First SFF build. Mini-ITX. Help a newb out! :)

I

iMpathetic

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 19, 2009
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68
Hey everyone.

Well, after getting back into the whole PC thing, I built myself a giant computer in a Rocketfish case. It was nice, but my parents were complaining, so I stuck the components into an Antec Three Hundred. Sure, it's smaller, but it's still pretty damn big and is quite loud. I've decided to build a SFF mITX based PC.

Criteria:

-- LGA775. Must have. Going to be my main computer. Or at least sort of main. I don't know. Yeah, main computer.
-- Quiet.
-- Can't spit a ton of heat out the back of it. My room is the warmest in the house already.
-- I would somehow like to stick a real GPU (lowend, just better than integrated) in it. I was told you could cut out the back of the PCI-E slot on the mobo and use an 8500GT or something. I don't know if this is possible or not.
-- I would like for it to be small. Veeeery small. ASAP, I guess you could say. :p

I've been looking at this motherboard.
ZOTAC NF630I-F-E LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7100 Mini ITX WIFI Intel Motherboard
$69.99 AR. Looks pretty good and has wifi too.

That's the only part I have the remotest clue about.

If somebody could help me, I would really appreciate it. I understand talking to n00bs can be excruciating, but I'll do my best to keep up :)

Thanks!
 
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
3) Where do you live?
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
7) What size monitor do you have or plan to have?
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
 
Danny Bui said:
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Probably nothing TOO intensive, but I have been known to play NFS Carbon, etc sometimes. I mostly just browse the internet and email and listen to music, but I want the best components I can afford.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
It depends. Probably anything under about $800.
3) Where do you live?
North Carolina.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
CPU, RAM, mobo, case, PSU, HDD, GPU, basically everything.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
If I can in a case that small, hell yeah!
7) What size monitor do you have or plan to have?
Currently have a 19" 1440x900 but that may change in the near future.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Like 2 weeks?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Not a whole lot. I prefer audio to have digital out.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Click to expand...
Umm... yes.

timme said:
To start off, the mainboard you posted does not have a PCIe 16x slot, which kind of restricts the GPU choice. Your only s775 option with a video card in ITX is this:
ZOTAC GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi
Click to expand...

Excellent, I completely looked that over. Thank you so much.
 
$165 - Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 CPU
$145 - Zotac GF9300-D-E Nvidia 9300 HDMI mITX Motherboard
$43 - A-Data ADQVE1B16K 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM
$140 - XFX HD-485X-YDFC Radeon HD 4850 512MB PCi-E Video Card
$75 - Western Digital WD6401AALS 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$100 - Silverstone SG05B mITX Case with FSP SFX 300W PSU
---------------
Total: $668 plus tax and shipping.

I personally don't trust that FSP PSU included in that Silverstone case. So I recommend getting this replacement PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151063&Tpk=SeaSonic SS-350SFE
 
The included PSU is fine. With a modded SG05, I'm running a GTX 260 on the stock PSU
 
How about an E8400 or E7xxx as alternative to the Q8200? I don't see any reason for recommending a quad core here. I'm running the same resolution and my E7200 (slightly overclocked) does great.
 
timme said:
How about an E8400 or E7xxx as alternative to the Q8200? I don't see any reason for recommending a quad core here. I'm running the same resolution and my E7200 (slightly overclocked) does great.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty much open to whatever works.

@Danny Bui: Looks sick. Thank you. I will look into those parts.

Anyone here got OS X running on one of these?
 
Don't get this wrong, I'm sure Danny Bui has excellent reasons for his recommendations. I'm just asking out of couriosity :)

I'm sure a dual core would be plenty here though.
 
timme said:
Don't get this wrong, I'm sure Danny Bui has excellent reasons for his recommendations. I'm just asking out of couriosity :)
Click to expand...

He did say "best components I could afford". So I went with the Q8200.
 
Yeah, but would I be able to cool something like a Q9450 in it? Because I'd really prefer one of those.

EDIT: Furthermore, what is a good HSF to fit in that case?
 
setscrew said:
Check out this thread and this thread.
Click to expand...

Just read through both of them.

My question is, will I have to do a ton of modding to get everything to work? I love to tinker but have no idea what I'm doing and will probably screw something up. :p

I'm having trouble deciding on the HSF, CPU, and GPU. Rest is pretty much nailed down.

I think it would be great to be able to OC this thing pretty far... so I'm thinking maybe an E84 or 500 OC'd around the 4GHz mark might keep temps down vs. a quad?

As for the GPU, I really have no idea. GTS 250 maybe? That 4850 looks SICK too.
 
While it might be possible, a setup like this isn't for overclocking. I would pick a CPU that seems to fit and leave it at that. With additional CPU voltage the power consumption and heat rises, both things that can't be good in such a tight case.

In terms of GPU, anything around the GTS 250 / HD 4850 area is perfect, faster cards can give you problems in space and power.

By the way, that 4850 from XFX looks awesome.

Running OSX on this board is definitely possible, but not 100% figured out since it's really new. Check this
 
Yeah, I think I'm gonna go for the 4850. It's going to be really hard to sell the system I've got now, I'm actually rather attached to it :D
 
Be radical :D

It's just stuff waiting to be transformed into money for your new system ;) But don't accidently sell anything you could need.

By the way, you didn't answer the reusing parts question. Since your current system seems up to date, maybe you can just use your current GPU?
 
Last edited:
I have a Visiontek 3870X2 OC.

Full specs -- what the hey.

-- Antec Three Hundred or Rocketfish, depending on mood
-- 1000W Enermax Galaxy
-- Giggity X48T-DQ6
-- 2GB DDR3 1333
-- 150GB Raptor, 200GB WD IDE for Leopard
-- Visiontek 3870X2 1GB OC Edition w/Copper Heatpipe Cooler, blah blah blah. Makes toast too.
-- LG DVD burner
-- Apevia blue fans and some blue cathodes
 
Little bit of a bump: I think what I may do is lower my budget to about $500 and keep the big rig, and switch from the 3870 to an 8600GTS.

What could I work in for that price?

Would it be better to go mATX?
 
A mini-ITX system is still doable:

$70 - Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 CPU
$135 - Zotac GF9300-D-E Nvidia 9300 HDMI mITX Motherboard
$43 - A-Data ADQVE1B16K 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM
$90 - Sapphire Radeon HD 4830 512MB PCI-E Video Card
$65 - Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$90 - Silverstone SG05B mITX Case with FSP SFX 300W PSU
---------------
Total: $493 plus tax and shipping.
 
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Probably better with the 4770 and a 2.5" HDD really. Lower power draw and heat output on the 4770 (although you guys in the US seem to be paying through the nose for it! £75 inc taxes over here in blighty!). I've been testing my SG05 with a 2.5" HDD and 3.5" HDD installed, airflow seems to be a bit better (and temps lower) without the 3.5" drive bay.

Also, if you value quiet then look at a replacement fan for the front. Out of the box the SG05 is like a hoover!
 
All right, I still don't really know what I'm going to do exactly, but you guys' advice is a ton of help. :) Thank you.

Honestly, my only real reason for wanting to do this is that my 4 Apevia fans are very, very loud. The system seems brutish... but I could just get a fan controller.... I'm having trouble justifying it.

Anyone want to chime in on why SFF rules? ;)
 
Danny Bui said:
A mini-ITX system is still doable:

$70 - Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 CPU
$135 - Zotac GF9300-D-E Nvidia 9300 HDMI mITX Motherboard
$43 - A-Data ADQVE1B16K 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM
$90 - Sapphire Radeon HD 4830 512MB PCI-E Video Card
$65 - Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$90 - Silverstone SG05B mITX Case with FSP SFX 300W PSU
---------------
Total: $493 plus tax and shipping.
Click to expand...
The New-Egg combo deal with SG05 and Zotac motherboard makes this sick!
 
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I think it is still a good option switching to the ITX build completely, without having a full tower rig. Depending on how much you spend, the two systems would be too much alike in terms of performance.
 
iMpathetic said:
All right, I still don't really know what I'm going to do exactly, but you guys' advice is a ton of help. :) Thank you.

Honestly, my only real reason for wanting to do this is that my 4 Apevia fans are very, very loud. The system seems brutish... but I could just get a fan controller.... I'm having trouble justifying it.

Anyone want to chime in on why SFF rules? ;)
Click to expand...

Small doesn't mean quiet. Small means small. If you want quiet then the Antec Solo is the easiest way forward. You can make the SG05 quiet, but be prepared to work for it. Even swapping the stock fan for an S-Flex doesn't make the system quiet (in my opinion), it just brings it down to acceptable levels. I'm planning on adding another two to the right side of the case, undervolting them, adding a passive cooler to the GPU (or maybe the AC C1), swapping out the PSU (or maybe just the PSU fan, not had a proper look yet) and suspending the HDD with elastic (to cut out vibration noise).

Anyhow, why did i go SFF? Well i guess i was bored of looking at the brutish looks and size of the Antec Nine Hundred. It was an eyesore and to be honest i never really used it to it's fullest. The only expansion card i used was a GPU and i didn't install any water cooling or overclock the system very much. Mini-ITX is perfect for me and comes with the advantage of being portable and small enough to fit in my AV rack. It was less of a "why go SFF?" for me and more of a "why the hell not?" :p
 
Well, I think a SFF system would be sweet to have. It is definitely on my list of stuff do do when I get money. I could theoretically sell my 3870 and P3 Dell and iBook and build one for under $500.
 
I could actually build that Zotac + SG05 mini-ITX system for $210 since I already have a spare HDD, RAM, E2200 and 7600GT PCI-E card.

Hmm......I need a new laptop more. Oh well.
 
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