Micro ATX Gaming Build

[PC-Enthusiast]

I posted up a planned list a couple of weeks ago, and I've had to change quite a few things; I would really appreciate any guidance and recommendations you could give! I have some questions at the bottom too!

Main Points:

• I need a small PC (hence the micro ATX case), but would like it to run most (if not all) new games at high/max quality.
• I won't be overclocking the CPU or GPU to help maintain cooler temperatures (and because I don't feel secure enough with messing with the BIOS/software).

 

Part List:

---CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (Even though I am not overclocking, the price difference here is pretty negligible for the boost I will get by going for the K version)

---CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (I've heard many good things about this air cooler, and in the last topic I posted everyone recommended going with this one instead of an AIO cooler since I won't be overclocking)

 

---Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII GENE Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (My MOBO at the moment is an ASUS, and I've had great time with it (and I've heard the quality of this board is fantastic!))

 

---Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Red 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Not much experience/knowledge with RAM to be honest; I didn't want to fiddle with programs and such to let me overclock windows and run at higher RAM speeds/capacities, or mess around with set MOBO voltage supplies in the BIOS)

 

---Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (To boot linux for work)

---Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (To boot windows and for games)

---Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Extra space for games/files)

 

---Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card (I've always bought AMD and... to be honest, this is a vanity choice. I like the cool design on the aluminium cool plate, and I would have chosen the MSI equivalent of the ASUS MOBO to match, if the reviews for the ASUS MOBO hadn't been so supportive!)

 

Case: Fractal Design Core 1300 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (Already got this!)

 

---Power Supply: EVGA 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (After my 1st ever build got fried by a Corsair PSU, I've stuck with the EVGA 1000W)

 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (Already got this!)

 

---Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  (Just a ton of good reviews as far as I can tell)

 

Cooling: Fractal Design Venturi fans (I've read great things about this series!)

-Front fans: 2x120mm High Pressure (due to the front plate of the case) - Inwards

-Bottom fan: 1x120mm High Pressure (due to the dust filter) - Inwards

-Top fans: 2x140mm High Pressure (due to the CPU cooler being in the way) - Inwards

-Side fan: 1x140mm High Flow - Outwards (help carry heat away from the graphics card)

-Back (Exhaust) fan: 1x120mm High Flow - Outwards (help facilitate airflow)

 

 

Questions:

• CPU Cooler - With such a small case, would an AIO cooler be preferred? Or will the Hyper 212 EVO be good enough still? And if so, would it be good to replace the fan with a Fractal Design Venturi 120mm High Pressure fan?
• Motherboard - Is there a better micro-ATX board anyone could recommend?
• Memory - Again, is there a better set of RAM anyone could recommend without messing with BIOS/programs?
• Wireless Network Adaptor - Any good recommendations for gaming (MMO targeted - FFXIV)
• Cooling - Should I change the top fans to 140mm High Flow fans?

 

 

 

 

 

[jgoonatilaka]

Might as well get XMP enabled RAM, If your case supports it get a AIO, And try to go Ethernet.

[Ryoku]

 

I posted up a planned list a couple of weeks ago, and I've had to change quite a few things; I would really appreciate any guidance and recommendations you could give! I have some questions at the bottom too!

Main Points:

• I need a small PC (hence the micro ATX case), but would like it to run most (if not all) new games at high/max quality.
• I won't be overclocking the CPU or GPU to help maintain cooler temperatures (and because I don't feel secure enough with messing with the BIOS/software).

 

Part List:

---CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (Even though I am not overclocking, the price difference here is pretty negligible for the boost I will get by going for the K version)

---CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (I've heard many good things about this air cooler, and in the last topic I posted everyone recommended going with this one instead of an AIO cooler since I won't be overclocking)

 

---Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII GENE Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (My MOBO at the moment is an ASUS, and I've had great time with it (and I've heard the quality of this board is fantastic!))

 

---Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Red 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Not much experience/knowledge with RAM to be honest; I didn't want to fiddle with programs and such to let me overclock windows and run at higher RAM speeds/capacities, or mess around with set MOBO voltage supplies in the BIOS)

 

---Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (To boot linux for work)

---Storage: Samsung 850 Pro Series 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (To boot windows and for games)

---Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Extra space for games/files)

 

---Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card (I've always bought AMD and... to be honest, this is a vanity choice. I like the cool design on the aluminium cool plate, and I would have chosen the MSI equivalent of the ASUS MOBO to match, if the reviews for the ASUS MOBO hadn't been so supportive!)

 

Case: Fractal Design Core 1300 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (Already got this!)

 

---Power Supply: EVGA 1000W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (After my 1st ever build got fried by a Corsair PSU, I've stuck with the EVGA 1000W)

 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) (Already got this!)

 

---Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  (Just a ton of good reviews as far as I can tell)

 

Cooling: Fractal Design Venturi fans (I've read great things about this series!)

-Front fans: 2x120mm High Pressure (due to the front plate of the case) - Inwards

-Bottom fan: 1x120mm High Pressure (due to the dust filter) - Inwards

-Top fans: 2x140mm High Pressure (due to the CPU cooler being in the way) - Inwards

-Side fan: 1x140mm High Flow - Outwards (help carry heat away from the graphics card)

-Back (Exhaust) fan: 1x120mm High Flow - Outwards (help facilitate airflow)

 

 

Questions:

• CPU Cooler - With such a small case, would an AIO cooler be preferred? Or will the Hyper 212 EVO be good enough still? And if so, would it be good to replace the fan with a Fractal Design Venturi 120mm High Pressure fan?
• Motherboard - Is there a better micro-ATX board anyone could recommend?
• Memory - Again, is there a better set of RAM anyone could recommend without messing with BIOS/programs?
• Wireless Network Adaptor - Any good recommendations for gaming (MMO targeted - FFXIV)
• Cooling - Should I change the top fans to 140mm High Flow fans?

 

 

That motherboard comes with a PCI Express combo thing that you can put a M.2 SSD and a Wireless chip into it something like THIS so you can just get one of those if you really want wireless, though you'll have to look into what chip fits into it.  That power supply is way over kill you could likely go with a 600watt easy.

[Untouchable]

Looks like a beast but some parts are just straight up overkill. For example, maybe trade out the Asus ROG board for a less expensive board like the Z97XM-Gaming-5 or the Asrock Killer Z97 matx board. other than that everything looks great. 

 

EDIT: maybe a smaller psu too. 750w or so would be ok. Get it from a reutable brand though like EVGA or Seasonic.

[PC-Enthusiast]

That motherboard comes with a PCI Express combo thing that you can put a M.2 SSD and a Wireless chip into it something like THIS so you can just get one of those if you really want wireless, though you'll have to look into what chip fits into it.  That power supply is way over kill you could likely go with a 600watt easy.

I really wanted to do that with the PCIe combo! But it's not available commercially and ASUS only sells it with one of the ATX motherboards I think. The only place that had it was ebay, and I wasn't 100% about that

Edit: Also, how good are mpcie wifi cards?

 

Looks like a beast but some parts are just straight up overkill. For example, maybe trade out the Asus ROG board for a less expensive board like the Z97XM-Gaming-5 or the Asrock Killer Z97 matx board. other than that everything looks great. 

 

EDIT: maybe a smaller psu too. 750w or so would be ok. Get it from a reutable brand though like EVGA or Seasonic.

 

Okay, that's a good point! As before with Ryoku, I had liked the idea of the ASUS not just because of the reviews, but the idea of the combo card; but since it doesn't seem to have that, I may have to change that!

 

 

And yeah, I only chose the 1000w as that was what I had with the last AMD build and thought I might add a 2nd GPU; don't think that will be the case this time though!

[PC-Enthusiast]

Okay, so I saved about £30 by keeping the same efficiency PSU but going down 750W (and I think it's a bit smaller too!).

 

Haven't checked the motherboards yet, but I did find out the Maximus VII Impact does possess the combo card, and since it already contains the wifi card and antennae, the price levels out as the same price as the VII Gene and wifi card. But the shame is that I couldn't use the M.2 SSD port in the combo card as the graphics card wouldn't be able to run!

 

I'll have a look at those other motherboards now

[Ryoku]

Okay, so I saved about £30 by keeping the same efficiency PSU but going down 750W (and I think it's a bit smaller too!).

 

Haven't checked the motherboards yet, but I did find out the Maximus VII Impact does possess the combo card, and since it already contains the wifi card and antennae, the price levels out as the same price as the VII Gene and wifi card. But the shame is that I couldn't use the M.2 SSD port in the combo card as the graphics card wouldn't be able to run!

 

I'll have a look at those other motherboards now

 

oh wow looking at it now the gene vii doesn't come with the mPCEI Combo cards like my Gene VI did, but it has the port for it on the mobo still.  You could still use the M.2 Slot, The M.2 Slot disables the little black 4x pci e slot on the mobo, doesn't touch the Red 16x/dual 8x slots

[PC-Enthusiast]

oh wow looking at it now the gene vii doesn't come with the mPCEI Combo cards like my Gene VI did, but it has the port for it on the mobo still.  You could still use the M.2 Slot, The M.2 Slot disables the little black 4x pci e slot on the mobo, doesn't touch the Red 16x/dual 8x slots

Yeah but is there a difference in performance with mPCIE wifi cards and PCIE wifi cards?

[Prysin]

For Wifi card get an Asus AC56 or AC68.

I got the AC56 myself and it is fantastic. Coupled to my Netgear N900 dualband router, i can both play games and download torrents at the same time without getting lag or dropouts.

Its 50 USD, or 48Euro if buying in EU. Solid choice and i cannot reccoment it enough. The cherry-red metallic painted heatsink is neat too.

[Prysin]

Yeah but is there a difference in performance with mPCIE wifi cards and PCIE wifi cards?

Yes, wifi cards on the mobo isnt always the best solution. They often lack dual band, or they are less stable at higher network loads (speaking from experience with a ASrock FM2A88X mITX board and an Asus ROG Maximus Impact - impact was stable, just got lower speeds on same router, like 3.5MB/s lower speed)

[PC-Enthusiast]

For Wifi card get an Asus AC56 or AC68.

I got the AC56 myself and it is fantastic. Coupled to my Netgear N900 dualband router, i can both play games and download torrents at the same time without getting lag or dropouts.

Its 50 USD, or 48Euro if buying in EU. Solid choice and i cannot reccoment it enough. The cherry-red metallic painted heatsink is neat too.

 

 

Yes, wifi cards on the mobo isnt always the best solution. They often lack dual band, or they are less stable at higher network loads (speaking from experience with a ASrock FM2A88X mITX board and an Asus ROG Maximus Impact - impact was stable, just got lower speeds on same router, like 3.5MB/s lower speed)

 Oh okay! You mean this, right? http://www.cclonline.com/product/157880/PCE-AC56/Wireless-Adapters/ASUS-PCE-AC56-802-11ac-Dual-band-Wireless-AC1300-PCI-E-Adapter/NET1971/?siteID=8BacdVP0GFs-CReFozSQi0lEfSx5jpILDg

 

Because that definitely looks good!

[Prysin]

 Oh okay! You mean this, right? http://www.cclonline.com/product/157880/PCE-AC56/Wireless-Adapters/ASUS-PCE-AC56-802-11ac-Dual-band-Wireless-AC1300-PCI-E-Adapter/NET1971/?siteID=8BacdVP0GFs-CReFozSQi0lEfSx5jpILDg

 

Because that definitely looks good!

yes, just note that IT IS TINY.... so if you put it right under a GPU, you wont see it... in relation to my 295x2, its about 1/6th the size....

[PC-Enthusiast]

yes, just note that IT IS TINY.... so if you put it right under a GPU, you wont see it... in relation to my 295x2, its about 1/6th the size....

Awesome! Thank you (and everyone!) so much!