Antec ISK 110 Build

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Jan 12, 2013
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Hi guys, new to this forum but lurking through the threads I see lots of good information here. I'm looking for some advice on my very first SFF build that I want to get going soon. Below are the answers to the standard questions. Let me know if there are any suggestions with regard to components! My main concern moving forward is power consumption, since I don't know how well the stock 90W PSU will handle. I also don't plan on using an external GPU, so I'd most likely rely on the graphics from the processor. Thanks in advance
--M@

1. What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming, Photoshop (or other intensive programs), Web browsing, strictly HTPC/Playback, etc.
This PC will serve both as a file server for streaming PLEX content to my Roku Box wirelessly and as an overall light use PC. The only game I really play is StarCraft II so if I can squeeze decent performance out of that I'd be happy. Other than that I don't plan on using the machine for much else other than occasional office work and streaming content.

2. Will you be overclocking? No plans to do this

3. What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included in this budget? Is your budget flexible? Is cost a driving factor in component selection?
My budget is around $550. I don't want to go much higher than this, if at all possible.

4. Where do you live? Do you have any big B&M (brick and mortar) computer chains nearby (e.g. Microcenter, Fry's, etc)?
I am in NY, and a quick Google search says that a Microcenter is about 20 minutes from me.

5. What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.

  • Case (I have my heart set on the Antec ISK 110)
  • PSU (?)
  • RAM
  • CPU
  • Hard Drive

6. If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. For reused parts, list brands, model #s, and, if applicable, firmware revisions.
No re-used parts other than USB peripherals

7. What specific features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc. Which is more important, size of the system or having the particular feature? Make sure you indicate *required* vs. *wanted* for each feature you list.

Required:
  • Wireless ready
  • Onboard video, since I don't plan on adding an external GPU
  • Support for 2 sticks of DDR3 1600 RAM
  • Size is important - as stated above I'd like this to fit in an Antec ISK 110

8. What resolution output do you need? 1080p, 720p, DVD quality, etc for HTPC or list Vertical/horizontal resolution for non-HTPC SFF rigs. Do you need multiple monitor output?
Will be hooked up to a 1080p computer monitor.

9. Does this system need to fit into a particular space and do you need an optical drive? Think entertainment center shelves, closet space, rackmount, etc. Many modern SFF cases have either removed the optical drive or have been constructed so that removing the ODD increases the configuration possibilities immensely.
My plan is to mount the Antec ISK 110 case to the back of my monitor with the included VESA mount. This is not a requirement though. I could just as easily sit it on the desk next to my monitor.

10. How comfortable are you with custom case design/modification and electrical wiring? What tools do you have (Screwdrivers/Leatherman, Drill, Dremel, Metal snips, Soldering Iron, Bending Brake, CNC/Welding machines/Plasma cutter, etc...)?
I have small screwdrivers but that's about it. I have not ever done any case modding or advanced design changes to systems.

11. How important is the noise/silence of this sytem? HTPCs typically want to be quiet while all-out SFF gaming rigs don't care
As quiet as possible is preferred.

12. How mobile does this system need to be? Need a carrying handle or carrying straps? Is weight important (carry-on bag, etc)? Water cooling quick disconnects, etc?
This doesn't need to be mobile.

13. Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? Remember that OEM copies of Win7 have issues with new motherboards
I have a Windows 8 64bit license and installation media ready to go.

14. When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Immediately, in a couple weeks, 3-5 years?
I plan to build this in the next 2-3 months.
 
Don't know if you're near the westbury or the yonkers store, but if it's yonkers go with the following:

Gigabyte Z77 mITX motherboard - $130
i3-3225 processor with HD4000 graphics (good for very playable Starcraft II - $120
Samsung ultra-low profile ram. This stuff is awesome, and it's really tiny :p - $47
WD Black 750GB 2.5" drive - $80 (Alternately, if you don't need this much space, or have an external, you can get an SSD which will be much faster, such as a samsung 830)
Antec ISK-100. It's out of stock right now, but should be back in a couple of days. - $88

That brings you to $228 from Microcenter and $215 from Amazon. Plenty left over in the event you didn't need 750GB of space and wanted to swap in a 256GB SSD :D
 
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Don't know if you're near the westbury or the yonkers store, but if it's yonkers go with the following:

Gigabyte Z77 mITX motherboard - $130
i3-3225 processor with HD4000 graphics (good for very playable Starcraft II - $120
Samsung ultra-low profile ram. This stuff is awesome, and it's really tiny :p - $47
WD Black 750GB 2.5" drive - $80 (Alternately, if you don't need this much space, or have an external, you can get an SSD which will be much faster, such as a samsung 830)
Antec ISK-100. It's out of stock right now, but should be back in a couple of days. - $88

That brings you to $228 from Microcenter and $215 from Amazon. Plenty left over in the event you didn't need 750GB of space and wanted to swap in a 256GB SSD :D

Thanks so much! I'll definitely give Microcenter a visit.
I do have an external 1.5TB drive I use for media, so I don't think I need that much internal space. With regard to the SSD, any particular reason why you recommend Samsung?
 
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Thanks so much! I'll definitely give Microcenter a visit.
I do have an external 1.5TB drive I use for media, so I don't think I need that much internal space. With regard to the SSD, any particular reason why you recommend Samsung?

Very high IOPS along with very good non-sequential transfer rates leads to a good user experience. 3 year warranty is pretty awesome, as well :D

If you *really* want to up the ante, you can get a Samsung 840 Pro 128GB. It's the king of the pile right now (very useful if you're transcoding on this drive, but a bit overkill for mundane tasks) for $140 (also comes with a 5 year warranty). If you don't need that much speed, you could also look into the Plextor M5P series or the Crucial M4 series.
 
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Don't know if you're near the westbury or the yonkers store, but if it's yonkers go with the following:

Gigabyte Z77 mITX motherboard - $130
i3-3225 processor with HD4000 graphics (good for very playable Starcraft II - $120
Samsung ultra-low profile ram. This stuff is awesome, and it's really tiny :p - $47
WD Black 750GB 2.5" drive - $80 (Alternately, if you don't need this much space, or have an external, you can get an SSD which will be much faster, such as a samsung 830)
Antec ISK-100. It's out of stock right now, but should be back in a couple of days. - $88

Buying the CPU and motherboard together at Micro Center will give a $40 discount on the motherboard, so it will ring up at $90.

Though currently out of stock, Newegg has the best price on that Samsung RAM at $40 shipped. Expert tip: See if Micro Center will pricematch. They sometimes do.

Samsung 830 is discontinued. All those sales past couple months were to clear them out. A "normal use" machine doesn't need a speed monster of an SSD. Most people wouldn't notice a difference between various decent SSDs.
 
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I included the $40 combo discount (along w/ 8.375% Yonkers tax) in the total price for the Microcenter stuff.

Yeah, I agree -- depending upon use, he may not need a monster SSD (crucial m4 would be my go to for a non-monster build, then) -- OP will need to determine how much partition space he needs based upon his use case (then we can really get at a good price).
 
the PSU will overload and cut out at around 110-120w(wont die though)

why not build something like my ISK and it would run games far better then the i3? i3 is only good for 720p , the A10 offers more grunt for 1080p

(bottom rig)
http://www.overclock.net/t/541767/club-for-those-with-beastly-matx-itx-rigs/5830#post_18883846

has an A10-5800k with a 160w pico PSU mod but you can use a 5700 with a slight undervolt and it would work alright with the stock ISK PSU

throw in a USB wifi dongle and you are set, some other FM2 ITX comes standard with wifi
 
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Buying the CPU and motherboard together at Micro Center will give a $40 discount on the motherboard, so it will ring up at $90.

Though currently out of stock, Newegg has the best price on that Samsung RAM at $40 shipped. Expert tip: See if Micro Center will pricematch. They sometimes do.

Samsung 830 is discontinued. All those sales past couple months were to clear them out. A "normal use" machine doesn't need a speed monster of an SSD. Most people wouldn't notice a difference between various decent SSDs.

I was able to secure most of this stuff at Micro Center - price matching on the RAM and all! All I have left at this point is the case (when it comes back in stock) and an SSD.

With respect to a the question about SSDs, my plan for storage is to use my external USB hard drive (1.5TB) for my media files and use an internal SSD for the operating system. This would, I think, put me in a position to get a modestly sized SSD for the OS to sit on.

the PSU will overload and cut out at around 110-120w(wont die though)

why not build something like my ISK and it would run games far better then the i3? i3 is only good for 720p , the A10 offers more grunt for 1080p

(bottom rig)
http://www.overclock.net/t/541767/club-for-those-with-beastly-matx-itx-rigs/5830#post_18883846

has an A10-5800k with a 160w pico PSU mod but you can use a 5700 with a slight undervolt and it would work alright with the stock ISK PSU

throw in a USB wifi dongle and you are set, some other FM2 ITX comes standard with wifi

Thanks for the information - I'm not planning to do any really demanding gaming. What you mentioned about the 720p vs 1080p is interesting though - are you saying that the i3 chip is only capable of outputting 720p? In addition, I noticed you have a fan on the side of the ISK 110 case that I believe is a modification - was this to help with airflow? How difficult was this to install?

With regard to the power consumption, that is my chief concern. I don't feel comfortable toying with voltages so I'd rather leave that as is on the processor. I did consider going for an AMD processor because their APU's are pretty highly rated.
 
the PSU will overload and cut out at around 110-120w(wont die though)

Why do you say that? The proposed system with i3 would probably draw only half of the PSU's wattage. Unless you mean the A10, which can probably cause the PSU to keel over and cough twice. FWIW AMD and Intel measure TDP differently. Some independent testing shows that actual power draw for Intel CPUs ends up just under the TDP, while actual power draw for AMD CPUs end up a lot higher than the TDP. I think this was tested using Vishera, and not Trinity, so YMMV. I'll find the source and link it, but I think it would be interesting for anyone wanting to do SFF with AMD. Maybe that's why we don't see many AMD ITX boards?

i3 is only good for 720p , the A10 offers more grunt for 1080p

You are right in that the A10 offers much more gaming capabilities, but I'm not sure that it matters a whole lot in Starcraft II unless the OP plays competitively. IDK about this one - totally depends on the OP and what he's accustomed to. For instance if he was coming from even an older gaming rig, he will likely be disappointed. However, if he's coming from an older notebook with integrated graphics, then even HD 4000 will make him ecstatic. :D

source of image
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You can undervolt that i3-3225 easily with the right board. I wouldn't use the Gigabyte Z77 itx boards. I would go with the Asrock Z77 itx board. The Gigabyte board has no voltage adjustments for the processor. The Asrock wins by default in this area.

On my living room HTPC I have an i3-3225 undervolted. It's max voltage is set at .900 volts. It idles at .846 volts. It is still running at the stock 3.3 Ghz. The idle power usage is at 60 watts. Maxed out it hits 98 watts with all the hardware that is in it. On average it uses the same amount of power that my i3-2120T did but has much better performance. For everyday HTPC use it averages 64 watts.

Don't be afraid to play around with undervolting the cpu. It pays off big giving you cooler components, quieter environment, & lower power consumption.

My i-3 2120T has been transfered to the kitchen system. With the Gigabyte Z77 itx board it idles at 35 watts with a SSD & standard DVD drive & wireless turned on. If this board had voltage adjustments for the cpu I could easily get the power usage lower. I regret not getting the Asrock.
 
You can undervolt that i3-3225 easily with the right board. I wouldn't use the Gigabyte Z77 itx boards. I would go with the Asrock Z77 itx board. The Gigabyte board has no voltage adjustments for the processor. The Asrock wins by default in this area.

On my living room HTPC I have an i3-3225 undervolted. It's max voltage is set at .900 volts. It idles at .846 volts. It is still running at the stock 3.3 Ghz. The idle power usage is at 60 watts. Maxed out it hits 98 watts with all the hardware that is in it. On average it uses the same amount of power that my i3-2120T did but has much better performance. For everyday HTPC use it averages 64 watts.

Don't be afraid to play around with undervolting the cpu. It pays off big giving you cooler components, quieter environment, & lower power consumption.

My i-3 2120T has been transfered to the kitchen system. With the Gigabyte Z77 itx board it idles at 35 watts with a SSD & standard DVD drive & wireless turned on. If this board had voltage adjustments for the cpu I could easily get the power usage lower. I regret not getting the Asrock.

I won't be adding an optical drive to this build, so I assume that should aid in power reduction?
 
I was able to secure most of this stuff at Micro Center - price matching on the RAM and all! All I have left at this point is the case (when it comes back in stock) and an SSD.

With respect to a the question about SSDs, my plan for storage is to use my external USB hard drive (1.5TB) for my media files and use an internal SSD for the operating system. This would, I think, put me in a position to get a modestly sized SSD for the OS to sit on.



Thanks for the information - I'm not planning to do any really demanding gaming. What you mentioned about the 720p vs 1080p is interesting though - are you saying that the i3 chip is only capable of outputting 720p? In addition, I noticed you have a fan on the side of the ISK 110 case that I believe is a modification - was this to help with airflow? How difficult was this to install?

With regard to the power consumption, that is my chief concern. I don't feel comfortable toying with voltages so I'd rather leave that as is on the processor. I did consider going for an AMD processor because their APU's are pretty highly rated.

Im not saying that the i3 is not capable of more then 720p but you will suffer much lower frames and whether that is playable performance is up to you to judge

Re: the fan, my case is actually the ISK100( older 110) which actually comes stock with a slim 90mm side fan which i removed and replaced with a 120mm slim. its more of because i can sort of mod and to improve its aesthetics and rigidity when i throw it in my bag. the other tiny fan is a need due to my rubbish asrock FM2 board that has a bad bios/VRM so it requires a VRM sink and a fan to keep it cooled. air flow has improved considerably from stock form

the tiny fan is just double sided taped there while the big one is just screwed on with tiny screws.


Re: voltages, the stock volts are rather high and often higher then it has to be when left in auto just to ensure stability at the expense of heat. it is generally a good idea to manually set a recommended voltage(within spec) to prevent the system from drawing too much and also to lower the heat.

me + quite a few others have kinda settled on the 1.15v as a good amount to manage heat and also to prevent the dodgy asrock boards from frying

the MSI board seemed to be much better quality

Guy here on [H] Built this computer about a month or 2 ago, Thought this might be of interest.

http://gist.io/4199804

LOL pretty much like my build, an A10 in an ISK with obvious different choices of components

Why do you say that? The proposed system with i3 would probably draw only half of the PSU's wattage. Unless you mean the A10, which can probably cause the PSU to keel over and cough twice. FWIW AMD and Intel measure TDP differently. Some independent testing shows that actual power draw for Intel CPUs ends up just under the TDP, while actual power draw for AMD CPUs end up a lot higher than the TDP. I think this was tested using Vishera, and not Trinity, so YMMV. I'll find the source and link it, but I think it would be interesting for anyone wanting to do SFF with AMD. Maybe that's why we don't see many AMD ITX boards?

True that the i3 would use less power, i'm only mentioning as the OP has asked for the PSUs capabilties

the A10 at stock did cause my stock PSU to keel over and cough hence my findings, i managed to run an A10 5800k with the stock ISK PSU by dropping clocks to 2.9ghz at 1v. which is why i've upgraded my ISK psu to a 160w

about the power draws, thats my finding too and IMO that is because AMD power rating only accounts for the CPU side of things without GPU load while intel does as a package.
 
Thanks everyone for the responses.
With regard to the earlier question about what rig I'm coming from - I have a Dell laptop with lousy graphical capabilities and also a desktop I built many moons ago with 4GB of RAM, a Geforce GTS8800, and Core 2 Duo. I played Portal 2, Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 on that machine and I was happy with the results. As I said, I don't really game that much outside of playing through a single-player campaign here and there - competitive multi-player is not really my style. With that in mind I am hopeful that the modest system I'm going to put together will be sufficient.

At this point I think I'm going to stick with what I bought already - that is, the i3 and the Gigabyte mobo. Once the Antec 110 is back in stock, I'll grab it and update this thread with a build log to let you guys know about my progress.

Thanks again for the suggestions!
 
Now that I think about it - are there any opinions about using a low profile heatsink + fan for the CPU, or will the stock unit suffice?
 
Now that I think about it - are there any opinions about using a low profile heatsink + fan for the CPU, or will the stock unit suffice?

that would depend of the case and CPU but i'd dare say to just get the zigmatek preaton cooler and be worry free.

its rated for 100w and its really low profile and universally fitting for both AMD and intel. Im using one to cool a A10 5800k in my ISK100

oh did i mention that its CHEAAP (its $19 in the land down under)
 
Now that I think about it - are there any opinions about using a low profile heatsink + fan for the CPU, or will the stock unit suffice?

I don't have experience with recent stock AMD coolers, but socket 1155 stock coolers are completely sufficient (if installed properly) for stock speeds both temperature and noise-wise.
 
I'm now sitting with my ISK 110, I used an AMD FM1 midrange chip, and i have to say its WAY hotter than any Intel chips. I spent some time tweaking and undervolting and no its more or less ok

If You want to keep all components inside the case Ive would pic Intel, but if you are planning some minor modding as "MrSmegzabush" did in his build Ive would pick a FM2 chip with a nice GPU, in gaming its always nice with some headroom :)
 
minor modding is just a bolt on fan. heat is mainly because of GPU, some undervolt on the cpu would also make alot of difference


IMO intel as agaming package is abit undercooked which is also why i ditched my entire intel setup for the FM2 for my ISK
 
IMO intel as agaming package is abit undercooked which is also why i ditched my entire intel setup for the FM2 for my ISK

Kind of depends on the game. For instance I have played League of Legends on HD 3000 and it was sufficient.

This makes me wonder what Haswell will bring to the table for gaming with IGP as well as low power draw. We already know power draw will not be higher (and probably be lower) than Ivy Bridge. We also know the iGPU will perform better. We now have some idea... looks as if 1080p with decent eye candy on recent games may be playable.

This may be my next LAN rig... Haswell, ISK 110, two SSDs. :D
 
rumours on haswell is that its going to match the current trinity's GPU performance at best while next gen FM2s will have another leap forward

i'm hopeing for something that can play 2560x1080/1440p @ low-med along with the suitable connectors
 
rumours on haswell is that its going to match the current trinity's GPU performance at best while next gen FM2s will have another leap forward

The next thing is... next gen FM2, what kind of power draw? If it is anything like the current stuff, then a hard sell for super small systems. I can run a quad core Intel and a low profile graphics card for the same wattage with better performance... at the cost of a slightly bigger case.

Now, if only Antec will make the ISK 120 with a 160W brick and 1" thicker to support a low profile graphics card...
 
Ugh are there any cases as small as the ISK110 that I can put in a GA-H77N-WIFI & i3-3225? This thing isn't in stock anywhere.
 
Alright guys, I ended up using an Antec ISK 300-150 instead to get some more power out of the PSU and because the ISK-110 was sold out everywhere!

Unfortunately, I'm having a few stability issues - what's the accepted practice for posting a question about that - start a new topic?
 
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