Build Advice Building SFF i3 iGPU only PC. Build advice and SFX PSU recommendation?

[35below0]

I am thinking about putting together a cheap, iGPU only, SFF PC based on the i3 12100 CPU.

I would like some opinions about the build i made, and some recommendations for a SFX PSU. (The be quiet! model i picked is fine, but seems pricy for what it is (108 Euro).

Budget Range: up to 500-600 Euro

System Usage from Most to Least Important: (browsing, watching movies, light gaming, backups)

Are you buying a monitor: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: (PPP, jimms.fi, multitronic.fi)

Location: Finland, Europe

Overclocking: No

Your Monitor Resolution: (1920x1080)

Additional Comments:
Want to build a low power but modern PC. It can be capable of gaming but without a GPU. Primary purpose is running Win 11 with enough speed. Just basic browsing, watching movies, etc.
In a nutshell, this is a PC your grandma can play mahjongg on. It doesn't need to be remotely close to superpowered. The only requirement was to beat handily my old i5 3750K.
Naturaly, i'd like it as cheap as possible because it's not a primary PC.


This is the build i came up with:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor (€120.90 @ Datatronic)
Motherboard: ASRock B660M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (€94.90 @ Datatronic)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B760M DS3H DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (€108.90 @ Datatronic)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (€43.90 @ Datatronic)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (€43.90 @ Datatronic)
Storage: ADATA Legend 750 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€70.90 @ Datatronic)
Storage: Crucial P3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€72.90 @ Datatronic)
Power Supply: be quiet! SFX L Power 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply (€108.90 @ Datatronic)
Total: €454.50
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

+
Case: Sharkoon Shark Zone C10 https://en.sharkoon.com/product/16426#specs (€59.90 @ Multitronic)
+
DVD Drive (reuse)
HDD (reuse)
24" Acer Nitro something (reuse)

Total price is 487 Euro.

That seems like decent computing power for the money. I didn't think sub 500 builds were worth it.
A few comments:

There's a pair of AsRock H610 boards that sell for only 65 euro. They both lack an M.2 slot, but are otherwise perfectly acceptable.
One Gigabyte board is a little pricier, and has a 3rd gen M.2 slot, and also an astonishing 3+1+1 VRM. Even for a low powered iTX build, that is not an encouraging sight.

SFX PSUs and many SFF cases cost a lot. Much cheaper to buy a cheap and cheerfull tower and a full size ATX PSU.

12th gen is impressive. 13 and 14 gen CPUs are admitedly better but sometimes just enough is just enough.

AsRock can deliver decent cheapass motherboards. (And you're better off double checking whether they're good or crap!)


Thank you.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Good SFX power supplies are expensive. And honestly, ALL decent power supplies right now, are expensive. Way more than just a few years ago. That's because almost every country has import tariffs on electronics coming from China and the fact that China has a stranglehold on the majority of rare metals needed for a lot of electronics manufacturing and since basically all types of PC and most server power supplies are manufactured there, well, it doesn't help.

But that unit is about as good as gets for the price. If you want something better expect to pay even a little more. For your build, that unit is more than good enough. I would avoid the HDV boards though. I see a lot of them on here with problems. A lot.

I don't like the Adata stuff either. There are better options at or near the same prices. If you like, I can see about putting you together as good or better build for around the same price. Maybe less, IDK. Hard to say as I don't work in Euros as often anymore.

 

[35below0]

Good SFX power supplies are expensive. And honestly, ALL decent power supplies right now, are expensive. Way more than just a few years ago. That's because almost every country has import tariffs on electronics coming from China and the fact that China has a stranglehold on the majority of rare metals needed for a lot of electronics manufacturing and since basically all types of PC and most server power supplies are manufactured there, well, it doesn't help.

But that unit is about as good as gets for the price. If you want something better expect to pay even a little more. For your build, that unit is more than good enough. I would avoid the HDV boards though. I see a lot of them on here with problems. A lot.

I don't like the Adata stuff either. There are better options at or near the same prices. If you like, I can see about putting you together as good or better build for around the same price. Maybe less, IDK. Hard to say as I don't work in Euros as often anymore.

Thanks for the reply and advice. I'll see what i can do about a motherboard. Because i don't need a lot of features, i was looking at lesser models. Unfortunately some of them are cut down too much.

The ADATA drive seemed "good enough" so i went with it. Unlike PSUs or motherboards, alternatives are easily found. A Crucial P3 costs only a few euros more. TEAMGROUP, Silicon power and WD have a few options that don't cost a lot more. Samsung 980 also doesn't cost so much more (95 euro).

Thank you for offering a build, but as this is not a priority then maybe don't? Because PPP is blind to some stores and the prices are in euros, so you would have a harder time.
Pointing out flaws or unreliable hardware is very valuable already.

Thanks.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yeah, for drives I try to stick to Samsung, Crucial, WD, SK Hynix, Corsair, Intel, Seagate and even some Sandisk, HP and Sabrent drives are fairly trustworthy. Teamgroup does have some decent products but it really matters WHICH products of theirs you're looking at. Adata, I don't trust worth a damn as I've had, and seen, quite a few problems with a variety of their products.

And as far as the motherboard goes, certainly nobody NEEDS anything from the upper tiered selections but getting a board that is at least lower mid tier is usually a good idea because the bottom of the barrel budget boards, feature sets aside, are generally just much lower quality. Poorer quality assembly, poorer quality components like capacitors, transistors, mosfets, etc get used on those boards AND they generally have lower quality feature sets like bottom end audio codecs, lower quality networking components, etc. So, you don't need top shelf, but something from somewhere in the mid range is usually a good investment unless it absolutely has to be as cheap as possible.

On the memory, I'd probably recommend going with something like these Ripjaws instead of that Aegis kit. Same price, but better memory.

PCPartPicker Part List

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (€43.90 @ Datatronic)
Total: €43.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-26 17:56 EET+0200

 

[35below0]

Good advice. Again, i apreciate it and i have amended the build accordingly.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor (€119.90 @ Datatronic)
(provisional)Motherboard: Gigabyte B760M DS3H DDR4 Micro ATX (€108.90 @ Datatronic)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (€43.90 @ Datatronic)
Storage: Crucial P3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€72.90 @ Datatronic)
Power Supply: be quiet! SFX L Power 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply (€108.90 @ Datatronic)
Total: €454.50
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-27 06:31 EET+0200

I looked at reviews of that ADATA and it seemed ok to go with.

That HDV board really is horrible! I haven't checked reviews for the motherboard beforehand. I would have done that before pulling the trigger on the purchase. Didn't expect that level of badness from AsRock honestly.

As for motherboards, i don't know what i was thinking. That somehow a bottom of the barrel board would not be courting disaster.
Looking again at what's available, this time 12 and 13 gen non-z chipsets, there a few to choose from before edging up into high cost, high end tier:
https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/B660M Pro RS/index.asp (€118.90)
Asus TUF GAMING B660M- PLUS DDR4 mATX (€160.90)
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B760M-DS3H-DDR4-rev-10#kf (€121.90)
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/PRO-B760M-E-DDR4 (€138.90)
https://www.asrock.com/MB/Intel/B760M-ITXD4 WiFi/index.asp (€147.90)

Already the AsRock B660M Pro RS has features i'm not looking for while not exactly inspiring confidence in durability. The Gigabyte B760M-DSH3-DDR4 is twice the motherboard i need but i'm not sure about reliability either. Nice to have USB-c and two DPs but...
MSI looks like a durable board at more or less the right price. Funny seeing a VGA port on it though.
AsRock PG Lightning and Riptide seem good but they're DDR5 models. Finally, the AsRock B760M ITX D4 seems like a good choice except for the power delivery. Maybe it's good?

I'm not against spending the money on a decent one. Finding said decent one is the tricky part.
Of the lot, MSI PRO B760M-E DDR4 seems like the best bet with B760M-DS3H-DDR4 also in contention. The Gigabyte has more iGPU ports and a USB-C Gen 2 port.


I am also torn on whether to abandon the small form case and pick a smaller ATX case. I would lose a handy small size case but SFF/SFX cases are usually pricier, and too pricy for the convenience. They also require a pricier SFX PSU.
For the price of the be quiet! SFX L Power i could stuff the above build into a Deepcool Matrexx 30, and power it with a SeaSonic G12 GM 550W. The be quiet! is a better PSU but that SeaSonic is not too shabby.

 

[--SID--]

For my Mini-ITX multi media PC I've installed the parts in a Metallic Gear Neo Mini V2 powered by a be quiet! Straight Power 11 450w because this PSU I had lying around. I built it about a year ago when PSUs were a bit cheaper. If I had to buy a new PSU I would go for a be quiet! Pure Power 11 400w. Because it's decent, efficient, silent and affordable. It's available in your country too https://multitronic.fi/en/products/2421739
For the case, maybo Jonsbo is an idea for you https://multitronic.fi/en/products/4093367/jonsbo-d31-mesh---mid-tower-case--black It's a lot smaller than the Deepcool Matrexx 30

 

[35below0]

Oh dear. My eyes are bad. That Shark Zone C10 is an ITX case... I was looking at mATX motherboards. *sigh*

Forced to abandon my initial choice i looked at alternatives. Since i wanted an optical drive bay there weren't too many. I guess i'm going to give this German company (made in China) a chance afterall and go for their V-1000 model.

The Jonsbos, the Chieftecs, the no-names are cheaper but i'm not interested. Have to say the Deepcool Matrexx 30 is cheapest by far and actually seems ok.
But in the end it was either going to be a Fractal Design Core 1000 (with PSU on top) or one of the Sharkoon 1000s. Since i have FDs already let's try something new.

A mini ATX case allows for a cheaper ATX PSU, so the overall price remains same-ish.

Revised x2 build:
(I still haven't made up my mind between the MSI motherboard or the Gigabyte)
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-12100 3.3 GHz Quad-Core Processor (€122.90 @ Datatronic)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B760M DS3H DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (€107.90 @ Datatronic)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (€43.90 @ Datatronic)
Storage: Crucial P3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive (€72.90 @ Datatronic)
***Case: SHARKOON S1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (€64.90)
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 11 400 W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (€66.90 @ Datatronic)
Total: €479.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-28 23:34 EET+0200

***PPP cannot see the Sharkoon V1000 model for some reason. It's price is the same, and the link is here if anyone is interested: https://en.sharkoon.com/product/13951
It's kinda meh, but not bad.
Not sure why the fan is blowing onto the HDD/SSD + PSU more than the upper compartment. They could have placed just one 140mm fan roughly in the middle so it blows air onto the GPU and CPU.

Thank you @--SID-- for the PSU pick.

This thread is now a little bit off it's original topic. I can't seem to reconcile small with cheap, and this was meant to be a low power, cheap build, so here we are.