The Ultimate mITX Beast

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Jeremy1080

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Jun 21, 2015
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UPDATE 6/30/2015
Parts have come in and the initial assembly is done!

Here is the final parts list of what was thrown into this puppy:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($201.98 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H50 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($72.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($106.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($110.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Superclocked Video Card ($679.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply ($88.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1306.89

I've thrown together all the parts with some temporary cable management while I wait for my custom short green sleeved cables to come in (To match the GTX LED ofcourse).

I will post some pictures later tonight with how it's looking so far!



UPDATE 6/24/2015

With the Fury X NDA lifted and reviews pouring out, I've made some decisions but others have been made harder.

I went ahead and purchased the PC-Q08 last night along with the Silverstone 450 Modular and the Corsair H50.

Once I get the parts in I'm going to install my current mobo/cpu with the new parts, and with the stock PSU cables. I'll then measure them to see what custom made sleeved lengths I want.

As for the graphics card...Looking at the initial reviews today have made me inch closer again to the green team, the Fury X is barley ahead of the 980Ti, and that's only in the higher 1440p and 4k gaming, I don't even step outside of my 2560x1080 ultrawide. So I'll be holding off for now on a new card until I figure out which one is truly best. So for now my 980 will suffice.

As for the cooler news, I think in the coming weeks I will be choosing custom loop parts to create a custom loop in this case! It looks like right now I'll be able to fit a 120MM slim rad on top and a 140MM rad on the front. I'm going to be using the 5.25 bay for the pump/res combo.

And last but not least, the first thing I'll be doing once I get the case is cutting out a side panel window to show off the amazing inside! As of right now I just plan on cutting out the metal of the side panel, cutting a piece of acrylic that is the same size with an inch of over hang, and then supergluing it to the inside of the panel on the overhang. If Anyone has any better ideas let me know!

I'll be posting pictures as soon as the parts start coming in.

Original Post
Hey guys!

So with the Fury X dropping in a couple of days I've been planning on a super compact, and powerful build containing the following.

Core i5 4590 (What I currently own, will be upgraded)
16GB DDR3 RAM
2x 850 EVO 250GB in Raid 0
CX600M PSU (Possibly a SFS psu if needed, see below)
And of course the Fury X.

But I do have a bit of an issue when it comes to the case and cooling.

I'm currently choosing between three Lian Li cases, the PC-Q08, PC-Q25, and PC-Q28.

They all have some of the features I need, but none have them all. Because what I want to do with this build is have an H50 on the CPU, and then the Fury X has its own radiator, so it would be H50 on the top fan mount, and the Fury X rad on the front mount.

The Issues:
PC-Q08: It has the top vent, bottom vents, and a front vent! But I've seen some AIO coolers on the top mount for this case and they are pretty much touching the PSU blocking airflow, could this be fixed by an SFS PSU? How much more clearance would I get?

PC-Q25: Has the top vent, and bottom vents, and gets rid of the ugly 5.25 bay. But there is no front grill for the Fury X rad (where does the air come from for the front?), and the top spot has even less clearance. Once again this one could be fixed(?) with an SFX, but then the front of the case would require modding.

PC-Q28: This one has a top vent, the amazing side panel sliding mechanism, and enough clearance from the top rad to the PSU. But it has no bottom vents (Not a big deal if I'm using a water cooled card, but if I switch back to my 980 ACX it will be), and has no front vents.

So my question to you guys is which one will work best with the least modding? I'm willing to cut away parts of the case panels to create airflow and then just put a magnetic fan filter on it, but I don't know which case will be the best drawing board so to speak to begin.

Another possible hope is to remove the 5.25 cage (on the PC-Q08 or 28) and mod another fan mount on top to use an H100i for CPU cooling.

Let me know what you guys think!
 
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Have you considered the PC-Q18? I've been looking around for cases to upgrade from my SG05 and have had a few ideas with this one in particular. There would be some basic modding required, essentially removing the 3.5" drive bays, but after that you'd have a barebones case to work with. There's a 140mm fan mount in front, which you could mount a 140mm radiator to (here's an example), or if you already have that H50, just use a 140mm to 120mm adapter. There's a build log here with a 120mm Alphacool Monsta in a Cooler Master Elite 120 if you're interested. But if you're not going with full water cooling, the base is perforated for air flow. The same could be done in the PC-Q08, but the fan looks like it's a bit too low and may interfere with the GPU once a radiator is installed. Someone would need to clarify this.

There's been a growing amount of unpopularity around 5.25" drive bays for a while (which I don't quite understand), but you could use the bay for a drive dock if you were going to add more drives later, like the one used in that build log linked above, or pump/res bay device if you were going to do a full water cooled build.

If you were going to use a SFX PSU, the default adapter plate that comes with one of Silverstone's PSUs looks like it's centralised, so you'd have an extra 7.5mm clearance. If you made your own adapter plate so the PSU sits down as low as possible, you could gain an additional 7.5mm, a total of 15mm additional clearance.
 
medeyer said:
Have you considered the PC-Q18? I've been looking around for cases to upgrade from my SG05 and have had a few ideas with this one in particular. There would be some basic modding required, essentially removing the 3.5" drive bays, but after that you'd have a barebones case to work with. There's a 140mm fan mount in front, which you could mount a 140mm radiator to (here's an example), or if you already have that H50, just use a 140mm to 120mm adapter. There's a build log here with a 120mm Alphacool Monsta in a Cooler Master Elite 120 if you're interested. But if you're not going with full water cooling, the base is perforated for air flow. The same could be done in the PC-Q08, but the fan looks like it's a bit too low and may interfere with the GPU once a radiator is installed. Someone would need to clarify this.

There's been a growing amount of unpopularity around 5.25" drive bays for a while (which I don't quite understand), but you could use the bay for a drive dock if you were going to add more drives later, like the one used in that build log linked above, or pump/res bay device if you were going to do a full water cooled build.

If you were going to use a SFX PSU, the default adapter plate that comes with one of Silverstone's PSUs looks like it's centralised, so you'd have an extra 7.5mm clearance. If you made your own adapter plate so the PSU sits down as low as possible, you could gain an additional 7.5mm, a total of 15mm additional clearance.
Click to expand...

Dang I really like the PC-Q18, I just don't think I could fit an AIO on the top without an SFX PSU, and like you said an offcenter adapter.

My biggest issue is that I want to be able to run the Fury X from the front and the CPU from the top, and PC-Q28 works for that based on the clearance I've seen, but it doesn't have a front grill which I think would make the Fury X suffer.

Does anyone here have a PC-Q18 that they could measure the clearance up top to see if a 120 AIO rad + fan could fit?

Here's a post with someone using the PC-Q08 with an AIO on top and look at that clearance a few photos down, almost nothing, even just 7.5mm of extra space would help that a lot I feel.
 
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What about this:

PC-Q28
CPU AIO up top (exhaust)
Fury X rad up front assuming there is room (exhaust)
Cut slots/drill holes in the bottom for intake ventilation and filter them (maybe add a slim fan or two if they will fit)
Velcro SSDs to the back panel or in the 5.25 bay

With this any modding done is hidden under the case as long as you keep the cutting away from the bottom sides.


You could probably have the rad fans setup as intakes but even with the PSU and additional ventilation in the bottom I worry about heat build up in the case.

Edit:

Hrm, just occured to me that if the Fury exhausts out the front its probably gonna get sucked right back in the new vent holes in the bottom guess that won't work will it.
 
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Subscribed! Also, Fury X will sell out in minutes so be ready when it's available lol :)
 
iRUSH said:
Subscribed! Also, Fury X will sell out in minutes so be ready when it's available lol :)
Click to expand...

Oh trust me I know, I'll be F5'ing amazon all night on the 23rd.

And I think I settled on the PC-Q08, With the SFX PSU I should have plenty of room for the top H50. And with the harddrive cages gone there will be ample room for the Fury X.

For my SSDs I'm going to get a 5.25 bay to 2x 2.5 bay adapter and hold them in there.

For the SFX PSU I think I'll be getting the 450W modular silverstone because after using a PSU calculator I'll be fine with only 450W. If anyone has any better suggestions let me know (Don't want to wait on the corsair sf600)

Finally for PSU cables I'll be getting this short sleeved set to keep cable management nice and easy.
 
Barbarian_PT said:
I would recommend Silverstone flat cable kit. It improves the cable management a lot.
Click to expand...

I had seen those but they are still too long for what I want to do in my case, Moddyi seems to have a great kit where I can request color and length of cables so I think I'll be going with them!
 
Jeremy1080 said:
For the SFX PSU I think I'll be getting the 450W modular silverstone because after using a PSU calculator I'll be fine with only 450W. If anyone has any better suggestions let me know (Don't want to wait on the corsair sf600)
Click to expand...

Hey if you can afford it I recommend you get the SX500-LG or SX600G instead.
I have the bronze non-modular 450w so it might not be the same, but mine runs like a vacuum.
I think it would be a good idea to get a higher rated PSU and run it @50-80%ish load instead.
 
Black5Lion said:
Hey if you can afford it I recommend you get the SX500-LG or SX600G instead.
I have the bronze non-modular 450w so it might not be the same, but mine runs like a vacuum.
I think it would be a good idea to get a higher rated PSU and run it @50-80%ish load instead.
Click to expand...

When I looked at the reviews on Newegg of the SX600G, the 7 or so up looked horrible saying that they were killing their hardware, is this a common occurrence?
 
Black5Lion said:
Hey if you can afford it I recommend you get the SX500-LG or SX600G instead.
I have the bronze non-modular 450w so it might not be the same, but mine runs like a vacuum.
I think it would be a good idea to get a higher rated PSU and run it @50-80%ish load instead.
Click to expand...

I have the modular 450W Gold, and it is quite loud too...
 
Jeremy1080 said:
When I looked at the reviews on Newegg of the SX600G, the 7 or so up looked horrible saying that they were killing their hardware, is this a common occurrence?
Click to expand...

I'm sorry I can't answer that. I haven't tested it myself :(

If there's enough space for you to fit everything maybe try the SX500-LG?
It has a 120mm fan so it should be quieter, but I read it makes some noise because of the semi-fanless "feature" (the fan tries to start then stop etc, so it "gallops").
 
Black5Lion said:
I'm sorry I can't answer that. I haven't tested it myself :(

If there's enough space for you to fit everything maybe try the SX500-LG?
It has a 120mm fan so it should be quieter, but I read it makes some noise because of the semi-fanless "feature" (the fan tries to start then stop etc, so it "gallops").
Click to expand...

For now I decided to go with the 450W to hold me over until corsair launches there SFX.

And I posted an update in the main post so take a look! Pictures are going to be coming in the next few days once I get the parts.
 
I saw that you wanted to go full water cooling. Something I have considered upgrading to later when I get around to my build is making a full loop with one of these, the Alphacool Eisberg or the Raijintek Triton. I've heard the Raijintek is quieter, but there's no version without the included radiator. There's 110mm clearance in the PC-Q08 and if you use the SFX PSU, that should up it to 120mm, more than enough room to use one of these. That will free up the 5.25" drive bay for the drive dock again.
 
medeyer said:
I saw that you wanted to go full water cooling. Something I have considered upgrading to later when I get around to my build is making a full loop with one of these, the Alphacool Eisberg or the Raijintek Triton. I've heard the Raijintek is quieter, but there's no version without the included radiator. There's 110mm clearance in the PC-Q08 and if you use the SFX PSU, that should up it to 120mm, more than enough room to use one of these. That will free up the 5.25" drive bay for the drive dock again.
Click to expand...

Wow those look great! The only issue is the flow rate on them (80 L/h and 120 L/h), with going through 2 rads, a cpu block and a gpu block, I feel that the flow would be too slow to properly cool them.

Although once I get the case setup, I feel that without the HDD cage I might have more room to mount a pump and res attached to the back panel right under the 5.25 bay.

Thanks for the suggestion though! Are there anymore like those with a higher flow rate?
 
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