Hi! So, I'm itching for a new build, and have decided to go the ITX route (yeah yeah, trendy and all that), but also because I'm donating the existing PC to the wife. Parts to Keep: EVGA GTX 780SC 256gb M4 SSD Parts Purchased: EVGA Hadron w/ 500W PSU built in So, the intention is to hand over the FT03, 3770, 8GB of RAM, 128GB M4 and the Gene V over to my wife, but she will then need a new GPU to go in there - something along the lines of a GTX 770? For myself, I don't want a drop in speed. This then means I'm looking at a Haswell i7, 8-16GB of RAM, all sitting on a solid board. Now, in an ITX case I doubt I will be overclocking, and I have no idea whether I can fit an AIO watercooler in the Hadron. This then makes it difficult to chose boards - I immediately want the ASUS RoG ITX, but it's £200! I have no budget currently, as this will simply happen over the next six months in stages. So, to my mind, I need: Motherboard CPU (Haswell i7?) RAM (16GB?) Optical drive (slot load, BD?) Second SSD (256GB+?) Cooler The alternative, curve-ball, solution is to build two new rigs. I could sell the current 3770 and Gene V motherboard, and buy the wife a new mATX board that costs around £100, and a CPU that is more in keeping with her needs (gaming!), so again, £100-150. This might free up some cash for my rig? EDIT: The third option would be a mixed transplant. I put a Z77 ITX board in the Hadron, and retain the current i7 3770 and RAM. Then I would purchase a new i5 for the wife, and she would get the ROG mATX board, plus more RAM.
The Hadron is designed for overclocking in mind. If you can't afford the ROG M-ITX board. How about the Z87-I Pro? It's a very powerful mini-itx board.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus...-raid-pcie-30-(x16)-bluetooth-dp-hdmi-mini-it This one? It's not really a case of not being able to afford the board, it's just that £202 is a lot of money for a motherboard, let alone an ITX size one!
Well. The Impact has a lot of features. The z87-i Pro has a lot of the same features, it just isn't as 'Extreme'.
Its basically the same as my z77 board. Do you need the supreme sound card? If not drop down to the pro
Whilst ROG boards are certainly desirable; people don't always need that kind of power or control. Z87 boards offer a great amount of control already. You can Overclock (which I recommend, the Hadron will give you enough room to OC) and play around with plenty of settings. ROG boards are for people who need quad SLI or are going to OC their RAM and need a ridiculous amount of features. Get the Z87-I Pro, you don't need anything more; especially since £200 is a lot of money for a M-itx board.
The Z77 Stinger got mediocre reviews, but I can't find any for the Z87? It's also £175, so not far the ROG...
Decided to splurge on the Impact - helped by a £11 price drop to £191 over the weekend! Looks like the ITX rig will actually be for the wife, and I'll keep my mATX setup another year or two. Purchase list is now: - EVGA Hadron (on my desk!) - ASUS Impact ITX - 8GB Corsair LP Vengeance RAM - GTX 760 or 770 - 500GB HD - CPU Cooler - 128GB SSD So, my remaining issues are: 1) Best air cooler, no taller than 140mm? This rules out a lot of the coolers I'm used to, so any ideas? 2) Are mSATA SSDs any good? The Impact has an M.2 slot free, and it'll save on cabling up a normal SSD, which in this build is a good thing.
Noctua do some pretty good flat coolers. Gavbon had one up for sale recently. Why not use a H80? I mean, there are two 120mm fans in the roof right? http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=263184
msata ssd are usually not as fast and cost more than a standard 2.5" with maybe a few exceptions like the mushkin atlas line.
The H80 simply doesn't fit - you could make it go with some modifications, maybe, but this isn't the build for that. EVGA are releasing a Hadron Hydro in the future that will take those AIOs though. Ah yes, but this is the M.2 revision, which is apparently a lot faster? Hence asking if anybody had any experience with them. The Noctua NH-U9B SE2 looks tasty. Not sure the L12's odd fan orientation would work too well in this case, as the air really needs to be pushed/pulled through.
