Hey Guys, First post here, so I hope I do it right I'm in the planning stages of my next build, and two of my main goals is to build a desktop which is relatively compact, and also relatively quiet, whilst still providing good cooling. This will be mainly a gaming PC, with Battlefield 3, Deus Ex, Skyrim and Guild Wars 2 in mind, but I want to build it now, and not have to wait for those games to come out! I'll be playing at 1080p, no surround in my future I don't think, I enjoy simplicity. Like I said, it'll be mainly for gaming, so I don't really need a CPU with HyperThreading. Now onto the parts: Intel Core i5 2500k Socket 1155 OEM Corsair H60 CPU Cooler Asus P8P67-M mATX Socket 1155 Motherboard Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1600 4GB Kit 2x EVGA GTX 560 Ti SC in SLI 1TB Hitachi 7200RPM 850W Silverstone Strider + Fractal Design Define Mini I know most of you will probably suggest getting an SSD, and I will if my budget allows, but right now, I'm cutting it very tight. I'm pretty adamant on a multi GPU setup, as it's something I've never done before, and would love to try out, and the 560 Ti in SLI outperforms a GTX 580 by ~20% from what I've seen, and all for the same price. And I also doubt a higher end card will even fit in the case, I'm not even sure about the 560s :/ Well anyway, I'd love to see some feedback, criticisms, suggestions etc. Thanks for reading! -Bit
Just a few pointers! You realise it's only the P8P67-M PRO version that supports SLI? The P8P67-M does not, so that would be a pretty major drawback of your build for starters! The other items look fantastic although I would bring in to question the choice of two GTX 560 Ti cards over an SSD and a single decent GPU! If you really wanted to play with SLI then I would try to source a couple of GTX 460s for as close to £100 as possible. From what I have been reading I'm currently enjoying much better frame rates and visual splendour in games like the The Witcher 2 in comparison to a single GTX 580 as a recent example. Otherwise why not get a GTX 560 Ti to to play with initially and spend some money on a Crucial RealSSD M4 64GB SSD. It really is worth it, like turning on a fresh install of Windows 7 every single day, but even better than that! If you want then another GTX 560 Ti can come latter. A word on cooling the Fractal Design Define Mini. I would strip out the Fractal installed fans and instead use a couple of Akasa Apache 120mm fans up front as intakes, Be Quiet USC Silentwings 120mm fan on the bottom also as an intake. Then install the Corsair H60 in the rear as an intake then use a Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850RPM as an extraction fan at the top. That would pretty much be the best cooling method in my book!
the other thing to worry about as-well is the amount of heat you will producing with the 2 gpu's in such a small case, everything else is ok apart from the mobo as mentioned by blogins, as for the ssd, if your not bothered about getting one then dont, simple as that, if your more worried about getting the right cpu or gpu(s) case or whatever then dont worry about the ssd, a faster boot time isnt the be all and end all.....well yet lol sorry for the hijack here but can i ask blogins, how is the 460 in sli?
Another Irish man What part are you from? I have to agree with everything people have said already. Your best off to ditch the sli cards. The 560 is already a rocket. What about a 570 gtx? Swap that drive out for a WD driver or a samsung f3 them Hitachi drives are prone to failure. The h60 is overkill for that rig. But if you do want to go with a closed loop have a look at the Antec KUHLER 620 as it's cheaper and just as good if not better. Swap the PSU out for a coolermaster 700watt gold as its cheaper, better looking and more efficient and enough for sli. 4gb of ram is enough but do you think it's worth getting 8gb for longevity? Where are you buying all your parts from? I get all my stuff from scan and it's great. Did you look at the fractal R3 for a case? Bigger and more ventalation? or do you want to keep the small case? Sorry for redoing you build Welcome to Bit-tech
Fantastic! These Gigabyte GTX 460s are the best graphics cards I've ever owned and couple that with MSI Afterburner software I can really push them. For games like Battlefield 2 I up the core on both cards to 815MHz and Shader Clocks to 1630. With The Witcher 2 they are amazing! At the moment I'm gaming at a resolution of 2048 by 1152 with everything enabled and on high but with UberSampling disabled and it's all very smooth. It's just a shame that ebuyer has upped the price of that MSI GTX 460 you bought for around £110 chrismarkham1982. For £220 a GTX 460 SLI rig is an easy choice but pushing towards £250 territory is slightly off putting when that's edging towards the GTX 570 range! Still I'm hopeful we'll see a sub £100 GTX 460 some day soon with any luck ala the 5850 Xtreme style!
If you're going with SLI in a small case like that, then you should consider watercooling the GPUs, as they will heat up each other pretty well. The CPU isn't needed to be watercooled, but the H60 isn't that much more expensive then a good aircooler, so that's fine. Also, as heat will be an issue, the question here really is, if you absolutely need SLI or if a better but bigger single card doesn't do the trick allready. A single GTX570 or HD6970 is totally enough to drive current games at max settings on a 1080p screen. I'd opt for single GPU and add a 128GB SSD there for OS and software. And as others said, you want to make sure the case is well ventilated.
I disagree, the Fractals are really well laid out so if you position fans correctly it'll have adequate cooling but certainly not stellar like a larger case such as a Silverstone Raven with Air Penetrator fans for example! In my Fractal in SLI the upper card hits 80 under extreme stress and that is perfectly within working parameters of my GTX 460 GPU. I think the H60 is a good choice for this case and certainly save some room to work around the motherboard! As long as cable clutter is kept to a minimum then it should be an excellent air cooled system given the right fans. Also I would recommend picking up some short sata cables. I found a short 30cm rounded right angle sata cable on ebay that I used for the Blu-ray drive. Also something a little extra special for linking any HDD or SSD to the motherboard I used a 15cm horizontal right angle sata cable from here... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Round-Sata-2-...onnectors_RL&hash=item2c5c7fdb63#ht_763wt_905 The latch connector is a bit of a pain to be honest but once hooked up it's the business. Saves lots of unnecessary cable clutter.
You know he's planning for the Define Mini don't you? There's no room between PSU and GPU2 and no room like on every µATX-board between GPU1 and GPU2. Fans don't help you there in a cramped space like that. There's simply not the smallest amount of space for the GPUs to breath cool air and the GTX560 exhausts half the heat back into case.
Well if he is dead set on sli the the standard coolers would be the best as they vent all the air out the back of the case. Another thing you have to remember is if you use an sli setup you wont have a place for a sound card are anything else
if its mini gaming PC drop SLI altogether. drop the PSU down to a 550-650W and put the money towards an SSD or better GPU. SLI on 1920x1080 is a waste unless you plan on using older GPUs which makes about as much sense as shooting your own foot. also grab a 1TB samsung or WD as they are faster and more reliable than the hitachis
No, the 560 and 460 don't vent all heat out the back of the case. They use centered fans and coolers and half of the heat get's dumped into the case.
Bit, You won't have any problems fitting a bigger card than a 560 into a Define Mini. I was seriously looking into that case when re-building my PC. I settled on a Lian Li PC-A04 which is smaller and happily fits a GTX 580. Neil
