Mini ITX Gaming-Movies $800Budget Need Advice

[Rushy McDiesalot]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Within the next 1-3 weeks BUDGET RANGE: CDN $500-800 (Major upgrades the upper limit can budge slightly)

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Light to moderate multitasking i.e WoW on main monitor + Movie on secondary monitor.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Operating System, Secondary Display, Hard Disk, Video Card, Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg.CA, ncix.CA, canadacomputers.com, tigerdirect.CA

PARTS PREFERENCES: Gonna try for mostly well known and reliable brands, i've never used a Zotac board before but i'm unaware of any other Mini ITX boards that have a PCI-E 2.0 16x slot. I'de really like to go with a Corsair or PCP&C power supply but if there is equal quality for less i'm open to other brands.

OVERCLOCKING: Yes SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: Looking at a couple 1080p 24" monitors.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I want to make the computer as small as I can without being unreasonable. I'm gonna go with a Mini-ITX board from Zotac. I'de like a good aftermarket heatsink but I can't really choose one until a case is finalized.. I guess ditto for the PSU. I'm going to use my old Palit 8800GT so the size will need to be taken into consideration.

I'm concerned about fit mostly and wether or not that board can handle overclocking.

So far I have:

G.SKILL HK 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) : $59.99

ZOTAC GF9300-D-E LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9300 HDMI WiFi Mini ITX: $159.99 ($20.00 MIR)

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775: $179.99

SILVERSTONE Sugo SG05-B Black SECC Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case SFX 300W 80Plus Power Supply: $109.99

BENQ G2410HD 24" Full HD Widescreen LCD Monitor, 16:9, 1920x1080, 2ms GTG, 40000:1:1 DCR, D-sub / DVI-D: $209.99 ($70 IR)

 

[Twoboxer]

I *love* the idea of this little case. Maybe not Gaming with a capital G, but pop a 250 in there - or the ATI card you think is superior, set the little thing on an ice cube to keep it cool . . . or blow on it lol.

Looking for an excuse to build one of these myself.

 

[not moose]

Mini-ITX are generally used for small exclusive builds. You should consider going mATX instead of mITX, this would save you alot of money for better performance and a case made for micro atx boards.

 

[not moose]

SILVERSTONE SUGO - $79.99
CORSAIR 550VX - $82.49
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - $189.99
GIGABYTE GA-G41M-ES2L - $84.99
XIGMATEK HDT-S1284EE - $43.99
XIGMATEK ACK-I7753 Retention Bracket - $18.49

Current total: $525.94 | After rebates: $495.94

The case fits a regular size psu, 12" long video cards, boasts a decent height for the SE1284. The mobo is a cooler verson of the G31. It has onboard video, so the monitor you watch movies on can be plugged into that where as your game monitor can be plugged into your video card (Not too sure about this).

Another option is going with a Phenom II x3 720, which will handle some hard multi-tasking, but finding an mATX boards for it can be a little troubling.

 

[Rushy McDiesalot]

Thanks for the replies so far, that definately looks like a solid build not moose (i'm using the heatsink in my main rig and love it), but if at all possible i'de really like to stay with a Mini ITX form factor, even if it is just to stand out in terms of how small it is.

Just an update, I was reading reviews for the Zotac board and came across this:

"Regarding your concern with SG05’s PSU, this unit was selected and tuned by SilverStone engineers for improved quietness and performance (300W continuous power at 50C). It has dedicated +12V rail for graphics card (16A, peak 19A) to provide more than enough power for any 9" long dual slot graphics cards. We actually do not recommend using off the shelf SFX PSUs at this time as they may not be designed to work well in the SG05 environment as we have done with the included unit.

As a reference, here is a list of components used in the SG05 development system:
Intel Core 2 Quad 9550 95W CPU
MSI IM-Q35 DO Industrial Mini-ITX motherboard
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C5DX DDR2 memory
*AMD Radeon HD4850 graphics card*
WD Raptor 150GB + VelociRaptor 300GB 10,000rpm hard drives
Slim Blu-ray drive

*The Radeon HD4850 is currently the highest powered card that can fit inside the SG05 (more than NVIDIA GTS 250, which is a dual slot design.)
"

So I guess I may give them the benefit of the doubt and use the included PSU in the case. Now I just need to find a good DVD reader/burner, maybe a slim one.

 

[not moose]

If you don't already have the Velociraptors, don't get them. They aren't worth the money and it would be better spent on two WDCB 640gb in raid0.

A nice mini-itx case you should consider is the Lian-Li PC-Q7.

Picture.

 

[KyleSTL]

+1 avoid the Raptors. Get WD Black drives (640-1000)

+1 on Lian Li Q7

I would go for a 4770 due to it's very low power consumption (and nearly equal performance to the 4850 at stock, and very high OC potential). It should be able to handle most games at 1920x1080 with reasonable quality levels. Besides, the 40nm line will be rolling out later this year and you can swap it out for a better, cheaper card that uses less energy.

 

[Tatanis]

Good Thread. I am thinking of making a system like this as well. I want to be able to easily move my gaming system around for LANs and what not. This is the case I am looking at:

Antec Case

The main problem I am finding with this is the lack of the ability to have a high powered video card.

 

[Twoboxer]

Besides the vid card problem, I see the Antec Skeleton case and think theft and sabotage lol.

The main advantages to the larger Lian-Li case are more size, but even less weight than those 1 size down. And if you like the elegant look, elegance.