Mini-ITX Build

[rabien]

Hi everyone,

After a long hiatus, now I am also lost in this field of hardware stuff. I wonder if Fatcat is still around doing some of his mini-itx stuff but any other experts welcome.

I'm trying to build a mini-itx platform now, which can handle say a GTX 670/760. Mostly for rendering purposes (considering using v-ray gpu renderer, so support for gpu is imp). Heat dissipation and casing is obviously a problem.

I need some recommendations:

1) Motherboard - Value for money. Can handle the graphics card. H87 should offer whatever I need (single gpu)
2) GPU recommendation - anything in the market now for itx stuff?
The MSI GTX760 TWIN FROZR ITX GAMING looks good!
3) Casing + PSU - small is good. shoot me your reco!

Thanks in advance

 

[Alternative X]

1) Budget?

2) The only ITX sized GPU in the Singapore market is the Sapphire R9 285 ITX Compact.

3) What about the CM Elite 120? Cheap and got GPU clearance of 343mm.

 

[rabien]

Just to share with everyone, I got this from bro t285jgn

Silverstone Raven RVZ01 Mini-ITX Case (Black)
Kingston 2x 8GB 1600 DDR3 Value Rams
Silverstone SST-ST45SF-G 450W Full Modular 80+ Gold SFX
MSI H87I H87 Skt1150 Mini-ITX MoBo with WiFi b/g/n & Bluetooth
Intel i7-4790 3.6GHz Quad-Core
Plextor M6PRO 256gb SATAIII 2.5" 6Gb/s SSD

At a very attractive price

My considerations:
Silverstone Raven RVZ01 Mini-ITX Case (Black) - beautiful and small case. Pretty impressive to have an attachment to shift the placement of the graphics card. I'll be looking at how it performs with the heat.
MSI H87I H87 Skt1150 Mini-ITX MoBo with WiFi b/g/n & Bluetooth - heat sinks and caps look more beautiful than those of a similar price range. Dont know the specifics of those caps so it's really down to the looks!
Silverstone SST-ST45SF-G 450W Full Modular 80+ Gold SFX - full modular!

Will come back with more pictures tomorrow night or the day after!

 

[Felfirez]

Suppork t258jgn!!

 

[yude82]

Since you are looking at the short MSI GTX760 Gaming, then you can consider CM Elite 110 as the case. I think I have seen it before at PC Themes.

The only consideration is the PSU.

 

[rabien]

I've been through **** with this. Dropped by Tradepac to get a 2TB WD Green + Xigmatek Janus.

[If you want to hear some newbie story]
For those on LGA 1150, DON'T GET THE JANUS. THEY DID NOT DESIGN THEIR TOOLS TO FIT COOLER PROPERLY. I had to do some DIY mods, finding m2 screws that are moderately long, use 2 nuts as spacers per screw before i mounted the Janus cooler.
The nuts provided by Janus were so thick they touched the case despite the mobo standoff. Not noticing the problem, I thought my motherboard was DOA. 1 trip down to corbell, 4 times dismantling and assembling the components before I found out the problem and taped the back of the nuts at the back of the mobo. YAY FINALLY WORKING FINE.

Cable management is SUPER pretty. Just got to route some cables behind the PSU before screwing the PSU on.
Take note that you should get straight SATA cables for the 2.5" drives. The L cables will block the side panel from closing.
The coolest part of this case is the right hand corner, where you see the ssd and a whole portion blocked off. Silverstone designed an L mount for the graphics card, allowing you to mount even a TITAN! 2 fans sit below it to cool the graphics card.

It's a really slim and nice case! Definitely not regretting my choices (except xigmatek Janus). This marks the end of the ITX project!

 

[rabien]

and i have a nagging problem. pc refused to power on again today.

anyone else can share some of your prior experiences with pc case shorting and how you fixed it? the standoffs are premounted on the case and i used all of them.

 

[ordway]

Take a sheet of paper. Cut to shape of motherboard so that it doesn't stick out and look messy. Pierce the motherboard mounting standoffs through the paper. Instant insulator between motherboard base and case. Had to do it with an z97 board because the board and motherboard tray both weren't level...

 

[ordway]

also not sure of your janus heatsink mount, but make sure you have washers if its using metal standoffs where it contacts the mb, it doesn't short circuit something on the pcb. Also make sure you're not overtightening screws.

 

[t258jgn]

Use the Intel stock cooler. See whether can solve the problem.