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SFF Gaming Setup?

F

Flekx

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 29, 2012
Messages
229
Hello everyone,
I'm looking to build a budget SFF setup. I have some parts lying around already and I'm looking for recommendations to fill out the rest.

What I have:
  • 560ti
  • Fractal Design Newton R2 650W

What I'm looking to get:
  • Mobo
  • Case
  • RAM

I'm thinking of getting a 2500k with a mobo that can accommodate future upgrades. I'm also looking for a case that is as small as possible, but doesn't compromise cooling.

Any recommendations?
My approximate budget is $400.

Thanks!
 
I'm thinking about getting the Lian Li PC-A04B. Any budget alternatives?
 
It seems like you'll need some other stuff, HDD/SSD, DVD burner, Windows license.

The A04B is around $100 - if you go that high consider TJ08E, but if your budget pushes you down there are decent mid ATX cases around $50. Use the filters on the Newegg site and sort by "Best Rating".

If budget is a problem consider non-K processor and H77 motherboard. Microcenter purchase would help too.

Have fun!
 
Thanks for your post Igor. Does anyone know if there is a fps performance difference between an OC 2500k and a 2400?

I'm hoping to gut some parts from older PC's lying around the house =P.
 
Igor99 said:
It seems like you'll need some other stuff, HDD/SSD, DVD burner, Windows license.

The A04B is around $100 - if you go that high consider TJ08E, but if your budget pushes you down there are decent mid ATX cases around $50. Use the filters on the Newegg site and sort by "Best Rating".

If budget is a problem consider non-K processor and H77 motherboard. Microcenter purchase would help too.

Have fun!
Click to expand...

BTW, why do you recommend the TJ08E over the A04B?
 
which SFF are you leaning towards? ITX or mATX? I started a thread specifically looking for a budget mATX case. ITX was just too restrictive for me but mATX opens quite a bit up.
 
I'm interested in a mATX, for now. Out of curiosity, why'd you find the ITX to be limiting.
P.S. I'm new to computer building...
 
Flekx said:
I
Does anyone know if there is a fps performance difference between an OC 2500k and a 2400?
Click to expand...

No significant difference. Look at the gaming benchmarks between 2400 and 3960X:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/363?vs=443

These four core Sandy Bridge CPUs are great. A lot of people are perfectly happy gaming with two core non-overclocked processors - you will be very happy with either the 2400 or 2500K.

Flekx said:
I'm interested in a mATX, for now. Out of curiosity, why'd you find the ITX to be limiting.
Click to expand...

Here's how I think of the different form factors:

Go full size ATX if you want to run dual (or more) graphics cards in SLI, or if you have a bunch of disks to go in it or you have some giant water cooling system and don't care about the size of the case.

Go mITX if you want a really small system, either because of space requirements or ease of transport or for kicks. If you are not going to overclock, and are putting in no more than 1 SSD and 1HDD, and are not going to SLI, you might as well build in an ITX box. You can put any video card in an ITX system, and that's what is most important in defining gaming performance.

Go micro ATX if you only need one video card, a reasonably easy build, and cooling options that will not limit your overclocking, but still want to try to limit the size of the system.

Flekx said:
BTW, why do you recommend the TJ08E over the A04B?
Click to expand...

I have a TJ08E, and it's been the perfect. An easy build, good fit and finish, and I love the air flow, with a large, slow, quiet front intake fan blowing air over everything that matches up with the Hyper 212 cooler which sits in that air stream and blows out the back of the case. It lets the 2500K run at 4.5gHz under full load at around 60C, which is hard to beat. The system is dead silent most of the time. The only time it huffs is when I run games that spin up the video card fan, which is inevitable.

For the A04B, I you read the "Cons" in the Newegg reviews you'll see some annoying niggles which you can decide would be issues for you or not.

Even though I like this system a lot, I built a little basic ITX home system for in-laws in SG05 case, and now I want to build an ITX gaming system for myself on general principle, unfortunately my wife's general principle is that if I build a second computer that I don't need I'll have to sleep in the garden shed.
 
Flekx said:
I'm interested in a mATX, for now. Out of curiosity, why'd you find the ITX to be limiting.
P.S. I'm new to computer building...
Click to expand...

Usually the mITX boards cannot OC as much, have less RAM slots, less SATA ports and only one PCIe slot but that's the only way to go super small.

The TJ08E has better temperatures than the A04 I think and a little more room for cable management. Both are good cases. I did find the A04 to be a little bit of a pain when adding/changing HDDs cause you have to take out the whole cage. No experience with the TJ08E but it's a highly recommended case.

Also, 2500k vs 2400 will be noticeable with CPU dependent games, I personally don't see a reason for buying the 2400 unless you absolutely need to save money but if you needed to save money, you mind as well just go for a i3 2100/2120
 
Jonowxeno said:
I personally don't see a reason for buying the 2400 unless you absolutely need to save money but if you needed to save money, you mind as well just go for a i3 2100/2120
Click to expand...

I have to change my suggestion and go along with this. I was saying to downgrade from the 2500K not just to save a little bit on the 2400, but because if you are not getting the overclockable part you can save by going with the H77 (or H67) motherboard, skipping the aftermarket cooler, and maybe get a cheaper case. When trying to hit a budget like the $400 one you mentioned it is best to shave cost on all the parts in a way that is consistent.

The 2400 is only $30 cheaper than the 2500K, so I'd be hard pressed to recommend the 2400 over the 2500K to anyone. If you need to save money so much, you can go for the i3 which is $95 less and is perfectly good for a mid level gaming system.
 
Flekx said:
I'm interested in a mATX, for now. Out of curiosity, why'd you find the ITX to be limiting.
P.S. I'm new to computer building...
Click to expand...

honestly the ITX case market under say $50 is an asbolute joke. you'll be dropping $90+ for really even a usable case. If you're OK with a laptop disk drive that helps make it easier to find a case. If you have an SSD that too helps quite a bit. If you're wanting a full size hard drive and a full sized DVD drive you're either going to be insanely cramped or getting pretty high up there in price. and size.

If you're even thinking about ITX make sure you're a zip tie expert and dont even THINK about skimping on a case because under $90 and you'll be hating it like I did. I picked up a $20 case and had my ITX board in that for a while then picked up a bigger board with more SATA and well more EVERYTHING. After that I popped in an I7-860. Next up is a proper video card and my old ITX PSU never would have power an I7 and a video card reliably. GOOD PSU's for the ITX market also fly upward in price faster than the full sized ones.

You can build a mATX system a LOT cheaper than an ITX and you'll be happier with a cheap mATX than you would be with a cheap ITX.

ITX is fun and its just cool cramming tons of power into a small price BUT you will be paying a price premium for basically everything while getting less like 2 RAM slots instead of 4 most of the time. Single PCIx slot and nothing else. ITX and value/budget simply dont go together.

To go with what the other guys are saying the I3-2100 is fantastic and runs very cool BUT those celerons are at superbiz right now for what like $40 shipped? you can see how everything runs and wait for just the right price on a 2500K or the new chips... maybe take the money saved and get a better mobo that'll support the new CPU's?
 
Flekx said:
I'm interested in a mATX, for now. Out of curiosity, why'd you find the ITX to be limiting.
P.S. I'm new to computer building...
Click to expand...

As long as you plan ahead, it's not as limiting as others would have you believe. I have a GTX 680 and 2600k in a ~10 liter case. I'm only running at 4.2Ghz (undervolted), but I'm running very quiet fans (300-1300rpm), and my temps are always below 60C. Also, overclocking on past series like Z68 was pretty bad, but these new Z77 ITX boards have gotten people close to 5.0 while maintaining good temperatures.

20120426172132.jpg


20120426172144g.jpg
 
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MissJ84 said:
As long as you plan ahead, it's not as limiting as others would have you believe. I have a GTX 680 and 2600k in a ~10 liter case. I'm only running at 4.2Ghz (undervolted), but I'm running very quiet fans (300-1300rpm), and my temps are always below 60C. Also, overclocking on past series like Z68 was pretty bad, but these new Z77 ITX boards have gotten people close to 5.0 while maintaining good temperatures.
Click to expand...

thats an above $100 case isn't it? My reply included making it very clear that a $90+ case was very important with ITX and well I'm sure not a single thing in your rig is "budget" related. ITX can be very nice BUT it requires a higher budget to actually be even acceptable. In the larger markets a sub $50 case is "passable" at least but in ITX a sub $50 case is a nightmare and nearly useless. If you have the money for a $100+ case ITX can be absolutely perfect.

I'm still back on the 1156 CPU's myself so think back to those and it really wasn't that great but things are really coming together for ITX in the past year. After I'm done with school I'm certainly gonna put another together but without the budget to do it right its best to go mATX
 
Wow, sick rig MissJ.
I can see now that ITX is not a limiting factor, but I too am limited by a low budget.
Any recommendations on a setup that would give me comparable performance with less money spent on the case, and etc.?
 
mkrohn said:
thats an above $100 case isn't it? My reply included making it very clear that a $90+ case was very important with ITX and well I'm sure not a single thing in your rig is "budget" related. ITX can be very nice BUT it requires a higher budget to actually be even acceptable. In the larger markets a sub $50 case is "passable" at least but in ITX a sub $50 case is a nightmare and nearly useless. If you have the money for a $100+ case ITX can be absolutely perfect.

I'm still back on the 1156 CPU's myself so think back to those and it really wasn't that great but things are really coming together for ITX in the past year. After I'm done with school I'm certainly gonna put another together but without the budget to do it right its best to go mATX
Click to expand...

I paid $120 and you have to count the PSU (ST45SF v2.0), which retails for ~$60-$70, so no it is not a $100 case lol.

Flekx said:
Wow, sick rig MissJ.
I can see now that ITX is not a limiting factor, but I too am limited by a low budget.
Any recommendations on a setup that would give me comparable performance with less money spent on the case, and etc.?
Click to expand...

At lunch, I'll edit this in a little bit :)

Edit: First, I'm not trying to convince you to go with ITX. Prior to this build, I stuck with full size cases, last being an FT02, but I relocate for work rather often (6-9 months) and I travel quite a lot as well. Having a big case made it a pain when I needed to move. I'd have to part out and start over each time and I obviously couldn't take something like an FT02 with me if I was traveling temporarily. If you're case is going to be at home 100% of the time, then I'd stick with an mATX build, unless you want to have a little fun and build something tiny.
Now I'm a little confused about what you're looking for. My guess is you'd like to use your PSU, which is actually not a bad PSU. It's an ATNG OEM, which is slightly above average quality, so I'd try and make use of it if I were you.

mATX options
Case - A04B, TJ08E, or PS07 ($83.99-$99.99) - I'd probably go with the PS07, because it comes in white and you can put an h100 up front if you wanted to :p
Processor - i5 2500k and I'd look for a deal on one or check out the for sale section. They can be had for ~$160
Motherboard - Pick one - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...DeactivatedMark=False&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20
Memory - You can definitely find cheaper memory, but this stuff is underrated and will easily get you to over 2000Mhz with much tighter timings than they are rated for. Unfortunately they're out of the 2x4GB kit, but I'd grab two of these - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147094

I realize the above could put you slightly over budget, but if you go with the PS07, pick a cheaper motherboard, and pick up a used CPU, you can do it for ~$400.

mITX option
Case - SG05BB-450 (linked below $120)
Processor - same as above
Motherboard - There's only one current viable option and that's the Asrock Z77E-ITX. I heard very bad things about Asrock in the past and this is my first board from them, but I get 15 second cold boot starts, the manual overclocking is easy, and it has a lot of features I wasn't expecting an Asrock board to have. ($147.99)
Memory - Same as above

Again this would put you over budget and even more so @ around $475 assuming you found a good deal on a 2500k.

In the end the decision is really up to you. Also, I forgot to ask, but what cooler will you be using?? Do you have something or is that something else you need to squeeze into the $400 budget?
 
Last edited:
Flekx said:
Wow, sick rig MissJ.
I can see now that ITX is not a limiting factor, but I too am limited by a low budget.
Any recommendations on a setup that would give me comparable performance with less money spent on the case, and etc.?
Click to expand...
If you have amazon prime that case with a good 450w PSU is $120: http://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-S...Q1C8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335901248&sr=8-1

Most of the other cases i was watching like lian li's are like $80 without a PSU and MANY cases require weird sized PSU's. I've been watching the ITX cases for a while now and there isn't a cheap AND good one thats come across my radar yet.
 
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As I said above, I already have a PSU on the way. I'm looking for something that it will fit into. I'm also looking for a z77 board and I'm still deciding between the 2500k and the 2400.
 
2500K with the unlocked multiplier means stock voltage and stock FSB you can get a LOT of free performance. FSB increases are what tend to make all the parts in your computer go nuts. If you have any thoughts of overclocking the 2500K is completely worth it and its what $170 at microcenter now or something they just dropped prices on all the SB's
 
mkrohn said:
I'm in the same boat pretty much with shopping for a case... Mostly only finding cases in the $75+ area like this silverstone: http://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-M...ZHAU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335905422&sr=8-1

After looking further into that itx case I think I'm going to hold off on buying a case for a while and going BACK to ITX
Click to expand...

If you get a PS07, get the white one :D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163192
http://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-M...4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1335906637&sr=1-4

As for what you added, this is exactly why the SG05BB-450 @ $120 is such a steal.

Flekx said:
As I said above, I already have a PSU on the way. I'm looking for something that it will fit into. I'm also looking for a z77 board and I'm still deciding between the 2500k and the 2400.
Click to expand...

Go with a 2500k. I added some more info in my last post and as mentioned there, I'd look out for a deal on a 2500k in the for sale section. I've seen them going for $160
 
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MissJ84 said:
If you get a PS07, get the white one :D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163192

As for what you added, this is exactly why the SG05BB-450 @ $120 is such a steal.



Go with a 2500k. I added some more info in my last post and as mentioned there, I'd look out for a deal on a 2500k in the for sale section. I've seen them going for $160
Click to expand...

with newegg the shipping kills it but amazon has the white out of stock but prime available 83.99 shipped vs over $100 shipped at newegg. I'd probably wait for an item to go back in stock to save like $20 or I'd keep looking around some other places. I personally prefer using some patience.

BUT like I said I'm really leaning more towards going back to ITX right now so I'm going to have to just stop the spending and wait till I can go back. Right now I need room for 3 drives so I have to buy a 4tb drive and sell my current drives off before heading back to ITX too. I merged my system and file server a month or so back but I'm thinking about keeping the server now since I'm not all that happy with windows shares.
 
mkrohn said:
with newegg the shipping kills it but amazon has the white out of stock but prime available 83.99 shipped vs over $100 shipped at newegg. I'd probably wait for an item to go back in stock to save like $20 or I'd keep looking around some other places. I personally prefer using some patience.

BUT like I said I'm really leaning more towards going back to ITX right now so I'm going to have to just stop the spending and wait till I can go back. Right now I need room for 3 drives so I have to buy a 4tb drive and sell my current drives off before heading back to ITX too. I merged my system and file server a month or so back but I'm thinking about keeping the server now since I'm not all that happy with windows shares.
Click to expand...

I agree with you, but like a lot of other people, I have free 2 day shipping via Newegg (Shoprunner). That's a lot of drives. I refuse to use mechanical internal drives as they're too noisy, so I stick with Esata or even USB externals if I need something for static data.
 
right now I have 2 2tb drives and a 1.5tb drive with about 1tb total free so if I get a 4tb drive to replace the 2 2's and pop the 1.5tb into an esata case then I'm able to go back to itx. OR get the server back up but I'd rather get rid of it to save space. I think I need to just not do anything until I get a better idea of what I want to do instead of buying stuff only to change my mind and buy other stuff LOL
 
Thank you MissJ and mkrohn!

I'm liking that SST-PS07W. I might just grab it off Amazon with the free trial. I'm going to try to pick something up at Microcenter with their mATX + CPU $50 discount.

Would my PSU fit in an ITX case?
 
Flekx said:
Thank you MissJ and mkrohn!

I'm liking that SST-PS07W. I might just grab it off Amazon with the free trial. I'm going to try to pick something up at Microcenter with their mATX + CPU $50 discount.

Would my PSU fit in an ITX case?
Click to expand...

Fractal Design Newton R2 650W dimensions - 140mm x 150mm x 86mm
PS07 Limitation of PSU - Unlimited (lol) http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=314&area=en

I think you'll be fine ;)
 
I'm not worried about DVD's cuz I can just download everything and I can install my OS via a thumb drive.
 
Flekx said:
I meant the ITX options you were talking about =P

Are either of these microcenter motherboard options good:
http://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.phtml?N=4294966996+4294963346+4294923437
Click to expand...

Oh wow I misread that. No your PSU is not going to fit in an SG05 without some modification. What other cases were did you mean?

Yes, but I've been out of the ATX/mATX scene for almost a year now. I'm not sure about what to recommend.

Edit: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1689182
 
lol I'm a bit of a hmmm case brand prude, and only buy Silverstone and Lian Lil (there are a few other exceptions). It's probably not too bad, but I'm sure it will be lacking in a few departments that I'm OCD about. If they're selling it for a low price, I guess you could try it, but you'd never catch me buying a CM case :)
 
Those companies definitely make the most beautiful cases. I'm still deciding >.>
 
LOL MissJ,
I just realized that the amazon link didn't have the proper case specs. It's actually much smaller according to newegg. Thanks for the recommendation. I think I'll be buying it in white =D
 
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