Mini ITX build with GTX 750 ti

[Mysterhay]

Hello all,

Looking at building myself a decent Mini ITX machine for portability around the GTX 750 ti card as it seems to have spectacular performance properties for a machine of this size. What would be the smallest case that I could feasibly fit this in? Would be looking at an i3 or i5 setup, 250ish GB SSD and one 8GB ram stick (adding a second later if required/prices drop again). No optical drive or OS required.

Most of my games are a lot more CPU intensive (Supcom Forged Alliance, for example) but a well clocked i3 or i5 would perform well I feel and the small case setup would be perfect for me as I spend a lot of time travelling (tempted by a gaming laptop also but am not a big fan of being unable to swap out any broken/bottle necking components).

Also anyone know what the current state is with the non K cpus (i3s, i5s) and being able to overclock by a few 100 mhz bins? Things have evidently changed since I bought my Q6600 that has been sitting overclocked for years...

(Edit: not hugely concerned about budgets here, but by my reckoning this should all add up to around £500ish, also quite happy to pay a bit more for a really nice looking case)

 

[AMD Radeon]

you can start from here
i left £60 for your saving, you can add 120GB ssd, or buy bitfenix prodigy case (which is too costly in UK)
the ram i listed is the cheapest 1,5V ram
it will be automatically clocked down to 1600MHz in your setup

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£127.19 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus H81I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (£46.99 @ Novatech)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£55.36 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£29.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card (£110.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case (£35.98 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£34.14 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £440.64
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-09 13:10 BST+0100)

 

[Rationale]

AMD Radeon's build is good. If you want a different looking case though, I would suggest the EVGA Hadron.
It comes with a proprietary PSU, but fortunately it's a very good 500w 80+ Gold model that'll easily run whatever fits in the case.
It can optionally be upgraded with a proprietary slim DVD/CD drive.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F1CLGVO/?tag=pcpapi-20

 

[AMD Radeon]

^ i am sorry for being blunt, evga hadron has very bad design for airflow, and the psu isnt easily replaceable (in case something bad happen) because U1 server psu form factor isnt popular

 

[Rationale]

^ i am sorry for being blunt, evga hadron has very bad design for airflow, and the psu isnt easily replaceable (in case something bad happen) because U1 server psu form factor isnt popular

I know, but heat won't be an issue with an i5 and 750 TI, and the failure rate of that PSU is incredibly low.
Besides, I suggested it because it's pretty clear he's also looking for a good looking case.

 

[sadams04]

The few changes I would recommend to AMD Radeon's build would be below. I would not worry about the small from factor and the PSU life... No overclocking and it is a good PSU to begin with. Personally I would look at a Seasonic Gold offering, but XFX makes a solid product you can trust.

MB - There are offerings from Gigabyte and MSI that are both ITX form factor and have built-in Bluetooth and WiFi. I would recommend squeezing in one into the build and not have to worry about that down the road.

MEM - No need for the faster modules. DDR3-1600 is the fastest that is supported. Yes it would be fine, however consider going with low latency modules at DDR3-1600 speeds. They will perform better or the same as the ones listed. Check out the GSKILL RipJaws DDR3-1600 1.5v CL7 modules...

 

[Mysterhay]

I’d be more inclined to go for the Hadron case there – little pricier but that Coolermaster one looks like it’s been beaten savagely with the ugly stick (my opinion!).

Both those cases still look quite bulky though – would be quite a bit of empty space in the case. I understand that this is caused by the width of the graphics card, are there any good solutions to rotate the card so that it is in line with the motherboard (rather than being at a perpendicular angle which makes a mini itx far boxier) either using a pci adaptor or something like this case here:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silverstone-sst-rvz01-raven-mini-itx-black-case-w-o-psu

Not sure about the compatibility of the rest of the parts though, but if I could fit a 750 ti in there with an i5 then I would be a very happy man.

Again budget is flexible, so the likes of ram I'd rather stick to one 8GB module so I can upgrade to 16GB in a couple of years if need be.

 

[Mysterhay]

And yes good idea sadams, getting the connectivity on the board makes sense (can always add a card in if this part stops working)

- Edit - at work so difficult to look at components fully, silver stone case might be quite large with the psu space but you get the idea about rotated graphics cards. Could be a solution.

 

[bodeen2012]

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3oQ8x
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3oQ8x/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3oQ8x/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£127.19 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H87N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard (£87.66 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£49.33 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£59.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 750GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£44.46 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card (£106.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Phenom Arctic White Mini ITX Tower Case (£62.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: XFX 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£20.00 @ Maplin Electronics)
Total: £557.62
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-09 17:14 BST+0100)

 

[sora]

The few changes I would recommend to AMD Radeon's build would be below. I would not worry about the small from factor and the PSU life... No overclocking and it is a good PSU to begin with. Personally I would look at a Seasonic Gold offering, but XFX makes a solid product you can trust.

MB - There are offerings from Gigabyte and MSI that are both ITX form factor and have built-in Bluetooth and WiFi. I would recommend squeezing in one into the build and not have to worry about that down the road.

MEM - No need for the faster modules. DDR3-1600 is the fastest that is supported. Yes it would be fine, however consider going with low latency modules at DDR3-1600 speeds. They will perform better or the same as the ones listed. Check out the GSKILL RipJaws DDR3-1600 1.5v CL7 modules...

XFX power supplies are manufactured by Seasonic.