Micro Goliath - mATX gaming rig

[4ndromeda]

As the title suggests, I'm in the process of planning my new gaming rig. This time I'm downsizing to a mATX form factor. The plan is to have it fully watercooled, from the cpu to the gpu & maybe even the motherboard and ram if there's enough space (and if I can afford it of course).

 

The case I've chosen (not bought yet) is the Xigmatek Aquila due to its design, size & features. Seeing as the motherboard is horizontal in this case, the aesthetics aren't hugely important but still would prefer as little colour on the board as possible.

 

Speaking of motherboards, I'm not sure whether to go for x99 or Z170 as if I'm honest I'm not sure on the difference between them? I'm currently swaying towards the Asus Maxiumus VIII Gene Z170

 

As for RAM, I'm not entirely sure on this area but I'd like 8GB minimum, with the ability to upgrade to more in the future & fill up all DIMM slots

 

Again, CPU i'm not sure about but it'll have to be Skylake of course.

 

For the GPU, until I upgrade later down the line, I'll be rocking my good ol' Gigabyte GTX770 but I plan on upgrading to a 980Ti (watercooled).

 

My budget is around £1,000 but obviously I want to save as much money as possible. All unmentioned components in this post will be re-used from my current system or I know what I'm doing for them.

 

So, feedback on this plan is welcome  Feel free to suggest better parts & ideas on what I could do differently!

[Matty2hatty]

I f you go x99 then the 5820k is your best bet

[mapegl]

23 minutes ago, 4ndromeda said:

As the title suggests, I'm in the process of planning my new gaming rig. This time I'm downsizing to a mATX form factor. The plan is to have it fully watercooled, from the cpu to the gpu & maybe even the motherboard and ram if there's enough space (and if I can afford it of course).

 

The case I've chosen (not bought yet) is the Xigmatek Aquila due to its design, size & features. Seeing as the motherboard is horizontal in this case, the aesthetics aren't hugely important but still would prefer as little colour on the board as possible.

 

Speaking of motherboards, I'm not sure whether to go for x99 or Z170 as if I'm honest I'm not sure on the difference between them? I'm currently swaying towards the Asus Maxiumus VIII Gene Z170

 

As for RAM, I'm not entirely sure on this area but I'd like 8GB minimum, with the ability to upgrade to more in the future & fill up all DIMM slots

 

Again, CPU i'm not sure about but it'll have to be Skylake of course.

 

For the GPU, until I upgrade later down the line, I'll be rocking my good ol' Gigabyte GTX770 but I plan on upgrading to a 980Ti (watercooled).

 

My budget is around £1,000 but obviously I want to save as much money as possible. All unmentioned components in this post will be re-used from my current system or I know what I'm doing for them.

 

So, feedback on this plan is welcome  Feel free to suggest better parts & ideas on what I could do differently!

Since you want to save as much money as possible, I would suggest going fo a 6600k. The extra gains by going with an i7 are not that high compared to the premium you have to pay, but putting that saved money towards a more powerful GPU would definitely be worth it as gaming will see bigger gains from a more powerful GPU than from CPU.

 

Don't watercool your RAM, not worth it. ;-) New DDR4 RAM stays even cooler than DDR3.

 

Concerning your GPU choice, if you can hold out a little bit longer, you might want to wait for pascal or polaris since both will be very efficient and cooler and you might be able to save on radiators, since not as much heat needs to be dissipated.

[Streetguru]

2 hours ago, 4ndromeda said:

 

Are you just gaming? If so what's your display set up? a 980ti isn't going to be worth it because new GPUs are coming in a few months, and it's going to be better to upgrade your display rather than your GPU with that money

 

far as watercooling goes, buy like 3 4k displays and 2 of the whatever fastest GPU is out in a few months before worrying about water cooling

[mapegl]

1 hour ago, Streetguru said:

Are you just gaming? If so what's your display set up? a 980ti isn't going to be worth it because new GPUs are coming in a few months, and it's going to be better to upgrade your display rather than your GPU with that money

 

far as watercooling goes, buy like 3 4k displays and 2 of the whatever fastest GPU is out in a few months before worrying about water cooling

Yeah I agree. Watercooling is not really worth it.

[4ndromeda]

2 hours ago, Streetguru said:

Are you just gaming? If so what's your display set up? a 980ti isn't going to be worth it because new GPUs are coming in a few months, and it's going to be better to upgrade your display rather than your GPU with that money

 

far as watercooling goes, buy like 3 4k displays and 2 of the whatever fastest GPU is out in a few months before worrying about water cooling

Mostly gaming, yeah. About 90% gaming, 10% other things such a forum browsing & online shopping etc. I'm currently running a single BenQ EW2440 & due to the lack of space, I'm limited to a single display setup. 

45 minutes ago, mapegl said:

Yeah I agree. Watercooling is not really worth it.

Watercooling may not be 'worth it' but with each build I do, one of my main aims is to make the system as silent as possible & this rig is no exception.

[Streetguru]

16 minutes ago, 4ndromeda said:

 

Thermalright makes great passive air coolers for true silence, too bad I couldn't find the HR-22, you should be able to find this one the "Macho" for cheaper elsewhere

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermalright-Macho-Zero-Cooling-Device/dp/B00P6QC5NS/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1458603283&sr=8-7&keywords=Passive+Heatsink

Arctic also makes this passive GPU cooler, it like overhangs the card by a good margin, might need to be picky about the case with it, going to need to undervolt the 380 though, or get a lower end GPU

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARCTIC-Accelero-S3-Graphics-Compatible/dp/B00RVAEI1E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458603283&sr=8-1&keywords=Passive+Heatsink

Otherwise you can do what you want to do for under 700 pounds easy, and I'd upgrade your display before going for a silence optimized PC, this build includes a 4K IPS free-sync display, 27" should fit in your spot with minimal effort as well, normally you'd want 32" or higher for productivity

 

as for running games at 4k, obviously that's not going to be a thing, but 1080p scales perfectly with 4k, and if you're going to game at 1080p you might as well do it on a 4k display for the better desktop and with free-sync here

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/8HCvzy
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/8HCvzy/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£166.27 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-S2HP Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (£60.44 @ More Computers)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (£53.99 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£40.48 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card  (£159.98 @ Novatech)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  (£36.99 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£57.44 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: LG 27MU67 60Hz 27.0" Monitor  (£359.99 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £935.58
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-21 23:37 GMT+0000