PC Master Race Anyone running a mini ITX rig?

[old.user4556]

Thoughts, experiences, learning points?

 

[caLLous]

They're, like, small, and stuff.

The main concern with putting high end components in small spaces is always cooling but I've seen some insanely crammed cases and the owners claim they cool fine. Also, mini ITX motherboards only have one PCI-E slot so aside from discreet graphics you won't be able to put any other PCI cards in (if you'd want to in this day and age).

 

[Hawkwind]

I was actually starting to put together a list of components to build a mini for my son over the summer, paste of what I came up with below - The Corsair Carbide case looks awesome and will take a 240 mm rad from what I've read.


Carbide Series Air 240 Arctic White High Airflow MicroATX and Mini-ITX PC Case | CC-9011069-WW AED 444.00
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 DRAM 2666MHz | CMK16GX4M4A2666C16 AED 699.00
NZXT Technologies Kraken X41 140mm All-In-One Liquid Cooling System | RL-KRX41-01 AED 440.00
or NZXT Kraken X52 - 240mm All-In-One Water / Liquid CPU Cooling with Software Controlled RGB Lighting | RL-KRX52-01 AED 619.00 depending on case
Intel Boxed Core I7 6700K 4.00 GHz 8M Processor Cache 4 LGA 1151| BX80662I76700K AED 1,369.00
Microsoft Windows 10 Pro - 64 bit Operating System | FQC-08929U2 AED 549.00
ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII IMPACT LGA1151 Mini ITX DDR4 Motherboards | MAXIMUS VIII IMPACT AED 999.00
HyperX Savage 480GB SSD SATA 3 2.5 (7mm height) Solid State Drive | SHSS37A/480G AED 599.00
Seagate 2TB Desktop HDD SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive - ST2000DM006 AED 299.00
ASUS Rog GeForce GTX 1070 8GB ROG STRIX OC Edition Graphic Card | 90YV09N0-M0NA00 AED 1,969.00
Corsair VS550 550W Watt Power Supply | CP-9020097-UK AED 225.00

 

[ECA]

I build one for someone, in a thermaltake core v1 case. It was pretty neat. It was just for a music workstation so it didn't need a gpu. Space wasn't too bad.

Main thing would be checking your gpu can fit in the base.

 

[old.user4556]

They're, like, small, and stuff.

The main concern with putting high end components in small spaces is always cooling but I've seen some insanely crammed cases and the owners claim they cool fine. Also, mini ITX motherboards only have one PCI-E slot so aside from discreet graphics you won't be able to put any other PCI cards in (if you'd want to in this day and age).

I build one for someone, in a thermaltake core v1 case. It was pretty neat. It was just for a music workstation so it didn't need a gpu. Space wasn't too bad.

Main thing would be checking your gpu can fit in the base.

Thanks guys. Indeed, GPU + case fowling seems to be the biggest concern. I only really need a single card expansion for GPU.

Currently looking at something like:

Asus ROG Strix Z270I Kaby Lake Mini ITX Gaming Motherboard

Perhaps another Lian Li case, or:

NCASE | M1

 

[old.user4556]

More on the NCASE M1

 

[old.user4556]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azFtK7TWAfo

 

[caLLous]

I'm 100% a Lian-Li fanboi but that Ncase does look nice. On the Lian-Li front though, the PC-Q37 is a very good looking case. Bit bigger, though.





More of a showy case, I guess.

 

[old.user4556]

I'm 100% a Lian-Li fanboi but that Ncase does look nice. On the Lian-Li front though, the PC-Q37 is a very good looking case. Bit bigger, though.

Here's the best bit about the NCASE, Lian-Li make it for them!

I can't see past Lian Li cases either, things of beauty.

 

[old.Osy]

Lian-li fan here aswell. Had to order from amazon.de, as local retailers don't stock Lian-Li for some reason. I guess if it doesn't have whistles and bells and catchy marketing tags to go with some futuristic angles look it should not be stocked.

Got a PC-8N for my sis some time ago, and for myself none other than PC-9N, as I bought a custom gpu cooler, and my old antec would not cut it for length accomodation - and the PC-9N has something ridiculous for gpu, like 60 cm or some such

*Sorry for the hijack, but Lian-li only rarely gets praise.

 

[caLLous]

No need to apologise for praising the maker of the finest PC cases around! I have 5 of their cases in use as we speak, the latest being the PC-M25 as a small 7-disk storage server. It's slightly ridiculous because I can't even see the case now that it's in place but they're just so well designed and a joy to work with.

 

[Embattle]

I remember when I had my Shuttle case about 15 years ago, it was beautiful and amazing but the limitations became to much of a compromise due to heat and expansion potential.

 

[DaGaffer]

I remember when I had my Shuttle case about 15 years ago, it was beautiful and amazing but the limitations became to much of a compromise due to heat and expansion potential.

My shuttle is still in the attic. I had vague plans to turn it into a NAS but have been overwhelmed by cantbearsedery.

 

[caLLous]

Not ITX but cor...

 

[old.user4556]

Great achievement, but all that engineering and they spoiled it with all those lights . I don't get lights, they always look like a cheap Chinese knock-off of Vegas.