- Joined
- Jan 20, 2004
- Location
- Saltirelandia
Recent changes in our household computing requirements mean it's time to add a second box to the family. Primarily this should be a SOHO machine but we do a bit of gaming now and then (think Skyrim) and will defo be using it as a HTPC. I have built PCs in the past but that was a few generations of tech ago so the whole SFF thing will be a new experience for me. We already have our periphs so it's just the main box we need at this point.
After a bit of research -- and being sick to barking death of our old "jet engine" ATX machine -- I've decided to try building my own rig with an eagle eye on keeping it as small and as quiet as possible. Here's the work in progress:
CPU.................Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core.................................~$230
CPU Cooler......Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing.....~$30
Motherboard....ASRock Z87E-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150...................................~$130
Memory............Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600............................~$85
Storage............Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM................................~$110
Video Card.......Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB.............................................~$170
Case.................BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower................................~$60
Power Supply...Corsair 430W ATX12V...........................................................~$20
A few bullet points on our wishlist items for this thing:
So ye knowledgeable folk, any suggestions? Recommendations? Caveats? Comments from the cheap seats?
After a bit of research -- and being sick to barking death of our old "jet engine" ATX machine -- I've decided to try building my own rig with an eagle eye on keeping it as small and as quiet as possible. Here's the work in progress:
CPU.................Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core.................................~$230
CPU Cooler......Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing.....~$30
Motherboard....ASRock Z87E-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150...................................~$130
Memory............Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600............................~$85
Storage............Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM................................~$110
Video Card.......Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB.............................................~$170
Case.................BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower................................~$60
Power Supply...Corsair 430W ATX12V...........................................................~$20
A few bullet points on our wishlist items for this thing:
- it's Linux all the way, I wouldn't touch Windoz with a barge pole.
- ideally the thing will sit on my desk BEHIND my flatscreen, so a little fan noise is okay but I want to keep it to a bare minimum. I'd even thought of going fanless but from what I can tell that means you take a serious hit in GPU options which may be overly limiting for us.
- we LOVE fast boot and shut-down speed so I'm kicking around the idea of a modest SSD but have no real experience with these.
- based on recent experience with an octo-core laptop I can safely say that octo-core is overkill for us but anything less that a quad-core makes me nervous. We mult-task like there's no tomorrow and those extra cores make life a lot more pleasant.
- we're major space hogs: I expect we'll be adding a large drive as time passes so a slot or two wouldn't be unwelcome.
- defo need USB 3.0 (more is better), HDMI and very much want eSATA.
- podcast work is in our future so audio-in is going to be a requirement.
- I don't know doodly about modern cases, the BitFenix just seemed to get a lot of great reviews from DIY folk.
- budget is probably $1200 ($1500 max) though obviously the box I've spec'd out so far is well under that which suits me just fine.
So ye knowledgeable folk, any suggestions? Recommendations? Caveats? Comments from the cheap seats?
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