Mini-ITX gaming build: suggestions?

[jabalsad]

Hi all,

I put together a couple of components for an entry-level gaming system I'm building. I'd appreciate any feedback/suggestions you guys have...

CPU: Intel Ivy Bridge i5-3450
MB: Intel DH67CF Motherboard w/ H67 chipset and 2x DDR3-1333 memory slots
RAM: Corsair 2x 4gb Vengeance, Low Profile, DDR3-1600, CL9, 1.5v
GFX: Asus ENGTX550 Ti DC/Di/1GD5
HDD: Corsair 120gb Force GT SSD
Chassis: Lian-li pc-Q25
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 450watt, 408w on 12v rail, 80plus Platinum

 

[Pada]

Entry level with such expensive components?
If you build a normal ATX/m-ATX gaming machine, you can do a lot better in terms of gaming performance for less.

Could you perhaps post the prices for each component too?

In terms of raw gaming performance, you can do with a better graphics card. The Asus GTX 550 Ti doesn't offer very good value for money, unless you struck a very good deal somehow.

 

[droid]

I'd rather go for the Intel H77DF Dry Fork

http://www.intel.com/content/www/uk/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-dh77df.html

Intel H77DF Dry Fork Retail pack

all-in-one LGA1155 mb with SRT+ SCT+ RRT+ Rapid Storage+ Rapid Start Technology

intel H77 chipset

2x dual channel DDR3 1600 upto 16Gb

5x s-ata with raid 0/1//0+1/5/10 ( 2x SATA6G + 2x SATA3G + 1x eSATA )

on-board dual-display VGA with tripple

output ( HDMi + DVi + DP )

10ch (7.1+2) audio with optical s/pdif out

intel 82579V gigabit lan

1x mini-PCIe for mSATA

1 x pci-e 3.0 (16x)

with 2x USB3.0 + 6x USB2.0

iEEE1394 firewire

mini-iTX

 

[Duff-Man]

Hi all,

I put together a couple of components for an entry-level gaming system I'm building. I'd appreciate any feedback/suggestions you guys have...

CPU: Intel Ivy Bridge i5-3450
MB: Intel DH67CF Motherboard w/ H67 chipset and 2x DDR3-1333 memory slots
RAM: Corsair 2x 4gb Vengeance, Low Profile, DDR3-1600, CL9, 1.5v
GFX: Asus ENGTX550 Ti DC/Di/1GD5
HDD: Corsair 120gb Force GT SSD
Chassis: Lian-li pc-Q25
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 450watt, 408w on 12v rail, 80plus Platinum

First of all what are your reasons for a Mini-ITX build, the reason I'm asking is because full ATX gives you so many more options. Secondly a H77 motherboard would be much better than the H67 listed. Thirdly why buy a 120GB SSD for an entry level PC, why not go for a 60GB or perhaps leave it out entirely and spend the saved money on better components. Finally what is your budget so that I can give you a full quote, or take a look here to show you what you should get for your budget : The PC Build Thread

 

[jabalsad]

First of all, I should clarify: I don't intend to use this machine solely for gaming. The other components try to improve the overall performance of the machine for all kinds of work loads (virtualization, memory-hungry applications, etc.).

@droid
I have looked at the Intel Dry Fork which has the H77 chipset, but the suppliers do not have stock yet. After some deliberation, I realised there isn't much the H77 offers over the H67 that I'll use:
- SRT (I don't want a magnetic hard drive and don't want to use my SSD as a cache)
- Native USB 3.0 integration (The other board has an add-on controller that gives me USB3 anyway)
- Triple display (Also something I'll never use)

The Dry Fork also supports DDR3-1600 RAM, but after some quick reading it sounds like the performance benefits are negligible, especially if you compare it against DDR-1333 RAM running at 7ms CAS latency. Therefore it doesn't sound like I have much to gain from the Dry Fork at a cost of an extra R200 and a 3 week wait (possibly longer) for the stock to come in.

@pada
I prefer mini-itx because of its compact nature. The cases are small and tightly packed and they look more stylish (for me, at least), I'm quite over mini-towers

As for the graphics card, the price jumps are quite big. I figured I'd rather have an average graphics card now and get an upgrade after 12 months because the prices should've come down by then. As long as I can at least run the games that were released in the last year, I should be happy. My current laptop can't even render some of them at all, so it's a huge leap forward.

The prices are as follows:
CPU - R1727
MB - R998
RAM - R534
GFX - R1546
SSD - R1768
Chassis - R1190
PSU - R978

@duff-man
I should've answered your questions around the H77 MB an mini-itx choice in the previous answers. Regarding the SSD, I bought a 128gb SSD for my laptop recently and I'm absolutely loving it. The day-to-day apps I use are super fast (saving/loading virtual machine states, starting up photoshop, even just starting Outlook). 60gb might be a little too small as I'm already running at 80% capacity on my laptop.

Also, I don't have a budget per se, but I'm trying to keep it under R10k.

 

[droid]

First of all, I should clarify: I don't intend to use this machine solely for gaming. The other components try to improve the overall performance of the machine for all kinds of work loads (virtualization, memory-hungry applications, etc.).

@droid
I have looked at the Intel Dry Fork which has the H77 chipset, but the suppliers do not have stock yet. After some deliberation, I realised there isn't much the H77 offers over the H67 that I'll use:
- SRT (I don't want a magnetic hard drive and don't want to use my SSD as a cache)
- Native USB 3.0 integration (The other board has an add-on controller that gives me USB3 anyway)
- Triple display (Also something I'll never use)

The Dry Fork also supports DDR3-1600 RAM, but after some quick reading it sounds like the performance benefits are negligible, especially if you compare it against DDR-1333 RAM running at 7ms CAS latency. Therefore it doesn't sound like I have much to gain from the Dry Fork at a cost of an extra R200 and a 3 week wait (possibly longer) for the stock to come in.

Very true. The performance benefits are negligible. Especially if you don't need USB3.0
Probably the sweetest feature on the 7 series chipsets is the Pci-3
But by the time you upgrade to a graphics card that cannot use the Pci-2 slots you will probably upgrade your motherboard as well.
All in all there is nothing wrong with your build imo. Will last you years.

 

[jabalsad]

Probably the sweetest feature on the 7 series chipsets is the Pci-3
But by the time you upgrade to a graphics card that cannot use the Pci-2 slots you will probably upgrade your motherboard as well.

Well spotted, I didn't actually notice that... I'd really like to be able to upgrade my graphics card in 1-2 years time. The question is whether PCI-X 3.0 will be the standard by then? :/

 

[Pada]

jabalsad:
Thanks for the detailed response.

I'd recommend going for an H77/Z77 motherboard, unless you know that the H67 motherboard that you're buying will have the latest BIOS installed that provides stable Ivy Bridge support.

There are cheaper GTX550 Ti options, such as the Gigabyte one http://www.rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=21&products_id=5379 for R1,323

Your PSU is absurdly expensive for a 450W one! Seeing that you're going for a rather low power gaming/workstation PC, why not just go for something like the Corsair CX430 which costs less than half of it!
The only reason why you should go for a higher efficiency PSU would be if you often run your PC off an UPS on battery power.
The Antec EarthWatts 450W does have 2x 6+2-pin graphics card connectors, where as the CX 430 has only 1 of them, but it will still be able to run the GTX550Ti just fine.

For the price of the Antec EarthWatts 450W you can get like a Corsair TX650v2 if I'm not mistaken, but I'm not sure if you'll need something that big ever.

PCI-E 3.0 graphics cards are backwards compatible with PCI-E 2, so you won't have to worry about that.

 

[droid]

Well spotted, I didn't actually notice that... I'd really like to be able to upgrade my graphics card in 1-2 years time. The question is whether PCI-X 3.0 will be the standard by then? :/

Some of the planned graphics cards need that increased bandwith to operate optimally.
But that is still some time away.
By that time you will probably do a system upgrade.

 

[jabalsad]

I'd recommend going for an H77/Z77 motherboard, unless you know that the H67 motherboard that you're buying will have the latest BIOS installed that provides stable Ivy Bridge support.

Hmmm... I didn't consider this. I'll look around to see whether I can download the BIOS upgrade and whether it fixes any issues

There are cheaper GTX550 Ti options, such as the Gigabyte one http://www.rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=21&products_id=5379 for R1,323

Thanks, I'll check it out! I just went for whatever the place had as I didn't want to buy components from 10 different places

Your PSU is absurdly expensive for a 450W one! Seeing that you're going for a rather low power gaming/workstation PC, why not just go for something like the Corsair CX430 which costs less than half of it!
The only reason why you should go for a higher efficiency PSU would be if you often run your PC off an UPS on battery power.
The Antec EarthWatts 450W does have 2x 6+2-pin graphics card connectors, where as the CX 430 has only 1 of them, but it will still be able to run the GTX550Ti just fine.

For the price of the Antec EarthWatts 450W you can get like a Corsair TX650v2 if I'm not mistaken, but I'm not sure if you'll need something that big ever.

Hehe, this was actually not by choice. The Antec series PSU is the only one that actually fits inside the Lian-li mini-itx case! It is one of the few PSUs that have a 140mm depth. I figured the fact that they are energy efficient is just a bonus. Both the coolermaster and corsair (which I had considered originally) PSUs are all 150mm or greater :/

PCI-E 3.0 graphics cards are backwards compatible with PCI-E 2, so you won't have to worry about that.

Sweet!

 

[Pada]

I specifically mentioned the BIOS, because you can't upgrade the BIOS with an Ivy Bridge CPU. You'll need to install a Sandy Bridge CPU to upgrade the BIOS first. Of course there is a chance that the motherboard does come with a stable Ivy Bridge supported BIOS, in which case it should work straight way with the Ivy Bridge CPU.

The Corsair CX430 v2 has the exact same dimensions as the Antec EA 450:
http://www.corsair.com/builder-series-cx430-v2-80plus-certified-power-supply.html [150mm(W) x 86mm(H) x 140mm(L)] vs http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NzA0NTEy [86 mm (H) x 150 mm (W) x 140 mm (D)]

 

[jabalsad]

I specifically mentioned the BIOS, because you can't upgrade the BIOS with an Ivy Bridge CPU. You'll need to install a Sandy Bridge CPU to upgrade the BIOS first. Of course there is a chance that the motherboard does come with a stable Ivy Bridge supported BIOS, in which case it should work straight way with the Ivy Bridge CPU.

The Corsair CX430 v2 has the exact same dimensions as the Antec EA 450:
http://www.corsair.com/builder-series-cx430-v2-80plus-certified-power-supply.html [150mm(W) x 86mm(H) x 140mm(L)] vs http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NzA0NTEy [86 mm (H) x 150 mm (W) x 140 mm (D)]

Awesome feedback! Thanks

First installing another CPU is definitely not an option. I'll contact the supplier to see whether they know what BIOS revision it shipped with.

As for the PSU, that is great. I guess I was looking at the 650watt supply (and it was something like 160mm in depth). The only thing is that that Corsair CX 430 only has 336watt on the 12v rail. This might be cutting it a bit fine?

EDIT: If I am concerned over that, I can consider the CX 500 which is also 140mm in depth.

 

[Pada]

The CX430 should be fine for an Ivy Bridge setup, unless you're going to overclock your CPU to 5GHz and also your graphics card to its limits.
The Ivy Bridge CPU's are very efficient with regards to processor performance / Watt, so they don't require such a big PSU like the old i7 9xx series.

The CX500 might be the better choice if you're considering installing a higher end graphics card that will consume more power or require 2x 6-pin PCI-E power connectors.