Bitfenix Prodigy - How does this Build look?

M

Melee

Gawd
Joined
Jun 10, 2013
Messages
807
Specs:

i7 3770K

Corsair H100i

ASRock Z77E-ITX

Gigabyte WF3 780 / MSI TF Gaming 780 (Haven't Decided Yet)

Corsair AX760/860

16GB 1600Mhz RAM ( 8GB x 2 )

64GB SSD Boot Drive

500+ GB HDD Storage Drive


What do you guys think? Will this work well? Anything that I should change or add?

If I purchased a Side Panel w/ a Window, would the cooling for my GPU be sufficient? Or, must I have the Side Panel w/ Vents?

Thanks!
 
Looks awesome to me. You could save some money on the PSU and get the Seasonic X650 instead (unless you're planning on SLI)
 
760W is overkill, save a good chunk of money and go with 500-550. Your gpu would be fine, the case is pretty big and lots of airflow.
 
If you go for the Windowed side panel, perhaps consider getting fans for the front of the case to help move more air. The one 120mm fan included in the front just isn't enough. What color Prodigy are you getting? The white version doesn't have the mesh front panel, so there's not as much air flow, but I think the others have the vented front panels, the black version for sure.

I agree with dhappy though, you could certainly cut costs by getting a different power supply.
 
64gb ssd are imo not a good idea. You want your games on it too! With 64gb you may be able to install the os and a few programs. You get the fast bootspeed (which is nice, but pretty meaningless considering how much time you waste on the boot process vs the time on ingame loading screens)

256gb is the sweet spot imo. You can install all/most of your games on the ssd and get the full benefit!

psu: 500W should be more than enough
 
yashi said:
64gb ssd are imo not a good idea. You want your games on it too! With 64gb you may be able to install the os and a few programs. You get the fast bootspeed (which is nice, but pretty meaningless considering how much time you waste on the boot process vs the time on ingame loading screens)

256gb is the sweet spot imo. You can install all/most of your games on the ssd and get the full benefit!
Click to expand...

I used a 64gb SSD as a primary drive for a little over two years. Its totally possible as long as you're willing to be choosy about what goes on it. If OP moves the page file to the secondary hard drive, and then disables hibernation, that frees up a considerable chunk of drive space. If OP wanted to save even more space, its tedious, but the user profiles could be offloaded to the secondary drive as well. That creates a lot of space in the long term, unless OP is in the habit of saving things to a secondary drive to begin with. In that case this would more so solve the bloat of temp files and things that accumulate in the AppData folders.

Before I went to retire my old 64gb SSD, after two years of use, Window's updates, and primary application storage, I had about 20gb free. I was very picky about what went on there, but what I'm trying to stress is that it is possible, and fits into a budget really easily.
 
Wow, thank you for the great replies.

I could certainly swap out the PSU for something smaller. I found an AX860 for $125 and AX760 for $105 on here a few days back. I didn't have the money at the time, though. :/ That's why I was hoping to find another one. I can't SLI in the case since it's Mini-ITX so this is all the power I will need.

On the SSD, I have a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro at the moment and with all the games, programs, etc. that I have on it, I've used a whopping 40GB. lol I only really care about having Windows, Firefox, and League of Legends on the drive. Those are the only three programs I use frequently.

As for Airflow, I believe the black case is the only one that comes stock with the mesh front. However, you can buy them. I honestly like all the colors so I'm having a hard time deciding. The Black/White versions are on sale for $59.99, Orange and Red are 79.99+, and Green/Blue are the only stock Window Models which are $99.99+.
 
Unfortunately, it looks like the mesh front panels don't come in white, you get the soft touch white, or the soft touch white.... Not quite sure why BitFenix would cater toward the other cases more than another. I wanted to get the mesh for mine, but it's just not out there from the looks of it.
 
FelixRussia said:
Unfortunately, it looks like the mesh front panels don't come in white, you get the soft touch white, or the soft touch white.... Not quite sure why BitFenix would cater toward the other cases more than another. I wanted to get the mesh for mine, but it's just not out there from the looks of it.
Click to expand...

You are right. :( That really sucks.

They only offer Black Mesh Panels and only ones outlined in Red, Orange, Pink and Silver Trim.
 
Why a Bitfenix Prodigy ? It can fit a full seven-slot ATX motherboard with some modding, it's about the largest mITX case there is. All your hardware can fit into something as small as the Silverstone SG08 or the Ncase M1.

A comparison with the latter:

JGo51qo.jpg


Also no need to even use more than a 450-500W quality PSU for that system unless you are planning on doing extreme overclocking.
 
Phuncz said:
Why a Bitfenix Prodigy ? It can fit a full seven-slot ATX motherboard with some modding, it's about the largest mITX case there is. All your hardware can fit into something as small as the Silverstone SG08 or the Ncase M1.

Also no need to even use more than a 450-500W quality PSU for that system unless you are planning on doing extreme overclocking.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure, tbh. I've just always loved the Prodigy. I can't really explain why. lol I'm tired of having these gigantic cases that I have no use for (I have an NZXT Switch 810, atm) and while I have Two 7970s in it which I couldn't fit in a Mini at all or even a Micro w/o heat issues, I'm just ready to downsize to something that doesn't take up half my desk. Everything else in the category just looks somewhat plain and ordinary to me while the Prodigy has always stood out.

However, I honestly didn't realize how much larger the Prodigy is than other Mini-Itx cases. Could one of those fit something like a 780 or two slot 7990, though? I'm having a hard time imagining that, especially without extreme heat issues. lol

As for Overclocking, I do OC but not EXTREME. :p I'd like somewhere between 4.5-4.7 Ghz (Will be running a Corsair Hydro Unit) and then I'll try for the max stable OC on the Graphics Card since the voltages are usually either locked or limited (as is with the 700 Series Nvidia cards) so they shouldn't produce too much heat.
 
Phuncz said:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1717133

It should answer most questions. I'd go with a Titan-cooler equipped GTX 780, they work better on smaller cases (expelling heat out) with only a few system fans.
Click to expand...

I will give that a read through. Thank You! :)

EDIT:

I'm glad to see he was experiencing acceptable temps under full stress. However, I'm sorry but I would not pay $200 for that case. I can get the Prodigy for $59. lol

I was actually debating about getting a 7990 so I can run a Surround Setup, though. I'm glad to hear that as long as it's two slot, it's quite possible to run them in smaller systems.

medeyer said:
So why are you looking at the prodigy?
Click to expand...

Um, the Prodigy doesn't even remotely come close to what I am talking about. lol

The Prodigy measures 9.84" x 15.91" x 14.13" and weighs 15 lbs.

My Switch 810 measures 9.25" x 23.43" x 23.03" and weighs 32 lbs.

That's a pretty extreme difference. :p I am still looking into other Mini-ITX options, though. It's not that I'm stubborn and won't consider anything else, I'm just quite new to the Mini cases and this is the only one so far that I'd enjoy looking at every day.
 
Last edited:
Melee said:
However, I'm sorry but I would not pay $200 for that case. I can get the Prodigy for $59. lol
Click to expand...
Don't forget that price also includes a decent 600W PSU and the case is of a much higher quality.

Melee said:
I was actually debating about getting a 7990 so I can run a Surround Setup, though. I'm glad to hear that as long as it's two slot, it's quite possible to run them in smaller systems.
Click to expand...
I'd skip the Radeon HD 7990 (rumors on it going EOL) and go for dual HD 7950's if you are going for surround gaming. It's a lot less expensive and almost as fast.

Melee said:
The Prodigy measures 9.84" x 15.91" x 14.13" and weighs 15 lbs.

My Switch 810 measures 9.25" x 23.43" x 23.03" and weighs 32 lbs.
Click to expand...
The Silverstone SG08 measures 8.74" x 7.48" x 13.82" and weighs 13 lbs.

Or the more meaningful measurement:

Prodigy: 26.4 liters (6.97 gallons)
Switch: 83 liters (21.9 gallons)
SG08: 14.8 liters (3.91 gallons)
 
>SFF
>Prodigy

The prodigy is 36.25 liters... Far from SFF for ITX, and still far from SFF even for mATX....

The Prodigy is $80+, and a good ITX board is going to be $150+. Get an µATX board and a nice case, if you want portability I would go NZXT Vulcan (30 liters). (No idea when the Prodigy-M will hit markets, that would be another option). Using ITX you are paying for the small form factor. But using the Prodigy you are throwing away that form factor using a 36.25 liter case...

Why mini-ITX with a larger case? Do you like having only 2 expansion slots? Does on-board WLAN turn you on?

You'll get much more use out of a mATX board (6 SATA, 2 PCI-E 3.0, 32 GB max RAM, etc etc...)

With µATX you also have some cool options... If you are good with water cooling you could get two GTX 760s (~$560) and run a custom loop... It will outperform the 780 and even be competitive with the Titan, plus you'll be running cooler and it will look sexy as hell! You can also get a beefy WLAN add-on card..
 
Thank You for all of the insight. You definitely make some good points.

I already purchased an ASRock Z77E-ITX for $70 which is considered the second best Z77 Mini-Itx board only to the Asus Deluxe which still costs nearly $200. I can also get the Prodigy for $59, not $80. NCIX has had them on sale for a while now.

As for Micro-Atx, it's basically the same story. You can't actually go SLI/CFX because the slots are too close together unless you build a custom loop which will cost a fortune that I don't have. I'm only going to be using the strongest (or close to) single card available in which I was considering either the 7990 (used, ofc) or a 780. There's just really no upside to Micro vs Mini for me. After the 8900 or 9900 Series is released, I will make the swap back most likely.
 
If you really want that H100i, there really aren't that many other SFF choices. (Ncase is very expensive)

But meanwhile, the mATX TJ08 is widely known to be one of the best air cooling cases around, and it's actually smaller than the Prodigy. You could fit in a NH-D14 or PH-TC14PE (assuming that they fit with that ASRock mobo) and still get very good CPU temps, and probably better GPU temps than the Prodigy. The SG09/SG10 have similar abilities but they are smaller, harder to build with, and louder.

If you want to go smaller, SG05/SG06/SG08, PC-Q08, Elite 120, and Node 304 have less potential, but can still handle your hardware.
 
Last edited:
sammyMaX said:
If you really want that H100i, there really aren't that many other SFF choices. (Ncase is very expensive)

But meanwhile, the mATX TJ08 is widely known to be one of the best air cooling cases around, and it's actually smaller than the Prodigy. You could fit in a NH-D14 or PH-TC14PE (assuming that they fit with that ASRock mobo) and still get very good CPU temps, and probably better GPU temps than the Prodigy. The SG09/SG10 have similar abilities but they are smaller, harder to build with, and louder.

If you want to go smaller, SG05/SG06/SG08, PC-Q08, Elite 120, and Node 304 have less potential, but can still handle your hardware.
Click to expand...
I actually have a TJ08 too. Smaller?

Let me take a picture later and I will let you decide.
 
I purchased the H100i from Newegg brand new for $59 I believe? They had a random sale on them for $69 and I received another $10 off for some other promo code. Otherwise, I was just going to snag an H80i as I prefer the clean look of CLCs to the large aircoolers.

I'll have a look at the TJ08. However, if it's the one I'm thinking of, I would assume they're similar in size.
 
If you plan on buying the windowed panel for the prodigy, buy a reference design 780. Cards with custom coolers will run very, very hot with the windowed panel.

Just for example, my 780 sc acx temps peak at 63c with the vented panel, in comparison to 80c with the window.
 
Well the TJ08-E does not fit H100i without modding, so it might be easier to just get a Prodigy now.
 
Melee said:
Thank You for all of the insight. You definitely make some good points.

I already purchased an ASRock Z77E-ITX for $70 which is considered the second best Z77 Mini-Itx board only to the Asus Deluxe which still costs nearly $200. I can also get the Prodigy for $59, not $80. NCIX has had them on sale for a while now.

As for Micro-Atx, it's basically the same story. You can't actually go SLI/CFX because the slots are too close together unless you build a custom loop which will cost a fortune that I don't have. I'm only going to be using the strongest (or close to) single card available in which I was considering either the 7990 (used, ofc) or a 780. There's just really no upside to Micro vs Mini for me. After the 8900 or 9900 Series is released, I will make the swap back most likely.
Click to expand...



You can get a µATX case that has 5x expansion slots and use the bottom PCI E as your secondary if you are afraid to stack them.
 
tonyftw said:
If you plan on buying the windowed panel for the prodigy, buy a reference design 780. Cards with custom coolers will run very, very hot with the windowed panel.

Just for example, my 780 sc acx temps peak at 63c with the vented panel, in comparison to 80c with the window.
Click to expand...

Wow, that is a huge difference. Thanks for the heads up. I had my heart set on a Gigabyte WF3 780 or MSI Gaming 780 but I also really like the Windowed Panels. Honestly, though, the Prodigy's airflow design is set up perfectly for blower type coolers on the Reference models since you have intakes from the front and bottom (I'll be using SSD(s) so I'll remove the hard drive cages) which exhaust out the back and top (depending on which CPU Cooler I use).

sammyMaX said:
Well the TJ08-E does not fit H100i without modding, so it might be easier to just get a Prodigy now.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty much 99.9% sure I will be getting a Prodigy. I would wait until the Micro version comes out but after seeing it at Computex, I didn't care for the design much at all.

I'm still not fully decided on the cooler. I purchased the H100i because I knew it would fit, I don't use an optical drive, and the price was too good to pass up. I might end up going with an H80i or something of that nature if it makes things easier.

Bosebeer said:
You can get a µATX case that has 5x expansion slots and use the bottom PCI E as your secondary if you are afraid to stack them.
Click to expand...

How much space is in between those, though? Honestly, multiple GPU configs make me a bit nervous now after trying it out for a few weeks. I have a Gigabyte G1 Sniper 3 E-ATX w/ 4x PCI-E Slots spaced quite far apart and my cards are still fairly close together. One card runs noticeably hotter than the other card and even though I have a HUGE case with PLENTY of airflow, the temps still go higher than I would like. I know watercooling would fix that issue but no budget for that and I've heard that reference coolers do much better in SLI/CFX so maybe I'll give that a go if I try it again.
 
Melee,

An h100i fits the prodigy with no issues. I managed to fit an h220 as well, without any problems (returned due to pump failure).
 
tonyftw said:
Melee,

An h100i fits the prodigy with no issues. I managed to fit an h220 as well, without any problems (returned due to pump failure).
Click to expand...

Do you think that using an H80i in the rear fan slot would be a better option allowing the two top slots to be utilized as exhaust fans? Or, will it not make too much of a difference?
 
Melee said:
Do you think that using an H80i in the rear fan slot would be a better option allowing the two top slots to be utilized as exhaust fans? Or, will it not make too much of a difference?
Click to expand...

Not much of a difference. I would only look into buying an h80i, if you plan on using the 5.25" bay. Temps wise (for the cpu), an h100i or h220 would be better options.
 
Melee said:
How much space is in between those, though? Honestly, multiple GPU configs make me a bit nervous now after trying it out for a few weeks. I have a Gigabyte G1 Sniper 3 E-ATX w/ 4x PCI-E Slots spaced quite far apart and my cards are still fairly close together. One card runs noticeably hotter than the other card and even though I have a HUGE case with PLENTY of airflow, the temps still go higher than I would like. I know watercooling would fix that issue but no budget for that and I've heard that reference coolers do much better in SLI/CFX so maybe I'll give that a go if I try it again.
Click to expand...

Me too, I feel your nervousness. But there would be 1 expansion slot in between them, so ~0.75" in between them. That's plenty of space if you have decent airflow; and they'll run hot, but that's what GPUs do, unless like you said, you got a boss custom loop running on them.
 
tonyftw said:
Not much of a difference. I would only look into buying an h80i, if you plan on using the 5.25" bay. Temps wise (for the cpu), an h100i or h220 would be better options.
Click to expand...

I have no use whatsoever for an Optical Drive or anything that requires the 5.25" bay, as long as there's enough fan connectors on the motherboard. That was the only thing that worried me is that if I have 5-6 fans then I have to figure out how to power them all. :p

Bosebeer said:
Me too, I feel your nervousness. But there would be 1 expansion slot in between them, so ~0.75" in between them. That's plenty of space if you have decent airflow; and they'll run hot, but that's what GPUs do, unless like you said, you got a boss custom loop running on them.
Click to expand...

I found a really good deal on a Gigabyte 780 Reference Model that I'm considering at the moment. I wanted an aftermarket cooler but the Prodigy seems to be designed well for Reference coolers so it would likely be best to have one of those taking air in through the side and exhausting it out the rear of the case as opposed to the aftermarket coolers which just blow how air throughout the case.

This is a hobby for me, as well as a requirement for school, playing games, video editing, etc. I normally keep a system for 3-6 months then sell it and start over from scratch. I love building computers and trying new components so when I build them, I normally aim for the best option(s) at the time as future upgrades aren't really a factor for me. :)
 
Just curious as to how this is going.

I have a switch 810 also and have been looking at a prodigy as well. I'd MUCH rather wait for the mATX version of the Prodigy to come out but I don't know how much longer I can wait. Lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top