Looking for advice on this Mini-Itx Build.

Harlequyn

Reputable
Aug 8, 2014
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Hello
I'm heading to uni next year and desire a more portable pc then my current one, which leads to this situation. I'm looking to build a Mini-itx system, designed for gaming and is a reasonably portable size, unlike my current massive full tower, which is outdated. Im from australia, and i am looking at purchasing parts from pccg.

The parts i've been looking at are:

  • Intel Core i5 4690K (for overclocking later)
    ASUS Z97I-PLUS Motherboard
    ASUS DRW-24D3ST 24x DVD Writer
    Corsair Hydro Series H100i CPU Cooler (To aid with cpu cooling and Overclocking Later on.)
    BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Case
    Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001
    Samsung 840 EVO Series 120GB SSD
    Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 OC Edition 2GB
    Corsair CS550M Modular 80 Plus Gold Power Supply
    Kingston Hyper X Fury HX316C10FK2/8 8GB (2x4GB) Blue

No Monitors or cables required as i own enough.

Constructive advice appreciated, just looking for thoughts on the build.
Cheers

Edit: I should also mention that i live in Australia, so some sites which are american based wont work.









 
Solution
In general you are on the right track, there's only one serious problem and a few trivial ones.

The "big" issue is that you can't fit an optical drive and a H100i in a Prodigy without modding, as in the top or front positions a 240mm radiator blocks the ODD.
The best way to solve this is just to use an air cooler instead. The Z97I-Plus has great compatibility with air coolers, as does the Prodigy case. You'll get better value for money here too, and likely better noise characteristics too.
If you want to keep everything you have, then the easiest solution is to switch to a Corsair 250D. It's more or less designed with this type of build in mind (H100i+optical drive) and nothing at ITX level is quite as suited.

Onto the trivial stuff -...

Harlequyn

Reputable
Aug 8, 2014
2
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4,510


Cheers for the link mate, but unfortunately here in AUS, some parts aren't avaliable, and the websites referenced dont ship to Aus. However the list provided me with some helpful insight.

I probably should've said that in the original post, ahaha.
 


No worries I am in Aus as well. I try to link you to an Aus build.
 

Rammy

Honorable
In general you are on the right track, there's only one serious problem and a few trivial ones.

The "big" issue is that you can't fit an optical drive and a H100i in a Prodigy without modding, as in the top or front positions a 240mm radiator blocks the ODD.
The best way to solve this is just to use an air cooler instead. The Z97I-Plus has great compatibility with air coolers, as does the Prodigy case. You'll get better value for money here too, and likely better noise characteristics too.
If you want to keep everything you have, then the easiest solution is to switch to a Corsair 250D. It's more or less designed with this type of build in mind (H100i+optical drive) and nothing at ITX level is quite as suited.

Onto the trivial stuff -
PSU isn't very good. It's very short which is helpful, but otherwise it's not a great pick. I'd generally avoid Corsair PSUs right now as they are either average, overpriced, or both. You don't explicitly need a modular PSU in a Prodigy either, it's a nice thing to have but there's a decent amount of space to tuck cables.
I'd suggest looking at the Antec HCG-520M/620M as well as more or less anything from Seasonic/XFX.

Fans If you stick with a Prodigy you'll likely want to upgrade the fans. The stock ones are ok if you want something quiet, but they don't move a lot of air. Stick a decent 120/140mm at the back and a decent 140/200/230mm on the front and you have very good airflow (two case fans is enough).

Budget balance. If this is a machine exclusively focused on gaming, then it's highly likely that you want to go deeper into graphics as a percentage of your budget. As a general rule of thumb, the higher this percentage is - the better a gaming machine it is. You don't list any details about your display resolution - this is fairly significant (see "asking for build advice" sticky) as it's going to skew how much it makes sense to spend on graphics.
At sub 1080P, you've probably already spent enough (arguably overspent) by going for a GTX760.
At 1080P you have a solid card, but it's lifespan isn't going to be phenominal if you want to play AAA games at high/max settings.
At 1440P or beyond it would definitely make sense to push more funds towards graphics.
(This is a very rough guide)

There's actually a very easy way to do this - drop overclocking.
It might seem counter-intuitive, but most games are still predominantly graphics bound and a stock clocked i5 is going to keep up remarkably well. It's a little hard for me to estimate in AUD, but you could save anything up to around $300 simply by dropping this facility (and the accompanying motherboard+cooler) which could give you enough budget flexibility to grab a GTX780, R9 290 or R9 290X - definitely worth thinking about.
 
Solution