Compact and ready

[Magralho]

Hi guys, been a reader for quite some time now and you guys seem more wise than me

I'm living in london and need a quite compact pc, because of house space and if there's a need to move houses I don't end up with a computer that is bigger than me.

This would make me quite happy in price/performance:

I know you're going to say there's no mounting for the h110 but I'm planing on modding the case so it can receive the rad on top (plus some shrouding for rad protection)

I like the case because is small and cheap comes in nice colors and seems the best candidate for my build.

You guys might say that I should go air cooling but since I plan on OC the shit out of the cpu, on that tiny case, delivering most of that thermal directly out seems for me the wisest choice.

Why do serious oc to the cpu and leave the gpu inside hot? mainly because I'm inclined to play world of warcraft 90%... yet, planning on playing something else that I might fancy, but mainly WoW and video editing about WoW. that is why I'm planing on the 4690k instead of the g3258.

now that everyone is going for 4k, I think 1080p suits my needs and wallet.

about the gtx 960 ssc not fitting, its 256mm and I saw a pic of a msi r9 280 on this case and according to the msi site a r9 280 gaming has 269 mm and fits so...

and even if a r9 280 has better performance, because of the cooling in this case, I rather go with a less hot card... sorry red team... after 10 years of undivided faith... I'm trying the green stuff...

here is my build.

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/LB4ppg

Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/LB4ppg/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£174.00 @ Amazon UK)

CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GT 113.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£99.98 @ Aria PC)

Motherboard: Asus Z97I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (£117.61 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Corsair 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£95.22 @ More Computers)

Storage: OCZ ARC 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£70.97 @ Dabs)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (£169.14 @ Aria PC)

Case: RAIJINTEK Metis (Silver) Mini ITX Tower Case (£36.00 @ Kustom PCs)

Power Supply: Silverstone 600W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply (£105.12 @ Scan.co.uk)

Monitor: BenQ VW2235H 21.5" Monitor (£101.99 @ Amazon UK)

Total: £970.03

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

I still need a small 1080p monitor that is cheap that is why I choose this monitor, plus, white would be great because im building twin systems for me and my gf and she loves the white theme.

I went with the z97 mb because it might be worth it for the broadwell in a few years and althouh now m.2 might be a stetch on my budget, I might add one later.

as storage, I'm also canibalizing our laptops 2.5 hdd (500gb) and later on, canibalizing the laptop screen as a secondary monitor.

That said, and my reasons stated, with the smallest possible budget (up to 1000£) per computer, is there anyway your wisdom could make me have more bang for the buck?

Thanks for your time and attention to my matter.

[Mentalguy]

where are you going to mount that H110i in that case?

[Fgtfv567]

Your build has a few things that won't work together (it's at the bottom), your AIO liquid cooler is WAYYY (kinda like that word!) too long, PSU doesn't fit, and nor does the GPU. Also, you have 1 GPU and one drive. Even if you are going to mad OC it, 600W is unneeded.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($227.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: ASRock Z97E-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($114.99 @ Micro Center) 

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($64.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($99.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.99 @ NCIX US) 

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  ($321.98 @ Newegg) 

Case: Cooler Master Elite 110 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($33.98 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($44.99 @ Micro Center) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($96.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Total: $1115.88

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-23 21:14 EDT-0400

This is about 1020 Euros, if you'd like a longer card, DVD drive, and a dual 120mm rad, I suggest the obsidian 250D.

[Mentalguy]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£172.50 @ Amazon UK) 

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (£96.71 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard: Asus Z97I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£117.61 @ Amazon UK) 

Memory: Corsair 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£95.22 @ More Computers) 

Storage: OCZ ARC 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£70.97 @ Dabs) 

Video Card: Gainward GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  (£256.58 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Case: EVGA Hadron Mini ITX Tower Case w/500W Power Supply  (£108.00 @ Kustom PCs) 

Monitor: BenQ VW2235H 21.5" Monitor  (£101.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Total: £1019.58

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-24 01:22 GMT+0000

 

 

 

this one doesnt have overclocking, but is smaller and better at editing

 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£199.14 @ Aria PC) 

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i 57.5 CFM CPU Cooler  (£31.30 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Motherboard: Asus H81I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£49.99 @ Novatech) 

Memory: Corsair 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£95.22 @ More Computers) 

Storage: OCZ ARC 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£70.97 @ Dabs) 

Video Card: Gainward GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card  (£256.58 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Case: Silverstone ML07B HTPC Case  (£51.00 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Power Supply: be quiet! POWER 2 400W 80+ Bronze Certified SFX Power Supply  (£43.20 @ Amazon UK) 

Monitor: BenQ VW2235H 21.5" Monitor  (£101.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Total: £899.39

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-24 01:39 GMT+0000

[brob]

It's a lovely case but I'm not sure that mounting an H110 on top is going to work too well. The difficulty will be getting cool air and proper air flow through the radiator without affecting air flow into the case.

 

I take it that the SFX psu is to allow for the longer gpu.

 

I would suggest spending a couple pounds more for Mushkin Blackline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory. The kit has better timings and will add a tiny performance improvement.

 

A build log would be great.

[Magralho]

thanks a lot for all the helps!!!

Im planing to mount the rad from the h110 on the OUTSIDE top of the case, like linus has on the whole room watercooling. Ofcourse this means the back of the case has to be moded to allow the tubes to pass and the top to contain the rad support and shroud.

the processor I would love to have one that is powerful as sigle thread process as possible.

the long gpu fits with a sfx power supply

the 600w psu would be to take in account 5-6 years of degradation, to make sure everything is whitin safe margins.

thanks for the feedback.

[brob]

The cooler is going to extend about 35mm beyond the back of the case. Without removing the fan I am not sure were there would be room to bring in the pump and tubes on the back. Have you considered raising the rad high enough to allow the plumbing to come in through the top? (Although the gpu might prove to be too big an obstruction.)

[Magralho]

The radiator will acctually extend about 50mm (5cm) beyond the back of the case, I'm removing the pug for the power, cut a square arround it, mod a small piece of metal for that area and pass the tubbing though there. Im counting on the fact that the rad connects to the tubing in a 90º degree angle to make it fit without tension, ofc it will be in the way of the DP/HDMI from the graphics card but im only planing for 1~2 monitors so should be okay.

 

Im thinking about the  silverstone sfx-L 500w but im scared about degradation, as my previous desktop one day just got its PSU burning on me ( was a shitty PSU with 4 years anyway and it was back in 2007 or so).

I like the SFX 500 because has a bigger fan and I want to keep the system as cool as possible because I might want to push the limits for CPU and GPU, CPU cooling will be done outside the case so that allows more headroom for the GPU, mainly because Im only planing on upgrade this system when skylake and pascal are fully established (or even beyond that)

 

plus, the power supply will connect below the case, like in this image

(source:http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18645247)(where I got all the ideas for the moding! was a great thread and inspired me to work on something similar)

 

I'm just concerned If with my budget I should get any different components that might be better, mainly because this PC is being built to play wow, soft rendering/streaming and that's preety much it.

 

I wonder if I should go M.2 instead of 2.5" SSD, because my MOBO will support M.2 up to x4 PCIe, but I'm unsure of that M.2 drives acctually support 4xPCIe and if they are cheap enough to consider.

Im considering up to 265 Gb SSD plus 500gb HDD from our laptops ( will be enough to support us for 6-8 months, then maybe a 1TB external drive for backups and storage)

 

Thing is, is it worth it to buy a 256Gb M.2 4x PCIe now or just a cheap 256 2.5 6Gb sata now and later upgrade to the M.2 when prices drop? or is M.2 speeds not worth the cost?

 

Many thanks! 

[brob]

@Magralho,

 

Thanks for the link.

 

I particularly liked the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card build. It does leave more room inside and is, of course more powerful than the GTX 960. If the budget allows you might want to consider the card.

 

Degradation in a good quality psu should be fairly small. Unfortunately there does not appear to be any hard data on the subject. 500W should be quite sufficient for many years.

 

Asus does not list the Samsung XP941 M.2 drives in their QVL for the Z97I-Plus, although I would expect it to work. I believe it is still the only 4-lane M.2 drive commonly available. The underboard mount location of the M.2 slot is a concern. The cards are known to run fairly hot and I doubt good airflow would be available under the motherboard. A simple ssd would be a better investment IMO. The cost of a SATA ssd around twice the capacity is generally the same cost as an XP941 M.2 drive.

 

Post #33 of your link suggests that it is possible to mount an H80i in the case - no indication of where it was mounted. I was wondering if an H80i GT would fit on the 120mm fan mount. Coupled with the short GTX 970, it would eliminate the need to mod the top of the case. If you haven't seen it already, you might find http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/corsair_h80i_gt_review,1.html an interesting read. The H80i GT is not as good as the H110i GT, but it will still allow for a very good oc.