What do you think of my planned extreme budget mini-ITX build?

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sas2450

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I'm planning to build a super portable mini itx pc to take back and forward from uni. I'm planning on building the case from scratch out of aluminium. My budget is £300 and I want to be able to play any modern game on at least medium. I've already picked up a used gtx 750 ti 2gb for £70 so I'm mainly asking about the rest of the build.

Here's the part list:
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/k9m6RG
Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£59.99)
MSI H81I Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (58.99)
Hitachi Travelstar 5K1000 1TB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£46.89)
Palit StormX OC gtx 750 ti (69.99)
FSP Group 300W 80+ Bronze Certified SFX Power Supply (£35.99)
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 OEM 64-bit (£20.00)

I have 8gb ddr3 1600 ram laying around that I can use, and a coupla fans. I'm not sure whether I'll buy a usb wifi adapter or powerline adapters, it depends on the situation in my house. The main thing I'm worried about is the processor. Do you think it'll be powerful enough If I overclock it?

Thanks in advance.
 
Solution
geofelt
You can buy a very good quality ITX case made by lian li. The aluminum Q08 holds full size parts and has good cooling.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112265

You buy a G3258 in order to overclock it.
For the price, it is a very effective cpu and will probably meet your needs.

If you get the lian li case, you can use a standard ATX psu. Seasonic 380w would be fine.

One thing I would change is the HDD.
First of all, 5400rpm drives are slow and not good for windows.

I will never again build without a ssd for the "C" drive. It makes everything you do much quicker.
120gb is minimum, it will hold the os and a handful of games. If you can go 240gb, or 500gb you may never need a hard drive.

I would defer...
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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You can buy a very good quality ITX case made by lian li. The aluminum Q08 holds full size parts and has good cooling.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112265

You buy a G3258 in order to overclock it.
For the price, it is a very effective cpu and will probably meet your needs.

If you get the lian li case, you can use a standard ATX psu. Seasonic 380w would be fine.

One thing I would change is the HDD.
First of all, 5400rpm drives are slow and not good for windows.

I will never again build without a ssd for the "C" drive. It makes everything you do much quicker.
120gb is minimum, it will hold the os and a handful of games. If you can go 240gb, or 500gb you may never need a hard drive.

I would defer on the hard drive unless you need to store large files such as video's.
It is easy to add a hard drive later.
Samsung EVO is a good choice.

If you want to go stronger on the cpu, I3-6100 is a very good gamer.
Here is a review:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10543/the-skylake-core-i3-51w-cpu-review-i3-6320-6300-6100-tested
 
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Solution
Dark Lord of Tech

Dark Lord of Tech

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Design a case that supports Micro Atx boards , most do and add your ram to this.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£99.98 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: Asus H110M-K D3 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£49.99 @ Novatech)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£41.99 @ Novatech)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card (£69.99)
Power Supply: XFX TS 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.22 @ More Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 OEM 64-bit (£20.00)
Wireless Network Adapter: Edimax EW-7811Un USB 2.0 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter (£5.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £324.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-18 23:15 BST+0100
 
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sas2450

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I have two reasons for wanting to build my own case. Firstly all the cases I've seen are the wrong shape. They are all tall and box shaped whereas I want mine flat and rectangular, like a ps4 so it can fit in the laptop space in my bag, and I'm going to mount the gpu flat next to the motherboard to do this. All the cheap ones I've seen in this form cannot hold a graphics card. Secondly I actually enjoy the challenge of building it myself. I want the challenge of building something around the parts, in the smallest form factor possible and still have decent enough cooling for overclocking.

I have looked at the i3 6100 but it is out of my price range unfortunately. Also, I heard that with a skylake processor ddr4 ram is recommended, which bumps up the cost even more.

Is the psu I've written enough for my build? I think the 300w is ok but I'm not too sure how to judge the power on the 12v rail.

Thanks for all the speedy answers.
 
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sas2450

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Thank you for your help. That case is just too expensive for me. the one I am planning to build will only cost about £20 and I want the fun of doing it too. The reason the ram bumps the cost up is because I already have some ddr3 ready to use. Thanks for all your advice everyone, I might keep to my plan!
 
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