Thanks for your inputs guys, much appreciated.
The build will be used mainly for work (programming, word, powerpoint) with some gaming on the side. I will need to use MATLAB, ISE, C++ and possibly COMSOL later and although I can do these (minus the COMSOL) on my i3 laptop it is really slow and frustrating at times. Game-wise its been a while since I bought one but I am planning to have a go at RTW2 when I have some free time. I only had i3 laptop with its integrated graphics so I haven't enjoyed many games at high settings! So although I am not a heavy gamer and I don't see myself getting upcoming games I would like to play last years game without lags at high settings. I am looking at maximum budget of 1200GBP for my build.
I am aware of the gains in lowering TDP in "T" CPUs are low compared to how much they lose in performance especially when considering the quoted TDP are when they are their maximum. But even so since I am trying to lower the power usage much as possible I think having an upper limit of TDP set by your CPU will be better. I do feel like I am trying to chase two hares though!
I obviously would not be planning any overclocking (for now at least) but the reason I went with the Z97 board is to use the M.2 PCIe x4 SSDs. Far as I am aware ASUS Maximus Impact VII is the only Z97 mini-ITX board that has this (at the expense of 2 SATA connections and halved bandwidth on expansion slot). M.2 PCIe x4 is also another expensive component which I have a strong feeling I will regret later since the price seem to be inflated as its "new" technology. This is something that I am just indulging into since
For graphics card, the reason I went for passively cooled card was because I wanted to keep the power consumption (from fan) and noise low as possible. But I am also very concerned about the heat issue. I think I will build the system without the graphics card in the begining to check the airflow inside the case then decide on it. But if a graphics card with a fan is needed, which do you recommend? I also looked at Gigabyte's implementation of GTX 750Ti, GV-N75TOC-2GL. I actually was considering Xigmatek Nebula as case in the begining!
Will the 300W be enough to power this?
@DonkeyOatie: I had a quick look at your build thread (I will need to read it more to get to current affairs of the build
![:D :D]()
), I also considered ML07 as well but I read the air flow in that is not good when considering graphics card as well or something to that effect plus my better half was also against it.... I am pricing my build in sterling pounds and the list I wrote comes to grand total of around 1100GBP.
P.S. I signed up yesterday but the forum seems to be quite difficult to use... and it seems to have issue with chrome for me, this is my second writing of the reply