Node 304 Build Help

R

rasziel

n00b
Joined
Oct 30, 2012
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1. What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming.

2. What's your budget? $2500AUD

3. Where do you live? Perth, Western Australia.

4. What exact parts do you need for that budget? Case, CPU, MOBO, RAM, CPU Cooler, GPU, SSD, HDD, PSU, and Monitor.

5. If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? N/A

6. What specific features do you need in a motherboard? USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, nothing in particular

7. What resolution output do you need? 2560x1440

8. Does this system need to fit into a particular space? No, will just sit on top of my desk.

9. How comfortable are you with custom case design/modification and electrical wiring? Moderately Comfortable.

What tools do you have. Scewdrivers/Leatherman, Drill, and Dremel if need be.

10. How important is the noise/silence of this sytem? Moderately quiet without compromising performance drastically.

11. How mobile does this system need to be? Portability is added bonus but no particular requirement.

12. Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? Win 7 64bit Pro.

13. When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Immediately.

Considering a build along the following lines:

Case: Fractal Designs Node 304.
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor.
CPU Cooler: Corsair H80 92.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler.
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe Mini ITX LGA1155.
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600.
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB 3.5".
SSD: Plextor M5S Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk.
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 680 2GB.
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80 PLUS Gold Certified.

Have been debating whether to go with the Node 304 or the Prodigy.
 
In that case, I'd go for the Prodigy since it provides better CPU cooling than the Fractal.
 
What do you hope to get out of the Asus board that the ASRock Z77E-ITX won't give you? I ask this because here in the USA there is around $40 cost difference. I personally went with the ASRock board for my build and am running my 3570K at 4.5GHz (lower end AIO liquid cooler) without throttling.

Same question with the Plextor. I would love to have one of their drives, but I won't notice any performance difference between what I got (Intel 330, Crucial M4) and any Plextor. I went with the cheaper drives.

Was your 2TB drive purely for storage or will you run stuff from it? If purely for storage, good choice.

If not "excessively overclocking" then go for a cheaper AIO liquid cooler. Corsair makes several cheaper models. I'm using one similar to their cheapest (H40?) and my CPU idles at my body temperature and loads at twice that at 4.5GHz. This is with a fan running under 1000RPM.

Note that I'm just suggesting cheaper parts for which you won't notice a difference. You will probably be happy with it either way.

Loudest part of my system is probably the blower on my EVGA GTX 670. Is the Gigabyte one of their triple fan units? It will probably be quieter.
 
Is it a must to use Silverstone's SFX PSU in order to fit a large gpu in node 304.
 
He won't need SFF PSU, but will need a short (140mm recommended) ATX PSU.
 
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Just wanted to tell others, who will be helping him out, PCCaseGear is the go-to computer hardware store in AUS, from what my friends have told me.. Newegg doesn't ship there ;)

For the case, I'd personally go with the Prodigy ... I debated between the node and the prodigy as well, and the prodigy just seems better designed, a normal layout. Also, it can accomodate a 160mm ATX PSU.

The 5.25" bay can be removed, just as the Node's is removed [iirc]

the HDD cages just slide out, which is nice.

Not sure about cooling, but I'd definitely opt for the H100. Just because once you have the H80, and you've maxed out your overclock, you'll regret not putting that extra $10 or $20 down, to max out your chip


Just my sincere, humble opinion :)
 
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Zap said:
Loudest part of my system is probably the blower on my EVGA GTX 670. Is the Gigabyte one of their triple fan units? It will probably be quieter.
Click to expand...

I am also curious about GPU's in this small case. Do I need a rear-exhaust blower type GPU fan? Or will axial gpu cooling be okay? I'm concerned due to the small size of the case, and worry about temps getting too high because the hot air of the GPU is not being exhausted if i don't use a rear-exhaust blower type.
 
You'd definitely want to get a blower style gpu, pretty much in any sff case you'll want the blower style.
 
Axial cooling gpu is perfectly fine in the SG09... exactly the reason I got it.


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