SFF build feedback (first build in about 15 years!)

[cjangus]

Any feedback appreciated, especially in relation to any possible incompatibilities or just generally mismatched components. I haven't built a PC in forever, the aim is something that is fairly portable (at the level of taking in hand luggage without too much issue) since I move around a fair bit. Main use is for C++ dev with Unreal - I don't need cutting edge, but do a lot of multitasking and need to be able to run stuff at a reasonable frame rate. Generally no problem to drop graphical settings down though, hence the relatively lower end graphics card.

Silverstone Sugo Mini-ITX SST-SG06
Corsair SF450 450W SFX Modular PSU
ASUS ROG STRIX Intel H370-I
Intel Core i5 8400
Shadow Rock LP CPU Air Cooler
Corsair Vengeance LPX 1x16GB DDR4 2666MHz
500GB Samsung 960/970 Evo M.2 SSD
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB SC GAMING ACX 2.0

Comes out at around £1000 from Scan.

Thanks!

 

[ArchitSahu]

Build is not very well balanced. PSU is okay, but not reliable. Single Channel RAM is really not worth it. SSD is too expensive, and in that budget you can easily get a 1060 6 GB. I understand that a HDD in this build would be too tight in terms of space.

Motherboard is also overly expensive.

Cooler won't be required as the stock will do.

You are multitasking, a Ryzen 5 or 7 would be better. The 2nd gen is quite close to intel in terms of gaming as well. I have given both Intel and Ryzen builds.

You can build yourself for cheaper. Here:

Intel -
PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/h98JMZ
Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/h98JMZ/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor (£143.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z370M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£118.96 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Patriot - Viper 4 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£154.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: SanDisk - Ultra 3D 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£99.96 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB GAMING Video Card (£262.76 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Cooler Master - Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case (£41.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£58.67 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£79.99 @ AWD-IT)
Total: £961.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-05-09 13:36 BST+0100

Cheaper than 1000 Pounds. Faster and Dual Channel RAM. Better PSU. Cheaper SSD but also 500 GB. Better GPU.

Ryzen -
PCPartPicker part list: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/YbkXyX
Price breakdown by merchant: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/YbkXyX/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor (£155.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-AB350N-Gaming WIFI (rev. 1.0) Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard (£93.97 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot - Viper 4 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£154.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: SanDisk - Ultra 3D 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£99.96 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB GAMING Video Card (£262.76 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Cooler Master - Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case (£41.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£58.67 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£79.99 @ AWD-IT)
Total: £948.31
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-05-09 13:38 BST+0100

Same system with Ryzen. Only problem is that the motherboard will require a BIOS update before the insertion of the new chip so you need to contact the manufacturer or AMD for the update.

 

[cjangus]

Appreciate the detailed feedback, thanks!

Something I left out that obviously I should have mentioned - I was thinking I'll likely at some point add an extra 16GB RAM and another SSD (maybe RAIDed), just trying to keep the price down initially.

Interesting about the motherboard, I was actually waiting for the supposedly lower spec H-series boards for Intel 8th gen, but yeah, the one I ended up selecting because of dual M.2 is comparable in price to a lot of Z-series ones. Good to know about the CPU cooler too, I was unsure if that was worth bothering with.

I have two specific queries if you (or anyone) can spare a moment.

My instinct was that the M.2 SSD was going to be important for my use, in particular compilation speeds. The difference between HDD and SSD in that respect is night and day. I'm certainly not expecting a comparable improvement from SATA SSD to M.2 Nvme, but the read/write speeds and IOPS numbers look very different. Is that misleading in practice?

Secondly, can you elaborate re the PSU? That's actually the one component in my original list that isn't in stock, but I was planning on waiting a week or so because it had such fantastic reviews everywhere. There isn't a great choice available in SFX form factor. I realize if I go with a case that takes an ATX I'll get better value, but the difference in size between the case I decided on and the one you suggest is significant to me.

Cheers.

 

[ArchitSahu]

Appreciate the detailed feedback, thanks!

Something I left out that obviously I should have mentioned - I was thinking I'll likely at some point add an extra 16GB RAM and another SSD (maybe RAIDed), just trying to keep the price down initially.

Interesting about the motherboard, I was actually waiting for the supposedly lower spec H-series boards for Intel 8th gen, but yeah, the one I ended up selecting because of dual M.2 is comparable in price to a lot of Z-series ones. Good to know about the CPU cooler too, I was unsure if that was worth bothering with.

I have two specific queries if you (or anyone) can spare a moment.

My instinct was that the M.2 SSD was going to be important for my use, in particular compilation speeds. The difference between HDD and SSD in that respect is night and day. I'm certainly not expecting a comparable improvement from SATA SSD to M.2 Nvme, but the read/write speeds and IOPS numbers look very different. Is that misleading in practice?

Secondly, can you elaborate re the PSU? That's actually the one component in my original list that isn't in stock, but I was planning on waiting a week or so because it had such fantastic reviews everywhere. There isn't a great choice available in SFX form factor. I realize if I go with a case that takes an ATX I'll get better value, but the difference in size between the case I decided on and the one you suggest is significant to me.

Cheers.

Even if the sticks were identical, I would still recommend buying all your RAM in kits.

I would like to apologize for the PSU. I read that as the VS450 and did not see carefully. The one you have selected is exceptionally good, keep it. Apologies again.

M.2 will help compilation speeds, but in my experience, it won't be too big. Linus had done a video some time ago on the real life values. There was some difference, but not too much AFAIK I recall. Still, it is up to you. If you keep your case and psu, go with the rest of the components in the builds I have shown and take the m.2, you will have a very good system.

If you are doing CAD and rendering or stuff, Ryzen should be better.

 

[cjangus]

Great, thanks. I'll read up on the RAM stuff and decide if I can justify getting 2x16 from the start. Last time I built a PC, price of RAM was next to irrelevant!

Thanks again, you'be been super helpful.

 

[logainofhades]

SSD raid isn't all that much better. You are going to need more storage than a 500gb ssd.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor (£143.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock - B360M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£95.34 @ More Computers)
Memory: Patriot - Viper 4 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£154.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 525GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£121.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Toshiba - 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£58.91 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: PNY - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB XLR8 Gaming OC Video Card (£238.80 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake - Core V1 Mini ITX Desktop Case (£37.29 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£58.67 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£79.99 @ AWD-IT)
Total: £988.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-05-09 14:52 BST+0100

Also an AMD solution

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor (£155.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-AB350N-Gaming WIFI (rev. 1.0) Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard (£93.97 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot - Viper 4 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£154.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 525GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£121.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Toshiba - 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£58.91 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: PNY - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB XLR8 Gaming OC Video Card (£238.80 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake - Core V1 Mini ITX Desktop Case (£37.29 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£58.67 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£79.99 @ AWD-IT)
Total: £999.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-05-09 14:56 BST+0100

 

[cjangus]

Thank you. My storage requirements are not super high, and the bulk of what I do need to store really needs to be on SSD. But yeah you're right, I'd get more benefit from adding more storage than RAIDing.