Advice for MicroATX motherboad and Casing?

[ctrlesc]

Hi Guys,

Planning to build a mcro atx pc. Intend to get the haswell i7-4770 cpu.

For motherboard I am looking at two branding which is Asus and Gigabyte.

For Asus, I am looking at Asus Maximus VI Gene but for Gigabyte I am not sure. Any recommendation here?

For casing, I am looking at the Corsair Obsidian 350D or Silverstone Temjin-TJ08E. Which is better? Or any other good micro ATX casing out there?

My main purposes is for gaming and doing some photos editing (RAW pictures). In this case, is the Asus Maximus VI Gene overkill with i7-4770 processor?

My budget is about $2K and below. Any advice?

Thanks.

 

[royfrosty]

Hi Guys,

Planning to build a mcro atx pc. Intend to get the haswell i7-4770 cpu.

For motherboard I am looking at two branding which is Asus and Gigabyte.

For Asus, I am looking at Asus Maximus VI Gene but for Gigabyte I am not sure. Any recommendation here?

For casing, I am looking at the Corsair Obsidian 350D or Silverstone Temjin-TJ08E. Which is better? Or any other good micro ATX casing out there?

My main purposes is for gaming and doing some photos editing (RAW pictures). In this case, is the Asus Maximus VI Gene overkill with i7-4770 processor?

My budget is about $2K and below. Any advice?

Thanks.

With the Asus Maximus and the i7 may not be able to fit into the 2k range. And further more if you aint overclocking you do not need a Z87 series mobo.

All you need is a B or a H mobo if you aint overclocking.

Furthermore your title is quite misleading. Do you need a full rig or a partial rig?

Need OS/monitor/kb/mouse?

 

[Teng Zai]

Hi Guys,

Planning to build a mcro atx pc. Intend to get the haswell i7-4770 cpu.

For motherboard I am looking at two branding which is Asus and Gigabyte.

For Asus, I am looking at Asus Maximus VI Gene but for Gigabyte I am not sure. Any recommendation here?

For casing, I am looking at the Corsair Obsidian 350D or Silverstone Temjin-TJ08E. Which is better? Or any other good micro ATX casing out there?

My main purposes is for gaming and doing some photos editing (RAW pictures). In this case, is the Asus Maximus VI Gene overkill with i7-4770 processor?

My budget is about $2K and below. Any advice?

Thanks.

Overkill is overkill, but you got the $, why not?
Photo editing probably don't need hyperthreading at all, but some games will be more cpu intensive, although 4770 should be overkill.
You don't need to pay Asus premium price boards, many mobo brands out there starting to shine liao, coughMSIcough, no point overspending on a board full of features that you don't use.
If you drop cpu to i5 and mobo to a more bang for buck one, will have enough for a 770 or 780, of course, this is assuming you don't need monitor, keyboard, mouse.

No experience with m-ATX builds here and currently on mobile so I let someone else build for you, just chip in my 2cents on the mobo/cpu.

But then again, if got the $, why not?

 

[royfrosty]

Overkill is overkill, but you got the $, why not?
Photo editing probably don't need hyperthreading at all, but some games will be more cpu intensive, although 4770 should be overkill.
You don't need to pay Asus premium price boards, many mobo brands out there starting to shine liao, coughMSIcough, no point overspending on a board full of features that you don't use.
If you drop cpu to i5 and mobo to a more bang for buck one, will have enough for a 770 or 780, of course, this is assuming you don't need monitor, keyboard, mouse.

No experience with m-ATX builds here and currently on mobile so I let someone else build for you, just chip in my 2cents on the mobo/cpu.

But then again, if got the $, why not?

Yeap his right, if you think got money to splurge on it it is up to you.

But nevertheless, like ive mentioned, a maximus gene + i7-4770 already $669.

You may not have the enough budget for the rest of the components if you need monitor, OS kb and mouse.

Might consider something cheaper and yet still able to get what you need.

 

[ctrlesc]

Yeap his right, if you think got money to splurge on it it is up to you.

But nevertheless, like ive mentioned, a maximus gene + i7-4770 already $669.

You may not have the enough budget for the rest of the components if you need monitor, OS kb and mouse.

Might consider something cheaper and yet still able to get what you need.

Sorry guys. I did not indicate clearly. I do not need monitor, keyboard,etc. Only motherboard,casing, cpu, ram n maybe a new graphics card.

In this case, which model n brand of motherboard would be of better choice? For cpu I m still fix on the i7 but not the i7 k series.

Thanks.

 

[raidorz]

Case why not get Silverstone FT03?

 

[melovelinux]

can look at sharkoon MS120 and MS140 for M-atx case

 

[wuweiz]

Asrock B85 board or Asus B85 board (slightly more expensive) to support up to 32GB of RAM. Can't remember clearly but I think they are ATX boards. :x

H87 boards can only support up to a max of 16GB of RAM. Depending on yourself, see if you need that much RAM. But they are mATX.

On mobile cant check price.

Wait for other bros to quote u bah.

 

[royfrosty]

MSI B85M-G43 + i7-4770 ~ $487
Gskills Ripjaws 1600mhz kit 4x4gb ~ $175
Western digital 4tb black ~ $368
Plextor m5 pro 128gb ~ $149
Gigabyte gtx 660 2gb oc ~ $281
Seasonic m12ii 620w ~ $118
Sharkoon ms140 matx case~ $68

The reason why I recommend the 4tb black is because of the amount of raw photos you have. Raw photos isn't small. 4tb black is a good one for you. Faster to load.

Total $1646 from tradepac.

 

[Teng Zai]

MSI B85M-G43 + i7-4770 ~ $487
Gskills Ripjaws 1600mhz kit 4x4gb ~ $175
Western digital 4tb black ~ $368
Plextor m5 pro 128gb ~ $149
Gigabyte gtx 660 2gb oc ~ $281
Seasonic m12ii 620w ~ $118
Sharkoon ms140 matx case~ $68

The reason why I recommend the 4tb black is because of the amount of raw photos you have. Raw photos isn't small. 4tb black is a good one for you. Faster to load.

Total $1646 from tradepac.

Duno if it's true but from what I read I think 2x8 gb better? Not so stress on the mobo.
And note to TS, 4tb in 1 single drive cheaper, but can consider getting multiple 2tb or 1tb for RAID(Faster speed, or more reliability) Ofc you pay more since the dollar per GB is higher if you get multiple cards.

Benefit of multiple cards/RAID, if 1 drive spoil, at least still can use others, and if you do RAID 1, you will lose zero data in the event 1 drive spoilt, since all is copied over to the other.
Do look for linus RAID youtube video if you want to find out more about RAID, quick and detailed explanation.
Roy bro build is good to go, unless you got more to splurge just up the GPU/Get more HDD to RAID.

 

[ctrlesc]

MSI B85M-G43 + i7-4770 ~ $487
Gskills Ripjaws 1600mhz kit 4x4gb ~ $175
Western digital 4tb black ~ $368
Plextor m5 pro 128gb ~ $149
Gigabyte gtx 660 2gb oc ~ $281
Seasonic m12ii 620w ~ $118
Sharkoon ms140 matx case~ $68

The reason why I recommend the 4tb black is because of the amount of raw photos you have. Raw photos isn't small. 4tb black is a good one for you. Faster to load.

Total $1646 from tradepac.

Wow. Thanks for the recommendations. I will surely look into this. BTW, tradepac in SLS right? Can't rem I see this in SLS yesterday.

 

[dinosau4]

5th floor back alley. they always blasting indian music easy to spot 1

 

[royfrosty]

5th floor back alley. The "Boomz boomz boomz!" Indian music on playback. lol

 

[addthewin]

Duno if it's true but from what I read I think 2x8 gb better? Not so stress on the mobo. LOL!!!
And note to TS, 4tb in 1 single drive cheaper, but can consider getting multiple 2tb or 1tb for RAID(Faster speed, or more reliability) Ofc you pay more since the dollar per GB is higher if you get multiple cards.

Benefit of multiple cards/RAID, if 1 drive spoil, at least still can use others, and if you do RAID 1, you will lose zero data in the event 1 drive spoilt, since all is copied over to the other.
Do look for linus RAID youtube video if you want to find out more about RAID, quick and detailed explanation.
Roy bro build is good to go, unless you got more to splurge just up the GPU/Get more HDD to RAID.

bro.. dual channel 2 slots or 4 slots doesn't make a diff. dun mislead him leh.
4 modules are definitely more expensive.

 

[Teng Zai]

bro.. dual channel 2 slots or 4 slots doesn't make a diff. dun mislead him leh.
4 modules are definitely more expensive.

I said I'm not sure if it's true, but from what I read..blahblah, so it was actually more of a question to prompt other bros to confirm if it's true or not. I am not misleading anybody.


Also, please see these.



RAM - 2 Vs 4 Sticks - Overclocking - Forums - www.atomicmpc.com.au

4x1gb will put a lot more stress on your system & you wont be able to get as high overclocks.

I can barely hit 830MHz with 4x1gb & 900MHz with 2x1gb

Ram: 4 sticks vs 2 sticks - CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory - Linus Tech Tips

On 1155 2 sticks is more stable than 4 sticks a lot of the time. 4 sticks is more stressful on the IMC, so you might have some issues trying to get to 2400+ overclocks.

2x8gb or 4x4gb [Solved] - RAM - Memory

The 2x8GB kit would be my choice as it takes stress off of the IMC. With all 4 slots populated, the IMC on the CPU is stressed quite a bit more than with just 2 slots in use.

Plus, 1600 @ 9-9-9-24 is plenty fast.

2 Sticks RAM vs 4 Sticks for Overclocking

Also, with regards to how many memory sticks should be present for the best possible OC, it is often a rule of thumb that the lesser amount of modules, the less strain on the CPU and its memory controller, which in turn, helps stability for OC'ing since this is less stress on the memory controller. I don't have any precise numbers or anything as to just how significant this is, but it is safe to say that you should try and stick to 2 modules for Ivy Bridge if it's memory of the same sizes. That is not to say you should avoid using 4, but if the timings and frequency speeds are the same, and you're not concerned with the price, then you should just look at just having 2.

Maybe you can put your words in a nicer tone? I am not a pro and I wont give advices that I ownself cannot confirm, without putting a question mark behind and 'I think' in front, prompting other bros to confirm if it's true.

That being said, these are all the sources I got from, you can google yourself or I can feed you many many many more also. I cannot prove it but yeah, this is what I've 'read up on' which led me to say the following sentence:

Duno if it's true but from what I read I think 2x8 gb better? Not so stress on the mobo.

I am truly sorry if I have misled anyone