Working out the details

[DHelios]

I'm currently using a pair of Define R3s, and though the R4 had some sexy upgrades it wasn't until the R5 that I really started to think about upgrading my system. Not because I had to, but because I ccould. And because I had to build a lot of R4 and R5 systems for customers - why should they get all the shiny toys? Then came the Define Nano S, which made me think. Though they look quite sexy on my desk, those two systems also take up a lot of space. With the improvements in small and efficient hardware, mini-ITX might just be the thing for me!

 

At first I looked at mini-ITX X99 boards. I'm currently on X58, and performance still isn't a reason for me to upgrade. I'm starting to feel the lack of feature support, though (originally, my system didn't even have USB 3.0 or SATA/6G support). At the moment, the 'enthusiast' X99 platform has a much less modern feature set than Z170. As much as Haswell-E might be worth the extra investment just to get a few more years out of it performance-wise, do I really need those extra years? I've probably got a few more years in my i7-950, but even so I'm itching to build something new. What's the point of spending extra money to make your performance last longer, if you then end up upgrading because other things have advanced to the point where your system feels outdated? Not to mention that if I plan to go mini-ITX, I'll likely only get two memory banks: so much for quad-channel memory.

 

So here's what I'm looking at (and here's a convenient link to PCPartPicker!):

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
So Skylake then! Since I use my system mostly for games and Photoshop, an i5 would do me just fine. The enthusiast in me wants that i7 case badge though, even though I'd never actually stick it on my case and ruin the minimalist Scandinavian design.

 

CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X61 106.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
The first and, really only AIO water cooler to ever impress the guys at SPCR. I've always favoured big air, but in a small case that's perhaps not the way to go. And if I can get better cooling and still better acoustics by calling the Kraken, that's my preference. I intend to go with front intake for this one, and remove the air filter form the case as it's a lot of extra resistance, and the radiator can do some of the filtering for me.

 

Motherboard: Asus Z170I PRO GAMING Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
ASUS is my go-to brand for mainboards. The Z170I PRO GAMING offers the fan and USB2 headers I need for the X61, as well as a fan header for the rear exhaust fan. Should the NZXT software not be to my liking, I can always have the radiator fans run off a second case fan header with a splitter, and leave their control to ASUS' excellent FanXpert. Front USB3 for the case, check. M.2 PCIe on the back of the board, check. Above-average sound on-board, check.

 

Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory

Much as ASUS is my go-to brand for mainboards, Corsair is where I get my RAM. The low-profile heatsinks allow me to change to big air later should I wish to. The speed doesn't matter much, I went for the highest speed supported by the Z170I PG that didn't come with a large price premium over the speed option below it.
 

Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive

Repeat after me: 'M.2 NVMe is sexy'. Sure, it's tucked away on the back of the board, and you don't get to see it. But the performance will be there, and I'll know about its elegance even if it won't be visibly apparent.

 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
I'll probably just repurpose my existing boot drive, a 250GB 840 EVO for this instead. It's not a high-capacity storage drive, it's there for additional software and games, maybe to use as a swap drive. File storage all happens on my server.

 

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card
Please, do not offer me advice about how AMD has the better offer in this price range. I already own this card, so it's going in there. Perhaps its successor down the line will, like its predecessor, be a Radeon card. Perhaps not. We'll see about that once my GTX970 is up for replacement in a few years. 

 

Case: Fractal Design Define Nano S Mini ITX Desktop Case
The instigator. It looks sexy. It feels sexy. It's good at what it does. Now, I'm not generally a fan of windowed computers - not unless there's something in there that is worth seeing. With the high density of components in the small enclosure, there just might be something there to see (I hate big flashy cases with a large window, that are half-empty inside, or ones where you look through the window into a deep, dark hole). Lighting will probably have to be included if I go for windowed, but the jury's still out on that. I might go for the closed version. And I'll still want it to look sexy inside. No-one will ever see it. But I will know.

 

Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
315 Watt is what PCPartPicker estimates this system will draw, and a PSU calculator I used showed a bit more than that. Taking into account reduced component efficiency over time due to wear and tear and a bit of extra power draw from overclocking, I feel that 500W will probably do me just fine. Even for future graphics card upgrades, mini-ITX obviously doesn't allow for SLI, and the trend has been toward more performance for less power. I'm not worried the 550W will last me a long time.

That just leaves some details to be worked out. My remaining concerns are as follows:

 

The GTX970 STRIX has a thick heatpipe sticking out the side, as well as a side-PCIe power connector. Fractal recommends against cards that are wider than the expansion slot bracket. Does anyone have experience with the GTX970 STRIX or other similarly-wide cards in the Define Nano S?

 

Since I won't be using a separate pump and reservoir, would it be possible to mount the 2.5/3.5 HDD mount on the 'inside' of the case to show off the auxiliary SSD? Either that, or use the variable-width reservoir mounts to mount a 2.5" SSD. Again, anyone tried this in a Nano S?

 

As much as I have faith in the quality and durability of Seasonic's G-series PSUs, their sleeved 24-pin cable ends in... a non-sleeved multicolour mess, for lack of a better term. Since those cables are hard-mounted on the PSU, does anyone have a recommendation for a PSU of similar performance, reliability and silent operation that comes with either individually sleeved 24-pin connector cables, a sleeve extending all the way to the connector or if anything, black insulation on the cables? It may not be an issue at all if I choose to go with the non-windowed case but if there is a prettier solution that doesn't cost a ton more, I'm all for prettier solutions.

 

I am currently using a SoundBlaster X-Fi soundcard. Like most add-in soundcards, it features a Stereo Mix output option (which Creative calls 'What U Hear', which I'm sure they do just to annoy me. U is a letter, not a pronoun). I need that option. Since mini-ITX doesn't allow me to add a soundcard as well as a graphics card, I'm relying on the above-average on-board audio to provide me with this feature. Of course, ASUS doesn't list this kind of feature. So can anyone confirm that the Z170I PRO GAMING or perhaps the SupremeFX audio system in general has a Stereo Mix output option?

 

So any answers to these questions? Other thoughts? Did I overlook awesome products, blinded by brand bias or by focussing too much on a certain feature? Any other random tips to make the new system even more awesome?

 

As for the standard New Builds and Planning checklist:
 

Budget is pretty flexible. I'm okay with adding a few bucks if it adds awesomeness. I'm okay with saving a few bucks as well: the budget doesn't need to be spent. Saving money is a good thing! Still, it's my hobby and I'll be using the machine on a daily basis for years to come. I'm not going to cheap out on parts.
 

Location is the Netherlands, I should be able to get my hands on most stuff from most manufacturers.
 

Aim is mostly gaming and Photoshop, but I also do some music stuff, some video stuff, some 3D modelling stuff. My current system (i7-950, 12GB, GTX970, details in the sig) still serves me just fine, the specs aren't really the issue.
 

Monitor is one 1200p Iiyama now, but last I was at the computer store I swear that handsome ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 1440p was beckoning me.

 

Peripherals are all taken care of. If I get everything sorted before June, I should be able to upgrade an old Windows license for Windows 10. I'm one of the few people who actually likes Windows 10, so that works out well for me.

 

Why am I upgrading? Because I can. Best reason ever!

 

That turned into quite a post, so if you made it all the way down here, sorry for the long read!

[Moonzy]

no potato for the long post? reported

7 minutes ago, DHelios said:

anyone have a recommendation for a PSU of similar performance, reliability and silent operation that comes with either individually sleeved 24-pin connector cables,

enermax digifanless, though it'll cost you a butt ton lol

but it have fully individually sleeved cables, it's fully passive and platinum rated

9 minutes ago, DHelios said:

ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 1440p

will probably kill your 970, should upgrade your gpu too when you buy this monitor

 

comments:

Spoiler

1) i dont think the case supports 280mm rad that well... watch the video below for reasons

2) considered custom watercooling? watch the vid below

3) maybe get the wifi version of the motherboard? if you'll ever need it, you'll have it

 

*) how bout EVGA G2 or P2 psu?  i think their cable is fully sleeved if im not mistaken

 

how bout building something like this?

 

 

[DHelios]

6 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

no potato for the long post? reported

[...]

enermax digifanless, though it'll cost you a butt ton lol

but it have fully individually sleeved cables, it's fully passive and platinum rated

[...]

will probably kill your 970, should upgrade your gpu too when you buy this monitor

 

[...]

1) i dont think the case supports 280mm rad that well... watch the video below for reasons

2) considered custom watercooling? watch the vid below

3) maybe get the wifi version of the motherboard? if you'll ever need it, you'll have it

 

*) how bout EVGA G2 or P2 psu?  i think their cable is fully sleeved if im not mistaken

 

how bout building something like this?

I'm sure I must have missed something. Potato?

I'll have a look at how much of a butt ton. Fully indiviually sleeved, fully passive and fully platinum sound sexy!

If I spend money on the new build, it'll be a while before I can upgrade the screen. The 970 will be quite fine for 1900x1200 for some time to come, and even in 1440p it'll run the hell out of titles like WoW, LoL, HotS, D3 and some replayable classics like DE:HR.

1) The case is excellent with a 280 in the front. Since I won't have a separate pump and reservoir, clearance should be okay with the graphics card in that direction. Up top it's limited to 240, but I'm likely to keep the ModuVent installed there.
2) Custom watercooling is not for me.
3) I believe it's actually the WiFi-version that I listed (doesn't show in the post, does show in PCPartPicker)
*) I'll look into those as well as the Enermax then!

I've seen that video some time back as part of my pre-build planning homework. It's a beautiful build, and he did a great job at it. It's also a, how did you put it? Ah, a butt ton of money, just to make the cooling look prettier...

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, DHelios said:

I'm sure I must have missed something. Potato?

its a must to provide the internet with a potato if your post is extra long

find out why here

 

8 minutes ago, DHelios said:

The case is excellent with a 280 in the front. Since I won't have a separate pump and reservoir, clearance should be okay with the graphics card in that direction. Up top it's limited to 240, but I'm likely to keep the ModuVent installed there.

welll if you say so

 

8 minutes ago, DHelios said:

a butt ton of money

exactly, but if it makes your pc looks great, why not

[Djole123]

Nice job on planning! I think this is going to be very well capable of running most titles very well!

 

Also why don't you just overclock the hell out of that i7-950? That will give you some performance.

[DHelios]

2 minutes ago, Djole123 said:

Also why don't you just overclock the hell out of that i7-950? That will give you some performance.

I was originally running an i7-920 in the system, which had a decent overclock on it. The 950 is currently mildly overclocked. Don't want to push it too far, since my setup is aimed at keeping as quiet as possible. Keep in mind though that I'm not currently lacking performance in any way, so I don't think the extra thermal output is worth it.

[DHelios]

2 hours ago, Moonzy said:

enermax digifanless, though it'll cost you a butt ton lol

but it have fully individually sleeved cables, it's fully passive and platinum rated

[...]
*) how bout EVGA G2 or P2 psu?  i think their cable is fully sleeved if im not mistaken

The Digifanless, sexy as it is, is 175mm long, and the G2 and P2 are 165mm. Fractal Design lists the max length for PSUs as 160mm, so that may be an issue. Still, thanks for the tips. Your potato is in the mail!

 

EVGA does seem to have a GS as well, which is only 150mm long and also features the all-black cables and 80 Plus Gold rating. The price difference tells me they cut something other than the length, though...

[Moonzy]

1 hour ago, DHelios said:

they cut something other than the length

its not about the length

its about how you use it ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

the EVGA GS is a great psu as well