Designing Small Form Factor PC

[FlugleWaffle]

Hello all! 

So I'm a college student now and the desktop i built back in 2012 with a Corsair 500R, or whatever giant case it is, is just too big and heavy to lug around and it takes up a lot of space. I'm trying to come up with a small upgrade, not a total redesign, to my system but I'm running into some issues. I want to reuse as many parts as possible in a small ITX case but the case is either way too big for what I want, or so small that the reusability of my old parts is somewhat limited. For reference I have:

CPU: i5-3570k

Mobo: MSI G45-z77 or whatever it is

PSU: Corsair H750

GPU: MSI GTX 660TI Lightning

Cooler: H100i

2 500 GB hard drives and 1 60GB SSD

The ram isnt important

 

I wanted to try to downsize to something like a Fractal Design Node 202 but then I basically have to throw almost all my old hardware out, all of which is still good. My idea was to go for something slightly bigger then but it seems the next best option for reusability is the Bitfenix Prodigy which is much bigger than I would like. Basically I haven't been able to find anything that is a happy-medium. Reusing as much as possible would be best because I want to keep the price down. Any thoughts for what to do? Thanks!

[Misanthrope]

I have a couple of questions:

 

-What size is your motherboard? It looks to be full ATX size but I can't tell

-What is your budget other than trying to rehuse as much parts as you can?

-What is the size of your GPU?

 

Because I am thinking of a specific case that might work for you but it might be a tight fit to use your cooler and GPU with it, but it is quite small. Other than that with the budget I could figure out the best compromise which is probably a different cooler tbh but it depends.

[Aereldor]

5 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

-What size is your motherboard? It looks to be full ATX size but I can't tell

-What is the size of your GPU?

• That's an ATX motherboard.
• It should be 265mm long.

[Mooshi]

Fractal Core 500. Small enough to fit in a backpack, large enough to use most standard hardware--even a 240mm AIO if you don't need to use the optical drive slot. 

 

You may have to change PSUs if your card is too long. 

[FlugleWaffle]

7 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

I have a couple of questions:

 

-What size is your motherboard? It looks to be full ATX size but I can't tell

-What is your budget other than trying to rehuse as much parts as you can?

-What is the size of your GPU?

 

Because I am thinking of a specific case that might work for you but it might be a tight fit to use your cooler and GPU with it, but it is quite small. Other than that with the budget I could figure out the best compromise which is probably a different cooler tbh but it depends.

1. My motherboard is full atx.

2. My budget limit is tentatively set around $600. I'd prefer to keep it under.

3. Dimensions are: (L x H x W) 10.43" x 4.45" x 1.5"

[Misanthrope]

7 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

• That's an ATX motherboard.
• It should be 265mm long.

Ok the first option won't be able to fit your cooler, is the Riotoro CR1080:

 

 

As you can see it's really small but it really won't fit your current cooler. It might be able to fill something like an H80i for example but it does involves buying a new case and a new cooler, which in price might be worst than the Phanteks Entho ITX:

 

 

This one can fit all of your components except your motherboard in which case you'll need a new 1155 itx board like this one for 129 bucks

 

I'd think the first option is the closet to what you'd like and without spending as much since a 120 AIO cooler is the better option

[Aereldor]

1 minute ago, Misanthrope said:

This one can fit all of your components except your motherboard in which case you'll need a new 1155 itx board like this one for 129 bucks

Not the best deal, seeing as he can get a Core i3 6100 and an H110 board for about $25 more. That board is also an h67 board and will not be able to overclock his CPU. He could get a Z68 or Z77 mini-ITX board on eBay for a third the price.

[FlugleWaffle]

3 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

Not the best deal, seeing as he can get a Core i3 6100 and an H110 board for about $25 more. That board is also an h67 board and will not be able to overclock his CPU. He could get a Z68 or Z77 mini-ITX board on eBay for a third the price.

Ive looked around and have not been able to find a z77 itx motherboard online.

[Misanthrope]

4 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

Not the best deal, seeing as he can get a Core i3 6100 and an H110 board for about $25 more. That board is also an h67 board and will not be able to overclock his CPU. He could get a Z68 or Z77 mini-ITX board on eBay for a third the price.

I honestly think he should give the Riotoro CR1080 and an H80 cooler a try. It's not that much and I really like their idea of atx size compatibility with itx size case.

[Aereldor]

22 minutes ago, FlugleWaffle said:

Ive looked around and have not been able to find a z77 itx motherboard online.

Well, for $600, here's a build that recycles the CPU, RAM, and SSD. The Node 202 doesn't do 3.5" drives, so I included a 1TB 2.5" drive. You're also in dire need of a GPU upgrade, which I included.

 

You can use any mini-ITX LGA1155 motherboard, but you'll be giving up CPU overclocking.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i 33.8 CFM CPU Cooler  ($37.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Hitachi Travelstar 1TB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($56.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB Mini Video Card  ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: Fractal Design Node 202 HTPC Case w/450W Power Supply  ($129.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $464.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-02 14:29 EST-0500

[Quaker]

37 minutes ago, FlugleWaffle said:

I wanted to try to downsize to something like a Fractal Design Node 202 but then I basically have to throw almost all my old hardware out, all of which is still good.

If you want to downsize to a mini-ITX form factor such as the Node 202, you'll need a mini-ITX socket 1155 motherboard which would be difficult (if not impossible) to find.

Also, your PSU wouldn't fit into a node 202.

A case such as the Bitfinix Prodigy or the Corsair 250D would allow you to keep your power supply, but would still require an ITX motherboard.

 

Even going to a smaller mini-tower case would involve getting a micro-ATX (mATX) motherboard, which should be available. But a mini-tower may not be as small as you want.

 

My advice:

 

Wait for Kaby Lake to be released. Get an i3-7350K or better CPU and a 200 series mini-ITX motherboard (B250, H270, Z270) and 8 or 16 Gigs of DDR4 RAM.

Re-use your current PSU with a Prodigy or 250D case and re-use the 660Ti.

or - get a Node 202 with an SFX PSU and get a newer, less power hungry graphics card, such as an RX 470 or GTX-1050/1050 Ti (which outperform the old 660 Ti anyway)

Buy one 500 Gig SSD. Or a 120-250Gig SSD and re-use one of the 500 Gig HDDs.

 

Sell the rest of the old system. You could re-use the H100i cooler in the Prodigy or 250D if you plan to OC, but not in the Node 202 (I wouldn't suggest you OC much in a Node 202.)

 

Cheapest solution is to get an mATX motherboard and a small mATX case.

 

 

[FlugleWaffle]

23 minutes ago, Quaker said:

If you want to downsize to a mini-ITX form factor such as the Node 202, you'll need a mini-ITX socket 1155 motherboard which would be difficult (if not impossible) to find.

Also, your PSU wouldn't fit into a node 202.

A case such as the Bitfinix Prodigy or the Corsair 250D would allow you to keep your power supply, but would still require an ITX motherboard.

 

Even going to a smaller mini-tower case would involve getting a micro-ATX (mATX) motherboard, which should be available. But a mini-tower may not be as small as you want.

 

My advice:

 

Wait for Kaby Lake to be released. Get an i3-7350K or better CPU and a 200 series mini-ITX motherboard (B250, H270, Z270) and 8 or 16 Gigs of DDR4 RAM.

Re-use your current PSU with a Prodigy or 250D case and re-use the 660Ti.

or - get a Node 202 with an SFX PSU and get a newer, less power hungry graphics card, such as an RX 470 or GTX-1050/1050 Ti (which outperform the old 660 Ti anyway)

Buy one 500 Gig SSD. Or a 120-250Gig SSD and re-use one of the 500 Gig HDDs.

 

Sell the rest of the old system. You could re-use the H100i cooler in the Prodigy or 250D if you plan to OC, but not in the Node 202 (I wouldn't suggest you OC much in a Node 202.)

 

Cheapest solution is to get an mATX motherboard and a small mATX case.

 

 

Unfortunately I can't wait for Kaby lake. I'm at home now and I brought my desktop with me because I knew I wanted to make these upgrades.