Advice pls: Upgrading a Mini-ITX gaming rig.

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viper119

viper119

Commendable
Sep 5, 2016
5
0
1,510
Howdy ya'll

Would really appreciate any thoughts or opinions anyone has about this!

My objective is to game reasonably comfortably at 60 fps in 1440p in most new games (Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Witcher 3, etc).

Prefer the Mini-ITX form factor as I live internationally and it helps for travelling.

Not really interested in overclocking, though having the option for longevity is good.

This is my current build:

  • -BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case
    -Cooler Master VSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
    -Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard
    -Intel Core i5-3570 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
    -Cooler Master X Dream i117 (http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/cpu-air-cooler/x-dream-i117/)
    -G.Skill Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory
    -Intel 520 Series Cherryville 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
    -Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
    -GALAX GeForce GTX 1080 8GB EX OC Video Card
Originally built in 2013, I've been slowly upgrading over time, recently got the GTX 1080. I also got the X Dream i117 cooler a while back to replace the stock Intel one as the CPU was running a touch hot.

I'm looking at upgrading the motherboard and CPU as it feels about time to do so, want to avoid CPU throttling, and also future proof for the next 3-4 years or so ideally. Looking at getting:

  • -Asus MAXIMUS VIII IMPACT Mini ITX LGA1151 //OR// Asus Z170I PRO GAMING Mini ITX LGA1151
    -Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
    -G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory
Things I'm wondering about are:

1) Get the Impact or the Pro Gaming?

I'm not using M2 currently, and U2 will probably be the new standard by the time I upgrade the storage.

The Impact seems like overkill as I don't overclock (and it's more expensive), though it would be good to have the high quality audio and wifi, and I don't use PS/2 or USB 2.0, so losing those is a plus. Though it is bigger with the daughter cards so I may have more space issues.

I have 1x 200mm front, 2x 120mm top and 1x 140mm rear fans on the BitFenix case, so additional fan headers are useful.

I'm an Asus kid from way back so prefer their boards.

2) Will the Impact or Pro Gaming fit into the BitFenix case with the GTX 1080, and the Cooler Master X Dream i117 cooler?

I've been googling around for quite a while on all this and not found much to go on. It seems like either motherboards should fit into the case (and the 1080 fits in currently), however I can't find anything solid about CPU coolers. The Impact in particular seems to limit cooler size.

Any thoughts or opinions much appreciated.

Many thanks!
 
Solution
logainofhades
Those titles are bit more CPU dependent, iirc. I also would recommend a better cooler. Since your CPU is an ivy bridge, you can overclock a bit too. You should be able to at least clock it to 3.8ghz, just by setting the multiplier, to 38. You might get lucky and be able to get away with a 39 or 40. I remember my i5 2400 was able to go to a multiplier, higher than turbo allowed for, for some reason.
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James Mason

James Mason

Titan
Jan 2, 2014
13,553
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74,965
I wouldn't bother upgrading your CPU and Mobo yet, not really worth the price for what you'll get performance wise.

One thing to be careful of is Desktops really don't like traveling, they're very susceptible to damage if you travel with them frequently.

Your current CPU cooler is kinda meh, you may consider upgrading that, but since you have a stock non-OC cpu, temps probably aren't a problem for you.
 
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viper119

viper119

Commendable
Sep 5, 2016
5
0
1,510


Hey man, thanks for the info! I'm a bit confused about that. Looking a the Tier Lists in your link, I see the V Series is Tier 1, the VS is Tier 2, and VSM isn't mentioned, though the rest of Cooler Master's product range (except the VSM) are mentioned in lower tiers. Is the VSM not included in the VS? This is the PSU: http://www.coolermaster.com/powersupply/v-sm-series/v550s/ - It looks like it's part of the VS series?
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
Apr 27, 2009
37,607
3,277
143,290
Sorry about that. For some reason my brain thought the Corsair VS, that is far more common to see on here, was what you had listed. :lol: It is rare that I see someone with a CM VSM series. If you want a bit more longevity/multitasking ability, out of your rig, an i7 3770k, off Ebay, would be an easier option.
 
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viper119

viper119

Commendable
Sep 5, 2016
5
0
1,510
Ahaha, fair enough! No worries. Yeah I'm living in Cape Town at the moment and there's not a great availability of PC hardware here tbh.

Just on Grandmaster's point about the cooler. That CPU was running a bit hot (at base clock!), idling around 40 and hitting 70+ under gaming load with the stock Intel cooler. I wanted to up it but not go crazy as it's not overclocked, with that cooler it idles at 30 and hits 60 while gaming but doesn't go near 70.

So on the CPU point you both raised, it's interesting you say that. Thanks for the input by the way, appreciate it!

I'm not getting a solid 60 FPS in 1440p at Ultra/High in Fallout 4, Witcher 3, etc, and I can see the CPU usage hitting 80-90% while the GPU is only at 50-60%.

I ran 3DMark and I got:

Time Spy: 6167 (Graphics: 7381 / CPU: 3192)
Fire Strike: 15 093 (Graphics: 23011 / Physics: 7594 / Combined: 7191).

Weirdly my RAM speed is only 1372 on auto with XMP.

So I thought maybe the older CPU was bottlenecking the performance.
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
Apr 27, 2009
37,607
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143,290
Those titles are bit more CPU dependent, iirc. I also would recommend a better cooler. Since your CPU is an ivy bridge, you can overclock a bit too. You should be able to at least clock it to 3.8ghz, just by setting the multiplier, to 38. You might get lucky and be able to get away with a 39 or 40. I remember my i5 2400 was able to go to a multiplier, higher than turbo allowed for, for some reason.
 
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