MATX Gaming for Girls

mattyb101

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Sep 13, 2010
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mATX Gaming for Girls

First of all thanks to Toms and the community for an a great resource over the years. This may sound like a slightly odd topic but I could not find much information on what high-perfomance components can and cannot fit inside a mATX case and also on what girls might like in a PC. My wife had a Dell Studio XPS (13") which she liked for the form factor but, as it turns out, cannot run games to save its outsourced and overpriced life so, after she kept borrowing my PC to play games, we decided to build her one that would suit her tastes but also play modern games and be upgradable. Tomshardware has helped me with every build I have made so, in the spirit of giving something back I think this is an under-done topic.

What is important to girls? This depends on the girl of course, my wife is into RPGs and FPS games, loved WoW and AoC and currently plays a lot of Borderlands, she also likes games like Sims3 and Monkey Island, so,to run everything, this PC needed to be powerful. But never mind the games themselves, the looks are all important - nice screen (but needs to be "pretty") and a small form factor were the pre-requisites, she hates my huge Coolermaster HAF and will probably never understand why having a spoiler on top and red lights makes the PC better. But she plays games and was willing to try building her own rig so all is forgiven.

All the parts were bought in the computer centres of Hong Kong so the prices came out about mid-way between UK and US prices (5% or so more expensive than Newegg). As an aside, anyone visiting HK is encouraged to go through the Golden Shopping Arcade or the Wanchai Computer Centres, it's like being a kid in a candy shop.

A note on mATX - not all cases can fit full-length cards, I had to shop around a bit first, I really like the look of the In-Win cases like the Dragon Slayer ( http://www.inwin-style.com/website/pd/pd_detail.php?iw_lanid=0&iw_name_id=465&iw_pd_id=13 ) but they are sadly not available here. Additionally, not all cases can fit an ATX PSU and the mATX ones are all a bit puny, so you need to do homework on the case almost above anything else. Airflow is obviously more important than with the full towers as well. I have put in some pictures below so you can see how tight it is, if I ever do have to add a second GPU things may get ugly (and hot - not a good combination in any context).

Components as follows (linked to Newegg out of interest purely, as I said, all purchased in HK):

LG 22" adjustable 1080P LED Screen - very important as it needs to look "pretty", it has purple colours on it and looks good.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005155

Coolermaster Elite 341 mATX case - also very important, fits all the components nicely and has good airflow, it is not stunning but it is beer-goggle pretty.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119193

ASUS Rampage III Gene Mobo Republic of Gamers
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131658&cm_re=asus_rampage-_-13-131-658-_-Product

Intel i7-930 CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115225&cm_re=i7-930-_-19-115-225-_-Product

Sapphire ViperX HD 5870 1GB - same as in my full ATX tower PC for X-Fire in down the line when the 6000 line comes out for the mATX PC (seems safer from a space and heat point of view than X-fire in a mATX case although it is possible and would fit.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102872&cm_re=sapphire_5870-_-14-102-872-_-Product

Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) 9 9 9 24 RAM - may seem an odd choice but I have exactly the same RAM in my other PC so I may add it in for 12Gb in one PC and then buy new RAM for the other in future.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145258&cm_re=corsair_ram_6gb-_-20-145-258-_-Product

Corsair 750W PSU Modular - needless to say, a modular power supply is essential for a mATX case otherwise you would find yourself in wire hell.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010&cm_re=corssair_750w-_-17-139-010-_-Product

Intel 160GB X25M G2 SSD - I have two 80Gb drives in RAID 0 in my main rig, 80Gb just wasn't enough so I had to buy another 80Gb as I have a number of programs and my Steam install on the C Drive (probably should move Steam to be honest).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167017&cm_re=intel_x25m-_-20-167-017-_-Product

WD Caviar Black 1TB HDD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284&cm_re=wd_caviar_black_1tb-_-22-136-284-_-Product

Intel i7-980x cooler - it being Hong Kong I managed to get a sexy cooler from the top of the line Intel chip to swap out with the stock cooler. Looks like this link.
http://www.frostytech.com/permalink.cfm?NewsID=82541

Coolersmaster fans X2 - I started off without these but it was getting a bit hot, the Mobo does a nice job of fan control with the ASUS software keeping them quiet most of the time (except games). Sneaked some LED fans in too while Stella wasn't watching.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103060&cm_re=coolermaster_case_fan-_-35-103-060-_-Product

Card reader - girls like to put SD cards and things in to upload to Facebook.
DVD burner
Wireless card
Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium OEM
Price: a little under $2000

Fitting it in:

The case (PSU installed)
IMAG0084.jpg

The first screw...
IMAG0079.jpg


We had to install everything this twice (Stella not impressed) because I forgot the CPU cooler has a strut to be fitted on the bottom of the Mobo but it all fitted better the second time. I'd recommend installing extra fans in this case, it only comes with one at the back (sucking out), so we installed one more at the front (sucking in) and one on the side (sucking out) I'm by no means a master of case airflow but the temperatures are good - tested CPU 50, Mobo 34, GPU 55 at load.

Mobo is lovely
IMAG0085.jpg


We installed the PSU first of course, a word of advice is to work out what power cords you need and put them in first too unless you have small fingers. Then stick in the Hard Drives, DVD drives etc. as there is not going to me much room once the Mobo and RAM are in. Install the RAM, CPU and CPU cooler before installing the Mobo, it just fits better and there's less fiddling. Next put the various case USB cords etc, SATA connecters and power cords for HDD/DVD, best to tie these all together to keep them out of the way. Finally install the wireless and the GPU, once the GPU is in it's not going to be easy to make changes so ensure everything else is done, hook up the GPU and system power and it's time to see if it works. Oh and the side fan was a pain because the power cord was only just long enough to attach to the Mobo leaving some room to maneuver the case.

Everything inside with room for X-fire if really necessary
IMAG0087.jpg

And a happy wife
IMAG0090.jpg

IMAG0080.jpg


Conclusion:
It runs like a charm and Stella's a happy girl. It definitely runs hotter than my main rig and the fans are far more noticeable but, unless you need lots of components in your PC then the mATX form factor is great and I would recommend it, no complaints and it's easy to cart around too. And yes, I have no wire management skills. Comments/Questions welcome.
 

zucchini

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Feb 23, 2010
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that's why i hate micro atx cases they're small but very bad cable management inside =( but i guess if you don't care about that kinda stuff they're great. I love my full tower atx cases because of their cable management and air flow and they're easy to work with on the inside. i guess i am just picky about the inside of my case lol. good read tho :)

few things i would of changed myself would be changed to a p55 mobo, and an i5/i7. i know a couple micro atx motherboard with 2pci express slots and use the money you saved p55 setup (mobo, cpu, ram) and get two 460 gtx 1gb instead. I don't think it's worth getting a x58 system unless you plan on using 3-4 video cards. other small things i might of done differently might of got a different cpu cooler, different ram( i love corsair and use them myself but gskill has some better timing ones for just as cheap) and maybe a different ssd and case. I love the the following cases:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007583%2050001998%20600006307&IsNodeId=1&name=MicroATX%20Desktop
 
Great photos! I didn't happen to notice if there was any hardware shown, but no matter . . .

I stuffed an i3 530, itx, SSD, into a CoolerMaster Elite 100 because my wife wanted the "tower" behind the monitor, too. She need small, "pretty", but isn't a gamer . . . the tiny case runs amazingly cool . . . she's happy so I am at peace . . . no surprise the larger CoolerMaster served the same ends for a gamer.

As others have said, an i5 750 might have been a "cooler" choice. And if you go 5870 xfire you might need a thicker cable to connect it to that 22" monitor lol. I'd have been satisfied with a 460.

But its a cool . . . er, neat little system, and thanks for sharing the story.