Mini ITX gaming build

[voodoodrul]

What do you people think about this gaming only build?

Case: EVGA Hadron Air
CPU: 4790k
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VII Impact
RAM: 16gb Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600
GPU: Nvidia 980 Ti
SSD: 1tb Samsung 850 Evo
M.2: 240gb Kingston Predator

The "top ten" questions

1. What YOUR PC will be used for.
Gaming only

2. What YOUR budget is.
Since I only need to buy a case, motherboard, CPU, and RAM, let's say $1000

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
U.S.

5. IF YOU have a brand preference.
Not really. I do tend to prefer Intel and Nvidia stuff, but I'm no fanboy

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
I already own the SSD, M.2, and 980 Ti. The case, motherboard, and RAM are an effort to down size the current machine. I like small builds. That and 64gb of RAM in my current build is superfluous. It actually annoys me having it routinely go unused. A well balanced machine is the goal

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Not really planning on overclocking, but all the better if it cooperates. Can't expect much from a small case, low power PSU, and air cooling.

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
3440x1440

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Sometime this year. Now would be nice.

10. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
Nope


Or wait for Skylake..

 

[mfenn]

It's hard to say in a vacuum. Can you update your post to answer these questions?

 

[voodoodrul]

It's hard to say in a vacuum. Can you update your post to answer these questions?

Updated. I see I'm not the first to ask this question.

 

[Ken g6]

I was worried the 980ti would overload the PSU in that case, but it looks like it'll be OK.

Personally, I would wait, and am waiting, for Skylake before doing a mini-ITX build. With current architecture you're capped at 16GB, but with Skylake you can eventually upgrade to as much as 64GB. Not needed now, but it might be later.

 

[voodoodrul]

I was worried the 980ti would overload the PSU in that case, but it looks like it'll be OK.

Personally, I would wait, and am waiting, for Skylake before doing a mini-ITX build. With current architecture you're capped at 16GB, but with Skylake you can eventually upgrade to as much as 64GB. Not needed now, but it might be later.

Indeed. I'm leaning towards your suggestion to wait for Skylake since it could be available next month. The 980 Ti would push the power envelope pretty hard, but I think it should hold up.

 

[mfenn]

Updated. I see I'm not the first to ask this question.

:awe:

Regarding the parts:

- Case: Good
- CPU: Good
- Motherboard: The M VIII I is a solid board, but it is also really expensive for what it is. You can accomplished the same function with an ASRock Z97E-ITX/ac for $120 AR.
- RAM: Since your current build also uses DDR3 (presumably 8x8 GB), do you need to buy any new RAM?

 

[voodoodrul]

I could avoid buying more RAM yes. Regarding these boards, the asrock looks really nice. What about total PCIe lanes? Is there enough here to keep up with a fast m.2, 980 ti, and crazy fast SATA express drive concurrently? I doubt it matters because nothing will come close to saturating it but it seems there's bound to be a decent amount of lane sharing in that scenario.

I assume the asrock has 4 lanes on the m.2..

 

[Lyfer]

I was worried the 980ti would overload the PSU in that case, but it looks like it'll be OK.

Personally, I would wait, and am waiting, for Skylake before doing a mini-ITX build. With current architecture you're capped at 16GB, but with Skylake you can eventually upgrade to as much as 64GB. Not needed now, but it might be later.

500W PSU going to be enough to run a 980TI conformtably?

 

[Ken g6]

500W PSU going to be enough to run a 980TI conformtably?

Well, I didn't say it would work comfortably. () But max. power draw on AnandTech's test system, with a Core i7-4960X @ 4.2GHz, was under 400W. I think it should work.

It does help that the OP knows overclocking may be limited at best, and that he didn't include a mechanical HDD.

 

[Lyfer]

Well, I didn't say it would work comfortably. () But max. power draw on AnandTech's test system, with a Core i7-4960X @ 4.2GHz, was under 400W. I think it should work.

It does help that the OP knows overclocking may be limited at best, and that he didn't include a mechanical HDD.

I would sleep better with a more powerful PSU. But I would not doubt your math!

 

[Yuriman]

Power supply is plenty. OP has a 250w GPU + 88w CPU, there's no way he'll need more than 500w. The only thing I'd be concerned about is noise - with a tiny fan, and drawing 60-80% of what the power supply is rated for, it's not likely to be silent under load. I haven't read any reviews on that particular unit but going with a case that allows for an SFX or standard ATX PSU might help in that regard.

On the other hand, it might not be any louder than the video card, and the PSU definitely won't be heavily loaded unless the video card is too.

Some additional thoughts: judging by your previous system, keeping costs down is not a huge concern, but I'd like to toss out the idea of going with something like a 500GB M.2 drive and a cheaper mechanical drive for mass storage, or perhaps even just reusing what you have. You might also consider going with an H97 board and shaving off $100, as you're not likely to get more than 1-200mhz (2.5-5%) out of the 4790K without feeding it excessive volts (in a small case with a power budget, no less). I don't see much reason to OC that chip.

 

[Ketchup]

For a few dollars less you could get a 4770s. Not a big price difference, but pulls less power and therefore puts out less heat. Which for a mini ITX is a big plus. As Yuriman pointed out, for a build like this, don't bother with overclocking. It won't make a tangible difference, and will only give you a hot /noisy machine.

 

[Yuriman]

For a few dollars less you could get a 4770s. Not a big price difference, but pulls less power and therefore puts out less heat. Which for a mini ITX is a big plus. As Yuriman pointed out, for a build like this, don't bother with overclocking. It won't make a tangible difference, and will only give you a hot /noisy machine.

I have no issues running my i5 @ 4.5ghz even with a low profile heatsink and a quiet fan profile in my ITX case. Heat disspitation isn't actually much worse (and could potentially even be better) than in a large case at a given noise level, so long as it's well designed. It's more a matter of overclocking generally not being worthwhile on a 4790K under any circumstances, since it has such high base frequencies and so little headroom. I'd still definitely go with the 4790K, as the 4770S will not produce any less heat when doing the same amount of work, but it occurs to me to mention that having a tower heatsink in a case such as that one presents some interesting challenges with accessing connectors on the board.

I decided to try this heatsink to help improve accessibility to my board, and have been pretty satisfied with the thermal and accoustic performance. I'm coming to realize that the raw size of most modern tower heatsinks is pretty far into diminishing returns.

 

[Ketchup]

The 4770s is a 65 watt CPU. The 4790k is an 88 watt. It will consume less power, and therefore put out less heat. Either would work, but the lower power with no tangible performance loss may be better for this type of build.