Window shopping build, will order once PS2 Beta is released

[Goku]

Be sure to post up pictures!

Overclocking ram doesn't have even benefits. Really only reason to do it either you want to tweak the system to the fullest or use one of those benchmarks that actually shows the difference in bandwidth of ram.

This must be it. Seems people are in love with it from the reviews anyway.

[PeteHMB]

Originally Posted by Goku

Be sure to post up pictures!

Overclocking ram doesn't have even benefits. Really only reason to do it either you want to tweak the system to the fullest or use one of those benchmarks that actually shows the difference in bandwidth of ram.

This must be it. Seems people are in love with it from the reviews anyway.

Yup, that's it. Not much difference in price so I figured I'd check it out. Plenty of pictures and maybe some videos of the build will be posted. I also found out that Microcenter knocks another $50 off of that motherboard when purchased together with the CPU, so total cost is only $313.90. Normal price of $149.99+$239.99 = $389+tax, which would have been over $400 + shipping. My friend's picking it up for me and shipping it though so that definitely saved me some cash.

[Goku]

Thats a good friend you have there.

[PeteHMB]

Originally Posted by Goku

Thats a good friend you have there.

Heh well I paid for it all over the phone and it's like 5 minutes from his work so he's just driving over, picking it up, and throwing it in the mailbox. Might cost him $15 in shipping and that's it.

[PeteHMB]

Picked up and en route to me via air mail. Should have them Tuesday. $313.90 for both @ Microcenter + ~$15 for shipping.

[PeteHMB]

This is my first attempt at building an ITX form factor PC, and also my first attempt at writing up a build log. I've worked as a mechanic and played with a lot of Legos so I tend to focus in and get things done instead of stopping to take pictures, and I am in no way shape or form a professional photographer . That being said...hope you guys enjoy, and hopefully this should give people a much sexier alternative to the chubby Bitfenix Prodigy that's getting so popular for ITX cases. I really love this form factor and case though, it finally feels like PC gaming done right. I'm really over the bulky, space wasting full tower cases that have far more capability than I'll ever use or need.

Parts list:
--Case: Silverstone SG08 (comes with 600w 80+ bronze PSU)
--Motherboard: ASRock Z77E-ITX
--CPU: Intel i5 3570k
--CPU heatsink/fan: OEM (for now...)
--Memory: Samsung Low Voltage 30nm UDIMM 4gb DDR3 1600 (x2 for a total of 8gb)
--Graphics: EVGA Nvidia GTX 670 FTW
--Hard drive: Crucial M4 128gb SSD

Preliminary pic just to make you guys jelly....(FIND A MICROCENTER NEAR YOU! Or do what I did and pay for it over the phone and have a friend pick it up in store.)


First, the parts. I had a box pic somewhere, but since they were coming in sporadically I decided not to include it. So...

From top left to bottom right:
Case w/ SSD already installed
ASRock wireless module (came with motherboard)
Extra zip ties - reusable locking type, $2/10pc at Home Depot
Extra case screws courtesy of Silverstone due to me stripping a couple out trying to get the VGA filter installed
Motherboard w/ CPU already installed (Microcenter did it for me pre-shipping so that if it got messed up they could swap the board/CPU right away and send me a working one - no extra charge, great customer service)
Motherboard backplate
CPU fan/heatsink
Video card
Memory
Optical drive tray (currently empty, but you could squeeze 2 more SSD or 2.5" drives there if you really wanted to. Given that you can stick a SSD pretty much anywhere, and that this motherboard has enough connections for 3 more drives, you could stack 4 SSDs on the optical drive tray and remove the hard drive cage completely for more cable management space and be fine.)
180mm AP 181 fan
Case cover


Case size comparison - I wear size 10.5 shoes.


Preliminary attempts at cable management while waiting on the motherboard



CPU heatsink/fan mounted on motherboard...


Closer pic of the way I ran the wire to keep it out of the way.


annnnnnd squeezed in...you have to angle the motherboard a bit to get it into the case, it fits pretty snugly. FYI - the screws for the case cover and the screws used to mount the motherboard are identical. Or at least, that's what I used...


Overhead shot of the motherboard in the case. I wrapped the reset switch wire around the power cable and front panel audio cable to keep it from dragging on the CPU fan. Probably going to end up rerunning those cables in the future, but I was eager to complete this build.


Another overhead shot showing more stuff plugged in. As you can see I used the empty 3.5" hard drive space to run a few of the cables, primarily the extra slack from the hard drive power cable. Made things a little tidier and less crimped overall.


Side views with the power cable tucked back out of sight inside the 3.5" hard drive cage. Still lots of room!

[PeteHMB]

Video card in...plenty of room for a 690 or even longer depending on future cards.


Tight squeeze horizontally though. Touches the PSU cage, which I'd imagine is the reason for the plastic or whatever material panel they put there. BE CAREFUL WHEN MOUNTING VIDEO CARD. It's a tight enough squeeze that the little pointy nubs of the components soldered onto the card DO rub when you put the card in. Attempting to push down from the wrong angle could easily snap something off. Plenty of room on the other side though between the case cover and video card cover. The way I initially ran the VGA power cables put a little horizontal pressure on the video card, pushing it out, but once the cover was back on the case I think it evened out a bit due to the stiff foam filter.



Rear view of the video card - it completely blocks all airflow to that side of the case, meaning the AP 181's airflow is only left with 1 direction to exhaust: Out the right side vents of the case. So, I recommend placing the case somewhere the right side and top have plenty of airflow. The left side is the intake for the video card fan in my case, so I don't need much there given that I have a "blower" style cooling system on it. Rear, top, and right side are most important clearance for me.


Optical drive tray putting pressure on cables, pushing them into the video card. I don't like pressure/stresses on thin components...


Side view...hmmmmm.....what can I do with this?


Much better...


Sitting nice and loose now, and still bundled relatively neatly without putting any pressure on the optical drive tray or video card.


AP181 mounted


Top view


Last but not least, the 90 degree SATA cable for the hard drive. My motherboard came with 2 SATA cables - 1 90 degree, 1 straight. Yours may vary but you DO need a 90 degree cable for the 2.5" / SSD positions. Not sure about the 3.5" drive but I've seen a couple other threads on here where people said it helped with those too. From the looks of the positions, I would recommend 90 degree cables for all the "official" mounting positions, but straight cables will work fine if you choose to utilize the optical drive tray as I mentioned before.


Ugh...I need to clean that up. No time during the week though...


Ran into some minor issues creating a boot USB from my Macbook. Had to pull out the work laptop too...but IT'S ALLLIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!
(except the video card drivers and whatnot weren't installed yet so I had some issues with adjusting the boarder around the screen....it's all perfect now though.)


Monitor is an ASUS VH238H at the moment. Using Turtle Beach PX5 headphones. HP Wireless Elite V2 keyboard with a Logitech VX Nano laptop mouse. Haven't decided yet on whether or not I want to keep the mouse or relegate it back to laptop duty. Thanks for reading, hope you guys enjoyed! If you have any questions about the build or want more pictures I'll do the best I can to help out. Currently trying to figure out why 3dMark11 keeps crashing.

[Goku]

Looks wicked nice! Wow. That is a tight squeeze.

Is 3DMark11 only crashing? What about games or anything else stressful?

[PeteHMB]

Originally Posted by Goku

Looks wicked nice! Wow. That is a tight squeeze.

Is 3DMark11 only crashing? What about games or anything else stressful?

Starcraft 2, Half Life 2, Counterstrike Source, Goldeneye Source all work fine. The only other thing that crashes is the original Planetside (just downloaded). All drivers are installed and up to date, downloaded direct from each manufacturer's website. Didn't buy an optical drive so there's 0 possibility of out of date stuff due to CDs or anything.

[Goku]

Of course PS crashes lol. You run admin on it?

Try something like unigine heaven 3d benchmark and see if that crashes too.

[PeteHMB]

Originally Posted by Goku

Of course PS crashes lol. You run admin on it?

Try something like unigine heaven 3d benchmark and see if that crashes too.

Downloading Unigine. What do you mean do I run admin on it? I'm logged onto my computer as an Admin, yes. PS gives me a runtime error, doesn't even make it past the boot screen after clicking play from the launcher.

edit - Unigine crashes same as 3dMark. Just says stopped working as soon as I click "run".

[Goku]

Thats not good then. Likely an issue with the card most likely as those are high end benchmarking programs. Try a few previous driver releases to see if that does anything.

PS you need to run as administrator under its properties to run properly.

I have seen some issues with the FTW edition from EVGA.

[PeteHMB]

I think I had their latest beta drivers installed...rolling back 1 to non-beta drivers.

Benchmarking now....everything maxed in Unigine. 1 step back on the drivers worked.

[Roidster]

nice build,sure hope you dont have any heat issues with that small case

[Goku]

Glad you resolved the issues Pete. Really impressed by this build you did. I don't often see mini-itx ones.