ITX Workstation Planning

[TW1ST3R]

So my dad's been using a horrid HP prebuilt for the last 7 years or so (Core 2 duo, GT 210) and has finally decided that it's time to upgrade.  He used to insist that what he has was "very good" but has finally come to the realisation that it really isn't since it takes 8+ minutes to turn on and lags and freezes on anything from AutoCAD LT to just opening a jpeg.

 

I've been given a budget of around $2000 to build him a workstation that'll last him for years.  His requirements:

- As small as possible

- As fast as possible

- As simple as possible

- 1TB storage single drive SSD

- Will run AutoCAD LT (no 3D modelling, only 2D linework) and be able to access large Autocad files and Adobe PDFs without lagging.

- Power efficient

- Optical drive

 

I've been researching and planning for a while now and have decided on the following:

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($475.00 @ Mwave Australia) 
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U9S 46.4 CFM CPU Cooler  ($99.00 @ Mwave Australia) 
Motherboard: Asus H170I-PLUS D3 Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($199.00 @ Mwave Australia) 

Memory: 2x Kingston 8GB DDR3 1600MHz 1.35V KVR16LN11/8 (117.98 @ Mwave Australia)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($475.00 @ Mwave Australia) 
Case: Inwin 901 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($239.00 @ Mwave Australia) 
Power Supply: Corsair RMx 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($159.00) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)  ($149.00 @ Mwave Australia) 

ODD: LG 8X USB Portable External DVD Burner Drive ($35 @ Mwave Australia)
Total: $1947.00

 

 

Anyway I'd like some input on the choices I've made.  Particularly the CPU cooler and Graphics.  Dad thinks that he needs a GPU.  I'm of the opinion that he should try the iGPU and if he needs one, we can always throw one in later.  If he does need one I was thinking maybe a R7 360.  The 750ti and R7 370 are about the same price.  I'm also interested in the rumoured low power 950 that's supposed to be replacing the 750/750ti.  I've listed my choices and thought process in the spoiler below.

 

Thought process:

 

Spoiler

 

Case

We were originally going to use the NCase M1, however it's out of stock until May so we've decided on the In Win 901 instead.  We did consider other options such as the Silverstone RVZ01, Fractal Arc Mini R2, Bitfenix Pandora, NZXT S340 & Corsair 400Q.  For one reason or another they were scratched off the list due to cooler compatibility, case size, case quality, etc.  Dad's pretty adamant that the case be smaller than my 450D and at the very most as large as my brother's Mini R2.  The 901 turned out to be the only ITX case that we both liked besides the M1.  Even though it's pricey it still works out about $60 cheaper than the M1 after exchange rates and shipping.

 

CPU:

Chose the 6700 for its hyperthreading, nice boost clock and low power consumption.  It's substantially cheaper than the 6700K, and any sort of overclocking I doubt would be of any benefit to the work he's doing.  Also means we don't need to fork out another $70~ for a Z series board.  It should also outperform my own 4690K so there shouldn't be any complaints from him.

 

Cooler:

Finding good ITX cpu coolers is a pain in the butt,  Ditched any sort of RVZ01 form factor in our case choices because pretty much anything that would fit wouldn't perform much better than the stock Intel cooler aside from noise levels.  If Mwave stocked Be Quiet or Cryorig coolers I would have considered them but we're ordering everything from Mwave because it's local.  Decided against water cooling because dad wouldn't approve, he was incredibly apprehensive when I built my computer myself the first time.  Anyway I think the NH-U9S is probably the best bet here, pretty much stuck with 92mm fan CPU coolers and a top down cooler would probably be less than optimal given the single front/bottom intake of the In Win 901

 

Motherboard:

Have had good experience with ASUS motherboards.  It's either this or the Gigabyte H170 Wifi.

 

Memory:

Generic 1.35v 1600mhz DDR3.  Might opt for something that's either got a black PCB or heatsink.  Depends what I can find in stock that's DDR3L

 

Graphics:

I believe the iGPU should be fine.  I ran some tests with my 4690K iGPU and the AutoCAD performance seemed the same.  Just had to disable hardware acceleration due to a bug.

 

Storage:

He definitely wants an SSD.  Also doesn't want to deal with sorting files between a hard drive and SSD.  So a 1TB 850 Evo it is.

 

PSU:

80+ Gold.  Annoyingly there aren't really many lower wattage Gold ATX PSUs, so it's either the RMx 550 or a Silverstone Strider.  The bright side is that there's more than enough headroom for pretty much any GPU.

 

ODD:

Even though the case supports a slim ODD, the implementation looks a bit odd and hard to access.  Also an external ODD is cheaper.

 

 

 

 

 

[Supercian411]

I recommend a good graphics card for AutoCAD I would choses

Sapphire R9 380 Compact ITX Nitro OC AMD Graphics Card 4GB

[TW1ST3R]

7 minutes ago, Supercian411 said:

I recommend a good graphics card for AutoCAD I would choses

Sapphire R9 380 Compact ITX Nitro OC AMD Graphics Card 4GB

Note it's only AutoCAD LT - there's no 3D modelling, it's only 2d linework diagrams like land contours, elevations, housing lots and road planning, I think a 380 is quite overkill for that which is why if a GPU is necessary I'm thinking a couple models down the lineup should suffice.

[Supercian411]

Just now, TW1ST3R said:

Note it's only AutoCAD LT - there's no 3D modelling, it's only 2d diagrams like land contours, elevations, housing lots and road planning, I think a 380 is quite overkill for that which is why if a GPU is necessary I'm thinking a couple models down the lineup should suffice.

oh maybe just any low end gpu eg 950 just so it will last longer and keep up to date and why don't you use ddr4 and water cooling

[TW1ST3R]

Just now, Supercian411 said:

oh maybe just any low end gpu eg 950 just so it will last longer and keep up to date and why don't you use ddr4 and water cooling

Yeah I did test with my own iGPU and it seems to run without effort, just can't enable hardware acceleration.  I'm leaning towards the iGPU for the moment and waiting to see if that low power 950 rumour turns out to be true.  Not sure how much feedback I'll get about LT and GPUs though, it seems to be rather niche compared to the full version of AutoCAD, so I'll just have to wait and see.

 

A fair few of the matx and itx H170 boards are DDR3L instead of DDR4.  I'm assuming it's a cost cutting measure.  DDR4 mostly seems to be reserved for the ATX boards and Z170 boards from what I've seen.

 

Dad's the type of person who is likely to freak out at the thought of water being anywhere near the computer.  Easier to just not deal with that drama, and better to just stick with air cooling, less points of failure and whatnot.

[Supercian411]

Just now, TW1ST3R said:

Yeah I did test with my own iGPU and it seems to run without effort, just can't enable hardware acceleration.  I'm leaning towards the iGPU for the moment and waiting to see if that low power 950 rumour turns out to be true.  Not sure how much feedback I'll get about LT and GPUs though, it seems to be rather niche compared to the full version of AutoCAD, so I'll just have to wait and see.

 

A fair few of the matx and itx H170 boards are DDR3L instead of DDR4.  I'm assuming it's a cost cutting measure.  DDR4 mostly seems to be reserved for the ATX boards and Z170 boards from what I've seen.

 

Dad's the type of person who is likely to freak out at the thought of water being anywhere near the computer.  Easier to just not deal with that drama, and better to just stick with air cooling, less points of failure and whatnot.

oh try this motherboard bit pricey but will keep up to date https://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/Z170I-PRO-GAMING/

[TW1ST3R]

8 hours ago, bmuskett9920 said:

Why not get a matx case and go x99

 

8 hours ago, bmuskett9920 said:

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/user/bmuskett992/saved/#view=HVWgXL

Honestly, dad's incredibly fussy and didn't like any of the matx cases I showed him.  They're either too big or too gamerey, and he doesn't want a cube case like the Corsair air series.  Also the price of X99 parts has gone up considerably in the last few months at all of the stores located near us.  And the availability has dropped as well.  Probably something to do with broadwell-e being on the horizon and the exchange rate being crap.

 

I did consider X99 for a while but at the current price point, it'd be  considerably cheaper to go Z170 and overclock the heck put of it.  Not to mention that aside from AutoCAD LT the majority of his work is done in MS Office and Adobe Acrobat, which hardly require 6 cores.

 

10 hours ago, Supercian411 said:

oh try this motherboard bit pricey but will keep up to date https://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/Z170I-PRO-GAMING/

I've looked at, it's an option if he decides that he wants the extra performance that Z170 can provide over H170

[brob]

If you are willing to go with a different case and use more than one merchant, the price can be reduced with some other benefits.

Mini-ITX motherboards only have two memory slots. You might consider going with a single 16GB module to start. This will allow for an upgrade without having to replace memory.

If an optical drive is necessary, having it housed in the case is much better than going with an external drive. If the only reason for including an optical drive is Windows installation, there are several alternatives.

An after market cpu cooler is not entirely necessary. But it will help keep noise at a minimum.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($459.00 @ Umart)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9x65 33.8 CFM CPU Cooler  ($79.00 @ CPL Online)
Motherboard: Asus H110I-PLUS/CSM Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($157.96 @ Newegg Australia)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2800 Memory  ($174.92 @ Newegg Australia)
Storage: Mushkin Reactor 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($377.91 @ Newegg Australia)
Case: Silverstone RVZ01B Mini ITX Desktop Case  ($105.00 @ Umart)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply  ($125.00 @ Umart)
Optical Drive: Silverstone SOD02B DVD/CD Writer  ($78.00 @ IJK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)  ($139.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $1695.79
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-19 15:22 AEDT+1100

[TW1ST3R]

3 hours ago, brob said:

If you are willing to go with a different case and use more than one merchant, the price can be reduced with some other benefits.

Mini-ITX motherboards only have two memory slots. You might consider going with a single 16GB module to start. This will allow for an upgrade without having to replace memory.

If an optical drive is necessary, having it housed in the case is much better than going with an external drive. If the only reason for including an optical drive is Windows installation, there are several alternatives.

An after market cpu cooler is not entirely necessary. But it will help keep noise at a minimum.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($459.00 @ Umart)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9x65 33.8 CFM CPU Cooler  ($79.00 @ CPL Online)
Motherboard: Asus H110I-PLUS/CSM Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($157.96 @ Newegg Australia)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2800 Memory  ($174.92 @ Newegg Australia)
Storage: Mushkin Reactor 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($377.91 @ Newegg Australia)
Case: Silverstone RVZ01B Mini ITX Desktop Case  ($105.00 @ Umart)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply  ($125.00 @ Umart)
Optical Drive: Silverstone SOD02B DVD/CD Writer  ($78.00 @ IJK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)  ($139.00 @ CPL Online)
Total: $1695.79
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-19 15:22 AEDT+1100

Yeah we're sticking with one merchant.  The price difference between stores is not worth it for the most part.  For example while CPL is usually the cheapest, their shipping rates are ridiculously high and make any price difference redundant.  Also there are other factors such as dealing with shipping.  We've been having a lot of issues with getting things delivered to our address and I don't want to be chasing down multiple packages through our crappy postal service and their appalling customer service.  Since this is a work PC dad's going to be claiming it on his tax return so having everything on one invoice should make things simpler.