First Ever Build (Proposed Parts List for ITX)

pedanticnewt · February 6, 2023

Budget (including currency): $1,000 CAD - I already own the case and GPU so they are not included in this budget.

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Apex, Halo, Stardew Valley

Other details: Looking to build in a Thermaltake Tower 100 mini-ITX case with a MSI GamingX 6600XT 8Gb GPU, both already owned. Will be used as a 1080p gaming rig and light workstation, hooked up to a M34WQ ultrawide 1440P 144hz monitor. I mostly play Apex Legends and Halo, and my girlfriend will mostly use it to play Stardew Valley. I am currently running a Dell XPS 15 9510 with the 6600XT in a Razer Core X. Apex runs well at 90-120fps with medium settings at 1080p, but I'd like to bump both the fps and quality a little higher.

Playing around in PartPicker today yielded this list:

- AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor

- Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler

- ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard

- Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory

- Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive

- Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply

This comes to $753.44 CAD before taxes and an operating system (preferably Windows 11). Would love some general advice on this list as this will be my first ever build. These are fairly modest specs but I think should be able to handle what I want to do with it, but I don't want to rule out the ability to incrementally upgrade the CPU or GPU. The motherboard in particular confuses me quite a bit, as prices tend to vary a lot. This one is just the cheapest compatible option. The one feature I do need is onboard wifi as my modem is stuck in a different room. The case has a front USB-C port, which would be nice to utilize but not a necessity.

Thanks in advance!

- PedanticNewt

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor ($193.95 @ shopRBC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler ($88.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($212.00 @ Amazon Canada)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($82.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($89.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Video Card: MSI RX 6600 XT MECH 2X 8G OC Radeon RX 6600 XT 8 GB Video Card ($479.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Case: Thermaltake The Tower 100 Mini ITX Tower Case ($179.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($85.52 @ Amazon Canada)
Total: $1413.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-02-06 03:26 EST-0500

Edited February 6, 2023 by pedanticnewt

Blqckqut · February 6, 2023

2 minutes ago, pedanticnewt said:

Budget (including currency): $1,000 CAD - I already own the case and GPU so they are not included in this budget.

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Apex, Halo, Stardew Valley

Other details: Looking to build in a Thermaltake Tower 100 mini-ITX case with a MSI GamingX 6600XT 8Gb GPU, both already owned. Will be used as a 1080p gaming rig and light workstation, hooked up to a M34WQ ultrawide 1440P 144hz monitor. I mostly play Apex Legends and Halo, and my girlfriend will mostly use it to play Stardew Valley. I am currently running a Dell XPS 15 9510 with the 6600XT in a Razer Core X. Apex runs well at 90-120fps with medium settings at 1080p, but I'd like to bump both the fps and quality a little higher.

Playing around in PartPicker today yielded this list:

- AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor

- Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler

- ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard

- Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory

- Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive

- Thermaltake Toughpower GX2 600 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply

This comes to $753.44 CAD before taxes and an operating system (preferably Windows 11). Would love some general advice on this list as this will be my first ever build. These are fairly modest specs but I think should be able to handle what I want to do with it, but I don't want to rule out the ability to incrementally upgrade the CPU or GPU. The motherboard in particular confuses me quite a bit, as prices tend to vary a lot. This one is just the cheapest compatible option. The one feature I do need is onboard wifi as my modem is stuck in a different room. The case has a front USB-C port, which would be nice to utilize but not a necessity.

Thanks in advance!

- PedanticNewt

id say you could bump up the cpu to a ryzen 7 5700x, its 8 cores and better, plus only like 10 dollar more

SorryBella · February 6, 2023

1 minute ago, pedanticnewt said:

Looking to build in a Thermaltake Tower 100 mini-ITX case with a MSI GamingX 6600XT 8Gb GPU, both already owned.

If this is indeed your first build, do keep in mind that mITX is leagues harder than standard ATX to build especially in overall clutter control whether its cable or otherwise.

Also, peeps here would highly appreciated you sending us the PCPP list link directly instead of a screenshot. If you dont know, go to the builder menu, and copypaste from either options.

pedanticnewt · February 6, 2023

8 minutes ago, SorryClaire said:

If this is indeed your first build, do keep in mind that mITX is leagues harder than standard ATX to build especially in overall clutter control whether its cable or otherwise.

Also, peeps here would highly appreciated you sending us the PCPP list link directly instead of a screenshot. If you dont know, go to the builder menu, and copypaste from either options.

Edited - thanks!

And yeah, I understand the mITX will have a lot more constraints. I think the Tower 100 leans on the larger side so there is more room for error but will be tricky no matter. Will enlist help from friends who have more experience.

8tg · February 6, 2023

7 minutes ago, SorryClaire said:

If this is indeed your first build, do keep in mind that mITX is leagues harder than standard ATX to build especially in overall clutter control whether its cable or otherwise.

as an itx nerd, the tower 100 is one of the easiest itx chassis to build in, even above the vertical standard chassis like the Enthoo evolv itx, define 7 nano, etc

Not too many space limitations with normal parts, though any of these larger itx chassis will suffer with clearance when you start adding in large air coolers, which the 212 isn’t massive, but be mindful of potentially the eps connector routing

Keeping the below spoilered as it’s a bit off topic, shoved an NH D15 into a define 7 nano and:

Spoiler

The biggest problems there with large components in standard itx towers becomes cable management not always in routing, but sometimes blocking cutouts or not allowing vertical cable installations

with this cooler the eps 8 pin can’t loop back on itself to go through the cutout right above it and has to go across the top of the motherboard, and the 24 pin needed a right angle adapter to be able to lower the first fan on the NHD15 enough for side panel clearance

while the parts may fit, routing cables is the hard limiting factor with sometimes unspoken workarounds

this also blocks the top 140mm fan mounts

Overall itx cases benefit dramatically from aios, even the larger ones which can potentially support large air coolers, but even just a 120mm tower like the 212 may present some cable management hassles

most builds in the tower 100 use a top mounted aio, and in the case of this build where it can be handled competently by a 120mm tower cooler, a 120mm aio would be a better choice, it’s one of the few situations where they make sense beyond just aesthetics

SorryBella · February 6, 2023

50 minutes ago, pedanticnewt said:

Edited - thanks!

I built on Alder lake platform instead of AM4 for an easy Raptor Lake drop-in upgrade, but if you want performance now with better heat management but less upgrade path then go for AMD with the 5700X and Gigabyte B550I Aorus Pro AX (although this thing wouldnt be my first pick at all. If available, go for the Asus ROG Strix B550-I Gaming if you can find them)

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12600KF 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor ($294.50 @ shopRBC)
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler ($33.63 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: ASRock Z690M-ITX/ax Mini ITX LGA1700 Motherboard ($214.99 @ PC-Canada)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($82.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Storage: Crucial P3 Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($211.54 @ Amazon Canada)
Video Card: MSI RX 6600 XT MECH 2X 8G OC Radeon RX 6600 XT 8 GB Video Card (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: Thermaltake The Tower 100 Mini ITX Tower Case (Purchased For $0.00)
Power Supply: Enermax Revolution D.F. 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($125.27 @ Amazon Canada)
Total: $962.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-02-06 04:18 EST-0500