Help with my "first" MINI ITX build

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Jacob_107

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Aug 14, 2016
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Hello there, I'm thinking about building myself a brand new and also my first PC as a lot of my friends have done before. I'm not planning to do any videoeditting or hardcore gaming, however I'm building the PC in order to improve the gaming experience especially with lighter games such as CSGO. For now I made a part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/KZwp3F

CPU: I heard that going for the i3-6100 with only 2 cores isn't bad if you are building your first entrance build, however I have been looking at the benchmarks where the i3-6100 was compared with i5s such as i5-6400/i5-6500 and using the same GPU the performance of fps rate was nearly doubled. I also forgot to mention that my budget is £700 so this is probably the main reason of going for the i3-6100, but on the other hand I could go for a better CPU and upgrade by adding a GPU later on. I would like to now your personal opinnion.. Thank you.

Motherboard: It's one of the mb with quiet good rating and recommendations and also has built in WiFi which I will be using instead of getting some kind of Ethernet cable from one room to the other.

RAM: Also has quiet good recommendations. To lower my budget I was thinking that for now I could go only with one 8gb stick and add the other one if needed or able to afford. However if I can buy 2 sticks for only about £60 and one stick for £40 it is logical to but 2 sticks at once than paying £80.

Storage: Should I add anything? Well I think the price of SSDs will drop in a year or 2 so for now having greater storage is a better deal even if I have an external storage and 240gb of SSD would handle the OS and many other Softwares and Games.

GPU: I would like to hear recommendations from you and your personal opinion.

PSU: SeaSonic 450W or EVGA 430W PSU? EVGA is cheaper by £20-30 also so this could be worth saving or investing if it provides the same thing as SeaSonic. However SeaSonic is 80+ gold which seems why it is more expensive but by googling out I haven't found the difference so if anyone of you know what it is so special about it let me know. Thank you for reading if you got up to here.

Case: Looks pretty nice and fits perfectly into my room. It would perfectly fit into my shelf next to my desk and it would also have enough airflow around so it shouldn't be a problem.

OS: Why do I have to pay £100 only for the OS? Using Linux isn't the best solution either I think. I used Linux before but only for experience and I'm not fully familiar with it.

Monitor: Looking for anything similar or either cheap.

Keyboard: No idea... Probably something Wireless to leave my desk clear even if for gaming you should probably get a better keyboard or either mouse... What do you think? Hmm..??

Btw do you think I could possibly use it as a server (eg. file server) and run it parallel with games.

PS: Sorry for all that boring text. Just want to get most out of it...
 
Solution
geofelt
There is very little difference in what most need between H110 and H170 motherboards.
Here is a link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1151

If you foresee the possibility in the future of upgrading to an overclockable Z suffix cpu, then you want a Z170 motherboard.
Past that, I see little difference.
If budget is a big issue, H110 will be cheaper.

On the hard drive, they all perform about the same.
WD is perhaps considered a bit more reliable.
Some WD blue is now 5400rpm, be careful about those for a windows drive.
A 250gb ssd can hold the os and a fair number of games.
75# can buy you one.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/Ck98TW/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz750250bw
Defer on the hard drive until you actually need space.
Use the...
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superninja12

superninja12

Glorious
May 18, 2015
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hey man great build!!

1) i would pick an i5 6500 and add a gpu later, the onbaord graphics are good enough to play league and csgo, and would be better since you want to use it as a server (once in a while)

2-> great motherboard

3 I would get a 250gb ssd ( samsung 850 evo) and add 1tb later on , it boots faster loads games faster and it feels snappier.
250gb is enough to install a handfull triple a games and programs, adding 1tb later is plug and play

4 gpu , depends what u want.

5 the seasonic is maybe 10 times better than that evga one, the voltage stability is way better and the build quality too.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1500086/why-you-should-not-buy-an-evga-400-600-and-500b-600b

this one is on sale and made by seasonic aswell PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£57.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Total: £57.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-26 21:22 GMT+0000

5) buy os from kinguin with 1 pound protection , its 30 pounds ...

monitor: depends what kind of games u want to play


 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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Your list of parts is very good.
Some thoughts:

1. Love the i3-6100.
Here is a good review:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10543/the-skylake-core-i3-51w-cpu-review-i3-6320-6300-6100-tested

2. I might warn you off of the asrock motherboard if you plan on using wifi. I have a similar asrock z97m-ITX-ac that has a onboard wifi module.
You need to attach two thin antenna wires which I was utterly unable to do.
Not important to me since I use Ethernet lan. You can use a usb powered wifi dongle or look at a different motherboard.

3. Buy your 2 x 8gb kit up front. adding a stick later is not guaranteed to work, even the same part number.
A motherboard must manage all the ram using the same specs of voltage, cas and speed.
Ram from the same vendor and part number can be made up of differing manufacturing components over time.
Some motherboards can be very sensitive to this.
This is more difficult when 4 sticks are involved.
That is why ram vendors will NOT support ram that is not bought in one kit.
4. 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 for performance and reliability.

5. GTX1050ti is appropriate. A balanced gamer will budget about 2x the cost of the cpu for a graphics card.

6. Seasonic is top quality. That evga is not.
Here is a quality chart.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

7. Does CSGO run in Linux? do other games?
I do not know, I am ignorant about Linux.
Probably best to bite the bullet and buy windows.
There will be NO discounts for legitimate windows.

Try if you can to see monitors in person.
On keyboards/mice, I like wired.


 
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Jacob_107

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Well, pretty much I will probably change to a cheaper PSU which you have suggested and save those to go for the Samsung EVO 250GB instead of HDD. A lot of people have suggested to go for SSD instead becasue if feels much better and you will never want to change bank to HDD. But for now as this is my first enter gaming build I would like to go for about £700. I'm building this build to improve the performance and change from a AMD A8 laptop which gives me 60 fps on low settings in CSGO. I usually play CSGO, Rust, and pretty light games. But if I would have this build I think even high end games could run quiet good. I'm not sure how I could use my build as a server becasue I won't really want to give anyone free access to my files etc. so I will see.. For the OS I was thinking to go for Linux but come on, Windows is much more better and more familiar to me. But I wouldn't buy the OS from Kinguin. I hear too much stories about those keys not working. I think it is just milking money from unexperienced PC builders. Would you suggest me any monitors within the same price as my current build has? What about the GTX 1050ti? Or the CPU? Also no idea about the keyboard. I personally can't spend £200 just on the razer keyborad. Btw thanks for a quick reply.. +1

My modified build: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/mT2vqk
 
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superninja12

superninja12

Glorious
May 18, 2015
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iknow the budget, since i am a student myself.

to sum up:

1) dont cheap out on the psu its the most important part of the pc,sadly many youtubers dont know what theyre talking about.
2) for the monitor google ips vs tn, if u want to get an ips panel this one, otherwise stick to your monitor.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Monitor: Asus VC239H 23.0" 60Hz Monitor (£119.99 @ Novatech)
Total: £119.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-26 21:46 GMT+0000
3 dont rush the keybaord and mouse every hand is different.
 
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Jacob_107

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Okay so investing into the PSU and the ips monitor seems worth it but for now I think I will stay at the same monitor because I can't go really over the budget of £700: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/GZsdr7

Also do you think I could use my older laptop's HDD as well in my build or is it impossible...
 
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badboyrog2

badboyrog2

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PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/ZVr4BP
Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/ZVr4BP/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£159.30 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B150M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£72.28 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£62.99 @ Novatech)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.20 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Mini Video Card (£129.95 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman M1 Mini ITX Tower Case (£23.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£49.99 @ Novatech)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home Full 32/64-bit (£83.90 @ More Computers)
Monitor: Asus VP228TE 21.5" 75Hz Monitor (£75.98 @ Aria PC)
Other: Logitech Wireless Combo MK345 Keyboard and Mouse Set (£23.95)
Total: £722.53
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-26 22:06 GMT+0000
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Laptop drives are optimized for battery savings, not performance.
However, using it as a storage drive in a pc should work perfectly well. I assume it is a sata drive.

On the ips vs tn question, IPS gives you a better image, tn is faster.
See if you can't view the difference yourself.

 
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Jacob_107

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Well I was just wondering if my 5 years old laptops would work but after some research that I have done, I found out the yes it is possible, however doesn't perform as good as HDDs and not even as SSD so anyway looking for to use SSD soon. At least I hope I will build this thing :)

For the monitor I understand the difference but for now I will be happy with the monitor I choosed for not.. Anyway I can always go dual monitor but as I'm not really into graphics but more into performance I would probably go for the one I have been looking at. Ach why does PC building cost so much, even if I know that it probably would cost less amount as if you would invest to an already built gaming laptop or desktop.

This is my current build guide: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/QMPwkT

And what do you think about this: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Pentium-G4500-vs-Intel-Core-i3-6100
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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I would stick with the I3-6100; it is a much better long term processor.
It has 4 threads where a G4500 has only two.
Some games actually need 4 threads to run.

You can save some on the motherboard with a H110 chipset.
Here are the differences:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1151
Here is one without wifi for £63.36

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-Lga1151-H110I-Mini-Itx-Motherboard/dp/B018XP37TY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1480202911&sr=8-2&keywords=lga1151+itx

Add a usb wifi dongle like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ANEWISH-433Mbps-Wireless-Supports-10-4-10-11-4/dp/B01G77I46G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480202975&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=usb+wifi&psc=1

 
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Jacob_107

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There is only reason why I would go for the H170 is that it would provide good service for a longer time than the H110 becasue if I would like to build something I want it to least long however it is still easier to replace the CPU or add the graphics card. What do you think would it really matter if it is H110 or H170 if I want it to least longer. I looked at the links you sent me but there isn't much difference I would say.. For the price it is just about. Btw I'm looking for built in WiFi.. I know I know a lot of people said that you might need to instal the WiFi card by yourself but there is quiet a lot of that on youtube so that might not be a big problem.. Well it shouldn't be for me. So if you could give any recommendation or experience I would pick your comment as sollution and +rep everywhere :)
 
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Jacob_107

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Well if I could I would definitelly go for the Z-type of motherboard beacause they have much more other futures, however I would like to keep my build under £700 but for now it looks like this:https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/Camprlik/saved/y4zYJx

Do you think for this build I should stay at the same mb I have or go for a cheaper one such as the H110?

Also I don't know if you have experience with HDD but, What is the difference between those two storages apart of the capacity? Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB, Toshiba 2TB
 
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geofelt

geofelt

Titan
Oct 9, 2006
54,262
4,125
174,240
There is very little difference in what most need between H110 and H170 motherboards.
Here is a link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1151

If you foresee the possibility in the future of upgrading to an overclockable Z suffix cpu, then you want a Z170 motherboard.
Past that, I see little difference.
If budget is a big issue, H110 will be cheaper.

On the hard drive, they all perform about the same.
WD is perhaps considered a bit more reliable.
Some WD blue is now 5400rpm, be careful about those for a windows drive.
A 250gb ssd can hold the os and a fair number of games.
75# can buy you one.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/Ck98TW/samsung-internal-hard-drive-mz750250bw
Defer on the hard drive until you actually need space.
Use the savings from using a H110 motherboard for about 40#

You will usually need to add a usb dongle for wifi


 
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