Build help building small footprint ITX or MATX System

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elec999
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Joined: Wed Jun 30, 2004 10:54 pm

Build help building small footprint ITX or MATX System

Post by elec999 » Wed Mar 19, 2014 7:51 am

I need to build 5-6 small footprint itx systems or even matx.My budget right now is <$400 for each. I was looking at the Haswell CPU dual 1150 flavour from intell and some of the newer amd CPUS. Would a PiCO-PSU work for me. What can you guys recommend. I still need to find my components

So far I have
Intel Pentium G3220 Haswell 3.0GHz LGA 1150 54W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646G3220 (Haswell Dual Core)
ASUS H87I-PLUS LGA 1150 Intel H87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard With UEFI BIOS (would prefer a cheap ITX board for Haswell 1550)
128 GB SSD not sure what to get
CASE/PSU not sure yet

Dont really require 5.25 drives or 3.25 space

PS I do want to build my own, wheres the fun If I purchase rebuild? :)))

Cheers :D

CA_Steve
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Re: Build help building small footprint ITX or MATX System

Post by CA_Steve » Wed Mar 19, 2014 8:32 am

Hi. Can't help selecting components without understanding the use case. What apps will be run/how will they be used?

Abula
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Location: Guatemala

Re: Build help building small footprint ITX or MATX System

Post by Abula » Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:53 am

Well since you are doing budget builds, and you are also valuing smaller the better, my recommendation is the following,

CASE n PSU: Antec Mini-ITX Case ISK110-VESA $75
You can get $25-40 cases and $40-55 decent PSU, but here you will get both for a very similar price and a very small factor case, with a very efficient PSU, good enough for pentium or i3.

CPU: Intel Pentium Processor G3420 3.2 GHz LGA 1150 BX80646G3420 $70
Or the G3220, the only thing is that its sold atm for like $68, so for $2 you get 200mhz.... i bought mine at $50 sale, but atm is way to close.

Motherboard: ASRock H81M-ITX LGA 1150 Intel H81 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard $60
There are a lot of alternatives, but thinking on a budget build, seems very good for the money.

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport Very Low Profile 8GB Kit (4GBx2) DDR3-1600 1.35V UDIMM 240-Pin Memory Modules BLS2C4G3D1609ES2LX0 $75
This is low profile and low voltage memory, no need to go for tall memory heatsinks, but crosscheck compatibility with the motherboard you end up chosing. Just its not in stock atm from amazon, usually sells around $75.

SSD: Crucial M500 120GB SATA 2.5-Inch 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter) Internal Solid State Drive CT120M500SSD1 $70
You could even go for 240gb version for $40 more, highly recommended, as space is always good and specially in the future is better to have more than less, the price is fair imo, and the SSD of this gen get the best performance in 240/256gb range, the 120/128gb versions are crippled by design.

TOTAL = $350 or $390 with the 240gb ssd =)

The ISK-110 also allows for a second 2.5hdd, in case you want to add one for storage down the road, for example for one of your users they need bigger storage for their workload, so you can add a HGST Travelstar 5K1500 1.5TB 2.5-Inch Mobile 5400 RPM 9.5mm Internal Bare Hard Disk Drive 0J28001 and end up with a very big storage for such a small footprint case, and even better the ISK110 is vesa mounted, so if the users have monitors that allow for vesa mounting the computer will take almost no space in their desks.

elec999
Posts: 273
Joined: Wed Jun 30, 2004 10:54 pm

Re: Build help building small footprint ITX or MATX System

Post by elec999 » Fri Mar 21, 2014 11:16 pm

Sorry I didn't specify. They will be office
Pcs. They use office 2010 and lots of open documents once. Current pcs are really slow. I also want to save done space on their desks and reduce the noise.

CA_Steve
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Re: Build help building small footprint ITX or MATX System

Post by CA_Steve » Sat Mar 22, 2014 6:52 am

Given the use, Abula's picks are a good fit. My only change would be the SSD. For low price and 128GB class, I'd go for the Samsung Evo or Kingston V300. Both are faster than the Crucial M500.

HFat
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Re: Build help building small footprint ITX or MATX System

Post by HFat » Sat Mar 22, 2014 9:37 am

You don't need a fast SSD or 8G of RAM for it. A faster SSD wouldn't hurt much but at current prices, buying so much RAM for a cheap build which doesn't need half as much would be a serious waste of money.

There are cheaper case/PSU combos but I wouldn't skimp on this. Get a good one like the one Abula mentionned and you'll hopefully keep it long a long time (or resell it for a good price).

A cheaper option would be to get an older CPU or possibly a low-power board which would comes with CPUs like 1037u or J1900.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Build help building small footprint ITX or MATX System

Post by quest_for_silence » Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:14 pm

CA_Steve wrote:I'd go for the Samsung Evo or Kingston V300. Both are faster than the Crucial M500.


Just as side note, Kingston has silently switched the NAND supplier for their V300 line: as a result, they're no more high performing but price is about the same, so I would skip it at all.

Broadly speaking, the real world performance of a M500 are IMO perfectly adequate: I've just compared a 240Gb it with a 50% more expensive Sandisk Extreme II (by figures, much faster), but they feel about the same from a user perspective.

CA_Steve
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Re: Build help building small footprint ITX or MATX System

Post by CA_Steve » Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:36 pm

Bummer about the Kingston. The M500 takes a nosedive in speed at 120GB vs 240GB due to reduced channel count.... they released the M550 to try to make up the lack.

Abula
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Location: Guatemala

Re: Build help building small footprint ITX or MATX System

Post by Abula » Sat Mar 22, 2014 7:56 pm

The M500 isnt the fastest SSD out there, but for the price is tought to beat, personally i prefer an $110 M500 256gb than a Samsung 840 Evo 128gb that cost around $90, the extra $20 will give you double the space, and really there is almost no difference percievable by the end user from a X25m to Samsung 840pro, what really makes the difference its how SSDs wroks, and their 0 latency... responsiveness and the feel of a very fast PC because of the SSD is given by all, i still recommend 840pro as in benchmarks and real life is the fastest, but to people that are not in a tight budget, i feel the M500 is a good option for the OP, as it can still fit a 256gb ssd inside the $400 budget, which overtime should be a better bet, while with other brands he will have to opt for 120/128gb.

elec999
Posts: 273
Joined: Wed Jun 30, 2004 10:54 pm

Re: Build help building small footprint ITX or MATX System

Post by elec999 » Sun Mar 23, 2014 10:41 am

Theres so much i missed about ssds.

How are the:
Plextor 128GB SSD M5 Pro Xtreme 2.5 SATA3 6GB/S Mounting BRACKET/SOFTWARE
Plextor M5S 128GB 2.5in SATA3 Marvell 520MB/S Read 200MB/S Write Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD
SanDisk Ultra Plus SSD 128GB 2.5in SATA3 6GB/S Marvell Solid State Disk Flash Drive

elec999
Posts: 273
Joined: Wed Jun 30, 2004 10:54 pm

Re: Build help building small footprint ITX or MATX System

Post by elec999 » Tue Mar 25, 2014 12:11 pm

I just confirmed my part selection: please let me know

Apex MI-008 mITX Case Glossy Black 1X5.25 1X3.5 1X3.5INT Sfx 250W Front Audio USB
ASRock H81M-ITX LGA1150 1XPCIE2.0X16 DDR3 1600 2XSATA3 1xeSATA 2XUSB3.0 6XUSB2.0 Motherboard
Intel Pentium G3220 Dual Core 3.0GHZ Processor LGA1150 Haswell 3MB Cache Retail
ADATA Xpg V1.0 8GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 2 X 4GB Dual Channel Memory Kit Black
PNY XLR8 SSD9SC120GMDF-RB 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal SSD Drive 500MB/S Read 450MB/S Write

What you guys think?

Abula
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Location: Guatemala

Re: Build help building small footprint ITX or MATX System

Post by Abula » Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:07 pm

elec999 wrote:I just confirmed my part selection: please let me know

Apex MI-008 mITX Case Glossy Black 1X5.25 1X3.5 1X3.5INT Sfx 250W Front Audio USB
ASRock H81M-ITX LGA1150 1XPCIE2.0X16 DDR3 1600 2XSATA3 1xeSATA 2XUSB3.0 6XUSB2.0 Motherboard
Intel Pentium G3220 Dual Core 3.0GHZ Processor LGA1150 Haswell 3MB Cache Retail
ADATA Xpg V1.0 8GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 2 X 4GB Dual Channel Memory Kit Black
PNY XLR8 SSD9SC120GMDF-RB 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal SSD Drive 500MB/S Read 450MB/S Write

What you guys think?
Im not that fond of the APEX case specially for two things, its bigger than it needs to be, specially for someone not needing 3.5hdds nor optical drives, and comes with SFX PSU thats not that efficient. Either way, its a cheap case, so if thats the goal you aiming, then go for it.

While i like PNY as a company, i like to buy SSDs that at least do something related, like samsung that does all (NAD, Controller and firmware), Crucial (NAD and firmware), Intel (NAD and firmware and used to do their own controllers). I also dont like sanforce controllers, im not sure what does PNY used on it, but if its sanforce i would steer away from it, but again if its much cheaper than samsung or crucial, then go for it.

The rest seems solid.

elec999
Posts: 273
Joined: Wed Jun 30, 2004 10:54 pm

Re: Build help building small footprint ITX or MATX System

Post by elec999 » Thu Mar 27, 2014 5:14 am

Abula wrote:
elec999 wrote:I just confirmed my part selection: please let me know

Apex MI-008 mITX Case Glossy Black 1X5.25 1X3.5 1X3.5INT Sfx 250W Front Audio USB
ASRock H81M-ITX LGA1150 1XPCIE2.0X16 DDR3 1600 2XSATA3 1xeSATA 2XUSB3.0 6XUSB2.0 Motherboard
Intel Pentium G3220 Dual Core 3.0GHZ Processor LGA1150 Haswell 3MB Cache Retail
ADATA Xpg V1.0 8GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 2 X 4GB Dual Channel Memory Kit Black
PNY XLR8 SSD9SC120GMDF-RB 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal SSD Drive 500MB/S Read 450MB/S Write

What you guys think?
Im not that fond of the APEX case specially for two things, its bigger than it needs to be, specially for someone not needing 3.5hdds nor optical drives, and comes with SFX PSU thats not that efficient. Either way, its a cheap case, so if thats the goal you aiming, then go for it.

While i like PNY as a company, i like to buy SSDs that at least do something related, like samsung that does all (NAD, Controller and firmware), Crucial (NAD and firmware), Intel (NAD and firmware and used to do their own controllers). I also dont like sanforce controllers, im not sure what does PNY used on it, but if its sanforce i would steer away from it, but again if its much cheaper than samsung or crucial, then go for it.

The rest seems solid.
Just wondering whats a good ITX case + power supply you guys can recommend? Cant seem to find anything....

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