Black Friday MINI ITX Build

[7e11]

Approximate Purchase Date: Black Friday / The Surrounding Days

Budget Range: 400 - 450 USD

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming -> Work

Are you buying a monitor: Yes

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg, Amazon. In that order

Location: City, State/Region, Country - USA, CT (East Coast)

Overclocking: Yes (You'd better hope so with that CPU)

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution:The Cheapest 1080p monitor that is available on black Friday.

Additional Comments: I'm trying to make this a very clean budget build, that can be used for gaming in games like TF2, and CS:GO (Games with highly optimized engines).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master GeminII M4 58.4 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI H81I Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($66.15 @ Mwave)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($66.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($106.38 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GT 730 2GB Video Card ($79.97 @ OutletPC)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($29.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $514.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-16 18:25 EST-0500

My Questions:
1. Am I going to have any problems with the height of the ram and the CPU Cooler?, I looked up the manual for the mobo, and a single ram stick is installed in the slot closest to the CPU.

2. If a better component gets a significant price drop on BF, what components should I upgrade first.

3. Any general recommendations, or problems that you see? (This is my second PC Build)

 

[Darkbreeze]

When you go to PCPartpicker and generate the code to paste here, make sure you select the BB code option in the box that pops up. THAT^, just looks like a mess. This, is what you want it to look like:




PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master GeminII M4 58.4 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI H81I Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($66.15 @ Mwave)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($66.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GT 730 2GB Video Card ($79.97 @ OutletPC)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($29.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $452.02
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-15 23:34 EST-0500

 

[Darkbreeze]

That's a pretty low end card. I have doubts it's going to do what you want. I'd really recommend upping the budget a bit to increase the capability substantially.

Plus, you've got a 3GB/s hard drive which is SATA II and is much slower than the already slow 6GB/s SATA III hard drives that are pretty standard for storage right now. I'd seriously consider an SSD instead and either using the hard drive you have now for storage, if you have one, or just getting by with the SSD until you can add a hard drive for storage capacity later.

You seriously don't want to use the Corsair CX series PSU. You can get a WAY better one for about five bucks more. I'll tweak this a little and then you can make your own decisions. Realize however, that much if not all of this pricing is basically irrelevant unless you buy today or tomorrow. The prices change drastically and quickly as sales and promotions come and go like the wind.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Also, are you planning to overclock the G3258? It looks like you are, with the CPU cooler, but I'm never sure when it comes to intentions on overclocking as some people simply want the aftermarket cooler to improve stock cooling. If you don't plan to overclock, an A10 CPU or i3 that has hyper threading might be a better choice. Even an FX 6300 with it's 3.5Ghz clock and turbo core would be better if the Pentium isn't overclocked.


I'll assume you ARE planning to overclock, and if not, we'll make revisions.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, apparently none of the MSI H81l boards can overclock so that option isn't going to work. The H81 boards can, and I thought the H81l boards could, but all indications are that they cannot. And since that case won't take a micro-atx board, only a mini-ITX, I don't think that chipset is an option for overclocking.

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, after spending considerable time seeking the best solution to this dilemma, this is what I've come up with. I did include a 7200RPM SATA III HDD instead of an SSD, but you can either change that or get one as well. It would be a much, much faster system if you used the HDD for storage and installed the OS on a 120GB SSD. Intel 530 series, Samsung 840EVO and Sandisk Extreme II are all very good, reliable and fast SSDs.

If you feel you don't mind installing the OS again later, on the SSD, or cloning your OS at the time you get one, you can always add that later as well. It just depends on whether speed or storage are more important as the initial investment.


I changed the memory to a very good G.Skill module with a CS latency of 8 rather than the 11 latency that the Crucial had so that will be noticeably more responsive as well.

I changed the PSU to the Antec VP-450 which kicks the shit out of the Corsair CX series in basically every category.

I upgraded the GPU from the GT 730 to the R7 250x, which still isn't a world class GPU by any means, but it's significantly more powerful than the 730 and uses GDDR5 instead of GDDR3, which also helps to improve performance.

Now, to the brass tacks. That motherboard won't overclock. I checked with every resource I know of and several of the moderators here who have more experience with just about anything related to a computer than I or anybody on another forum are ever going to. I did find you another motherboard that is mini-ITX and will overclock. Seems it's been taken to 4.2 stable but was a bit too warm so I don't recommend going past 4Ghz at 1.11v which is a respectable overclock for a CPU with a 3.2Ghz stock clock anyhow.


It may require a BIOS update for overclocking, and it may not as it very well likely already has the necessary update. Regardless, it's an easy process and the G3258 not overclocked is supported on all versions in any case. It's also got 4 phase power rather than 3 phase like most the mini-ITX boards have, which should help with stability and with keeping temps down.

I changed the cooler to the Scythe Big Shuriken 2 as it's performance on both thermal and sound levels was superior by far to the Cooler master GeminII M4 according to Frostytech and a few other review sites as well.

All in all, I think you'll be much, much happier with this build in the long run.



PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Scythe BIG Shuriken 2 Rev. B 45.5 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($39.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($64.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($71.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.67 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R7 250X 1GB Video Card ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX Power Supply ($23.99 @ Newegg)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($29.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $474.53
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-16 01:11 EST-0500


Keep in mind also, that some of these prices are likely to be cheaper come the black Friday sales.

 

[7e11]

Wow, thanks for your amazing feedback! You've really opened my eyes to the problems that pcpartpicker compatibility check wouldn't.

Few Things:
I've decided to take your suggestions,
However, for the GPU, I went with the 2 GB version for 10$ more, and kept the semi modular CX 430w.

I really can't thank you enough for your help!

 

[Darkbreeze]

That's why we do it. We try to help as we can. Good luck with the build and if you have more questions, don't hesitate to ask. Take care.