My Turn: micro-ATX build

[Chick]

My Turn: Mini-ITX build

I'm just looking at ideas currently.

• KFA2 GeForce GTX 660 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
• Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache
• 16gb PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
• ASRock H77 Pro4-M Intel H77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard
• Akasa Venom 550w Modular '80 Plus' Power Supply
• In-Win Dragon Slayer Midi Tower Case
• Alpenf�hn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler

Totals at �710
The case is probably crap but looks cool and is well reviewed.

i've also got a micro-itx in my head but it's 100 more for an equivalent thingy due to case/psu/mobo pricing.

cant hose who know plx shred this if it is not going to work ?

 

[Chick]

ok so fingers crossed it should all be turning up tomorrow. I ended up going for this spec - it's a bit of a monster for a mini-ITX so fingers crossed it is all going to work.

I've purposefully left off an after-market CPU cooler as the case allegedly has room for a mall water-cooling block - if stock cooler can't keep it cool enough I'll be changing. That said, these more modern low-power systems (total system power drain is 308w at full pelt, allegedly) should be easy enough to keep cool. The media-cenmtra part will be run from on-board HDMI to keep power consumption noise down.

All in all i'm rather excited for Saturday's delivery day. Pics to follow:

• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 WindForce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
• Intel Core i5-3570 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W)
• Asus P8H77-I Intel H77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 MiniITX Motherboard
• GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
• Silverstone Fortress FT03 Mini Case - Silver
• Silverstone Strider SFX Gold 450w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply
• Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache
• Asus VS228H 22" Widescreen LED Multimedia Monitor

 

[Rochdale]

nice, post pics

 

[Septian]

er.. GEIF?

 

[Rochdale]

I went the opposite way, super huge PC that won't fit under a desk....

 

[Tempy]

I went the opposite way, super huge PC that won't fit under a desk....

Get a bigger desk then

 

[Rochdale]

Well child 1 is moving into the spare bedroom soon so I'll lose the desk altogether, which means I need to somehow fit everything into the built in cupboard in the front room.... so it may get changed into a water cooled thing in a custom case with the radiator under the floor

 

[Tempy]

Daughters bedroom is getting too small for her and all her toys / debris. Not going back to the 2 people in a 6' x 7' room, so we are going to have to build an extension to make another bedroom, so she can have ours...

 

[Rochdale]

Yes child debris is an issue, we had the loft boarded out last year and it's pretty much full already. Extension ahoy, but not for a few years hopefully.

 

[Chick]

Case out of the box - she's a beauty:

Oh looksee inside - loads of room... *gulp*

And look at all the other things and things and things and things!!!
(Overclockers give free sweets now too it seems!)

CPU / memory fitted to teeny weeny motherboard. 17cmx17cm so cute!!

And look how much room there is inside still....

It was a bit of a squeeze but everythign fitted and it boots up first time. woop.

Case to scale. It really is quite well proportioned.

Under the top grille it's a bit messy still but i'll sort that.

Inside it's mostly graphics card.

 

[Swither]

When I saw that first pic I wondered why u were showing us a bin? lol

Hope u have fun with the new rig

 

[Tempy]

Didn't see where the Haribo went ....

 

[Chick]

Remember the ring of might ?

 

[Zed]

i looked at Scans fortress gaming rigs but decided to opt for my uber case monster instead.

The case looks lovely mind, how is the overal power etc of the beast with the FX card cranked to high?

 

[Chick]

It's not stressing the 4502 PSU. Allegedly the peak load is around 320 giving plenty of leeway to not burn the dinky psu out.

Though i need to purchase some quieter case fans and get some new psu cables. irritatingly teh supplied ones are too short / thick to do any decent cable management, which is odd ina 100 quid SFX psu.

 

[Chick]

It's too loud Watercooling block arrives today.
(http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-006-CS)

More photos of epic tetris fitting to follow

 

[Zed]

My beast has the H100 cooler in for keeping the 3570 chilly. its bloody good. Dont think, yet, ive had the CPU go above 45C when running high rez games

 

[Chick]

Re-built with added water cooling.
Mostly Happy, though the cables are annoying me - i'll probably purchase some better ones in a few weeks and re-strip/build for better airflow.

Wheeeeee
of course though, now the GFX card is too loud ^^

 

[Bertyr]

And decent vid card coolers ain't cheap ... I put an Artic one on my EVGA 460 GTX - much quieter, and much cooler 20C or so, big tho, takes up 3 slots (still room to SLI tho), and longer than old one, so would need to check the space (had to tin snip a bit of the HDD cage wall out!)