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Building a Power Mini-ITX Hacky

X

X85A

n00b
Joined
Apr 25, 2006
Messages
14
Hello all,

Been several long years since I built my last Hacky (~2007) so I am a bit out of practice. I am looking to fit as much power in as small of a case as possible, while keeping cost at a reasonable level. I could use some feedback and advice before I go ahead with this build.

The parts I've decided on for now are:

Silverstone Sugo SG06 with 450w PSU
Intel i5-3570K Quad Core
CoolerMaster GeminII S524 (will this fit in the SG06?)
Gigabyte GA-Z77N Mini-ITX LGA 1155
Corsair 8gb (2x4gb) DDR3
EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti
SanDisk Extreme 240 GB SSD
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM HD
HP Slim DVD Drive
Logitech Webcam USB 3.0


1. What will you be doing with this PC?
Ripping DVDs to stream to my Apple TV
Gaming - Borderlands 2 / L4D2
Light video editing

2. Will you be overclocking?
I am interested in slightly overclocking, otherwise no.

3. What's your budget?
My budget is roughly $1100, although I would like to get all the parts under $1000

4. Where do you live? Any brick-and-motar stores near you?
Washington, DC. I will be ordering everything off Newegg / Amazon.

5. What exact parts do you need for that budget?
I have listed out my parts list above, although I am not sure if A. Will the Heatsink fit in the Sugo SG06 and B. Is my build overkill for my needs? I am also interested in shortening and sleeving the PSU wires to help with cable management - could use some advice on this.

6. If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
Will not be re-using any parts.

7. What specific features do you need in a motherboard?
I went off TonyMacx86's buyers guide to piece together a computer that would work well with the latest version of OSX

8. What resolution output do you need?
My monitor runs at 1680x1050, but would love to upgrade to a bigger monitor down the road.

9. Does this system need to fit into a particular space and do you need an optical drive?
I want a small case to fit on my desk, and will need an optical drive to rip my DVDs.

10. How comfortable are you with custom case design/modification and electrical wiring?
I have a a tool set to use for computers (recently upgraded ram/HD on my laptop), as well as a dremel. I am handy with tools, but am rusty when it comes to computers.

11. How important is the noise/silence of this sytem?
Would like to have a quiet system.

12. How mobile does this system need to be?
Will not be moving it around much.

13. Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Plan on installing my copy of Mountain Lion

14. When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Will buy and build in the next couple weeks.
 
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I like your build but people will tell you that video card sucks - even though I like it because of it's size, power consumption etc.

You'll likely get told to get AMD something or other or go to a 500 series nVIDIA card to get better performance... the OSX guide you read - does it recommend the 650 ti specifically?
 
xyexz said:
I like your build but people will tell you that video card sucks - even though I like it because of it's size, power consumption etc.

You'll likely get told to get AMD something or other or go to a 500 series nVIDIA card to get better performance... the OSX guide you read - does it recommend the 650 ti specifically?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not looking for a killer, top-of-the-line system but I would definitely like a powerful system that will last me a long time.

The OSX buyers guide on tonymac lists several other graphic cards: tonymacx86 video cards. Seems that I could use any GeForce GTX 600-series, as they are natively compatible with OSX. I could spend a little more and get the GTX 660, would it be worth it?
 
If you are going to game then I'd say get the GTX660Ti. That would do you good if you go to say 1920x1200/1080 down the road. Its a nice price/value card for gaming today's game. You could go all out with a GTX680 but that may be overkill for you considering the current 1680x1050 resolution you are currently using. If you prefer AMD then just get their power equivalent to nVidia's.
 
The AMD 7xxx series drivers for OSX just came out with 10.8.3. Right now there is still a bit of a hack required to get them past the boot screen, which is why they arent on the supported list, but that should be fixed soon. I would go with amd, you'd get a LOT more power for your dollar.

I usually boot into windows to game but to give you an idea I was able to run BL2 on almost full settings at 2560x1600 on my sapphire 7950 OC that I picked up a while ago for 250$
 
I am leaning toward upgrading to GTX 660 Ti video card.

My question is should I get the EVGA SuperClocked (which requires no cutting) or the MSI Power Edition (requires cutting). Given the lack of space, will the EVGA blower keep the GPU cooler despite the MSI having a cooling setup?

If I go with the MSI, my concern is will the card still fit next to the fan in the front panel after all the cutting?
 
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