Haha, I did indeed cut myself during assembly, but it wasn't a deep cut, so no blood was spilled...

I built the PC last weekend. It went mostly well; I made a mess by applying too much thermal paste and also had a hard time getting the motherboard with the Kotetsu inside the case and managing all those cables, but everything fit into place after several tries and a lot of swearing. The ASRock BIOS...

OK, I placed an order the other day. I finally decided on the Core 500 case, but it was out of stock at the shop I wanted to order at, so it might take a week or so. I'll report back as soon as everything is up and running.

Thank you all for your help and suggestions!

Another motherboard question: I saw that there is also the Asrock H110M-ITX/ac, which is significantly cheaper. With an updated BIOS (which can be done at the shop I intend to order at), it's also compatible with Kaby Lake CPUs. As far as I can see , its downsides are lower memory clock frequency (2...

So, what exactly happens when two voltage controlled fans of different sizes are connected to the same header? In the Define Nano and the Node 304, the intake fans have different sizes from the exhaust fans. From my (rather limited) understanding, this should result in one of these outcomes: either ...

Thank you Steve, I hadn't found that page. That doesn't sound too good, but I don't think there are many alternatives for mini-ITX boards at this price.

A potential conflict: Asrock in the past has focused on having PWM fan headers...to the point where there was anywhere from zero to only 1 maybe 2 case headers that could be voltage controlled. The two fractal fans are voltage controlled. You'll want to do a deep dive into the mobo manual and see i...

quest_for_silence wrote:In case, the Fractal Core 500 and Lian Li Q10 may be more sensible choices than the Node 304: check the relevant SPCR reviews.

I'll look at the Lian Li. Why would you recommend the Core 500 over the Node 304?

Man, I thought I had decided on at least one thing, and now you guys keep suggesting other cases :) The Metis Plus is out because it seems to be only available with a window, which I don't want. But the U2 is interesting. Also, a friend of mine suggested the Node 304. Both seem to make better use of...

The card is 18cm long just 2cm more than the PSU and will sit in more or less air shadow. Yeah, I'm a bit worried about that myself. Then again, it is just a 75 W card. But I might get something more powerful at some point. After all, upgrading is half of the fun, no? This makes me wonder: Do the f...

For a gaming computer there must be a disclaimer though: Some new games, like Forza Horizon 3 , will simply refuse to run unless you have an "approved" CPU (meaning newish Core i5 or better). So these new Pentiums will work fine as long as the games accept them at all. Is there a list of such games...

mobo: I like MSI (see my signature), but this board has an even older audio codec and a Realtek NIC. Asrock BIOS fan control is also better. I'll go with the Asrock then, for the fan control and audio. But if you don't mind explaining, what's better about the Intel NIC? There's a limit to depth beh...

@LongJan, @quest_for_silence: Thanks for suggesting (and debating) another case, but I think I'm really set on getting the Define Nano since I really like its looks and think that it's decent enough in terms of temperature and noise. Maybe not 100%, so if there were some case that was a lot more con...

Thanks, I am indeed in Germany, so that would be nice. Apart from gaming, I'll only use the PC for the usual browsing, video streaming and some programming (but only small hobby projects). I'm pretty sure 8GB RAM is sufficient; that's what's in my current computer (ThinkPad W520), and I never felt I...

Oh, and I forgot:

I won't put the PC anywhere with restricted airflow. And while I will use it for other stuff besides gaming, none of the other stuff exceeds the requirements of the games.

Thank you for your answers and the warm welcome. The reason for the small case is mainly aesthetics, and occasionally portability. I think the most demanding game I intend to play is GTA V, or maybe The Witness (not sure about the requirements on that one). I was, and maybe still am, considering the...

Hello, I'm new here and want to build a quiet PC for general use and modest gaming. I'm on the verge of becoming an old fart whose hearing isn't what it used to be, so I don't need a totally silent PC, but 'somewhat quiet' would be nice :) I'd also like it to be compact and look unobtrusive. I'm som...