Mini ITX Gaming Build - Quiet/Silent $1000ish new builder

[NewGuy9000]

Hi all,

Trying to make it cheap, powerful, quiet (Silent if i can fit my budget) and reliable... most load on it will be gaming (mmorgp style not really fps). Some graphic programs including photoshop, autocad, sketchup, no more than 2-3 hours a day if that. A lot of MS office work as well.

Will be my 1st time building a pc so i'm trying to get every single thing on the list besides tools. Here goes...

BitFenix Prodigy Midnight Black
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811345016

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504

ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131840
(Was also looking at the ASRock Z77E-ITX but air cooling options for cpu on that are kinda puny cause of the location of pci and some stuff on back of the board... watercooling is more expensive and loud and if it breaks you are s.o.l.)

thermalright macho cpu cooler
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=thermalright+macho&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Athermalright+macho&ajr=2

G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231544

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125446

Intel 330 Series SSD - 240GB SATA III
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167127

Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182200

SAMSUNG DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151256

SAPPHIRE DVI to VGA adapter
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814999201
(to post on my samsung monitor, only has VGA input, i figured i'd need this because graphics card wont be installed yet!?)

3 Pin Fan Power Y Cable
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812189063

Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit (Full Version) - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416550
(Cheaper than windows 7. and unlike 7 i read this OEM isn't tied to the 1st pc its installed on)


Subtotal: $1,135

*I already have a monitor (SAMSUNG S22B150N Black 21.5") , keyboard, and mouse.

Will be my 1st ever build so do all these components work together? Main concern is that its all compatible and stable.

Any noticeable bottlenecks in speed or graphics? Advice make it more silent?

Any way to drop price and keep performance?

Maybe add a 230mm Bitfenix fan?

Never overclocked before but plan to.



Tnx for any help!

 

[Poltregeist]

How's this?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master V6 GT 93.7 CFM CPU Cooler ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($74.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($89.88 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card ($231.98 @ Newegg)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($99.99 @ CompUSA)
Other: ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe ($184.99)
Total: $1143.77
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-09 18:14 EST-0500)

Unfortunately I had to drop the SSD to a 128GB to upgrade the GPU. The PSU and CPU cooler I listed are much better. That V6 is the best you can get for $50. If you want a slightly different look, the V8 performs similarly for about the same price.

 

[jmsellars1]

Performance looks pretty decent but I don't know about quietness. Get a CPU cooler with a PWM fan and a better quality PSU if you want something truly quiet. The Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo is cheap and very quiet. The Seasonic 520W modular PSU would be good for quietness/reliability etc.

 

[emperor piehead]

first of all on the psu i've done research into it you want a non-moudlar psu that is 140mm deep because it will be extremely hard with anything bigger or with the modular connectors that stick out and you can't really fit a hyper 212 due to its height.
On psu i would pick an antec ea-650 its 80plus platnium and mostly quiet. Price is $119.99 though so kind of expensive. If you look for a power supply the inch= 5.5 or 14cm or 140mm.

 

[jmsellars1]

Ahh, just assumed the Coolermaster would fit since he was using that macho with the 140mm fan.

Not many PSU's are that small, the Silverstone Strider series are generally small though.

 

[NewGuy9000]

Performance looks pretty decent but I don't know about quietness. Get a CPU cooler with a PWM fan and a better quality PSU if you want something truly quiet. The Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo is cheap and very quiet. The Seasonic 520W modular PSU would be good for quietness/reliability etc.

Thanks! ended up getting the 550w seasonic G series other people have squeezed it into the psu bay already so it should fit mine too.

Azrock Z77E-ITX board not the asus

Also a hyper TX3 as it shouldn't block the graphics card slot. Turns out with the case and this mobo the width of the cpu cooler is more a concern than the height. Also the backplate of some coolers have issue with compenents on the backside of the mobo.

 

[NewGuy9000]

What i ended up buying:

Intel Core i5-3570K

ASRock Z77E-ITX LGA 1155

BitFenix Prodigy Case (using the 2 stock fans till i upgrade with gpu etc)

COOLER MASTER Hyper TX3

Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM

SeaSonic G Series SSR-550RM 550W

Intel 335 Series 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC SSD

LITE-ON DVD Burner

StarTech Model TX3SPLITTER 6" TX3 Fan Power Splitter

Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit (Full Version) - OEM

Total cost from microcenter and newegg including tax and shipping: $762.72


All these are components other people used in similar builds and based on sale prices and online reviews and recomendations . Tom's community has been very helpful and i will update here if there's any issues w/e with how this turns out when i build the thing within the week

Hopefully this setup should work out until i can afford to upgrade with a GTX 660 and 230mm bitfenix pro fan.

Tnx!

 

[jmsellars1]

Looks awesome.

 

[willyroc]

Bitfenix Spectre for the case fans.

 

[NewGuy9000]

Hi just wanted to followup here, m typing this from this build described 2 posts up hehe. 1 week and everything is working great!

Only thing added is a 1.5tb wd green drive i found cheap for black friday sale.

Had do have to squeeze the psu in there but it fit fine. Also worth it to bend the main 24pin cable down a bit so it doesn't block air flow towards the cpu cooler. I also removed the top hard drive tray for better air flow. Plenty of room still to upgrade another 3.5" HD, if i ever need to, with all the places this case has to stash the SSDs.

Setup fans in the bios to run at low speeds and everything runs silent and very cool. CPU is at 20-25c idle and around 50c heavy loads. I ran Prime95 test for 1hour 15mins, temps maxed at 56-62C for the different cores, though mostly in the high 40s to mid 50s through the test.

Its winter here so I'm planning to wait till spring/summer to upgrade the fans since its running great with the stock case fans and TX3 cpu cooler.

Only issue i had with this build was setting up my samsung monitor #S22B150 to display things correctly... with the Intel HD4000 if the picture is slightly bigger or smaller than your monitor screen adjust it in the "wizard mode" not "advanced" manual mode of the graphics software suite and it works fine.

Maybe getting a graphics card end of the year but the onboard graphics is fine for mmos and photoshop etc. so far.

 

[jmsellars1]

I would make sure you have the latest graphics driver from Intel, that certainly shouldn't be happening.