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Planning for SFF Build

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Ruuke

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Hi all, thanks for stopping by. I am planning to build out my next home gaming PC in the coming months, and was hoping I could get some input from you SFF guys. I haven't built a SFFish machine since my Athlon XP 1800 in an Antec Minuet M-ATX case, and have since used two mid-tower cases and a full-tower for my most-recent build. I like the space to work around in the full-tower, but it's just too damn big and a pain to move around.

That said, I am very interested in going back to a M-ATX or M-ITX form-factor this go-around. I am especially intrigued by builds in the BitFenix Prodigy case I've seen reviewed (such as the Origin Chronos reviewed at Anandtech in July - http://www.anandtech.com/show/6104/origin-chronos-review-the-ultimate-lan-box), and was wondering if any of you had much experience with this and other similar cases?

Below are my planned components:

CPU - i7-3770K - Closed loop water cooler (Leaning toward Corsair H80)
RAM - 2x8GB DDR3-2133 G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series Kit
Mobo - TBD based on case size chosen
PSU - SeaSonic M12II 620
GPU - EVGA GTX670 SC 2GB
SSD - 512GB Crucial M4 - OS & Game Installs
HDD - 2TB WD Caviar Black - Misc other storage

I love the idea of going with a M-ITX build due to the size and the amount of horsepower I can get out of it. The biggest downside I see right now is the limitation of 2 DIMMs and no PCI slot for my HT Omega CLARO sound card.

I would love to hear about your experiences with recent SFF builds and will take any suggestions to heart as I move forward on this build.

Thanks!
 
Crazy idea if you just had to have a sound card, use a pci-x1 adapter from the slot that the wireless card is in and you'd be able to install your sound card then.
 
Here's an example of the adapter he's referring to... I was going to grab one for the rig I just "finished" but I ran into other stuff I have to spend cash on.

It *should* work is the general consensus, I haven't been able to find anyone who can confirm it however.

For a gaming computer you don't need anything more than an i5, only thing an i7 will get you is hyperthreading, which you don't need for games. 3570K would be my CPU recommendation.

RAM looks fine, and it's 1.5V... Something to take into consideration is that RAM isn't your bottleneck on a current computer, and you could put the cash into other components for more actual "bang".

Motherboards I would recommend... Anything Z77 regardless of form factor. ASRock Z77E-ITX is my favorite mobo right now, ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe is a close second. These are both ITX ofc. ASUS Maximus Gene V would be the board I got if I purchased a mATX board right now.

PSU is tricky, there's a couple ITX cases that take SFX power supplies, and the Silverstone bronze/gold ones are the best in this class. Otherwise you just want something with ~450W, higher wattage if you can fit it, gold/platinum if you can afford it.

GPU... I could find a price for the EVGA 670 SC 2GB online anywhere, if you're getting it for a price close to the EVGA 670 FTW 2GB I would recommend the FTW ahead of it, they're both really comparable though.

SSD... Plextor M5 Pro and Samsung 840 Pro are the ones to beat right now afaik. Corsair's new Neutron GTX ones with the LAMD controller are supposed to be good but I've heard a couple too many negatives about their performance. Not sure if it's just a couple bad drives ruining the reputation or not.

HDD... Whatever you want really... If you're planning on using this comp as a file server I would recommend WD Red for NAS performance. My only other recommendation would be to run a pair of identical drives in RAID1 for mirroring. This isn't really related at all, but I thought I would caution you about data loss in passing.

Hope this helps!

Edit:// I just realized you have a PCI sound card and not a PCIE one... Disregard the adapter I linked, also none of those motherboards have a PCI slot. How attached to the sound card are you? :p
 
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Didn't realize it was PCI either, you could upgrade to PCI-e style or you could get a usb DAC - I'm not much of an audiophile but I've read from others that the usb DACs are the way to go for SFF.
 
Thanks for your input guys. I already have GPU and PSU I listed and plan to reuse them to save a little $. I do a lot of blu-ray encoding for playback on my Apple TV so the i7 is necessary to me for the performance increase there.

Interesting idea with the PCI-e 1x adapter, I hadn't seen one of those before. I am not completely tied to having a dedicated sound card, I just prefer one for some light recording I do. I can always use my old parts to build a cheap dedicated recording box I guess. :)
 
If it's any consolation... The ASRock Z77E-ITX board has an Realtek ALC898 audio chipset, very high quality for onboard sound. PCI is just going the way of the dinosaur unfortunately, most of the new chipset boards don't provide that interface anymore. As xyexz said, USB DACs are quite good apparently but I don't have any firsthand experience with them unfortunately.

The mPCIE adapter I linked was a mad science kind of idea I had about a year ago, just haven't had the opportunity to test it out. The Mini PCIE card provides x1 PCIE lane electrically speaking, so it *should* work... Even if it works, it brings it's own complication with it:

You now have a "captive" card floating around the inside of your case that requires standoffs for mounting and you either need to cut an expansion slot for it, or reroute the card i/o outside the case somehow.

If you're not willing to troubleshoot this, I would recommend going with onboard sound or stepping up to mATX size. All 3 of the boards I mentioned have toslink.

Gotta run, have a great day.
 
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