The Nocturne: $1500 Gaming & Video Editing Mini-ITX || Good Idea?

[SpineArtisan]

Read the highlighted text if you want the short version.

 

I recently built a computer gone awry. I kept switching out parts that wouldn't really work as I had originally intended, as well as parts that seemed like they were overheating, and finally have a working, powerful, albeit far too big, far too power hungry, far too ugly computer in my media center. I wanted to build a small, power-efficient hard-core gaming computer, but after all was said and done, it didn't really work that way. I have also become interested in media creation and video editing. So now I am looking to just sell off the older build on eBay, janky modified case and all, and build something proper this time around from the ground up.

 

Here it is: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/cjb100/saved/wnhdnQ

 

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($280.76 @ Amazon)

CPU Cooler: Silverstone AR06 40.2 CFM CPU Cooler  ($43.68 @ Amazon) 

Thermal Compound: TUNIQ TX-4 Extreme Performance 1g Thermal Paste  ($13.05 @ Amazon)

Motherboard: Asus Z97I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($169.32 @ Amazon)

Memory: *G.Skill Trident X 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($170.31 @ Newegg) 

Storage: *Mushkin Chronos 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($61.06 @ Newegg) 

Storage: *Toshiba  2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($71.00 @ Newegg) 

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card  ($363.24 @ B&H) 

Case: Silverstone RVZ01B Mini ITX Desktop Case  ($92.85 @ Amazon)

Power Supply: *Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply  ($109.23 @ Amazon) 

Optical Drive: Panasonic UJ-265 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  ($83.03 @ Amazon) 

Case Fan: *LEPA LP-BOL12P-R 81.5 CFM 120mm  Fan  ($16.37 @ Amazon) 

Other: StarTech.c​om Slimlin​e SATA to ​SATA Adapt​er with Po​wer (SLSAT​AADAP) ($9.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $1483.89 

 

I'm not too concerned about what kind of performance I'm going to get compared to what I built recently. Without going into a ton of details, lets just say I paid way too much for way too little performance, way too big a system, way too little energy efficiency, and I'm just done with tinkering with that system.

 

What I want to know from you guys, is will this work for my intended purposes, and if I can shave a little money off the system without reducing the performance too much, where would you recommend that I do so? $1500 is my max, as I will be using money from selling the old system in conjunction with new money.

 

I intend to use this primarily as a very capable 1080p gaming HTPC (hence the Blu-Ray), but I am becoming very interested in doing some fairly weighty video-editing for a YouTube channel, which would include Let's Plays, music videos and coding tutorials. I don't mind waiting for videos to render so much, as long as rendering only takes about as long as simply watching the video, something my current PC can almost muster with an AMD GPU and OpenCL. But what I am very worried about, is one of my current PC's problems: heat output and overheating. Gaming generally seems fine in my current setup -- a little high at upper 70'sC, but I'm fairly certain I lost the silicon lottery because video rendering shoots my current CPU to 95+C immediately, and I don't OC nor is there anything wrong with my cooler. I figure a more energy efficient chip would help with this, since it is SFF after all. But what do you guys think?

 

Just to reiterate, I need SFF, as small as possible for my media center. I need energy efficiency because my current set up seems to nearly trip the basement breaker in my house at a measly 750W! And I would like to edit videos without overheating, even if it takes a while to render. I can't budge on price but I can certainly budge on performance a little bit if it means a fair amount less money. Opinions? Suggestions?

[soaringchicken]

Looks good but what is that brand of SSD man? lel

Also, everyone needs to highlight like you did, thanks a bunch

[SpineArtisan]

Haha ya, I just filtered it. Mushkin apparently does some solid RAM, figured, eh, why not? Would you recommend paying a few $$ more for name-brand? Not my first PC rodeo, but then again the last build turned out so bad that I'm giving up on it, so... Any advice is appreciated.

[brob]

A few suggestions.

• An H97 motherboard. No need for a Z97.
• Much better priced memory.
• A larger and more expensive ssd.
• A 5400 rpm hdd, lower power consumption which means cooler and quieter operation.
• A blower style gpu which should help reduce in-case temps.
• I'm not convinced the extra fan will help.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Silverstone AR06 40.2 CFM CPU Cooler  ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus H97I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($100.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($119.61 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  ($338.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone RVZ01B Mini ITX Desktop Case  ($79.99 @ Directron)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply  ($89.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Panasonic UJ-265 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer  ($76.00 @ Amazon)
Other: StarTech.c​om Slimlin​e SATA to ​SATA Adapt​er with Po​wer (SLSAT​AADAP) ($9.99)
Total: $1288.51
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-19 00:56 EST-0500

[YT2002]

Looks good but what is that brand of SSD man? lel

Also, everyone needs to highlight like you did, thanks a bunch

it is a mushkin ssd

[SpineArtisan]

@brob: Dang, that all looks like great changes! This is exactly why I posted here! Few questions though!

 

An H97 motherboard. No need for a Z97.

 

Agreed! I didn't even realize ASUS made an H97 Mini ITX or I woulda done that myself! Still means I have to get a separate mini-PCI wireless card though. That may essentially bring the combo back up to the original price. Or not a whole lot cheaper. But anything to cut cost and keep performance! Are there any other differences between the chipsets other than no overclocking? Also, since I'll need to buy the mini-PCI wireless card, how hard is it to mount antennas on a backplate?

 

Much better priced memory.

 

I also considered this, but I figured since I'm limited to 1600Mhz by the chip, might as well get the best CAS? Is CAS7 vs CAS9 it worth it? Probably not in gaming, obviously, but what about video editing? It's a $50 difference, so if there isn't a whole lot of potential performance gain in the video department, I'll take your suggestion.

 

A larger and more expensive ssd.

 

I agree, with other costs cut, a brand-name trusty SDD is a good investment, but why larger?

 

A blower style gpu which should help reduce in-case temps.

 

That particular GPU has really bad ratings on newegg for high temps and low performance. Also, EVGA is my fav GPU company but they have consistently bad ratings across the board for GTX 970 coil whine on Amazon. I appreciate the suggestion, but this is the only bit of advice I don't believe I'll be taking.

[brob]

@brob: Dang, that all looks like great changes! This is exactly why I posted here! Few questions though!

 

 

Agreed! I didn't even realize ASUS made an H97 Mini ITX or I woulda done that myself! Still means I have to get a separate mini-PCI wireless card though. That may essentially bring the combo back up to the original price. Or not a whole lot cheaper. But anything to cut cost and keep performance! Are there any other differences between the chipsets other than no overclocking? Also, since I'll need to buy the mini-PCI wireless card, how hard is it to mount antennas on a backplate?

 

 

I also considered this, but I figured since I'm limited to 1600Mhz by the chip, might as well get the best CAS? Is CAS7 vs CAS9 it worth it? Probably not in gaming, obviously, but what about video editing? It's a $50 difference, so if there isn't a whole lot of potential performance gain in the video department, I'll take your suggestion.

 

 

I agree, with other costs cut, a brand-name trusty SDD is a good investment, but why larger?

 

 

That particular GPU has really bad ratings on newegg for high temps and low performance. Also, EVGA is my fav GPU company but they have consistently bad ratings across the board for GTX 970 coil whine on Amazon. I appreciate the suggestion, but this is the only bit of advice I don't believe I'll be taking.

 

H97 does not support multiple gpu. Not an issue when using mini-ITX. Other than that and overclocking I do not believe there are any chipset differences.

 

The performance difference is marginal in most situations. If you are interested, http://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell provides detailed data on speed and timing performance doing various tasks.

 

Larger ssd because it should allow for use of the drive as the primary scratch disk location which should improve editing performance.

 

I have to admit that I picked the first blower style gpu from a reliable manufacturer. I didn't do my homework. My bad.