Planning for first ITX build

[thewrongpotus]

Budget (including currency): $800 (mobo, cpu, cooler, ssd)

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: VR games (boneworks, beat saber, etc), GTA V, Battlefront II, schoolwork (nothing like rendering though, at most python data set crunching), browsing

Other details:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jk6zcT

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($279.99 @ Microcenter) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 (2018) 57.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($70.79 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard  ($199.99 @ Microcenter) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (already have) 
Storage: Mushkin Pilot-E 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($229.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB Founders Edition Video Card  (already have) 
Case: Silverstone SG13 V2 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($51.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair RMx (2018) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (already have) 
Case Fan: Noctua S12B redux-1200 PWM 59.1 CFM 120 mm Fan  ($13.95 @ Amazon) 
Total: $846.70
 

My current PC is basically a big space heater which, living in the South in the summer, kinda sucks. Some of the parts are old ones that I already have (RAM, PSU, GPU) or I'm set on (SG13), so I'm mainly focusing on the mobo, CPU, SSD, and cooler.

 

Some concerns addressed/to be addressed: 

I went with 3700x/B550 because overall it was less expensive than equivalent 10700k/Z490 and I'm gonna be using it for general tasks too

Will the H60 be enough to cool the 3700x?

I mainly chose the H60 over other (better?) 120mm AIO like Arctic Liquid Freezer II because of height clearance, other like NZXT M22, Cooler Master ML120L because of build quality?

I read there were some issues with the B550 boards randomly disconnecting USB, was this resolved for Gigabyte boards (it seemed like people were kind of annoyed with Gigabyte for being slow about it)?

I chose the Gigabyte B550 board mainly from Optimum Tech's video (seems to be well rounded from boost speed/temps) and upgrade path to PCIE gen 4 cards

RMx 850 is a bit big for SG13, but if I remove the hard drive shroud it should fit

I also have an AX860 that's smaller, is there any difference between it and the RMx?

I'm thinking of replacing the fan on the H60 for something quieter, would the Noctua fan listed be better or is the included fan already quiet enough? 

I might go with 1tb ssd instead of 2tb to keep down costs, do separated boot/(storage/game) drives still matter (if going with all NVME)?

 

Feel free to answer one of my questions or chime in with other advice. Any feedback or advice is appreciated!

 

 

[jaslion]

What are your current specs?

 

Getting a smaller pc does not reduce heat at all I hope you know that. If you need to cool your room get an airconditioner. As for the pc it's fine but do your really need a itx pc? It will cost more for less and if this was to reduce heat it won't.

[thewrongpotus]

46 minutes ago, jaslion said:

What are your current specs?

 

Getting a smaller pc does not reduce heat at all I hope you know that. If you need to cool your room get an airconditioner. As for the pc it's fine but do your really need a itx pc? It will cost more for less and if this was to reduce heat it won't.

Thanks for the response! I know that usually a smaller PC doesn't reduce heat, but my current spec has 2x 1070 SLI, which really does heat up, so I figure with just 1 GPU it'll run cooler. As for the ITX, I forgot to mention this in the original post, but I'm also trying to reduce the footprint of my PC since I'll essentially be driving from Texas to the east coast for college every four months or so so a much smaller PC would be better.

[jaslion]

6 minutes ago, thewrongpotus said:

Thanks for the response! I know that usually a smaller PC doesn't reduce heat, but my current spec has 2x 1070 SLI, which really does heat up, so I figure with just 1 GPU it'll run cooler. As for the ITX, I forgot to mention this in the original post, but I'm also trying to reduce the footprint of my PC since I'll essentially be driving from Texas to the east coast for college every four months or so so a much smaller PC would be better.

Oh ok that is a nice to have then.

 

I would recommend against the h60 as it's kinda a crappy cooler and try for a dark rock slim that should fit if memory serves. Also avoids the issue of watercooling.

 

The liquid freezer II should fit normally.

 

Also as for the fan get a arctic p12 it's better than the noctua and quieter.

 

Your ax860 whilst older is still an excellent psu and I do not see any reason to not use it.

 

I don't really get your separate drive question here. One thing I do advice is going for the sn550 drive instead of the mushkin.

 

Could also go for a bitfenix prodigy case its old but easy to carry around and has room for bigger air coolers whilst staying same size as what ou have now. Just make sure it's the version with the mesh front.

[thewrongpotus]

36 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Oh ok that is a nice to have then.

 

I would recommend against the h60 as it's kinda a crappy cooler and try for a dark rock slim that should fit if memory serves. Also avoids the issue of watercooling.

 

The liquid freezer II should fit normally.

 

Also as for the fan get a arctic p12 it's better than the noctua and quieter.

 

Your ax860 whilst older is still an excellent psu and I do not see any reason to not use it.

 

I don't really get your separate drive question here. One thing I do advice is going for the sn550 drive instead of the mushkin.

 

Could also go for a bitfenix prodigy case its old but easy to carry around and has room for bigger air coolers whilst staying same size as what ou have now. Just make sure it's the version with the mesh front.

I don't think the liquid freezer II fits, from looking around it looks like it barely fits with SFX-L PSUs (according to some reddit posts here or with a lot of bend here), so I don't think either it or the dark rock slim will fit with the RMx 850.

 

Thanks for the Arctic P12 recommendation! Looks like it's better for radiators from a quick search

 

For the drive question, I guess it kinda doesn't make sense. I meant that is the boot drive/storage drive separation a holdover from an SSD boot drive and HDD storage drive for best performance and cost and it's not particularly necessary to do so now if I plan on using NVME drive(s)? Or is it better performance to cost wise to separate them (maybe it's better to have a nice boot drive with DRAM and a storage drive that's DRAM-less and therefore cheaper?) Or maybe I'm overthinking it and it's fine to just get 1 drive for boot and storage.

 

I chose the Mushkin mainly because it seems to be the cheapest TLC NVME M.2 drive with DRAM and reviews pretty well. I'm curious as to why you recommended the SN550? It seems to be about the same price point (2tb are cheapest on Newegg right now with sn550 @ 225 and mushkin @ 229 and difference between 1 tb versions are about the same) but DRAM-less with HMB (which admittedly doesn't matter as much for NVME, I think) 

 

I looked at the bitfenix prodigy and it seems like it isn't sold anymore. RIP

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, thewrongpotus said:

I don't think the liquid freezer II fits, from looking around it looks like it barely fits with SFX-L PSUs (according to some reddit posts here or with a lot of bend here), so I don't think either it or the dark rock slim will fit with the RMx 850.

 

Thanks for the Arctic P12 recommendation! Looks like it's better for radiators from a quick search

 

For the drive question, I guess it kinda doesn't make sense. I meant that is the boot drive/storage drive separation a holdover from an SSD boot drive and HDD storage drive for best performance and cost and it's not particularly necessary to do so now if I plan on using NVME drive(s)? Or is it better performance to cost wise to separate them (maybe it's better to have a nice boot drive with DRAM and a storage drive that's DRAM-less and therefore cheaper?) Or maybe I'm overthinking it and it's fine to just get 1 drive for boot and storage.

 

I chose the Mushkin mainly because it seems to be the cheapest TLC NVME M.2 drive with DRAM and reviews pretty well. I'm curious as to why you recommended the SN550? It seems to be about the same price point (2tb are cheapest on Newegg right now with sn550 @ 225 and mushkin @ 229 and difference between 1 tb versions are about the same) but DRAM-less with HMB (which admittedly doesn't matter as much for NVME, I think) 

 

I looked at the bitfenix prodigy and it seems like it isn't sold anymore. RIP

Woops recommended the wrong drive here was switching between posts the mushin is a good pick my bad.

 

As for the split ever since ssds became cheap enough there has been little reason to split drives to keep performance. The only reason the hdd ssd combo existed was so windows and some other things could run very fast on a cheap small ssd and then get a hdd for mass storage and games.