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NR200P - SSF/ITX Build - 2022

Goal: Small form-factor  CG/1440p @ 144hz Gaming build, good thermals and noise performance.

Budget (including currency): ~$5000AUD upper limit.

Country: Australia

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Photoshop, Blender, various games @1440p.

Other details: Typical load: 3D in Blender/ZBrush, heavy Photoshop files and gaming at 1440p (Games ranging from old to current AAA). Aesthetic preference: As black as possible, as little RGB as possible.

I live in AUS and it gets really hot here and we don't have air conditioning in our home, so quality cooling components will be a priority. I'm quite sensitive to "low framerates", so the minimum FPS I'd be looking for is 80fps at 1440p for demanding single player titles like RDR2, competitive shooters aren't usually and issue.

 

Rough parts list I have so far, nothing concrete:

 

CASE: NR200P (Will be using the mesh not the tempered glass side panel)

CASE FANS: Noctua NF-A12x25, Phanteks T30 or similar

PSU: SF750

MOBO: ? (The component I have the last knowledge of) Seems like a lot of boards are DDR5 only?

RAM: 2x16GB (I see DDR5 is very $$$)
CPU: 12700k

CPU COOLER: AiO vs Air Cooler?
GPU: 3070ti
STORAGE: 980Pro vs 970Evo? 1x 1TB M.2 OS/Programs 1x 2TB M.2 Games  - I liked having OS and games etc on separate drives in previous builds.

 

 

 

 

 

Corsair Air 540 - ASUS Maximus VIII Hero Z170 - Corsair HX850i - Intel i7 6700K - Corsair H100i Pro - Gigabyte RX 5700 XT 8GB - 32GB Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 2400 - Samsung 860 QVO 1TB - Samsung 850 500GB - WD Black 4TB

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For storage, just go with whatever's cheapest, PCIe 4.0 is irrelevant in most use cases. Don't buy into the garbage manufacturers are trying to peddle you claiming "faster speeds".

 

Other than that your build looks good, you should be able to do much more than just 1440p with those specs and budget, even with more demanding stuff. And, unless you have a reason to go Intel, I think you should go AMD, maybe something like a 5800X3D, if you have the budget. Would also help you save on RAM with no need for DDR5.

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One thing to note with NR200 is its quite popular for ITX builds these days and what you can fit is well known at this point. The most cooling capacity you're going to get is the standard Arctic 280 AIO. If you use an AIO, use that one. Its larger radiator puts it above other options. 

 

Motherboards.. I'm not too familiar with the Z690 offerings but I can assure you there aren't a ton of choices for DDR4. Have you considered dropping to a 12700f and a B660 board? One of the Gigabytes

Asus has nothing good...

 

Gigabyte has a few:

image.png.b62ae0a722f18efa73c1bc53829c8b16.png

image.png.627fdf2095f47ccef400803dc9a184eb.png

 

MSI:

image.png.f19ade4d7df006ae9e154111fce9e816.png

 

Asrock (I would not use this board with that minimal to non-existent VRM cooling):

image.thumb.png.37d35542fb31698335af9061dc893c33.png

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I'd go for a mobo like this.

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/product/Tft9TW/gigabyte-b660i-aorus-pro-ddr4-mini-itx-lga1700-motherboard-b660i-aorus-pro-ddr4

Seems to have good vrm cooling and otherwise features and about what id spend for a mobo.

B660 so I'd go for a locked 12700 cpu

Pcie gen dosent matter that much in games at least but you might see a perfromance bump in blender.

While your case seems to be mini atx, I might be able to support a micro atx mobo if you check the manufactures specs for a 4 slot dimms for ram

For cooling I'd gravitate towards aio cooling in sff build, since they usually can provide better cooling then sff air cooling.

 

otherwise a fine build.

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, M A J O R said:

Seems like a lot of boards are DDR5 only?

Yup, there are only 2 or 3 different ITX DDR4 Z690 boards, and only one of them doesn't suck. If you are hard set on the 12700K and want to save money on DDR4, the only option is the Gigabyte Z690I Aorus Ultra DDR4. Given the pricing of Z690 ITX boards in general, that board looks like it's the only option that makes sense period. 

 

Personally, if I were to be doing an ITX rig, I would be going AMD. Intel definitely is better with overall performance and value per dollar, but they do consume a lot of power for the top end chips (a pretty big concern on an ITX rig where cooling is at a premium) and the ITX motherboard selection is pretty abysmal and the pricing doesn't make any sense. You're losing out on a bit of single thread performance going for an AMD system (multi thread performance is about the same), but you're not losing that much and it makes the system a lot easier to configure. A 5900X will be roughly the same multi core performance, but you've got a much cheaper and larger motherboard selection, plus you're not stuck on DDR5 like you will be on Z690. 

 

2 hours ago, M A J O R said:

RAM: 2x16GB (I see DDR5 is very $$$)

This depends on whether you want to just enable XMP and be done with it or actually overclock your memory. If you want to overclock your RAM, a kit of Crucial Ballistix 3000 CL15 should be able to do 3800MHz CL16 (ideal frequency for 98% of Ryzen 5000 series chips) without too much trouble with fairly decent subtimings. B die will perform better as well, but will cost a fair bit more and the performance differences aren't really worth it. If you want to just enable XMP and be done with it, go for a 3600MHz CL16 kit, the performance on those is pretty good and they're usually at a decent price. I'll include both kits in the part picker link, just go with whichever you think makes more sense for you. 

 

2 hours ago, M A J O R said:

CPU COOLER: AiO vs Air Cooler?

Air coolers are more reliable, but you'll have a harder time fitting them in an ITX rig (at least the ones good enough to keep a 5900X cool). AIOs are more expensive and have more points of failure, but in a case like the NR200P are easier to fit in, plus some people think they look better. Since I'm lazy, I'd probably spend the extra on an AIO. 

 

2 hours ago, M A J O R said:

STORAGE: 980Pro vs 970Evo? 1x 1TB M.2 OS/Programs 1x 2TB M.2 Games  - I liked having OS and games etc on separate drives in previous builds.

The noticeable performance differences between a 980 Pro and 970 Evo are very minimal to most people. I'd go for Gen 3 drives for this system. 

 

Also, with ITX boards M.2 space is at a pretty big premium, so if you want to do the 2 drive config it will leave you at a pretty big disadvantage if you want to upgrade in the future. If you can afford a single 4TB drive for this, that would be my pick, though for that price you could just get 2 2TB Crucial P5s and still save $200 compared to a comparable 4TB SSD, so keep that in mind. 

 

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/M7MNv3

 

This is what I'd go for (make sure to only go for one of those RAM kits depending on whether you want to overclock your RAM or not)

Edited by RONOTHAN##
Fixed some wording, bolded changes
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@bluesummer@RONOTHAN##@RyuikkoThank you for your input, very informative 🙂

Corsair Air 540 - ASUS Maximus VIII Hero Z170 - Corsair HX850i - Intel i7 6700K - Corsair H100i Pro - Gigabyte RX 5700 XT 8GB - 32GB Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 2400 - Samsung 860 QVO 1TB - Samsung 850 500GB - WD Black 4TB

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PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700F 2.1 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($479.00 @ Amazon Australia) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock TF 2 CPU Cooler  ($139.00 @ Mwave Australia) 
Motherboard: Asus ROG STRIX B660-I GAMING WIFI Mini ITX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($339.00 @ Centre Com) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL36 Memory  ($372.00 @ Skycomp Technology) 
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($816.39 @ Amazon Australia) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 8 GB Vision OC Video Card  ($965.00 @ Skycomp Technology) 
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox NR200 Mini ITX Desktop Case  ($79.00 @ Computer Alliance) 
Power Supply: Cooler Master V850 SFX 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply  ($189.00 @ PCByte) 
Total: $3378.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-07-04 20:23 AEST+1000

80+ ratings certify electrical efficiency. Not quality.

 

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12 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Yup, there are only 2 or 3 different ITX DDR4 Z690 boards, and only one of them doesn't suck. If you are hard set on the 12700K and want to save money on DDR4, the only option is the Gigabyte Z690I Aorus Ultra DDR4. Given the pricing of Z690 ITX boards in general, that board looks like it's the only option that makes sense period. 

 

Personally, if I were to be doing an ITX rig, I would be going AMD. Intel definitely is better with overall performance and value per dollar, but they do consume a lot of power for the top end chips (a pretty big concern on an ITX rig where cooling is at a premium) and the ITX motherboard selection is pretty abysmal and the pricing doesn't make any sense. You're losing out on a bit of single thread performance going for an AMD system (multi thread performance is about the same), but you're not losing that much and it makes the system a lot easier to configure. A 5900X will be roughly the same multi core performance, but you've got a much cheaper and larger motherboard selection, plus you're not stuck on DDR5 like you will be on Z690. 

 

This depends on whether you want to just enable XMP and be done with it or actually overclock your memory. If you want to overclock your RAM, a kit of Crucial Ballistix 3000 CL15 should be able to do 3800MHz CL16 (ideal frequency for 98% of Ryzen 5000 series chips) without too much trouble with fairly decent subtimings. B die will perform better as well, but will cost a fair bit more and the performance differences aren't really worth it. If you want to just enable XMP and be done with it, go for a 3600MHz CL16 kit, the performance on those is pretty good and they're usually at a decent price. I'll include both kits in the part picker link, just go with whichever you think makes more sense for you. 

 

Air coolers are more reliable, but you'll have a harder time fitting them in an ITX rig (at least the ones good enough to keep a 5900X cool). AIOs are more expensive and have more points of failure, but in a case like the NR200P are easier to fit in, plus some people think they look better. Since I'm lazy, I'd probably spend the extra on an AIO. 

 

The noticeable performance differences between a 980 Pro and 970 Evo are very minimal to most people. I'd go for Gen 3 drives for this system. 

 

Also, with ITX boards M.2 space is at a pretty big premium, so if you want to do the 2 drive config it will leave you at a pretty big disadvantage if you want to upgrade in the future. If you can afford a single 4TB drive for this, that would be my pick, though for that price you could just get 2 2TB Crucial P5s and still save $200 compared to a comparable 4TB SSD, so keep that in mind. 

 

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/M7MNv3

 

This is what I'd go for (make sure to only go for one of those RAM kits depending on whether you want to overclock your RAM or not)

One thing I'd like to add about AIOs, they are not as unreliable as some think. Every one I've used in my own or friends' builds, they were very reliable and kept the CPU cool, if you mount them properly. 

 

Most issues from AIOs like pump whine and high temps are due to user error.

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9 minutes ago, bluesummer said:

One thing I'd like to add about AIOs, they are not as unreliable as some think.

I haven't had one last longer than 5-6 years, following all the proper AIO guidance about making sure the pump is the lowest point in the loop and all that. Compared to an air cooler, those will last as long as you keep replacing the fan. Plus, when they do fail, there is a small but not impossible chance that they fail catastrophically by having a tube pop off and you end up with a system with water damage. 

 

Short term reliability on them is fine, as it should be, but in the long run they will have to be replaced before a comparable air cooler. If you're gonna replace the whole computer in 4-5 years anyway, it doesn't really make a difference, and for some reason AIOs have a premium on the second hand market (I couldn't tell you why) so you'd break even with the price difference anyway, it's just that if you're gonna do a constant upgrading of your system or just want to never think about your system failing at all, an air cooler is the better option. 

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4 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

I haven't had one last longer than 5-6 years, following all the proper AIO guidance about making sure the pump is the lowest point in the loop and all that. Compared to an air cooler, those will last as long as you keep replacing the fan. Plus, when they do fail, there is a small but not impossible chance that they fail catastrophically by having a tube pop off and you end up with a system with water damage. 

 

Short term reliability on them is fine, as it should be, but in the long run they will have to be replaced before a comparable air cooler. If you're gonna replace the whole computer in 4-5 years anyway, it doesn't really make a difference, and for some reason AIOs have a premium on the second hand market (I couldn't tell you why) so you'd break even with the price difference anyway, it's just that if you're gonna do a constant upgrading of your system or just want to never think about your system failing at all, an air cooler is the better option. 

You're right, but...

 

5-6 years is a VERY long time, and personally, if you're serious about your computer, I think you should be upgrading every 5-6 years anyways. But that's just me.

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15 minutes ago, bluesummer said:

You're right, but...

 

5-6 years is a VERY long time, and personally, if you're serious about your computer, I think you should be upgrading every 5-6 years anyways. But that's just me.

The thing is you don't have to be upgrading the entire system as a whole every 5-6 years. You can just swap the motherboard, CPU, RAM, and GPU throughout the years without getting a new cooler, case, PSU, storage, etc. I've got a NH-D14 that's over 10 years old that's still running great and performs about as well as when it was new, something that can't be said about an AIO. 

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29 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

The thing is you don't have to be upgrading the entire system as a whole every 5-6 years. You can just swap the motherboard, CPU, RAM, and GPU throughout the years without getting a new cooler, case, PSU, storage, etc. I've got a NH-D14 that's over 10 years old that's still running great and performs about as well as when it was new, something that can't be said about an AIO. 

True, but I personally am more than willing to go through the trouble of buying a new AIO every 6 years for the noise and thermal benefits it brings. 

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7 minutes ago, bluesummer said:

True, but I personally am more than willing to go through the trouble of buying a new AIO every 6 years for the noise and thermal benefits it brings. 

A 240mm AIO will perform about as well as a dual tower air cooler, and since it's got less moving parts the dual tower air cooler will be quieter than the AIO given they've got good fans.

 

I'm not saying AIOs don't make any sense, they do in some situations like this where getting a dual tower air cooler in the system is a lot more of a challenge, but an air cooler, if you can fit it in the system, you don't need 360mm AIO performance, and aren't planning on moving/shipping the system is usually the better overall pick. For a system like this where you will struggle to get an air cooler to fit then yeah, an AIO is the better option, but otherwise you might as well save your money and get a good air cooler. 

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