Review my Mini ITX Build

[smush]

Hi

Please could you take a look at my list below on PCPartPicker and identify (if any) problems? there is a notice that says my chosen card could block certain drive bays - is this ok?
I plan to upgrade the GPU next year with a top of the line Pascal or HBM2 card next year so I want to know if the PSU will have enough power and whether my case would fit it (are they likely to be much bigger than the 980ti/Fury? I heard HBM allows for smaller GPUs)

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/BVWRP6

I already own the SSD on the list. Will be gaming at 1080P various screen sizes with a consideration for 4K next year

[EndlessWaves]

The BitFenix Prodidy is an awfully large case. Are you sure you want to accept the compromises of Mini-ITX (two memory slots, single expansion slot) in a case that's the same size as a medium tower, and larger than some Micro ATX cases that would fit the same hardware?

I believe the prodigy requires you to remove the top three drive bays to fit in longer cards.

Memory looks a little expensive, you should be able to find 1.2v DDR4 a good £10-15 cheaper now.

850W is a huge amount of power for a single card setup. Even the most power hungry dual-GPU cards only draw about 350-400W so could even downsize that, especially if you're not planning to hugely overvolt that CPU. With a large case consider a non-modular power supply as I suspect there are probably places to stuff the cables.

Right now you're paying a pretty hefty early adopter premium for the i7-6700k, although I see the 6600k price is also creeping up. The 6700 and 6600 have been launched so if you're not interested in overclocking we may see them in a week or two.

I would generally expect nVidia and AMD to work towards lower power chips in the future, or they'll get pushed out of the mainstream market as desktop buyers adopt MiniPCs. I'd also expect a trend in expensive compact cards to develop, such as the upcoming Fury Nano.

I can't comment on Skylake motherboards, I haven't looked through them yet.

[smush]

I want a smaller case and one with handles preferably as i will be using as a Steam PC and want to transport the PC between rooms I think micro itx is a bit too small to me as I will be upgrading to top line GPU next year I don't think the SFF PSU would be sufficient. Would you recommend a different mini itx case?

If having to remove top 3 drive bays does that mean I will have 2 spaces left for HDDs?

Regarding CPU and PSU - I like to build for the long haul current PC has managed 5 years so after a couple of years I may look to OC the CPU. I chose a big PSU as I want enough power headroom to allow for next years GPUs according to SCAN the Fury X recommend a 750w PSU

RAM - I only picked that as example to show what I was putting in the build

[CustardInc]

If I remember correctly, the Prodigy and Prodigy M are exactly the same size. However, the Prodigy M can handle a micro ATX board (up to 4 PCIe slots, with a 5th bracket on the case for optimal SLI airflow). I had the case for a little over a year, and it's a nice little case. Airflow to the GPU is the best I've used. I went to a smaller case, Siverstone SG-09 and it's airflow is a bit worse, but I'm still happy with it.

If you're set on a case with handles, you don't really have many choices. If you like the look of the Prodigy, get the Prodigy M unless you need more than 4x 3.5'' and 2x 2.5'' drives.

[EndlessWaves]

I want a smaller case and one with handles preferably as i will be using as a Steam PC and want to transport the PC between rooms I think micro itx is a bit too small to me as I will be upgrading to top line GPU next year I don't think the SFF PSU would be sufficient. Would you recommend a different mini itx case?

Anandtech measured the high end cards in a i7 Extreme Edition 4690X system. The system with a Titan X drew 392W while gaming, the R9 290X in Uber mode and the Fury X configur drew 408W.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9059/t...an-x-review/16

Even nVidia's very conservative power estimates say the Titan X alone draws 250W and only recommend a 600W PSU for the system.
http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/de...specifications

Once you start to heavily overvolt the CPU then that can drive the power consumption up rapidly but on a mid-range cooler you're not likely to be that so I'd happily run the system on a 600W SFX PSU. The higher capacity PSUs are mostly four multi-card setups & serious overclockers, single high cards don't need much.

As to an alternative with a handle if you're not in any hurry then Silverstone's ML08 case should be coming out soon and looks very interesting. Similar height and depth to the Bitfenix Prodigy (38x37 vs. 40x36) but 8.5cm wide instead of 25cm.

[smush]

If I remember correctly, the Prodigy and Prodigy M are exactly the same size. However, the Prodigy M can handle a micro ATX board (up to 4 PCIe slots, with a 5th bracket on the case for optimal SLI airflow). I had the case for a little over a year, and it's a nice little case. Airflow to the GPU is the best I've used. I went to a smaller case, Siverstone SG-09 and it's airflow is a bit worse, but I'm still happy with it.

If you're set on a case with handles, you don't really have many choices. If you like the look of the Prodigy, get the Prodigy M unless you need more than 4x 3.5'' and 2x 2.5'' drives.

Is the Prodigy M the update to the Prodigy case? Will I still need to remove drive bays to fit R9 390? I don't mind as long as I can fit 1 HDD and 1 SSD and 1 DVDRW I am ok.
How did you find the handle on the Prodigy when transporting the case did you worry it would break off as I hear its some flexible plastic.
Is it possible to remove the bottom handles and just leave top ones on - will this affect airflow as I wonder if there are vents under the case?
Do I need to be careful with PSU size - as I heard it can be a squeeze?

Anandtech measured the high end cards in a i7 Extreme Edition 4690X system. The system with a Titan X drew 392W while gaming, the R9 290X in Uber mode and the Fury X configur drew 408W.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9059/t...an-x-review/16

Even nVidia's very conservative power estimates say the Titan X alone draws 250W and only recommend a 600W PSU for the system.
http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/de...specifications

Once you start to heavily overvolt the CPU then that can drive the power consumption up rapidly but on a mid-range cooler you're not likely to be that so I'd happily run the system on a 600W SFX PSU. The higher capacity PSUs are mostly four multi-card setups & serious overclockers, single high cards don't need much.

As to an alternative with a handle if you're not in any hurry then Silverstone's ML08 case should be coming out soon and looks very interesting. Similar height and depth to the Bitfenix Prodigy (38x37 vs. 40x36) but 8.5cm wide instead of 25cm.

I'm sorry although I would love to have Micro ITX case (I did originally want a Raven RVZ01 - ML08 looks very nice too) I just think I will be limiting myself later on. There's people already using 750W for their Fury X's.

[EndlessWaves]

There's people already using 750W for their Fury X's.

So what? Going higher only loses you a couple of percent of efficiency so when you're spending that sort of money plenty of people will opt for it just in case they want to add a second card or really get into overclocking in the future, rather than as a requirement to run the card.

Here is an article on a Fury X build with a processor at least as power hungry as you're considering:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/29806...u-and-apu.html

They were pulling 382 to 414 watts. And that was from the wall so you can multiply that by 85% (PSU efficiency at ~60% load) to get how much the system was pulling from the PSU - 325W to 352W - which is what power supplies are rated on.

I wouldn't recommend 400W for the long term but it would work. 600W is plenty even with overclocks as long as you don't push the voltage much.

[CustardInc]

Is the Prodigy M the update to the Prodigy case? Will I still need to remove drive bays to fit R9 390? I don't mind as long as I can fit 1 HDD and 1 SSD and 1 DVDRW I am ok.
How did you find the handle on the Prodigy when transporting the case did you worry it would break off as I hear its some flexible plastic.
Is it possible to remove the bottom handles and just leave top ones on - will this affect airflow as I wonder if there are vents under the case?
Do I need to be careful with PSU size - as I heard it can be a squeeze?
.

It was released after consumer feedback saying that the Prodigy is stupidly big for a mini ITX case. The Prodigy wasn't discontinued, so I'm not sure if I'd call the M an update. You won't need to remove and drive bays, and you'll be able to fit those storage drives with no issues. As for the DVD drive, I didn't have one. It might interfere with the top fans, it will at least partially block airflow to one end of the GPU. The handles on the case... they feel strong enough, but they're really uncomfortable to use. They're basically flat pieces of plastic with sharp edges, so I wouldn't recommend using them to carry it further than room-to-room, so it's fine for you. It is possible to remove the bottom handles with 4 screws, but that uncovers the part of the metal frame which the handle attaches to, looking a bit ugly. It would also block the bottom of the case, which has 2x 120mm, 1x 200mm/230mm fan mounts. There is still one 120mm/140mm fan mount at the back of the case, but I'm not sure if that would be enough for a Hawaii GPU and 91W processor. PSU size - a shorter PSU is almost required. Corsair CX and CS PSUs are very short, 140mm in length (although apparently CX PSUs have a bad reputation). I believe coolermaster also have a series which measures in at 140mm length. If you have a longer PSU it'll interfere with your first PCIe slot, and hence a long GPU. There isn't much room for cable hiding, so modular is almost a necessity.

My Haswell i5 and 290x never drew more than 350W from the wall, they were both using unmodified settings, with CPU/GPU stress tests. 500W would be more than enough.

[smush]

Sorry to be a pain but I have changed my case now to the Xigmatek Aquila as it is supposed to be better for building in and the handles look more sturdy I've read the Bitfenix ones can break easily. My question now is what would be the optimal set up of fans for airflow? I don't know anything about positive and negative pressure. I was going to put a Noctua 120mm fan at the top but I've read it can interfere with the space for DVDRW drive (it says theres 2 spaces on top for 120mm fans, would installing 1 affect the DVDRW drive?) not to mention if you look at this picture: https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/...shedtopoff.jpg if I was to put a fan on top it would just be blowing over the CPU cooler whereas the CPU cooler is trying to blow air up out the top of case.

[CustardInc]

Sorry to be a pain but I have changed my case now to the Xigmatek Aquila as it is supposed to be better for building in and the handles look more sturdy I've read the Bitfenix ones can break easily. My question now is what would be the optimal set up of fans for airflow? I don't know anything about positive and negative pressure. I was going to put a Noctua 120mm fan at the top but I've read it can interfere with the space for DVDRW drive (it says theres 2 spaces on top for 120mm fans, would installing 1 affect the DVDRW drive?) not to mention if you look at this picture: https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/...shedtopoff.jpg if I was to put a fan on top it would just be blowing over the CPU cooler whereas the CPU cooler is trying to blow air up out the top of case.

Air in from the front, with an exhaust in the back slot, and one on the top in the furthest back position. As for which fans, I've moved away from buying premium fans for their advertised low noise. You'll see review videos where people have a noctua, EK, be quiet!, etc. fan standing on a desk and the host marvelling at how quiet it is. The problem is that once you put the fan into a case, and you have air rushing over the punched steel grille and/or air filter, you get noise which unavoidable. From my experience, the best way to get near silence is to just lower the RPM through your motherboard and play with fan curves until you reach a balance of noise and temperatures that you're happy with. As for the CPU cooler, if it's a tower design simply point it so that the air flows at the rear fan. This way, ambient air flows front to back, with a little upwards airflow, going with convection currents.

[Marcvs]

One thing; if you are only gaming you can drop to an i5, if doing anything more intensive an X99 might be a better bet (yes ITX/uATX boards exist). One warning though when you overvolt and OC X99 past 4Ghz the TDP really starts rising.

[realc]

Sorry to be a pain but I have changed my case now to the Xigmatek Aquila as it is supposed to be better for building in and the handles look more sturdy I've read the Bitfenix ones can break easily. My question now is what would be the optimal set up of fans for airflow? I don't know anything about positive and negative pressure.

Are you keeping the 200mm fan in the front of the Aquila? This should give you positive air pressure, which will keep the dust out (more air coming in than out->air wants to escape the case so dust is not drawn in). So long as you keep the top and rear fans running at moderate or slow speeds you should be good.