Building a portable, college-ready gaming PC

[alfonseification]

The thread says it all: as I'm moving off to college next year, I'd like a new mATX gaming PC that will be easy to haul off to college, haul back home during breaks, haul into a friend's room for a lan party, etc, and was hoping I could find some help from the knowledgeable people around here

Approximate Purchase Date: Within the week. Might extend to within a month. I'm selling a 3DS, some older game systems, and my two older rigs, so if I need the cash from those things, then it might extend to within the month to give those items time to sell.

Budget Range: I have about $700 right now, but that can extend another one or two hundred dollars once some of my stuff sells. My checking account is off limits for this build except for money that can be put back in after rebates.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, namely CSGO, SC2, BF4, and MC. I am also going to a University to get a B.S. in computer science, so my secondary use will be programming and game development (Unity for development, Blender for modeling, Reason for music, etc).

Are you buying a monitor: Nope. I currently use a 32in flatscreen TV, and when I move off I will be taking an old monitor of mine or my father's with me.

Parts to Upgrade: (e.g.: CPU, mobo, RAM) CPU, mobo, RAM, PSU, GPU, and case. I will probably get a 1TB HDD, 120GB SSD, new CD/DVD drive, etc. but that will all be next year or the year after, as they are not necessities.

Do you need to buy OS: Nope. A few years back when my dad helped me build one of my older rigs, he bought me a copy of Windows 7, but I stuck with XP and never installed it.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: I'll buy from wherever is cheapest. I know the graphics card (HD 7970) will be coming from Craigslist, and I'd prefer to buy the rest of the parts from Microcenter so I can just pick them up and not deal with shipping -- however, I will buy online if it is significantly cheaper.

Location: St. Louis, Missouri, United States.

Parts Preferences: The current build I'm looking at is:
CPU: FX 8350
Cooler: CM 212 evo
Mobo: M5A78L-M Mobo
GPU: XFX HD 7970 (buying on Craigslist)
PSU: Rosewill HIVE 650 watt PSU
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB DDR3-1600
Case: NZXT Vulcan

Overclocking:Possibly automatic OC by BIOS.

SLI or Crossfire: No way.

Your Monitor Resolution: 1280x720 is probably the only resolution I'll be using for now.

Additional Comments: Only additional comment I can think of is: it needs to be portable, cheap, but still run all of the latest games at atleast medium settings throughout this next console generation (XBOX1/PS4).

Why Are You Upgrading: For college gaming and software development.

Basically, I just need some advice on what on my build is good, and what on my build is terrible. Thanks in advance for any and all helpful posts

 

[alfonseification]

Just a note: The case has only 2 USB ports, but the Mobo supports up to 6. I might, at some point, rig up a little hacked USB panel in one of the external bays.

I also forgot to mention that I have 3 HDDs and a CD/DVD drive that I will be using until I can get enough cash to upgrade those.

 

[cjkupers]

Are you buying exactly that version of the 7970? The Black Edition is really good, it actually contends with the 770's these days.

If you wanted PhysX and better drivers (or just Nvidia in your build's roster) you can get the Gigabyte Windforce X3 770 GTX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125463

Its an equal matched powerhouse, just depends on which bells and whistles you want. ATI/Nvidia.

As for portability, the NZXT Vulcan is a nice case, looks good, has a handle etc. So Idk if you'd want to change that up. There are definitely smaller solutions to this draft.

You could get a 4th gen Haswell i5, Overclock it, throw an H60 cooler on it, put it on a M-ITX board (I think its socket LGA 1156?), put all of that in a Bitfenix Prodigy, and have a much lighter, lower electrical footprint model of the fx 8350 you've got going in here.

If you are going to be doing 3D modeling and CAD drawing, I would stick with ATI GPUs because of their high clock rate, memory bandwidth, and sheer processing speed. They make their cards with a generalist mindset that performs in those respects better than Nvidia.

If you are just going to be doing gaming and software development in Visual Studios etc. I would look into going for Nvidia. The benchmarks between equally specced out cards between the two manufacturers show that Nvidia has a significant edge in games.

GPU: GIGABYTE GV-N770OC-2GD WindForce 3X GeForce GTX 770 $380
Case: BitFenix Prodigy Midnight Black / Black Steel / Plastic Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case $80
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150 84W Quad-Core Desktop Processor $240
PSU: Rosewill CAPSTONE-650 650W Continuous @ 50°C, Intel Haswell Ready, 80 PLUS GOLD, ATX12V v2.31 & EPS12V v2.92, SLI/CrossFire Ready, Active PFC Power Supply $60
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory $41
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-Z87N-WIFI LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard $127
Cooler: CORSAIR Hydro Series H60 (CW-9060007-WW) Water Cooler $65

Total: $993

Your AMD + ATI build might be around ~$860 w/ your craigslist buys, this alternative above just shows the equivalent if not slightly better imo Intel+Nvidia representation. Of course, you can overclock both the CPU and GPU with ease...

I believe the Intel chip + the Windforce card will prove a cooler, quieter solution as well.

If you're curious as to the battle between the i5 and the fx 8350, please look here: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4670K-vs-AMD-FX-8350

Imo, I'd spend the little extra money on the Intel CPU and use a 770 over a used 7670 BE ATI chip for the purposes of your build. You want gaming+coding, not gaming+3d vertex modeling.
Although some people may state that the fx 8350 is more overclockable, its actually a misnomer because overclocking the i5 is 1, safer, 2, lower operating temperatures, 3, lower power consumption by far. Because of its ability to handle overclocking so well, I've seen some friends actually overclock the i5 - 4670k higher than the fx 8350, purely because its a much more stable base to overclock from.

If you're just going to be doing Blender modeling, you don't really need the advantage from an ATI card. I may be biased, but then again you'll be trading off gaming performance for an insubstantial benefit in modeling.

 

[cjkupers]

On a separate note, if you want an even smaller build, you can fit all these parts in a larger HTPC case.. Silverstone makes good ones. You can avoid having to lug around or waste floor space with a tower case and just get something you can put on your desk.

some cases you can look at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163179
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163194
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163195
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163197

 

[tiny voices]

I have an NZXT vulcan and it is Awesome. I have 2 GPUs in SLI and a large cPU cooler in it and everything fits just fine.

The handle makes moving it easy. It is only slightly smaller than an ATX case though.

 

[alfonseification]

Yeah, the reason I'm planning on the XFX 7970 is because it's the only one on my local Craigslist, and it's $280 (I think I can talk him down to $250 or so). The reason I was going for Radeons is because I've read that BF4 will be optimized for them over Nvidia GPUs.

I will not lie, I do kind of want PhysX (only because I may at some point wish to get back into Borderlands 2, which is beautiful with PhysX), but I'm not sure if it's worth the extra expense (especially due to my budget D: ).

I think I'd like to stick with the Vulcan, just because it does look nice, and it's not too tiny. Plus, it has some external bays -- and I like to use those for my own little hacks, panels, etc. But I was thinking about getting the Bitfenix Prodigy until I noticed it was M-ITX, but I am still considering it.

I won't be doing a whole lot of 3D modeling or CAD drawing, I just might be using Blender for general purpose model making. I also forgot to say that I'll probably be making custom maps for Source games (using Hammer), but that isn't demanding enough to even be worth mentioning, so maybe a GTX is better suited for my needs if I can find an equally powered one for an affordable ($300 dollars or less) price.

As I type this, I am thinking more and more about different cases (specifically desk ones so I don't need to use more space, as I prefer small but open rooms).

And as I continue reading your post... You've convinced me because of that motherboard. With that MITX board, I won't need to buy a bluetooth or Wifi adapter (which I'll probably need both for this and that), and it has SATA 6GB/s which allows me to upgrade my HDDs and get an SSD in the future while using them to their full potential. I'll post back after I've edited my build according to some of the things on yours -- thanks 😀

 

[cjkupers]

I myself have been poring over hardware specs for a couple months now, trying to make the most powerful system in the smallest form factor there is.

Right now, a lot of custom desktop services like XoticPC, Maingear, etc. are making super small M-ITX rigs. You can actually fit in a GTX TITAN on that mobo and case and keep a good price under $1800. Which is crazy, because equivalent laptops with 770's in them are going for the same rate these days.

I would go for an M-ITX board in your case, since you don't care for SLI (Neither do I, its a somewhat wasteful practice in my opinion, the performance boost isn't worth the resources spent)

As for the decision between the ATI GPU and the 770... It really comes down to cost effectiveness. If you can grab a nearly new GPU off the used market for less $ and satisfy your needs.. go for it! I just listed the WindforceX3 770 GTX here because it is quite literally the eqivalent to the 7970 BE you listed, just Nvidia and better for gaming purposes.

If you have the little extra money, I'd go for the Intel CPU though, for sure. You'll have an easier and more enjoyable time overclocking it than the fx 8350. (Besides, a lot of games still can't really utilize all those extra cores 😛~)

 

[cjkupers]

Oh, and this case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163179

has easily accessible HDD bays.