New mini-ITX build in the works!

[Rishwin]

Some may remember me ranting on about a watercooled mini-ITX build some whiles ago, but after purchasing the case & SSD today it is officially in the works!

I present the sexy BitFenix Prodigy in soft-touch red :



Final build will be :

Intel Core i5 3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz 6MB
Asus P8Z77-I DELUXE LGA1155 mITX
XFX Radeon HD7950 Tahiti Pro2 900M/5000M 3GB
GeIL 16GB Kit (2x8GB) DDR3 Evo Veloce C9 1866MHz
Crucial m4 2.5" 256GB SSD SATA3 500/260MB/s
Corsair TX750M 750W 80PLUS Bronze Semi-Modular
Corsair Hydro Series H100i

Total cost looking at $1,400 which is pretty good, got the RAM & SSD on the cheap (under $270 for both) so i splurged a little on the cooler just to make use of that sweet top opening on the case which it will just bolt on to.



The GPU was a little more than i was hoping to spend at $340 but i really wanted that Tahiti chip with all those extra shaders and free Bioshock Infinite & Crysis 3 made it a great deal. Will grab the rest of the parts over the next 2 weeks and then inc epic build thread!

[MentaL]

[MentaL]

that thing looks cute. what is the air flow like with it and overheating?

[Laz-low]

I'd hold off until the summer bud, rumours are the new Haswell Intel processors come out June-ish

Intel Haswell processors to launch on 2nd June - CPU - News - HEXUS.net

[Parker]

Looks like an awesome build.

[Rishwin]

I'd hold off until the summer bud, rumours are the new Haswell Intel processors come out June-ish

Intel Haswell processors to launch on 2nd June - CPU - News - HEXUS.net

Yea I've never been one to wait for new gens to release.

I mean we're looking at 3 months at least until they are available in retail, maybe a little longer for the K-series with unlocked multiplier and it will probably be another few months before they have a decent mini-ITX board to use for this build. All up I'm not going to wait 6 months to build this, i specifically wanted this motherboard as it packs in an amazing amount of features as well as having that 10-phase vertical daughter-board for voltage regulation which makes it perfect for overclocking. Haswell will be priced a little higher & will drop the Ivy-Bridge in price by maybe 10% but not really too much to begin with. Not to mention i like to get experience with every chip series and Haswell is apparently going to be our last "upgradeable" platform with the next series after that having CPU's fully integrated onto motherboards.

Plus my roommate's moving out and needs a PC so i'm just going to sell him the PC i built in my assembly tutorial & this will replace it as my server & main gaming machine. I already have several games lined up that i haven't been able to play on my current setup so I'm keen to get into those ASAP! :P

[Sardaukar]

that thing looks cute. what is the air flow like with it and overheating?

Due to the processor H100i cooler transmitting the heat to the radiator, the actual heat zone will be pulled outwards quite considerably, as long as the fans are set to push air out. As long as the GPU cooler doesn't create a dead zone of hot air (Like many are prone to do). The next upgrade from this would be to get a water block for the GPU and mount an external radiator on the top of the case to pull all heat out of the case, itself. Would be a really fun summer project to do in all honesty! If I had the extra $$ I would follow along this route with Rishwin and build an AMD/Nvidia rig for a mini gaming setup.

The interesting thing with the instructions related to these self contained water block/radiator setups.. is that they suggest blowing the fans into the case, so the cooler air is blowing directly past the radiator instead of pulling hot air from the inside across the Rad.

[Rishwin]

that thing looks cute. what is the air flow like with it and overheating?

It's actually pretty good. The front although solid is surrounded by vent openings (almost like a moat) and there's actually a fan on the inside-front which sucks air in through there. The top mesh opens up to 2x120mm slots with mounting holes so it fits a double rad which the H100i has and it will literally just bolt-on. The PSU slot on the back has cutouts for air on the bottom which have removable dust filters on them, and there's obviously an exhaust fan on the back.

Air will be coming in through the front primarily, the radiator i think i'll have set to push air out the top, as with the exhaust at the back; that should give us low pressure inside the case which will be sucking cool air in for the fans to blow out. The radiator is tbh overkill for an i5 chip in general, it should never go above 60 degrees at 4.5GHz full-load so having it pull warm air out of the case rather than suck cool air in should not affect temps too much. The PSU will be upside-down so it's fan will be blowing straight out the bottom, and the vent holes you see on the side of the case are exactly where the GPU fan will be facing, so it will be pulling its own cool air through the side which will be aided by the low pressure which will also help pushing that GPU heat out the back & top.

Due to the processor H100i cooler transmitting the heat to the radiator, the actual heat zone will be pulled outwards quite considerably, as long as the fans are set to push air out. As long as the GPU cooler doesn't create a dead zone of hot air (Like many are prone to do). The next upgrade from this would be to get a water block for the GPU and mount an external radiator on the top of the case to pull all heat out of the case, itself. Would be a really fun summer project to do in all honesty! If I had the extra $$ I would follow along this route with Rishwin and build an AMD/Nvidia rig for a mini gaming setup.

The interesting thing with the instructions related to these self contained water block/radiator setups.. is that they suggest blowing the fans into the case, so the cooler air is blowing directly past the radiator instead of pulling hot air from the inside across the Rad.

Ahaha! Nothing like a good build thread to get you out of the woodwork! :P

See I've always been an Intel + Ati guy but you've always been an AMD + Nvidia fan as far as i remember, which i find strange as people usually match their brands lol.

Nah next upgrade for this would be to remove the fan & HDD cages and mount another radiator to the front for the GPU, there's pre-drilled holes & everything - including slots to fit SSD's on the inside of the side-panels & mount holes to screw them to the case allover the place. Problem is i would want it to be a closed-loop solution just like the CPU and we just don't have that option atm :( the pump itself is also in the waterblock so it's not like you can just swap them out.

[Alfons]

I've been thinking about doing a mini-itx build for a while now, but I'd have to sell my desktop first. Definitely lurking this thread to see how your build ends up .

[Rishwin]

I've been thinking about doing a mini-itx build for a while now, but I'd have to sell my desktop first. Definitely lurking this thread to see how your build ends up .

Do it! You know you want to! :P

Get a good price for your desktop and this upgrade could probably cost you nothing x) If you remember my i5 760 build which i was benchmarking with a few years back, i ended up selling that for more than i paid for the parts to begin with! Fully paid for my g73 & then some.

[Alfons]

I really want to but I doubt it's going to be an upgrade . Still running a 2500k with SLI'd 680s and I'd rather not step down in performance when doing an itx build. The only way to go would be a 690 :P.

[Rishwin]

Finally got around to ordering the rest of the parts today, will pick them up tomorrow and get building!

I waited too long so the RAM shot up in price $40 but the mobo i wanted also went out of stock so my next pick was $40 cheaper so it all evened out. The i5 3570k is also out of stock so getting it from a different store at $5 more but it beats having a locked multiplier i5 3570. I did a bit of PSU hunting as i wasn't too keen on using a 160mm deep PSU which was the max supported so went with another brand which was both smaller & cheaper.

All-up including mechanical gigabyte keyboard i'm looking at just over $1,500 for the entire system with free bioshock Infinite & Crysis 3 (i hope, as long as they still have in stock!) which i'm relatively happy with, i was aiming for under $1,000 without GPU & peripherals and that has been achieved. 256GB Crucial M4 for the main drive & a 500GB 2.5" WD black as storage should do well, i didn't go with a 3.5" drive because the side panel has 2 slots for 2x 2.5" drives which i'm using so the HDD cages can be removed alltogether & used for better cable management.

Build pics as usual will be put up, maybe even another build thread if i have the space & time. Might be a good tutorial to do, incorporating both Mini-ITX form factor and water cooling.

[CoffeTableG]

Wow, this looks awesome. I really like the case.

[Rishwin]

Heh had a few dramas with the keyboard not working so well - it would not work in BIOS, and only occasionally worked when plugged in after boot. Went to get it swapped but it was the only Gigabyte Osmium they had so swapped it with a Ducky Shine 2 (red LED, red switches). Honestly i found the Gigabyte easier to type on but i will get used to this i guess. Responsiveness is great, I'm just not sure the key consistency is the same as it was on the gigabyte, but i won't really know till i properly test this one out. No palm rest on this either :/

I started doing a tutorial while building but i ended up missing a few things which i had to remedy later on and it would have just taken up too much time. Will post up the pics i took of the build soon and see If there's enough to still do a build thread.

So far doing swell, CPU slightly overclocked to 4.2GHz idling at ~30 have not seem it exceed 60 degrees yet, GPU sitting at about 75 while gaming otherwise also idling at 30. Set the top 2 fans on the rad to push air out, while the front & back both suck air in. Smashing out Farcry 3 on Very High settings @ 60FPS so far so doing quite well, got a few games installed to test out when i have time & will rock out the benchmarks soon.

[Parker]

Heh had a few dramas with the keyboard not working so well - it would not work in BIOS

I get that all the time, sometimes my keyboard wants to work, sometimes it doesn't and I'll have to hunt around for a USB-->PS2 adapter and it'll usually work.

Build looks awesome.

[Rishwin]

I get that all the time, sometimes my keyboard wants to work, sometimes it doesn't and I'll have to hunt around for a USB-->PS2 adapter and it'll usually work.

Build looks awesome.

Nah it was just FUBAR. Didn't work -at all- until i had already installed Windows & all of the drivers (had to plug in old ps2 keyboard to install OS then on-screen keyboard for drivers lol), and even then it would work till a reboot then it comes back with only volume control working. Disconnect & reconnect & it did nothing, just volume control again. Reboot and it would sometimes work. Plugged it into my 2 laptops & it comes up as a pointing device. Just a messed up unit lol.