Is it hard to build a Mini-ITX computer?

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  [Deactivated] on 05/03/2018 - 12:41

  +3

  It’s the same. It’s just slightly smaller……

  • 

    mskeggs on 05/03/2018 - 12:45

    +3

    Harder to do whilst wearing boxing gloves.

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 05/03/2018 - 12:46

      Hard to do when you can only use your toes

      • 

        mskeggs on 05/03/2018 - 12:46

        +1

        Mini-ITX sure has a lot of drawbacks.

      • 

        retiredfeline on 05/03/2018 - 12:49

        Yeah if you do that the computer will be toast when you turn it on.

      • 

        mskeggs on 05/03/2018 - 12:51

        @greenpossum:
        If it is getting that hot, it is probably an issue with the heatsink/thermal paste.

      • 

        retiredfeline on 05/03/2018 - 13:03

        +2

        @mskeggs: I guess I should have written toest. :)

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  dcep on 05/03/2018 - 12:50

  +1

  i think you can do better with $1,800 budget for a custom build,

  might also consider a $1,800 laptop deals here.

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  DarthAntz on 05/03/2018 - 13:04

  built one 3 years ago. there is a little difficulty fitting a few cables into the motherboard with the tight space, and i wish i had one of those plastic tool kits used for opening iphones, as its handy for a little extra reach to fit/unfit the wifi and a few fan cables in. originally i had a SFF CPU cooler but could fit a bigger raijintek one in, and havent had any problems.
  I do wish i had a SFF power supply, as it is preventing me from having a bigger GFX card. currently 28cm is my max gfx card length.
  I wont be going back to mid-tower cases. Its great to cut the space down and we use it in the living room instead of at a desk.
  I'd put a zotac mini in it as an upgrade, if it was worthwhile and priced well/available.

  • 

    DarthAntz on 05/03/2018 - 13:11

    +1

    half and get a 240gig M2 drive, for OS, and then get use SSD for steam/development. i use a 1tb hdd for movies and tv, but no doubt you have plenty of external storage for this. everything fits.
    there are mini-itx cases for $100. liquid cooling isnt necessary, stock of sff cooler for $45 will do you fine.

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  Broke-Ken on 05/03/2018 - 13:09

  Your parts list looks quite standard, you don't even have a graphics card listed, so it should to be easy.

  It will be the same as your other builds, only smaller.

  Make sure you plan out the mounting and orientation of the cooler before attaching it to the motherboard/cpu.

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  Ryanek on 05/03/2018 - 13:11

  +3

  In terms of building, I think really the only difference is cable management and making sure you have enough airflow. Also, it appears you didn't list the GPU. This is the part you want to make sure fits the case.

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  EightImmortals on 05/03/2018 - 13:12

  Yep just the same as any other build, the only thing I would add is to make sure any future video cards will fit into the case.

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  Presence on 05/03/2018 - 13:38

  I'm not that up to date but surely there's a cheaper mobo that's suitable?

  Also if you want more than one screen I'd check what it supports.

  Personally I'd get a cheaper mobo+CPU and get a dedicated GPU.

  • 

    misterpotatomato on 05/03/2018 - 13:47

    I wanted that mobo because it's ASUS and it has WiFi. I could get a cheaper mobo and a dedicated PCIE wifi card though.

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  cypher67 on 05/03/2018 - 13:39

  +3

  A 8700k with no Graphics Card would be the bottleneck of the century.

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  misterpotatomato on 05/03/2018 - 13:44

  Thanks for all the useful comments. I'll probably get a 1060 as well for GPU.

  Like I said I do a lot of development, not really a hardcore gamer (then again I do have a steam link and I do stream a lot of games to my TV which works pretty well…hmmm)

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  tamckinnon on 05/03/2018 - 14:06

  I assume Office = Work machine? Yeah, that downtime of weeks/months with DIY builds will suck.

  My 2-cents - Go with Dell and be done with it.

  We fitted out our office last year with OptiPlex 7050 units (SFF and Micro) on a similar spec to these for (less) and they are fast and silent.

  http://www.dell.com/au/business/p/optiplex-7050-micro/pd?oc=…

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  Oz8argain on 05/03/2018 - 16:16

  should I upgrade my i7 2700k? I'm not sure if it's bottlenecking my pc, I have a 1070. I don't get amazing 1080p frames but my CPU is never above 80%. It's just for gaming, no editing. Can I stick with the same motherboard and ram if cpu is changed?

  • 

    omgitzrick on 05/03/2018 - 16:29

    You're probably still okay if you're only playing at 1080p. Are you overclocking? The 2nd gen gear was incredible for it's OC capabilities. How much RAM do you have? You will need to upgrade both your board and RAM if you upgrade your CPU*.

    *in theory you could upgrade to a 3770K depending on which board you have but it wouldn't be a meaningful upgrade.

    • 

      Oz8argain on 05/03/2018 - 16:37

      but a 1070 not getting over 60fps in many games consistently is weird.
      I have 16GBs of ram, I have tried overclocking but seems like any small change will cause blue screen, I prefer not to change voltage etc as im not that good at it. I know that people generally go from 3.5 to 4ghz but doesnt really work for me. the powersupply, mobo are all pretty good so not sure why.

      • 

        scrimshaw on 06/03/2018 - 12:47

        Try benchmarking your computer and compare some scores on Geekbench or 3dMark.

        Look at your CPU score and how well it stacks against similar systems

        You can usually tell if your CPU is bottlenecking your system if you are seeing micro-stuttering in online games with larger number of players (e.g 64-man server and you're getting terrible performance). That's usually the CPU's fault.

        The 1070 is mid-to-high end and if you're only playing at 1080p you should expect at least 60fps constantly in most games.

      • 

        Butt Scratcher on 06/03/2018 - 14:45

        If that's happening consistently, I think you're just blindly setting the game on ultra… Which is a huge waste of your computers resource a lot of the times.

        A lot of the times when you just set your game on ultra, they will crank up msaa like mad. Problem with that is, not all games even need it (since they vary in jaggies) and depending on your resolution, might not even be necessary. So you could be taking massive performance hits for next to nothing at all.

        I haven't been playing any games as of late, but when I first got my gtx 1070, I was trying out the MSAA levels in tomb raider. 2x was roughly 20-30% performance hit, 4x was a bit over 50%, 8x will just shit on your fps.

        So for every new game you play, make sure to manually set the settings

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  Ninja9 on 05/03/2018 - 18:25

  You should be able to build it much cheaper under 1k easy and spend the rest on graphic card. You don't need i7, i5 8400 or even i3 8100 should be more than capable to play lego games. Start with this mobo gigabyte z370n wifi

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  airzone on 06/03/2018 - 10:00

  I've built a watercooled cpu + gpu inside a bitfenix prodigy.. This will be a piece of cake.

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  OrderInWrongWordsThe on 09/03/2018 - 23:56

  Few thoughts on the Build considering I just rebuilt my computer with a mini ITX Z370 about a month ago.

  Not going to comment on the CPU as I'm not a programmer but I assume you need the grunt.

  1 - Why did you go the Asus ROG Strix Mobo over something like the Asrock Z370M? I assume as a work computer you don't really care much for the sick RGB effects.
  2 - Are you overclocking? If not I am not sure you really need the AIO CPU Cooler. The stock one should do the job and save you a bit of cash.
  3 - Could save a bit of money if you wanted on technically slower frequency Memory. My research suggests that increased memory frequencies beyond 2666 are pretty much impossible to note and not really worth the money.
  4 - Definitely a good idea to get a fully modular power supply although that is likely more wattage than you need especially with no GPU. I've got a i5 8400 and a GTX 1080 and I only plan to run a 550W power supply when I replace my old PSU.

  I think with the build you will be fine, the biggest issue you are going to have is that with a glass window you may want to make things look perfect inside which may be where you drive yourself mental.

  • 

    Kiato on 10/03/2018 - 09:55

    1. Asus has a much better reputation for for quality and after sales support than the cheaper variant ASRock ( even gigabyte for that matter). Rgb is a feature that almost all motherboards have now days and the choice seems to be a mid tier mobo that has good features.

    2. 8700 k cpu’s Run very hot compared to the older gen cpu’s. My old 5960 k under water over clocked to 5 ghz would sit at 36 idle and up to 51c at 100% load. My 8700k in the same case same cooling solution over clocked to 5ghz ( is also 6 core 12 thread) idles at 63c and at 100% load tops out at 88c. The older di has the heat spread over a larger area where as this new Di while having a similar heatspreader size over the top of the core the cores itself underneath are a lot more compact and focuses the heat. Add that to the fact that intel doesn’t solder the core to the heatspreader they use a thermal paste just means this thing gets pretty hot on its own. Throwing it into a itx build using a small aio is the way to go.

    3. For gaming increasing the ram speed in terms of MHz offers little performance gain normally it falls within the margin of error, you will find there is more gain from getting ram with tighter CL timings. But for development work ( rendering,editing, modeling, simulations etc) ram speed does increase work flow performance and help in cutting down on the time needed for renders and simulations.

    4. The point about power supply is really here nor there just make sure you have a power supply that will fit in a small case. Being fully modular is nice thing to have and you can get very low wattage variants of these if you choose. But having a psi that’s bigger than the job requires doesn’t hurt you at all as the power supply will give you only what you require but will be able to give a lot more if needed meaning it’s more likely to be sitting in its peak efficiency zone which means less noise, less heat, less wasted power and less wear on the power supply.

    Anyway good luck with the build adding a 1060 or even 1070 will help some with the rendering times ( depending on exactly what development you plan to be doing with this) but still the core of the load is going to be on the cpu, possibly look at the build and see if you can get a thin 240 mm rad in there to help with those temps. Building in a itx is fairly simple as in the same as a normal case, just the spaces are more cramped so big hands like mine don’t like it too much but for the normal person they won’t have a issue. If you have issue attaching some of the smaller things like power on / reset buttons etc just use some tweezers.

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  vicosads on 14/03/2018 - 09:32

  cpu and mobo seems overkill for what you're doing