Mini-ATX Budget

[Retardobot]

So, after proclaiming how free I was from PC gaming I've started to miss it.

In the near future I'm going to be looking at a new project (gaming PC). However, this time around I don't want some big hulking tower, instead I'd like something a little more discreet and am interested in investing in a mini-ATX build for gaming.

What can I expect to spend on a build? I have all the peripherals and just need to put together the box.

$1000? Less? More?

[Lias]

More.

[Retardobot]

Oh yip.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

What games do you want to play?

[Retardobot]

Mainly, Diablo. But I don't want to pigeon hole myself to that sort of game. I want to be able to play new releases. I've never gamed at ultra high settings. I've always built with the best bang for buck video card, for example, my last build was with an AMD 6950. Doing that has always gotten me the best results. (4 - 500 on a video card).

[Xsannz]

TO CLARIFY YOU WANT MATX  or MINI ITX?
MATX BUILDS

1300 would give a good rig here you go  (not high end smack bang middle of the road ) but aimed at logevity for newish titles not maxed out.

NO CASE - BUDGET $1300 with 290x graphics card almost top end AMD card

   Combo Deal:    $866.60    
   
   Combo: Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 Intel Z97 mATX LGA1150 Motherboard       
   
   Combo: Intel Haswell Core i5 4690 3.50Ghz 6MB LGA1150       
   
   Combo: Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 (KHX16C9T3K2/16X)       
   
   Combo: Motherboard CPU Memory Combo Pre-Install       
   
   Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 290 TRI-X OC 4GB GDDR5 PCI-E 3.0 (11227-00-40G)    $499.95    
   
   TOTAL inc GST    $1,366.55

scaled back card and case and psu $1600 odd budget


   Combo Deal:    $866.60    
   
   Combo: Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 Intel Z97 mATX LGA1150 Motherboard       
   
   Combo: Intel Haswell Core i5 4690 3.50Ghz 6MB LGA1150       
   
   Combo: Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 (KHX16C9T3K2/16X)       
   
   Combo: Motherboard CPU Memory Combo Pre-Install       
   
   Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 270X Toxic 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E3.0 (11217-02-40G)    $349.95    
   
   Corsair Carbide Series Air 240 High Airflow Cube Case - Black    $149.95    

   CoolerMaster VS-Series V750S 750W Modular Power Supply 80PLUS Gold    $219.95    

   TOTAL inc GST    $1,586.45

MINI ITX BUILDS
NO CASE AND PSU ALMOST HIGH END VIDEO CARD

   Combo Deal:    $816.42    
   
   Combo: Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WIFI Intel Z97 Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard       
   
   Combo: Intel Devil's Canyon Core i5 4690K 3.50GHz 6MB LGA1150       
   
   Combo: Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 (KHX16C9T3K2/16X)       
   
   Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 290 TRI-X OC 4GB GDDR5 PCI-E 3.0 (11227-00-40G)    $499.95    

   TOTAL inc GST    $1,316.37

With PSU AND CASE LOWER END CARD

   Combo Deal:    $816.42    
   
   Combo: Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WIFI Intel Z97 Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard       
   
   Combo: Intel Devil's Canyon Core i5 4690K 3.50GHz 6MB LGA1150       
   
   Combo: Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 (KHX16C9T3K2/16X)       
   
   Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 270X Toxic 2GB GDDR5 PCI-E3.0 (11217-02-40G)    $349.95    
   
   Corsair Graphite Series 380T Mini ITX Chassis - Black    $199.95    
   
   Seasonic G Series 650W Modular 80Plus Gold Power Supply (SSR-650RM)    $199.95    
   
   TOTAL inc GST    $1,566.27

sure if you give CL a ring and say you vehemently hate Playtech and offer to leave shit in a bag on fire at their new stores front door you might get some discount as well.

[Xsannz]

or one least option if your really tight.

AMD system FM2 style MATX with HIGH end CARD

   Combo Deal:    $640.05    
   
   Combo: ASUS A88XM-A FM2+ mATX Motherboard       
   
   Combo: AMD 7850K Kaveri 3.7/4.0Ghz Black Edition 4MB Cache Socket FM2       
   
   Combo: Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 (KHX16C9T3K2/16X)       
   
   Combo: Motherboard CPU Memory Combo Pre-Install       
   
   Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 290 TRI-X OC 4GB GDDR5 PCI-E 3.0 (11227-00-40G)    $499.95    
   
   Corsair Carbide Series Air 240 High Airflow Cube Case - Black    $149.95    
   
   Seasonic G Series 650W Modular 80Plus Gold Power Supply (SSR-650RM)    $199.95    
   
   TOTAL inc GST    $1,489.90

[Xsannz]

Hope that helps RII

[Retardobot]

Wow, thanks Xsannz. Has given me a huge starting point.

I stand corrected. I'm keen for Mini-ITX.

[Mayhem_Lee]

Wow, thanks Xsannz. Has given me a huge starting point.

I stand corrected. I'm keen for Mini-ITX.

If you want M-Itx you should really spend the extra $50 dollars and go Nvidia with an external exhausting card due to noise and temp concerns with a much smaller enclosure + A decent cpu cooler. Would highly recommend finding a M-itx/SFF case that you really like then move on to spec'ing the components.

I currently use a Evga Hadron Air case with a H60SE cpu cooler loop, i7 oc to 4.2 and Evga 680SC Sig Edition Card. Bit wank factor but I fly across aus/nz with the thing attending bbq lans & piss ups PC as checked in baggage (15.5kg weight) in peli case no damage.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

^ that looks good. Now I want a Hardon.

[Retardobot]

I would like to go with nVidia this time around. Have gone AMD the last couple of times.

[Xsannz]

I would like to go with nVidia this time around. Have gone AMD the last couple of times.

just change out the ATI card for whatever,, personally i would look for a 780 TI  used at a good price the 980 series is pretty much a redressed 7 series card..

thus the 970 causing so many people to bitch.

Dove electronics have some 780TI refurbs for $380+gst 6 month warranty

also i would wait the new 3x series from AMD and the new mantle engine may give you the better edge and will cause a price crash in the AMD gpu segment again so you would be better going with a new mid range 3x series card and be better capable of full DX13 support rather than partial

just my 2c worth seeing how close we are to new architecture release and based on a few articles, I myself am not gaming at the moment so i am only keeping an enthusiast eye on articles and upcoming stuff.. but you know my penchant for system builds and extravagance.

in saying that i am still building pcs for mates and build 3 of the MINI ITX amd systems for steam boxes recently for mates, and they do really well..

[Xsannz]

Here you go RII.

this is what I literally just ordered for a colleague at work for a gaming steam box.

    Combo Deal:    $786.87    
   
   Combo: Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WIFI Intel Z97 Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard       
   
   Combo: Intel Haswell Core i5 4690 3.50Ghz 6MB LGA1150       
   
   Combo: Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 (KHX16C9T3K2/16X)       
   
   Gigabyte GV-N960WF2OC-2GD GeForce GTX960 2GB Overclocked PCI-E3.0    $369.95    
   
   Corsair Obsidian Series 250D Mini ITX Case w/Window    $179.95    
   
   Seasonic G Series 650W Modular 80Plus Gold Power Supply (SSR-650RM)    $199.95    
   
   Crucial M550 128GB 2.5" SATA3 6GB/s SSD (CT128M550SSD1)    $109.95    
   
   Western Digital Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 64MB Cache SATA3    $89.95    
   
   TOTAL inc GST    $1,736.6

[Xsannz]

personally i like this case and slot load bluray drive better seen a few at lan and prefer them the cases are cool and so easy to pick up.

http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/components/componentview.asp?partid=14440 all cables come out the top and are hidden by a top plate

ONLY THE LATEST POST HAS STORAGE.

I normally install OS on 1 TB Drive with swap file ETC , and then put my steam DIR onto SSD for faster game loading, but that's because i tend to bloat my OS drive with things like OFFICE and Visual studio and unless you want to start playing with system environmental to change program files dir and shit to the 1tb drive it gets annoying and shitty.

so i prefer doing the bulk on 1tb as it starts quick enough with win8.1 and EUFI...   and then i get the performance increases for load times in games, just means you have to keep your steam installed games trimmed down...  but that's what fibre is for right..

[Retardobot]

Thanks so much Xsannz. I love that Silverstone case. Have seen them in person and they're gorgeous.

Out of what you've posted so far, i have pieced together this:

Mobo - GA-Z97N-Wifi (I've never been one for a bells and whistle mobo.)
Case - Silverstone Fortress
RAM - Kingston HyperBeast
CPU - Intel Devil's Canyon i5 4690K
PSU - Seasonic G-Series 650W Gold
GPU - nVIdia 960GTX
HHD - Have plenty at home.

Now, this is probably going to change as the bank account isn't anywhere near ready (if your advice about the new GPU's is anything to go by, I'll be looking at the new series) but the case, RAM and mobo is pretty much there. It's good to have this as a base so I can swap anything out that want.

Do you rate the closed loop water coolers? Will want a cooler that's a bit better than the stock intel cooler.

CL total this as $1,529.70 which I think is a good budget ($1500).

[Xsannz]

keep an eye on the upcoming AMD 3x series cards ;(

Do you rate the closed loop water coolers? Will want a cooler that's a bit better than the stock intel cooler.

CL total this as $1,529.70 which I think is a good budget ($1500).

out of all the water systems i have used Corsair HX systems for closed loop came as close for cpu as my dedicated loops and TBH i think they are worth it over the hassle and mess of dedicated hand built water loop systems

you might struggle with rads and the ft03 case... from memory they are pretty tight.

edit:  foudn image below, looking at it you might get away with something like the HX80 on the top exhaust port.
http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/components/componentview.asp?partid=18297

[Retardobot]

I looked at a Linus video (dude who does YouTube videos about PC stuff). He points out that Silverstone has included 120mm screw sets at the bottom, just above the intake fan specifically for a closed loop rad. He even quoted Silverstone as saying they recommend installing a closed loop cooler and said the Corsair HX units are a perfect fit.

[Xsannz]

I looked at a Linus video (dude who does YouTube videos about PC stuff). He points out that Silverstone has included 120mm screw sets at the bottom, just above the intake fan specifically for a closed loop rad. He even quoted Silverstone as saying they recommend installing a closed loop cooler and said the Corsair HX units are a perfect fit.

ok cool hadnt looked that close and yeah Linus tech tips is my subscribed channel of choice, that and UK ROG as they have a busty girl doing reviews, she talks alot of crap but im there for the hardware.

[Mayhem_Lee]

Corsair H60SE is all you need retardo the H80 is a much larger radiator with push/pull fans kinda overkill these days. 120mm rad + fan will fit nicely + use an external exhausting gfx card and all your heat problems are sorted.

Note the Silverstone M-ATX is still a big case try and find the silverstone mini and go for the m-itx build with it? wouldn't require a AIO cooler either


http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=333

[Xsannz]

the H80 is 120mm and i ran it only as a pull exhaust setup and worked well

i run it in the FT02 (similar but bigger to FT03)   PC i sold to TROLOLOLO a while back he still uses that case

[Retardobot]

Corsair H60SE is all you need retardo the H80 is a much larger radiator with push/pull fans kinda overkill these days. 120mm rad + fan will fit nicely + use an external exhausting gfx card and all your heat problems are sorted.

Note the Silverstone M-ATX is still a big case try and find the silverstone mini and go for the m-itx build with it? wouldn't require a AIO cooler either


http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=333

Shit, thanks dude. Didn't realise they had 2 versions. Would clearly want the mini version. Have sent an email to CL asking if they can get the mini version.

Thanks guys, appreciate all your help <3

[Growler]

m-atx builds are fucking sexy. I'd happily swap my behemoth for one

[Lias]

m-atx builds are fucking sexy. I'd happily swap my behemoth for one

I'm the opposite, I love huge cases.

[Mayhem_Lee]

the H80 is 120mm and i ran it only as a pull exhaust setup and worked well

i run it in the FT02 (similar but bigger to FT03)   PC i sold to TROLOLOLO a while back he still uses that case

It's also a double thick rad. The new H60SE is the 2nd revsion and keeps everything nicely cool without using alot of space, I was running a H80 in my Fractual Node 304.

Mini-ATX Budget