ITX Build, Budget GBP 1,200 - Can you do better?

[jeffery7466]

I've been wanting to build an ITX machine for gaming and photo editing. I won't be buying anything until the mining craze is gone, video cards are back in stock, and prices are reasonable.

Budget is around 1,200 GBP. The part list below is over budget because I am a greedy bastard. I can't make my mind up on what to compromise on. And contrary to my previous opinions to others - No I will not skip meals, etc. I am a greedy hypocritical bastard.

Lets see if you could do better

 

Motherboard: Asrock AM4 ITX AB350 £113.62

CPU: AMD Ryzen 1600 £193.80

CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-L9x65 33.8 CFM £42.21

Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM £21.39

Ram: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3000MHz CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 £131.00

Storage: Seagate Firecuda 2TB 7200 £86.02

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB £83.88

Video Card: RX580 gigabyte aorus 8gb £244.96 <- pre-mining craze price, me thinks.

Case: Silverstone SUGO SG13B £40.80

PSU: Corsair SF450 SFF 450W £77.99

PSU Converter: SilverStone SST-PP08 SFX to ATX PSU Converter £7.64

OS: Windows 10 Home 32 bit/64 bit £75.00

Monitor: LG 23MP68VQ 23-Inch IPS 1080 £134.99

 

Total: £1,253.30

 

[iRileyx]

Won't need the cpu cooler to be honest, stock cooler is fine.

[Zando_]

Get Windows 10 from Kinguin and drop the aftermarket cooler (unles you'll be overclocking past 3.8Ghz), and that'll bring the price down. Everything else looks great!

[jeffery7466]

1 minute ago, Zando Bob said:

Get Windows 10 from Kinguin and drop the aftermarket cooler (unles you'll be overclocking past 3.8Ghz), and that'll bring the price down. Everything else looks great!

 

1 minute ago, RKRiley said:

Won't need the cpu cooler to be honest, stock cooler is fine.

Even in the SG13? Air flow is pretty restricted.

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, jeffery7466 said:

 

Even in the SG13? Air flow is pretty restricted.

IDK. I can't click on anything, so I don't know what it's like. And I'm too lazy to google it. 

[jeffery7466]

5 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

IDK. I can't click on anything, so I don't know what it's like. And I'm too lazy to google it. 

 Here you go.

 

Also, I am trying to avoid OEM Windows, as suggested by others.

[porina]

Note there are two versions of the SG13. I know, as I have both of them and got the wrong one first. One has a solid front panel which looks nice, but kills the airflow. The other has a mesh front which doesn't. Get the mesh version if you want cooling.

 

The case takes a standard ATX PSU, so something like the CX450M at around £50 would give a saving there... unless the SFF PSU gets you needed cooler space. I just measured the wraith spire that came with a 1600 and it is just under 7cm from base to top of cooler. The SG13 is rated at 61mm so no go. Don't have a case to hand at moment so don't know what it would hit if you were to have a taller cooler.

 

The case can take a 120mm AIO if you can work out how to get that into budget somehow.

[jeffery7466]

2 minutes ago, porina said:

Note there are two versions of the SG13. I know, as I have both of them and got the wrong one first. One has a solid front panel which looks nice, but kills the airflow. The other has a mesh front which doesn't. Get the mesh version if you want cooling.

 

The case takes a standard ATX PSU, so something like the CX450M at around £50 would give a saving there... unless the SFF PSU gets you needed cooler space. I just measured the wraith spire that came with a 1600 and it is just under 7cm from base to top of cooler. The SG13 is rated at 61mm so no go. Don't have a case to hand at moment so don't know what it would hit if you were to have a taller cooler.

 

The case can take a 120mm AIO if you can work out how to get that into budget somehow.

Thanks!

I am avoiding AIO because of much needed VRM cooling. A bit of down draft is always nice.

[porina]

Just now, jeffery7466 said:

I am avoiding AIO because of much needed VRM cooling. A bit of down draft is always nice.

I didn't have any heat problems running an overclocked 6700k in mine with an AIO, at least once I switched to the mesh front version. CPU got rather warm before that.

 

The noctua you listed is rated at 65mm, so that also might be too tall for the case. Again, I don't know if that height assumes ATX PSU, so with SFF PSU, maybe you're ok. Double check that!

[Zando_]

10 minutes ago, jeffery7466 said:

 Here you go.

 

Also, I am trying to avoid OEM Windows, as suggested by others.

Aaahh. I'd use the stock cooler and see if the temps are bad. If they are, then get an aftermarket cooler. Cryorig makes a really nice low profile one. 

[jeffery7466]

Just now, porina said:

I didn't have any heat problems running an overclocked 6700k in mine with an AIO, at least once I switched to the mesh front version. CPU got rather warm before that.

 

The noctua you listed is rated at 65mm, so that also might be too tall for the case. Again, I don't know if that height assumes ATX PSU, so with SFF PSU, maybe you're ok. Double check that!

With PSU converter SST-PP08, it lifts the PSU higher, which gives enough space for *I think* 72mm cooler.

[jeffery7466]

2 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Aaahh. I'd use the stock cooler and see if the temps are bad. If they are, then get an aftermarket cooler. Cryorig makes a really nice low profile one. 

Good point.

And yea, the Cryorig C7 was mentioned in many forums. But noise was a common complaint.

[brob]

On 7/23/2017 at 10:28 AM, jeffery7466 said:

I've been wanting to build an ITX machine for gaming and photo editing. I won't be buying anything until the mining craze is gone, video cards are back in stock, and prices are reasonable.

Budget is around 1,200 GBP. The part list below is over budget because I am a greedy bastard. I can't make my mind up on what to compromise on. And contrary to my previous opinions to others - No I will not skip meals, etc. I am a greedy hypocritical bastard.

Lets see if you could do better

 

Motherboard: Asrock AM4 ITX AB350 £113.62

CPU: AMD Ryzen 1600 £193.80

CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-L9x65 33.8 CFM £42.21

Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM £21.39

Ram: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3000MHz CMK16GX4M2B3000C15 £131.00

Storage: Seagate Firecuda 2TB 7200 £86.02

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB £83.88

Video Card: RX580 gigabyte aorus 8gb £244.96 <- pre-mining craze price, me thinks.

Case: Silverstone SUGO SG13B £40.80

PSU: Corsair SF450 SFF 450W £77.99

PSU Converter: SilverStone SST-PP08 SFX to ATX PSU Converter £7.64

OS: Windows 10 Home 32 bit/64 bit £75.00

Monitor: LG 23MP68VQ 23-Inch IPS 1080 £134.99

 

Total: £1,253.30

 

Photoshop is lightly threaded and does better with fewer, but faster cores. You might want to consider an Intel build, although it would be tough to fit in the budget.

 

An aftermarket cpu cooler isn't really needed for Ryzen cpu that include a cooler.

 

Instead of the Firecuda hybrid drive, consider a straight hdd. The ssd cache on a hybrid drive is relatively small (8GB) and when  used as a non-system drive may not provide the performance improvement one might expect.

 

The case will accommodate an ATX psu. You can save a bit going with a 140mm long Corsair CXM-450.

 

[jeffery7466]

7 hours ago, Leshya said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  (£188.94 @ PC World Business) 
Motherboard: ASRock - X370 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard  (£149.77 @ Eclipse Computers) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  (£140.28 @ Ebuyer) 
Storage: Crucial - MX300 275GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (£88.97 @ Ebuyer) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£55.80 @ Aria PC) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB FTW Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card  (£499.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
Case: Fractal Design - Define Nano S Mini ITX Desktop Case  (£55.55 @ Amazon UK) 
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£80.97 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £1260.27
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-25 02:30 BST+0100.

 

Case and PSU are actually more expensive in this parts list, add $20 for windows from kinguin and call it a day.

Nice!

 

But I need to fit a monitor and OS into <GBP1200. I also prefer the SG13

[jeffery7466]

6 hours ago, brob said:

Photoshop is lightly threaded and does better with fewer, but faster cores. You might want to consider an Intel build, although it would be tough to fit in the budget.

 

An aftermarket cpu cooler isn't really needed for Ryzen cpu that include a cooler.

 

Instead of the Firecuda hybrid drive, consider a straight hdd. The ssd cache on a hybrid drive is relatively small (8GB) and when  used as a non-system drive may not provide the performance improvement one might expect.

 

The case will accommodate an ATX psu. You can save a bit going with a 140mm long Corsair CXM-450.

 

I'll defo try the stock cooler first. Though I'll need the SFF psu to fit it into the SG13.

And good point on photoshop/lightroom core usage, but the speed of image export / RAW to TIFF doesn't bother too much. And at that price, you cant beat the 6core 1600. Another option would be 1500x. I also want to support AMD for this build.

[brob]

5 hours ago, jeffery7466 said:

...Though I'll need the SFF psu to fit it into the SG13.

...

I don't follow the need for an SFF psu. http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=536 shows ATX with a 140mm length recommendation.

[jeffery7466]

2 hours ago, brob said:

I don't follow the need for an SFF psu. http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=536 shows ATX with a 140mm length recommendation.

Wraith Spire wouldn't fit with an ATX PSU in the SG13. There will not be enough clearance.

(Or so the internet says...)

[brob]

10 minutes ago, jeffery7466 said:

Wraith Spire wouldn't fit with an ATX PSU in the SG13. There will not be enough clearance.

(Or so the internet says...)

The Silverstone spec lists 61mm as the max cpu cooler height. The Wraith Spire cpu cooler (stock for Ryzen 5 1600) is 54mm tall. It's tight so I guess an sfx allows for better airflow.

[jeffery7466]

16 minutes ago, brob said:

The Silverstone spec lists 61mm as the max cpu cooler height. The Wraith Spire cpu cooler (stock for Ryzen 5 1600) is 54mm tall. It's tight so I guess an sfx allows for better airflow.

54mm is the heat sink without the fan. Together they are 70mm. (Again, this is all according to the internet, as I don't have one.) But this makes sense as the Wraith Stealth is 54mm all together, and is shorter than the Spire.
And yea, ATX would reduce free volume, cover the CPU fan, and make wire management a nightmare.

[brob]

6 minutes ago, jeffery7466 said:

54mm is the heat sink without the fan. Together they are 70mm. (Again, this is all according to the internet, as I don't have one.) But this makes sense as the Wraith Stealth is 54mm all together, and is shorter than the Spire.
And yea, ATX would reduce free volume, cover the CPU fan, and make wire management a nightmare.

Wow, I can't believe that AMD would not be clear on this. There is a huge difference between 54mm and 70mm, especially in sff buids. But https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/info-needed-from-ryzen-1700-owners-height-of-wraith-spire.2502194/#post-38809530 confirms what you say.

[bowrilla]

That PSU is a bit weak imho. I'd go with 600-700W. And have you seen the new Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift? Really beautiful small case. Regarding OS – why avoiding OEM? Don't see the point.

 

I'd suggest this build:

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/34b6tJ
Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/34b6tJ/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  (£189.19 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard  (£113.33 @ Eclipse Computers) 
Memory: G.Skill - Flare X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  (£183.79 @ Alza) 
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (£87.84 @ Ebuyer) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£55.80 @ Aria PC) 
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Mini Video Card  (£391.95 @ Ebuyer) 
Power Supply: Corsair - SF 600W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply  (£114.80) 
Other: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift (£104.00)
Total: £1240.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-25 19:18 BST+0100

[jeffery7466]

50 minutes ago, brob said:

Wow, I can't believe that AMD would not be clear on this. There is a huge difference between 54mm and 70mm, especially in sff buids. But https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/info-needed-from-ryzen-1700-owners-height-of-wraith-spire.2502194/#post-38809530 confirms what you say.

Yea its kinda rubbish..

49 minutes ago, bowrilla said:

That PSU is a bit weak imho. I'd go with 600-700W. And have you seen the new Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift? Really beautiful small case. Regarding OS – why avoiding OEM? Don't see the point.

 

I'd suggest this build:

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/34b6tJ
Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/34b6tJ/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  (£189.19 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard  (£113.33 @ Eclipse Computers) 
Memory: G.Skill - Flare X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  (£183.79 @ Alza) 
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  (£87.84 @ Ebuyer) 
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£55.80 @ Aria PC) 
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Mini Video Card  (£391.95 @ Ebuyer) 
Power Supply: Corsair - SF 600W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply  (£114.80) 
Other: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Shift (£104.00)
Total: £1240.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-25 19:18 BST+0100

I'd argue 450W is enough for this build, or at least according to multiple PSU calculating websites.

Then perhaps I should go for OEM then.

Of course I would love to have faster ram and a 1070, but GBP1200 must include everything, including monitor. And the case wouldn't look good on my desk - it looks more like a home entertainment system. And its pretty big for an ITX.

[bowrilla]

3 minutes ago, jeffery7466 said:

I'd argue 450W is enough for this build, or at least according to multiple PSU calculating websites.

Then perhaps I should go for OEM then.

Of course I would love to have faster ram and a 1070, but GBP1200 must include everything, including monitor. And the case wouldn't look good on my desk - it looks more like a home entertainment system. And its pretty big for an ITX.

Well, it would work, but – you're not in the sweet spot of efficiency and a higher rated psu will run quieter since it's under less relative load.

 

The display is a factor, I agree. You could go with a non M.2 SSD to save some money, a cheaper case (I really like that new case though my AiO wouldn't fit so … well, not for me) and maybe keep your eyes open for a good deal on a 1070 that was used for a short period of time for mining? You could also save some money on the RAM by just waiting until prices become a bit more reasonable agian.

[brob]

4 minutes ago, bowrilla said:

Well, it would work, but – you're not in the sweet spot of efficiency and a higher rated psu will run quieter since it's under less relative load.

 

...

Never understood this argument. The efficiency difference between 50% load and 67% load is quite small. So it seems to me that for any given load, the difference in thermal waste will be quite small leading to very similar fan speeds.

[jeffery7466]

19 minutes ago, bowrilla said:

Well, it would work, but – you're not in the sweet spot of efficiency and a higher rated psu will run quieter since it's under less relative load.

 

The display is a factor, I agree. You could go with a non M.2 SSD to save some money, a cheaper case (I really like that new case though my AiO wouldn't fit so … well, not for me) and maybe keep your eyes open for a good deal on a 1070 that was used for a short period of time for mining? You could also save some money on the RAM by just waiting until prices become a bit more reasonable agian.

 

6 minutes ago, brob said:

Never understood this argument. The efficiency difference between 50% load and 67% load is quite small. So it seems to me that for any given load, the difference in thermal waste will be quite small leading to very similar fan speeds.

Yea what the hell is wrong with RAM prices.

 

Also, it would seem that the 450W PSU would be at peak efficiency in my setup, though we are only talking about 4%: http://www.corsair.com/en-gb/sf-series-sf450-450-watt-80-plus-gold-certified-high-performance-sfx-psu

And won't be too noisy either.