Small form factor gaming help

[Jarred C]

Long time LTT fan/viewer, planning on building a small form factor gaming PC. I've included my planned parts list at the bottom of this post. Would appreciate any advice or suggestions as I haven't put together many builds yet.

1. Budget & Location

I'm looking to get a new build off the ground for around $1,400 AUD. I currently own a GTX 1660 Super that I plan to use now but with the option to upgrade in a year or so.

2. Aim

I want to target gaming for new AAA titles (Control, Cyberpunk77, Horizon zero dawn when it releases, etc.) as well as some competitive titles (warzone, overwatch) with decent framerates at 1080p, with the hope of squeezing in some 1440p gaming with a future GPU upgrade down the line. I like the idea of a small form factor case and understand that I may have to compromise on performance/thermals/acoustics at this price point. I want to dip my toes in with the case I've listed but will consider a more premium case (e.g NCaseM1 or Streacom DA2) in future.

3. Monitors

At the moment I run a single 1080p 60hz monitor but I also plan to upgrade this to a higher refresh rate 1440p monitor in future if my build will support it.

4. Peripherals

Happy with current peripherals, but always wanted to upgrade to a more wireless set up in the future.

5. Why are you upgrading?

My current build is insufficient to run the games I want at the moment. Currently running an i5-4670K (at stock), GTX1660 Super with 8gb (2x4) of 666Mhz DDR3.

https://www.mwave.com.au/sharecart/a7727059-a19d-4421-b0a3-2cf8d6ede5be 
Prices in AUD
Case: SilverStone Sugo Series SG13 Mini ITX - Mesh front panel $69
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 $329
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix B450-I Gaming AM4 Mini-ITX $269
AIO: Corsair Hydro Series H60 V2 120mm $119
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3600MHz C18 $179
PSU: Corsair SF600 80 Plus Gold Modular $209
Storage: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500Gb NVMe M.2 SSD $188 - I currently have a 1TB HDD I'm hoping I can also squeeze into the case (but can live without it also)

[cj2tech91]

Nice build.

 

Don't really understand why you don't want to use the ATX Power supply since the case supports it. Rather then retro fit an SFX PSU.

[Jarred C]

9 minutes ago, cj2tech91 said:

Nice build.

 

Don't really understand why you don't want to use the ATX Power supply since the case supports it. Rather then retro fit an SFX PSU.

I don't really want to choke the airflow in the already limited airflow small case. Plus I'm thinking if I end up moving to a flashier small form factor case down the line I can continue to use this power supply. 

[DailyProcrastinator]

17 minutes ago, cj2tech91 said:

Nice build.

 

Don't really understand why you don't want to use the ATX Power supply since the case supports it. Rather then retro fit an SFX PSU.

Going SFX in the SG13 makes sense. It allows for more room for airflow and cooling. Also some SFX PSU's come with an SFX to ATX bracket or they can be bought for like $10-20.

 

6 minutes ago, Jarred C said:

I don't really want to choke the airflow in the already limited airflow small case. Plus I'm thinking if I end up moving to a flashier small form factor case down the line I can continue to use this power supply. 

I have a detailed build log on my SG13 build if you are interested. Your parts selection looks good though, nothing I would really change!

[Jarred C]

12 minutes ago, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

Going SFX in the SG13 makes sense. It allows for more room for airflow and cooling. Also some SFX PSU's come with an SFX to ATX bracket or they can be bought for like $10-20.

 

I have a detailed build log on my SG13 build if you are interested. Your parts selection looks good though, nothing I would really change!

Just read through your build log, got me excited to order and put everything together. Quick question regarding acoustics and thermals from your build, you added an extra fan to your AIO and the 80mm fan as an exhaust. Would you recommend a similar set up for my build as well? Considering I'm going for more gaming performance and web browsing build, so not expecting super heavy workloads? Or would it be worthwhile starting with what I've listed above and then adding the extra fans if I think I need them? 

[DailyProcrastinator]

42 minutes ago, Jarred C said:

Just read through your build log, got me excited to order and put everything together. Quick question regarding acoustics and thermals from your build, you added an extra fan to your AIO and the 80mm fan as an exhaust. Would you recommend a similar set up for my build as well? Considering I'm going for more gaming performance and web browsing build, so not expecting super heavy workloads? Or would it be worthwhile starting with what I've listed above and then adding the extra fans if I think I need them? 

Awesome!

The 80mm exhaust fan setup is kinda ghetto but it works and yeah I would recommend it, dropped case temps by like 15 degrees C just under normal loads, not even stress testing it. As for a second 120mm on the AIO rad, not as important but it does help promote airflow through the case. For now I would just get a 80mm PWM fan for exhaust. 

 

EDIT: For a while I actually only had 1x 120mm fan on the rad, temp difference did not change by that much. But I had a more aggressive fan curve in order to do so. But the system is very quiet under load. 

[Jarred C]

50 minutes ago, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

Awesome!

The 80mm exhaust fan setup is kinda ghetto but it works and yeah I would recommend it, dropped case temps by like 15 degrees C just under normal loads, not even stress testing it. As for a second 120mm on the AIO rad, not as important but it does help promote airflow through the case. For now I would just get a 80mm PWM fan for exhaust. 

 

EDIT: For a while I actually only had 1x 120mm fan on the rad, temp difference did not change by that much. But I had a more aggressive fan curve in order to do so. But the system is very quiet under load. 

Sounds like a good idea then, I think I'll pick up a 92mm Noctua fan to use as an exhaust, according to a video that was co-incidentally posted today by Bitwit, looks like you can mount it directly to the case.

[DailyProcrastinator]

3 hours ago, Jarred C said:

Sounds like a good idea then, I think I'll pick up a 92mm Noctua fan to use as an exhaust, according to a video that was co-incidentally posted today by Bitwit, looks like you can mount it directly to the case.

I tried mounting mine to the removable side panel but it did not quite work, unless there is another way. But yeah a dedicated exhaust fan will go a long way Vs passively exhausting. 

 

One other case to maybe consider as a more 'premium' ITX case (still portable though) is the LianLi TU150.

 

EDIT: JK I looked up the pricing, damn, is it a lot of money in NZ, I thought it was a lot here in Canada...

https://nz.pcpartpicker.com/product/G27p99/lian-li-tu150-mini-itx-desktop-case-tu150wx

 

It's all good, the SG13 is a solid case, true to the ITX form factor, I will probably never get rid of my case, just upgrade it over the years.

[Jarred C]

1 hour ago, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

I tried mounting mine to the removable side panel but it did not quite work, unless there is another way. But yeah a dedicated exhaust fan will go a long way Vs passively exhausting. 

 

One other case to maybe consider as a more 'premium' ITX case (still portable though) is the LianLi TU150.

 

EDIT: JK I looked up the pricing, damn, is it a lot of money in NZ, I thought it was a lot here in Canada...

https://nz.pcpartpicker.com/product/G27p99/lian-li-tu150-mini-itx-desktop-case-tu150wx

 

It's all good, the SG13 is a solid case, true to the ITX form factor, I will probably never get rid of my case, just upgrade it over the years.

Yeah I think I'll stick with the SG13 for now and maybe get a more 'premium' case at a later date

Cheers for the help, I'll let you know how the build goes haha

[Jarred C]

On 4/28/2020 at 3:50 PM, TheDailyProcrastinator said:

I tried mounting mine to the removable side panel but it did not quite work, unless there is another way. But yeah a dedicated exhaust fan will go a long way Vs passively exhausting. 

 

One other case to maybe consider as a more 'premium' ITX case (still portable though) is the LianLi TU150.

 

EDIT: JK I looked up the pricing, damn, is it a lot of money in NZ, I thought it was a lot here in Canada...

https://nz.pcpartpicker.com/product/G27p99/lian-li-tu150-mini-itx-desktop-case-tu150wx

 

It's all good, the SG13 is a solid case, true to the ITX form factor, I will probably never get rid of my case, just upgrade it over the years.

I built it, so far so good, getting all my stuff installed and whatnot. Got any advice in terms of fan curves to get good acoustics while maintaining decent temps? I have the AIO fan set to intake air from the front and managed to secure a slim fan at the side to help with exhaust.