system and always had friends and family commenting on how ugly they were and ruined the overall looks of my system so im not even going to consider them anymore just for a minor performance difference.
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Best solution

July 21, 2014 3:05:17 PM

@ CPU overclocking costs etc-
It's certainly an interesting discussion, but ultimately it comes down to the fact that (almost literally) nobody builds exclusively based on common sense - people buy stuff for a variety of nonsense reasons. I'm pretty straightforward but even I have a closed loop cooler (felt like playing with one) and a coloured fan controller (not 100% sure why really) which are at best luxuries, and in reality, a total waste of money.
CPU overclocking can fall into this category at times, as the gains from it can range from decent to non-existent, and even when the gains are good, they are rarely worth the money invested.
You'll see a lot of "gaming" builds on these forums with mid-range graphics cards and K-series i5s, which is a poor resolution when a build with a non-OC i5 and the extra funds invested in graphics will outperform it in every conceivable scenario.
I'm not here to tell you, or anyone else, that they are wrong, but my first reaction when someone says they want to cut down the budget on a build like this is almost always to ditch the overclocking option, or at least to make them aware that it is a completely viable alternative.

@ Maximus Impact
If I could afford one, I'd probably get one myself, but I'd genuinely consider holding out for the Z97 version as it might drop the prices on the original (VI-Z87) one.
http://rog.asus.com/324662014/maximus-motherboards/maxi...

Graphics
It's slightly counter intuitive but actually a lot of modern ITX cases have better graphics card cooling than some ATX towers. This is because the card sits upright, and the fans sit alongside a vented panel (in some cases) which enables access to cool air. Even a monster tower with 9fans might be worse as none of the fans will be pushing cool air straight onto the card. The only real concern in a 250D would be that the top panel isn't vented, meaning hot air might pool there if the overall case airflow wasn't doing much.
You are 100% right that some ITX cases are going to see significant benefits from a self-exhausting card. Off the top of my head, the EVGA Hadron Air and Silverstone FT03-Mini would be really good examples, where they have little-no venting surrounding the face of the card and no room for significant case airflow.

Fans
I'm not sure where you are intending to mount these fans. If you are replacing the stock H100i fans (which are already an SP120 variant) then one of the SP120 variants is the way to go.
If it's case fans, ie. those which just pull in or push out air at the walls of the case without being impeded, then the AF series are the ones to get, which still get your coloured rings.
Problem is, the 250D doesn't really have any 120mm fan mount locations. You are probably better off with a 140/200mm in the front if you can find one you like, and at the rear it takes solely 80mm fans which are of questionable benefit and likely to be a bit noisey.

Power Supply
As Corsair use a variety of OEMs, it's very hard to say they are good overall as they lack any kind of consistency. Even amongst the RM range, for example, they use two different OEMs, so an RM650 and an RM750 are entirely different products under the same banner. The RM series are ok, but I'm yet to see them at a price that makes them a tempting option.
Seasonic are widely regarded as among the best OEMs, and it's no coincidence that of the 5 PSUs I mentioned in my previous post, 4 are made by Seasonic. The Corsair HX650, AX760 and AX860 are the only three Seasonic made PSUs that Corsair currently sell, and while they are all very good, they are rarely a good option due to their high pricing or lack of availability.
Shopping amongst Seasonic made PSUs is far from a bad option, and gives you a pretty decent selection-
Obviously anything Seasonic branded. G-series and M12II are probably the ones to look at.
Anything XFX branded.
Previously mentioned Corsair HX650, AX760, AX860 if you can get them at a good price.
Antec HCG-M series. HCP Platinum series.
Coolermaster V series.
NZXT Hale 82 (not Hale 82 V2 or Hale 82 N versions)
And various others.

That's not to say that only Seasonic PSUs are any good. If I were buying right now I'd almost undoubtedly buy something made by Superflower (either a Superflower branded unit or perhaps one of the PSUs they make for EVGA), and the likes of Delta, Enhance and FSP also churn out some decent stuff but perhaps with a little less consistency.
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July 21, 2014 4:56:33 PM

Rammy said:
@ CPU overclocking costs etc-
It's certainly an interesting discussion, but ultimately it comes down to the fact that (almost literally) nobody builds exclusively based on common sense - people buy stuff for a variety of nonsense reasons. I'm pretty straightforward but even I have a closed loop cooler (felt like playing with one) and a coloured fan controller (not 100% sure why really) which are at best luxuries, and in reality, a total waste of money.
CPU overclocking can fall into this category at times, as the gains from it can range from decent to non-existent, and even when the gains are good, they are rarely worth the money invested.
You'll see a lot of "gaming" builds on these forums with mid-range graphics cards and K-series i5s, which is a poor resolution when a build with a non-OC i5 and the extra funds invested in graphics will outperform it in every conceivable scenario.
I'm not here to tell you, or anyone else, that they are wrong, but my first reaction when someone says they want to cut down the budget on a build like this is almost always to ditch the overclocking option, or at least to make them aware that it is a completely viable alternative.

@ Maximus Impact
If I could afford one, I'd probably get one myself, but I'd genuinely consider holding out for the Z97 version as it might drop the prices on the original (VI-Z87) one.
http://rog.asus.com/324662014/maximus-motherboards/maxi...

Graphics
It's slightly counter intuitive but actually a lot of modern ITX cases have better graphics card cooling than some ATX towers. This is because the card sits upright, and the fans sit alongside a vented panel (in some cases) which enables access to cool air. Even a monster tower with 9fans might be worse as none of the fans will be pushing cool air straight onto the card. The only real concern in a 250D would be that the top panel isn't vented, meaning hot air might pool there if the overall case airflow wasn't doing much.
You are 100% right that some ITX cases are going to see significant benefits from a self-exhausting card. Off the top of my head, the EVGA Hadron Air and Silverstone FT03-Mini would be really good examples, where they have little-no venting surrounding the face of the card and no room for significant case airflow.

Fans
I'm not sure where you are intending to mount these fans. If you are replacing the stock H100i fans (which are already an SP120 variant) then one of the SP120 variants is the way to go.
If it's case fans, ie. those which just pull in or push out air at the walls of the case without being impeded, then the AF series are the ones to get, which still get your coloured rings.
Problem is, the 250D doesn't really have any 120mm fan mount locations. You are probably better off with a 140/200mm in the front if you can find one you like, and at the rear it takes solely 80mm fans which are of questionable benefit and likely to be a bit noisey.

Power Supply
As Corsair use a variety of OEMs, it's very hard to say they are good overall as they lack any kind of consistency. Even amongst the RM range, for example, they use two different OEMs, so an RM650 and an RM750 are entirely different products under the same banner. The RM series are ok, but I'm yet to see them at a price that makes them a tempting option.
Seasonic are widely regarded as among the best OEMs, and it's no coincidence that of the 5 PSUs I mentioned in my previous post, 4 are made by Seasonic. The Corsair HX650, AX760 and AX860 are the only three Seasonic made PSUs that Corsair currently sell, and while they are all very good, they are rarely a good option due to their high pricing or lack of availability.
Shopping amongst Seasonic made PSUs is far from a bad option, and gives you a pretty decent selection-
Obviously anything Seasonic branded. G-series and M12II are probably the ones to look at.
Anything XFX branded.
Previously mentioned Corsair HX650, AX760, AX860 if you can get them at a good price.
Antec HCG-M series. HCP Platinum series.
Coolermaster V series.
NZXT Hale 82 (not Hale 82 V2 or Hale 82 N versions)
And various others.

That's not to say that only Seasonic PSUs are any good. If I were buying right now I'd almost undoubtedly buy something made by Superflower (either a Superflower branded unit or perhaps one of the PSUs they make for EVGA), and the likes of Delta, Enhance and FSP also churn out some decent stuff but perhaps with a little less consistency.


Hey thanks again for a detailed reply,
When it comes to the CPU overclocking costs etc the reason i feel justifying getting a "K series" i5 is really just to "future proof" me for the years to come as i stated in my last post, when i upgrade my GPU etc i don't want to end up not being able to get the most out of it due to some sort of bottlenecking since my CPU freq is restricted, its kindof like a safety net for the future, thats the way i look at it atleast. I understand how you say i could get a stronger graphics card and go with a non K version and i will get more performance but when it comes down to the 770 and 780 there really isn't a noticeable difference (atleast while gaming on a single monitor setup). The 780TI on the other hand i think is a pretty noticeable jump compared to the 770. So to conclude the cpu overclocking costs etc; i agree with you but in this scenario with the current top end cards i dont think it's worth it.(talking about the 780)

@maximus impact
This is true but due to being in kindof a rush (moving overseas soon) and meeting a schedule in some of my online games with friends, i needed to build this system asap as i have nothing inplace of it apart from a really low end laptop which im using right now so waiting around for new parts to be released with no exact release date just wont work for me, and upgrading later on to it will be too much hassle.

graphics

I see what you mean, i thought the exhaust thing applied to all mini itx cases but i stand corrected now, so the "real" mini mini itx cases are the ones that can cause heat issues with non reference cards i guess, might consider going for the cheaper MSI versions of the cards (atleast £40 cheaper) good save, thanks.

Fans
Yes, i plan to replace the stock h100i fans as i heard loads of rumours about them being really loud and after watching some sound test videos on them i decided not to risk it and go for the sp120 high performance ones (probs wont make much of a difference, but i like the coloured rings as i stated before :D ). Im considering putting a fan in the front panel area to replace the stock but not sure which one to get yet.


Power Supply

Im leaning towards the XFX & seasonic ones now as those names stand out to me and have a decent reputation but on the UK sites im ordering from (ebuyer mainly) doesnt have a single Seasonic branded PSU for some reason, they must be more popular outside of UK. So ill probably end up getting an XFX unit as i used to have Graphics cards from them back when they used to make nvidia cards and never let me down.

All in all thanks for all the replies guys and mainly rammy for taking making very in detailed posts that explain and make it clear on why i should be choosing certain parts. About to order the parts now, take care all!




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