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Gaming in Tight Spaces: Mini-ITX (featuring Gigabyte, Silverstone, and Prolimatech)

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Gaming in Tight Spaces: Mini-ITX (featuring Gigabyte, Silverstone, and Prolimatech)

Gaming in Tight Spaces: Mini-ITX (featuring Gigabyte, Silverstone, and Prolimatech)
by (MIAHALLEN)

…things have been steadily progressing in the small form factor (SFF) world. So, I wanted to find out…Is it now possible to build a competent gaming PC, or is this market better left shrouded to the HTPC and misc PC sections?

SFF-59-300x205.jpg

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Another computing community I help moderate is owned by craig brugger and is specialized for small form factor computer builds.

www.losias.net

Sorry, not really spamming but it seems kind of spammy.
 
In most switching power supplies efficiency increases as load increases. In reality if your system only ever pulled 300-400W then an 800W PSU is just going to be wasting a little more power in heat. (Now it might run cooler because it was designed to handle a higher heat load, but it would be using more power to do the conversion.)

Either way, excellent write up.
 
I've always wanted a powerhouse mini ITX build. This article just makes me want one more.
 
awesome creation

Really like what you did here. I need to think small!! I've gotten stuck on large!!. I've got 2 big Coolermaster Cosmos cases haha. I'm at the opposite end. I guess I'm stuck always thinking "I might need more room"? Anyway i like what you did. Totally cool.:salute:
 
Great read, I'm really impressed with Gigabyte for offering such a great board with a good bios at a decent price.
 
In most switching power supplies efficiency increases as load increases. In reality if your system only ever pulled 300-400W then an 800W PSU is just going to be wasting a little more power in heat. (Now it might run cooler because it was designed to handle a higher heat load, but it would be using more power to do the conversion.)

Either way, excellent write up.

Nope, there's a curve. Efficiency goes up to a point (around 50% or so) then goes back down.
 
I'm planning to rebuild this with some proper modding in the next few months to turn it into the ultimate mini-ITX rig....what do you guys think of the following upgrades?

Intel i5 750 CPU - Which I'd hope to run at 4.2GHz or more, plus it has a good IMC and 4 real cores. I'm not going to pursue an i7 because I'd turn off HT anyhow.

Corsair H70 CPU cooler - all internal. I'll have to replace the 3.5" HDD with a 2.5" and then relocate both it and the SSD.

Corsair Dominator GTX3 memory - rated at DDR3-2400 9-11-9-27, but I'll probably try to run DDR3-2000 CAS6 or DDR3-2200 CAS7.

Gigabyte Radeon HD 5870 SOC - stock clocks of 950 core and 1250 memory should give a noticable boost in GPU limited games. I'll have to mod the case a little for this to fit.

500GB Momentus XT - to replace the 1TB Green drive I'm running now.

And last but not least, I think I'd be pushing this 300W PSU a bit too hard, so I'll plan on upgrading to the new 450W SFX unit by Silverstone.
 
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Like I said, I like what ya did, but case this whole PC thing goes
belly-up at least with my two big Coolermasters I'll have some
really nice luggage.
 
Thats the same motherboard I plan on using for my parent's next computer build. They don't need a full-size board and large case, but common parts are a must.
 
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