Two ITX Rebuilds

Scheer · December 8, 2013

It is due time for my son to have his own computer, and I've been wanting to overclock my HTPC, so I came up with a plan...

About a year ago I put an old HP computer into a Core 1000 case with the intention to give it to my son, but it was dreadfully slow and I ended up just shelving it. He loves to play minecraft on my computer, but its a pain sharing as he sometimes gets into settings he shouldn't be in, so I figured it was due time to build him a decent PC for a Christmas present.

I started with a P8Z77-I to replace a cheapo Gigabyte motherboard I had in my HTPC, and then move the Gigabyte motherboard to his computer. The rest of the parts were spares I have had laying around from sales I couldn't pass up.

HTPC:

Silverstone FT-03 Mini

Asus P8Z77-I

i5-3570k

Evga 660Ti

Silverstone 450W

8GB Ripjaws something or another

Antec Kuhler 620

Adata SP900 64GB

Christmas Present:

Fractal Design Core 1000

Gigabyte H61N-USB3

i3-2100T

Sapphire 7790

Corsair CX430M

4GB Mushkin Silverline

Random old HDD for the time being.

Here they are in their original state:

Midway thru the rebuild:

And finally the finished products:

He is currently under the impression that I build it for a friend of mine, so I figured I would let him play with it for a bit and set it up on his little workbench.

I plan on upgrading the case in the spring to either the Hadron Air or Prodigy as a pre-school graduation present, and still need to find a keyboard, monitor, and build a desk for him. I have a small bluetooth Motorola keyboard meant for tablets that may be the perfect fit, I just have to find where I put it... I already have a John Deere mouse for him, as he loves JD.

magicbennie · December 8, 2013

Needs a little bit more i7 4770k, in my opinion

LogicDeifying · December 8, 2013

You should've gave the 660ti to your son

Ham1234 · December 9, 2013

That looks really good

Scheer · December 9, 2013

Needs a little bit more i7 4770k, in my opinion

The i5-3570k came from my main computer when I upgraded it to the 4770k.

I've got a nice upgrade path where I rarely sell components, I just hand them down to the next priority computer in the house.

You should've gave the 660ti to your son

I'll wait to see if the 7790 will be able to run Minecraft first haha. It runs at about 65 FPS which is less than I would have though, so I think the CPU is limiting it, not that it really matters. It will be a while before he understands how to play more complex games, at that point he gets a 7950.