Build Advice £900 budget for a gaming rig mini itx?

I did think when I saw your post at 6;13AM that you were up pretty early - now I've seen you're in the US - good night!

I disagree with the awe inspiring big cases at LAN though, I always see full towers now and even anything other than 'midi' sized over the top and a bit antiquated like the PC's of old.
The only time big cases are used properly are those that rarely move or are full to the brim with hard drives / water cooling IMO.

I built my desktop a few months before going to a LAN and so built it with that in mind, not the prettiest case but matx and case handle = perfect + a 200mm fan on the side for extra cooling.

I don't think he wants something to match the size, but to get the best bang for buck from the budget.

Edit: Updated my post with itx parts.

 

Really wish I could convince myself to go to bed before the ppl I'm talking to get to work, seems like a reasonable standard XD

I kinda agree that full towers are overkill, unless you have a WC loop with multiple radiators I can't see the advantage. My case is a bit larger than an average midi tower, and that's enough room for my 5 hard drives, 8" graphics card, 9 case fans, monster heatsink, etc... I just don't see what I would do with a case larger than it. For me, moving my computing setup will always be a bit of a production, so making my case a bit smaller won't make enough of a difference for me to try and squeeze everything into something smaller. Of course, it helps that the american auto industry has made sure every car I've ever owned has had enough room to carry a couple PC's and monitors without displacing a passenger.

O.K. I'm ending the somewhat off-topic post and going to bed.

 

then:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£161.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Scythe Shuriken Rev. B 3 11.8 CFM CPU Cooler (£23.81 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£81.32 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Samsung 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£36.62 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Samsung Spinpoint F4 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£60.96 @ Dabs)
Storage: OCZ Vertex Plus 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£89.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (£215.99 @ Aria PC)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£31.12 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: OCZ ZT 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£71.99 @ Dabs)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£59.94 @ Aria PC)
Total: £833.68
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-09 08:29 GMT+0000)

rest is left for a keyboard + whatever

though since his nephew picked that tiny alienware, i'm betting he actually wants something small enough to easily take to a LAN or something

 

The Fractal Design Core 1000 is what you can expect from a £30 case -- paper thin panels, poor sound dampening, and a generally sloppy finish. It's also a bit difficult to install a full width Micro-ATX motherboard as you have to bend the board to get the I/O area in place. Good case for its price, but don't expect miracles.

Watch out for the 5400rpm HDD. Games might be slow on that one.

Grab the £70 80 Plus Gold Seasonic G550 instead of a £71 80 Plus Bronze unit.

 

2tb 5400rpm for media, 240gb ssd for games

 

Would a 7200rpm datadrive be noticable?
I'm pondering a new build myself, and find a lot of 5400rpm drives in a good pricerange (the 2tb ecogreens for instance.)
Shame samsung stopped making the 1 or 2tb 7200rpm spinpoints though. Well theyre hard to get and overpriced anyway.

 

Sorry double post. stupid phone.
please remove.

 

Sorry for the threat hijack

IIRC Samsung sold their HHD arm to Seagate, so now Samsung drives are Seagate. 1TB Seagates can be had for around £55 on scan.

 

I don't see much of a reason not to get a 7200RPM drive. manufacturers know how to keep noise down these days; 4 of my 5 drives are 7200 rpm, I don't notice the noise at all. Maybe the story would be different with a crummy case with absolutely no vibration dampening, but I think there's room in the budget for a decent case, he'll need one to house this machine anyways.

 

Thanks guys. Been in court yesterday and today ... bleh ... won one lost one but I'm knackered ... will take in all your helps in the morning.

Crazy B

Ps
Micro itx with handles might work for him.

 

Court sounds interesting, but not going to pry, glad you won ( i think)
Bitfenix case with handles build

 

Defend actions by the council as a lay legal friend. Nothing fancy, but lawyers are boring and pernickerty.

Thanks for the heads up bro

 

Let us know what you decide on and update this thread with build pictures, I'm tempted to go down the bitfenix prodigy route

 

Clearly this is a task for the bitfenix prodigy. Cmon people. If I was that age it would be the coolest case ever.

Any Asus/ASRock/Gigabyte Itx mobo
3570k
8GB of any 1600mhz RAM with jazzy heatsinks
A 120/128gb Crucial M4/Intel SSD (nice and reliable)
1tb Storage drive
Radeon 7950/660ti

That totals about £600

 

I agree with everything but the ram choice, jazzy heatsinks are to be avoided. many of them are more akin to a cheap thermous than a heatsink. Many people still don't understand how pointless ram heatsinks are, so the market is saturated with them. That being said, just get whatever 1.6Ghz ram is cheapest, IIRC there are still only 2 or 3 different companies who actually make the memory chips, everything else is basically re-branded crucial and samsung parts.