Help please - ITX Gaming Build

[SARGE456]

Hi!

I am wanting to build a quiet, efficient, compact gaming rig. The machine is to be capable of playing current games at 1920x1080@144hz and will not be overclocked. The build I have proposed is a mini ITX based to keep this as small as possible, however it may be that the components selected will not fit in the case selected or any ITX build.


I am looking for any suggestions or advice based on your knowledge and experience:

PCPartPicker part list: http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/vZj8GX

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Kingston Savage 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory
Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Storage: Seagate 6TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card
Case: Fractal Design Core 500 Mini ITX Desktop Case
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular Fanless ATX Power Supply
Case Fan: Noctua NF-S12A ULN 120mm Fan
Keyboard: Corsair K95 RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Corsair M65 RGB Wired Laser Mouse

Comments/Questions:
1. CPU Cooler - is large, is there such a thing as a compact liquid cooler or am I better off with a compact air cooler?
2. Motherboard - do not require wireless and will be using USB sound. Is this the best motherboard to consider?
3. GPU - Will this fit in an ITX case or are there compact 980 / 980 TI's to consider?
4. Case fan - is this required / will it fit?
5. Keyboard / Mouse - Do not require programmable buttons or backlighting. Are there better options? Wireless with similar performance?

Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated

 

[Burpo]

This is a better case for full size video cards & ATX P.S. I agree, you should find a smaller cooler than the NH-D15S..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...119286&cm_re=elite_130-_-11-119-286-_-Product

 

[Yuriman]

1. I would avoid using that Noctua heatsink, as you were thinking. It will probably fit, but getting to stuff around it will just be awful, and it's massive, massive overkill for a non-overclocked CPU. ITX cases are some of the few places where AIO watercoolers (just as an example) make sense to me, but even that would be huge overkill for a stock CPU. I actually use this ridiculously small cooler, which outperforms the Intel stock heatsink and should do fine with your CPU since you're not overclocking. At 4ghz, under Linpack loads, I don't go above 60c. You could go for something a bit more moderately sized, but I don't have any recommendations offhand. I like Noctua's coolers pretty well, and something with a 92mm fan will make working in your case a lot nicer. You could even drop down to an i7 6700 and use the cooler that comes with it.

2. Since you're not overclocking, a Z170 motherboard offers few advantages over a cheaper H170 board board, or perhaps even an H110 board. You get more SATA ports and USB ports, mostly. More expensive boards usually have better onboard sound or include WiFi, so I figure you can probably safely shave some cost from your build here. Stick with ASRock/MSI/Asus/Gigabyte.

3. There is a compact GTX 970, and the R9 Fury Nano, but that particular case should be long enough for any video card. When looking at cases, make sure you read the video card clearance length and the length of your card.

Speaking of cases - that's a nice case, but unnecessarily big if you don't need an optical drive. The case I use is less than half the size, though it would have clearance problems with a full length GTX 980. Take a look at some of Silverstone's offerings to start with.

4. Most cases will come with fans. Noctua fans are usually higher quality and produce less noise pushing the same air when compared with what comes with cases, but if you're not terribly fussy you might not notice a difference.

5. Keyboards and mice are very much personal preference. Most people (myself included) will recommend mechanical keyboards, but $150 is pretty steep.

That mouse would drive me nuts, but to each his own.

~

Overall, your part selection looks to be of good quality, but there's quit a bit of bloat in your budget. You could easily shave a couple hundred dollars from your build.

 

[EliteRetard]

I did a quick peek, I see an Antec AIO water cooler for $50.
Should fit much nicer than the monstrous Noctua.

I see cheaper memory, but not at the same speed and CAS (2400 CAS 12).
I think the Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2400 CAS 14 at $150 is much better bang for the buck.
Edit: I noticed the Kingston is also 1.35v while the Corsair is 1.2v which is healthier for Skylake.

Can get a 500GB Samsung EVO M.2-2280 for less than a 256GB 850 PRO.
Usually bigger SSD's are faster, thus the bigger EVO might close in a bit vs the PRO
Either way, personally I'd take double the storage for less cash and a small speed hit.

Cost per GB on that 6TB HDD is crazy! Looks like you can save $100 by grabbing 2x3TB
Seagate ST3000DM001 7200RPM 3TB 64MB $133.00 (44 cents/GB vs 62 cents/GB)

GTX980 is a terrible buy now no matter where you get it. For $800 it's crazy.
Especially since major new technology/manufacturing is coming soon for GPU's.

I see some nice aftermarket GPUs under $500 that will perform very close:

Asus R9290X-DC2-4GD5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .R9 290x 4GB $455
Asus TURBO-GTX970-OC-4GD5 . . . . . . . . . GTX 970 4GB $465
PowerColor AXR9 390 8GBD5-PPDHE . . . . . R9 390 8GB $475

The 290x, 970, and 390 all perform very similarly, and about 15% slower than the 980.
In 6-8 months you can sell and take the $300 you saved and get something much faster than a 980.

While the PSU is nice, that platinum rating costs way to much. Going for the same brand and just a step down to gold will cut the price in HALF. While 520 watt is probably enough, I see a SeaSonic SSP-650RT 650 watt gold unit for just $120. A much better deal, and extra power to spare for a top of the line next gen video card.

For ITX cases, I do think having good airflow is very important. It doesn't matter if you have the best heat-sinks in the world, if they are recycling hot air over and over your parts will overheat. Getting fresh air in and hot air out of a tiny cramped case is not easy, especially if you want it quiet. Noctua does make some good fans, and you need at least 1 maybe 2 good fans for an ITX build.

 

[EliteRetard]

Here's the link with the parts I suggested:

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/42HN8d

Saves about $700

Bigger PSU, double SSD storage, but loses about 15% on the GPU.

Edit: Now I gotta read up on the case you selected to see if everything will fit and play nice. A quick spec check suggests 12" GPU's will fit.
It also has a 140MM fan included, and that with the water cooler fan, and PSU fan might be enough that you wont need the extra Noctua fan.

 

[EliteRetard]

Looks like technically everything should fit.

The specs I'm finding for the case say 310mm max for GPU.
Specs for the 290x I listed say 290mm
Specs for the 970 I listed say 265mm
Specs for the 390 I listed say 305mm

The 290x thus might be the best mix of price/performance/size.

The specs I found also suggest 170mm max for the PSU
Pictures suggest that a full 170mm PSU would block the GPU.
PSU also draws air from the bottom outside of the case (wont aid cooling).
The SeaSonic SSP-650RT appears to have the standard ATX length of 140mm.
One review I read suggested a standard ATX (140mm or less) would fit with a GPU.

The case specs claim up to a 240mm water cooler at 100mm thick (including fan).
The selected Antec 620 is a 120mm radiator that is 57mm thick with fan.

Case claims space for 3x 3.5" and 3x 2.5" drives and 1x 5.25".
A 5.25" bay will fit 2x 3.5" drives with an adapter.
Should be plenty to fit the less expensive pair of 3TB drives vs the one 6TB.

 

[EliteRetard]

And instead of getting a Noctua case fan, I think the way to go is to get a fan for the radiator.
Ananadtech did some testing on an H80 radiator and found the Enermax Magma UCMAA12A a well balanced fan.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6391/120mm-radiator-fan-roundup-part-2-fan-harder/7

I see it listed for $9 on part picker. http://au.pcpartpicker.com/part/enermax-case-fan-ucmaa12a
There may even be room to get 2 and run them in a push pull configuration.
That is, to place one on each side of the radiator. It would total up to 77mm thick.
Along with the 140mm stock exhaust fan on the case this should keep things cool.

If you want to go for Noctua they suggested the NF-F12 PWM for radiators.
It looks like it's about $30, same as the other Noctua you had selected.
I don't think it'd be worth buying two of these though, costs to much.

Now why am I suggesting a radiator fan instead of a case fan?
Well it appears there aren't really any places for case fans in the unit selected.
The only location to mount them is in the location the radiator would be installed.
Moving air through a radiator needs a different kind of fan than normal case fans.

The water cooler comes with a fan, but I don't know it's quality or sound level.
The Magma or F12 PWM have been tested and shown to be quiet with effective cooling.

Then if there happens to be some place you can stick another fan, you can utilize the fan that came with the radiator (if it's any good/quiet), or if you buy multiple Magma fans use one of them. Radiator fans are good at moving air in tight restricted areas, like the rats nest ITX builds usually are.

 

[EliteRetard]

Annnnd...changing things again, I may have found a short tower that could work.

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/part/noctua-cpu-cooler-nhu9bse2

At $75 it's about the same cost as the water cooler and extra fans.
No chance of leaking and it comes with a pair of Noctua fans (usually good).
Also if it fits and can blow air towards the back fan that might be helpful.
At 125mm tall there might be room in the top for more fans (exhaust?).
Or you use one of the fans elsewhere with the stock 140mm as the "second" fan.

 

[Yuriman]

Remember that this is a stock CPU. Something like either of these would be very appropriate:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103064

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103084

^ Smaller heatsink minimizes risk to CPU and socket, has no mechanical pump to fail, no pump noise, and allows easier access to components around the socket. It will almost certainly still be silent at idle and still quiet enough under load to be unheard over the video card.

 

[EliteRetard]

I couldn't keep a stock 4790k under 100c with this in an SG05:

Scythe Shuriken Rev B. I tried other high speed 120mm fans as well as bolting vs clips.
Ended up modding/bolting on an old stock Intel socket 775 150 watt phase change cooler.
After all the mods and lapping etc I tried that old cooler got me to around 70c full load.
It takes serious tech to cool these newer Intel chips, the L9i and Vortex would melt.

Edit: This is the cooler I used in the end, compared to the stock 4790k cooler:

It's not just a hunk of metal either, there's a large phase change vapor chamber in the center.

 

[SARGE456]

Thank you for all your help.

It is quite concerning re the high temps though!

 

[Charlie98]

Cost per GB on that 6TB HDD is crazy! Looks like you can save $100 by grabbing 2x3TB
Seagate ST3000DM001 7200RPM 3TB 64MB $133.00 (44 cents/GB vs 62 cents/GB)

I wouldn't recommend the Seagate 3TB HDD's, those are the ones Backblaze reports some pretty bad failure percentages. I happen to have one in my HTPC, it's not given me any problems, but I still wouldn't recommend it. WD or HGST is probably where I would go for a 3TB drive, and, contrary to current trend, I wouldn't get a Toshiba, either. Both my Toshiba drives (a 1TB and a 5TB) run hot.

OP, just a question.... do you really need 6TB of storage?

 

[Termie]

Since I've build a lot of ITX gaming systems, I thought I'd chime in with some tips:

(1) I have a Noctua D15S. There isn't even the slightest chance that it will work in any ITX system. It's far too wide.
(2) The rear-mounted M.2 slots on ITX boards are "for show." A 950 Pro will immediately overheat when used in them when pressed against the bottom of a case.
(3) If you're using a case with room for a liquid cooling radiator, it's by far your best choice for pushing a CPU hard in an ITX system, but the trade-off is typically much higher noise levels, especially at idle.

I should note that the Fractal Core 500 is a great new addition to the ITX world, allowing you to use certain 120mm air coolers, which very few other systems do. But since it's so new, not many people have tested which ones work - the width will be the tricky issue, which ultimately interacts with the motherboard's particular socket placement. Height isn't the hard part.

 

[Ken g6]

I should note that the Fractal Core 500 is a great new addition to the ITX world, allowing you to use certain 120mm air coolers, which very few other systems do. But since it's so new, not many people have tested which ones work - the width will be the tricky issue, which ultimately interacts with the motherboard's particular socket placement. Height isn't the hard part.

Given that, I'll point out that the Hyper 212 Evo is as narrow in width as 120mm coolers can be, namely 120mm. If you're not overclocking, that should be enough cooling for you.