Has anyone tried building a mini-ITX gaming rig? I had planned on building an HTPC, but with HDD prices skyrocketing, it's not really feasible ... for the price of the HTPC I was going to build, I could now build (what looks like) a pretty decent gaming rig. I had planned on building a gaming rig next year, but I guess I may as well do that now and build the HTPC when HDD prices have dropped to a sane level again. I cannot lie ... I have a bit of a fetish for Fractal Design's Array R2 and my dream was to have two of them sat underneath my HDTV (32"), one as an HTPC and one for gaming. Course, it's mini-ITX case, so the gaming rig would have to use a mini-ITX board as well. I realise that the case is rather expensive (£140), but ... well ... what can I say. It's sexy and I want it! Twice!!! I'm currently looking at the following (and it comes to roughly £770): Mobo: ASRock Z68M-ITX/HT CPU: Intel i5 2500k CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 Memory: G-Skill 4GB DDR3 1600MHz GFX Card: Asus GTX560 Ti 1GB SDD: Crucial M4 64GB PSU: Be Quiet 350W SFX PSU I plan to remove the HDD tray from the case, as I'm aware it interferes with large GFX cards. I'll likely build a custom tray to fit the 64GB SSD and an existing 1TB HDD I have. I also plan to build a window into the side of the case, which would serve as ventilation for the GFX Card. I'm not sure whether the PSU would be up to the task power wise--and I would need a 4-pin Molex -> 6-pin PCI-E adapter for the 560 Ti--so I could upgrade that to a Silverstone 450W SFX PSU for another £25. A review of the board states that it can run an i7 2600K at 4.4 GHz, so I should be able to achieve the same on an i5 2500K, but, with the low airflow within the case, I would have to find a better way to cool the CPU, hence the Corsair H60. The radiator for the Corsair H60 would be placed outside the case. I could also upgrade to a 128GB SDD, which would add another £65 to the price, since I'd lose half the 64GB drive for the OS, leaving enough space for only 3-5 games. So. Am I living in Cloud Cuckoo Land or is this idea feasible?
Nothings impossible.. is it a full sized PSU in there? Cooling should be fine if you have a intake and a outtake fan.. infact it could possibly cool better as bigger cases are harder for a small fan to move the volume of air.. a small case will mean that air is in there for less time. In theory
I see nothing wrong with this build at all. As RAM is so cheap at the moment it might be worth going for 8GB if you can afford it. I know you won't need 8GB but it will future proof it a little bit. I would go for a 128GB SSD if you can too, that 64GB will feel very small, very fast. If you can manage to hit 4.4/4.5GHz that would be excellent but even getting up to 4GHz on the mini-itx is a good result.
My media PC can play most games out there: Lian Li PC-Q08 Silverstone 450W SFF PSU i5 670 @ 4GHz (cooled by a samuel17, used to be a H70) Giga UD2 HD5870/6950 1gb 4gb 1600mhz C8 2x2tb storage drives, 1x500gb OS drive. They're awesome I'd recommend getting the 450W Silverstone, had no problems running my setup, and miahallen had it running a 480.
I agree with above on the PSU, if you can stretch to a 450w sfx then it will allow you more options GPU wise for the future.
Nice looking build there, lovely case too, expensive as you say, will you be puttin up pics after its built?
