Advice on SFF mid end gaming build

[Silmarunya]

Hey all,

I'm moving to a dorm this year, so I want a system that I can pick up and move around regularly (home, dorm, repeat). The obvious choice is a gaming notebook, but they're expensive, noisy and perform poorly. Hence the idea to build a desktop in a mini-ITX case with handles as a compromise.

- Approximate Purchase Date: next week.
- Budget: about 700 euros, excluding OS, peripherals and optical disc drive.
- System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, scientific programming (mainly Matlab/Mathematica), general office/entertainment use.
- Are you buying a monitor/OS: no
- Preferred Website(s) for Parts: www.azerty.nl
- Location: Belgium
- Overclocking: no
- SLI or Crossfire: no
- Your Monitor Resolution: 1920*1080

Additional Comments:

- I'm still a bit unsure about which cpu/gpu combo to pick within my budget: an Intel i3-4130 with AMD 7870 or an Intel i5-4430 with AMD 7850. The former will perform better in games, but the latter will be better for uni work and seems more future proof (since most engines seem to be moving to quad core support). Also, I have an ATI 5850 at home and it still feels good enough, so the 7850 should be plenty for me. Thoughts?

- Just to clarify: I'm not an Intel fanboy, but afaik there's no way to get an AM3+ mini-ITX build. Am I wrong?

- I'm sure I'll get some flak for the expensive motherboard, but hear me out: it's the only Mini-ITX board I could find with a Realtek 1150, the only realtek audio codec that comes close enough to a proper audio card (for which there's no room in either my budget or my case) and it's also one of the few with dual band ac WiFi. Buying USB audio and wifi-cards is expensive and they never perform as well as pci(-e)-based cards, hence my motherboard choice.

- SSD would be nice, but it's out of budget. I could stretch my budget by another 50 euros or so, but then I'd still need to cut a further 50 or so from the build. Ideas?

My build:

- Case: Bitfenix Prodigy
- Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport
- HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB
- Motherboard: AsRock Z87E-ITX
- CPU: Intel Core i5-4430
- GPU: MSI R78850 2GD5/OC
- PSU: XFX Core Edition Pro 550W

Suggestions/thoughts/comments?

 

[William Longstreet]

Hey all,

I'm moving to a dorm this year, so I want a system that I can pick up and move around regularly (home, dorm, repeat). The obvious choice is a gaming notebook, but they're expensive, noisy and perform poorly. Hence the idea to build a desktop in a mini-ITX case with handles as a compromise.

- Approximate Purchase Date: next week.
- Budget: about 700 euros, excluding OS, peripherals and optical disc drive.
- System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, scientific programming (mainly Matlab/Mathematica), general office/entertainment use.
- Are you buying a monitor/OS: no
- Preferred Website(s) for Parts: www.azerty.nl
- Location: Belgium
- Overclocking: no
- SLI or Crossfire: no
- Your Monitor Resolution: 1920*1080

Additional Comments:

- I'm still a bit unsure about which cpu/gpu combo to pick within my budget: an Intel i3-4130 with AMD 7870 or an Intel i5-4430 with AMD 7850. The former will perform better in games, but the latter will be better for uni work and seems more future proof (since most engines seem to be moving to quad core support). Also, I have an ATI 5850 at home and it still feels good enough, so the 7850 should be plenty for me. Thoughts?

- Just to clarify: I'm not an Intel fanboy, but afaik there's no way to get an AM3+ mini-ITX build. Am I wrong?

- I'm sure I'll get some flak for the expensive motherboard, but hear me out: it's the only Mini-ITX board I could find with a Realtek 1150, the only realtek audio codec that comes close enough to a proper audio card (for which there's no room in either my budget or my case) and it's also one of the few with dual band ac WiFi. Buying USB audio and wifi-cards is expensive and they never perform as well as pci(-e)-based cards, hence my motherboard choice.

- SSD would be nice, but it's out of budget. I could stretch my budget by another 50 euros or so, but then I'd still need to cut a further 50 or so from the build. Ideas?

My build:

- Case: Bitfenix Prodigy
- Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport
- HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB
- Motherboard: AsRock Z87E-ITX
- CPU: Intel Core i5-4430
- GPU: MSI R78850 2GD5/OC
- PSU: XFX Core Edition Pro 550W

Suggestions/thoughts/comments?

MAN U CRAZY?
A USB 3 or 2 WiFi adapter is just as good as a PCIe, the built in cards generally suck, unless its a high end gigabyte board.

MAN U CRAZY^2

That's a awful build for 700£

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1CEcM
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1CEcM/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1CEcM/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.98 @ Outlet PC)
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling UC-AR7GT-AC-01 28.6 CFM CPU Cooler ($9.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus H87I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($116.23 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V200 Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 Ti 3GB Video Card ($218.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (White) Mini ITX Tower Case ($79.98 @ Outlet PC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 450W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Other: Windows 8.1 (free) ($0.00)
Total: $930.12
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-11 18:05 EDT-0400)

 

[Silmarunya]

MAN U CRAZY?
A USB 3 or 2 WiFi adapter is just as good as a PCIe, the built in cards generally suck, unless its a high end gigabyte board.

MAN U CRAZY^2

That's a awful build for 700£

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1CEcM
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1CEcM/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1CEcM/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.98 @ Outlet PC)
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling UC-AR7GT-AC-01 28.6 CFM CPU Cooler ($9.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus H87I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($116.23 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V200 Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 Ti 3GB Video Card ($218.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (White) Mini ITX Tower Case ($79.98 @ Outlet PC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 450W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Other: Windows 8.1 (free) ($0.00)
Total: $930.12
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-11 18:05 EDT-0400)

You're coming in severely over budget. Sure, 930 dollars is about 700 euro, but you're forgetting most brands translate their prices from dollar to euro as '1 dollar = 1 euro' and sales tax is higher here - so in the US you'd be looking at about 750 dollars tops.

As for the cards, reviews all agree the built in ones do not suck. But I'm open to suggestions. Let's assume I get a cheaper 90 euro ITX board for a moment. Can you name a USB Wifi adapter (dual band!) and a usb sound card that together come in at about 50 euro and rival the built in ones? I couldn't - it's possible with PCI-e cards, but there's no room for those.

 

[William Longstreet]

MAN U CRAZY?
A USB 3 or 2 WiFi adapter is just as good as a PCIe, the built in cards generally suck, unless its a high end gigabyte board.

MAN U CRAZY^2

That's a awful build for 700£

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1CEcM
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1CEcM/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1CEcM/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.98 @ Outlet PC)
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling UC-AR7GT-AC-01 28.6 CFM CPU Cooler ($9.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus H87I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($116.23 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V200 Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 Ti 3GB Video Card ($218.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (White) Mini ITX Tower Case ($79.98 @ Outlet PC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 450W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($74.99 @ Amazon)
Other: Windows 8.1 (free) ($0.00)
Total: $930.12
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-11 18:05 EDT-0400)

You're coming in severely over budget. Sure, 930 dollars is about 700 euro, but you're forgetting most brands translate their prices from dollar to euro as '1 dollar = 1 euro' and sales tax is higher here - so in the US you'd be looking at about 750 dollars tops.

As for the cards, reviews all agree the built in ones do not suck. But I'm open to suggestions. Let's assume I get a cheaper 90 euro ITX board for a moment. Can you name a USB Wifi adapter (dual band!) and a usb sound card that together come in at about 50 euro and rival the built in ones? I couldn't - it's possible with PCI-e cards, but there's no room for those.

Dual band recovers font exist. Built in cards are awful. Show me a review that states otherwise. Check your pricing on that again, or have them shipper from here to there.