Advice for building a new (mobile?) system

Hey overclockers, this is my first post on the forum and the reason is i'm a complete n00b in pc building desperate for help.
I know there are several similar posts out there titled "HELP ME BUY A PC" but i have some specific needs and restrictions that google couldn't solve for me. Here we go:
My needs:
1) I want a gaming pc.
It doesn't have to play everything on ultra for the next 2 years. I'm currently playing mostly MOBAs (LoL, HotS) but that's because my old pc couldn't deal with more demanding games. I'd like to be able to play the new games in at least medium/high settings smoothly.
2) I'd like this system to be as mobile as possible.
In the next few years i'm going to move a lot, sparing time between my hometown and several other places. I know, laptops exist.. I dislike the idea cause i've heard they're much easier to overheat (learnt that the hard way) and the cost is higher than getting a deskbox. I guess it's still an option.
I've heard about mini PCs and smaller cases in general. I'm not completely sold on them as overheating is still a great concern but not something that can't be dealt with.
If none of the above can come within my budget and cover my gaming needs, I suppose i'd have to settle for a full tower stuck in my hometown/base.
3) I like to have upgrade and overclock potential. I've never done any of this on my own till now but as far as i know it's nice to have some extra power supply.
4) Living in Greece means i have to deal with hot summers. Overheating is coomon issue and i want the cooling system to be as quiet as possible.

My budget: Most likely i have a limit of ~600 euros (approx 650$). The limit could be a little higher but that's not granted at the moment.
It doesn't have to include any peripherals or OS. If it's not a laptop a monitor should be in too.

Restrictions: I live in Greece. In case you don't know we live under international financial restrictions so i'm not supposed to order from aboard. There are ways to bypass this but there are too costly to even bother. Also shiping and taxes used to do this hard even before the aforementioned restrictions.
As a result, i'm going to buy parts from local website. It is 5-10% more expensive than major websites (not taking rebates under account) but it seems it's my only option. Good news is they assemble whatever i pick for free and have weekly sales rotation. On the other hand they may not have every part available so i may need to ask for alternative parts suggestions as well.

That's all. I know there are people here who can come up with the most potent, cost-efficient builds but whatever input is welcome!

Site where you'll be buying?

Do you have any parts you'll be using (internal components, mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers, operating system)?

Right off the bat, I'll tell you a couple things:

1) You're making the right choice going for an ITX desktop instead of a laptop (especially with your budget)

2) ITX builds are perfectly capable of not overheating, even with high end GPUs and overclocked components

3) You'll probably be at 1080P with that budget. Hope that's okay

You'll definitely want to go with Intel for the CPU and with Nvidia for the GPU because of the cooling challenges. Intel and Nvidia products are much more energy efficient (and thus produce less heat) than AMD stuff. So maybe an i5 for the CPU and a 960gtx for the GPU coupled with a mITX case. Stock cooling on the CPU should be sufficient as long as you don't overclock it. Pick a case that has good fan placement options in order to get sufficient ventilation. Also, choose your case ventilation fans wisely as they can vary quite a bit with regard to the amount of air moved vs. noise produced.

Can you give us a URL for the vendor you would be purchasing from?

Thank you both for the replies!
Well, the vendor's site supports only greek language so i thought it wasn't worth linking it but here is their build-it-yourself section. I think that, if your are up to the challenge it won't be that hard to navigate throught their products and prices since the structure is really easy to understand even without speaking greek.
I have no internals. As for mouse, keyboard, OS, I already own them. Speakers do not concern me atm. Also the monitor will probably have a different budget.
I'm currently posting from work. I'll be back on this within the next few hours and link a list of parts the said vendor suggested.

Case: http://www.e-shop.gr/case-corsair-c...ck-edition-high-airflow-mini-itx-p-PER.814860

PSU: http://www.e-shop.gr/psu-corsair-cx500-80-plus-bronze-certified-500w-p-PER.549204

CPU: http://www.e-shop.gr/cpu-intel-core-i5-4690-350ghz-lga1150-box-p-PER.558463 or http://www.e-shop.gr/cpu-intel-core-i5-6600k-350ghz-lga1151-box-p-PER.558497

Motherboard: http://www.e-shop.gr/cpu-intel-core-i5-6600k-350ghz-lga1151-box-p-PER.558497 (socket 1150 CPU) or http://www.e-shop.gr/mitriki-asrock-z170m-itx-ac-retail-p-PER.528885 (if using socket 1151 CPU)

RAM: http://www.e-shop.gr/ram-kingston-h...1866mhz-hyperx-fury-white-series-p-PER.550890 (if going with the socket 1150f motherboard) or http://www.e-shop.gr/ram-kingston-hx424c15fb-4-4gb-ddr4-2400mhz-hyperx-fury-p-PER.557484 (if going with the above socket 1151 motherboard)

Video Card: http://www.e-shop.gr/vga-evga-geforce-gtx960-superclocked-2gb-gddr5-pci-e-retail-p-PER.519192

Case fans: ? Couldn't seem to find these on the website. Note that the case I listed above comes with three fans out of the box. May be enough.

DVD: http://www.e-shop.gr/liteon-ihas324-525-sata-dvd-recorder-retail-black-p-PER.812859

These are some suggestions that make sense to me while trying to stay within your budget constraints.

You have some decisions to make with regard to the CPU/motherboard/RAM. That is to say, whether to go with the cheaper but older socket 1150 technology or the newest which is socket 1151. 5-15% performance improvement at the same clock speed if you go with socket 1151 but that depends greatly on the application.

Crap, had a bigger list, but lost it on a refresh
Mainly, it had some more expensive options (Skylake parts instead of Haswell, nicer PSU...), but with your budget, you're going to have to cut corners anyway.

This is the best you're going to do while staying close to budget:


Raijintek Metis - 52.90 (I have never used this case and would MUCH prefer one of those below, but it does seem intriguing, especially at this price)

Asrock H81M-ITX - 78.59

i3 4370 - 169

2x4GB 1866C9 DDR3 - 49

Patriot Blast 240GB - 77.90

XFX TS 550w - 73.79

EVGA GTX 960 SSC - 229.90



Total: 731.08



Some other parts which were too expensive, but would have been nice to work in:

i5 4460 - 209.90

i5 4690 - 247.93

Samsung 850 EVO 250GB - 97.90

Fractal Node 304 - 95

Phanteks Enthoo Evolv - 84.87

Corsair Air 240 - 108.90


You could save ~$75 going with a Pentium G3258 and an aftermarket cooler, but there are a few problems with that. It's dual core and in order for it to feel even remotely close to the 4-thread i3 or 4-core i5, you'll need to overclock it to ~4.5Ghz. That's easily accomplished, but there are no ITX Z97 motherboards available at that site, so ... Also, games like Battlefront hard-code the requirement of 4 cores and are completely unplayable, even with a heavily overclocked G3258.


Simply put, your budget is going to have to increase unless you're willing to play games at low quality settings with GPU lesser than the GTX 960. The 960 is the absolute minimum I would use for a 1080P rig. You'll be playing at mid-high settings now and at low-medium by the end of the year.


EDIT: trents, I think your build is WELL-beyond OP's budget of 600... you're in the 900 range. Actually 1000 range because you didn't include an SSD

Well, thanks for the advice again guys, i really appreciate the effort you put in searching in a non-english website.
Indeed, trent's budget got a bit out of control. Still, even with ninjacore's build, i realized i need to increase my budget a bit. A friend of mine suggested buying everyhting except the gpu and live with the on-board one untill i get some more money to invest.
As for the mini cases i have to say i'm still not completely sold on them. There are cases that cost 100€ and are almost as big as a midi tower which is meaningless for me. To be honest, if i invest on such a system, i doubt i should be moving it around. I may just settle for a bigger case for easier part selection.
Anyway, once again, thanks for the input guys. I haven't decided anything yet, probably i'll just wait till i get some more money and coame back on this. I won't mark the thread as solved since a few more ideas are always welcome.

I didn't really think about that with the cheap ITX case I picked. I'm not sure how it handles heat. The Fractal Node 304 and Corsair Air 240, however, I know will handle high heat very well and are very portable (I haul my node 304 around weekly love the size for that). They are more expensive, but I think they're definitely worth the price. The Phanteks is bound to be nice (haven't used that particular case, but have others in the same line), but I do think it's more of a "mini tower".

You can checkout the new Intel NUC PCs.

You can also search for Alienware Console PC.

Both on Amazon for about $650 US or less.

The Alienware has better graphics!

Well, it would not be possible I think to meet all your requirements with the budget you originally gave us. A decent CPU and GPU alone make a big dent in 600 Euros and you are just getting started.

trents said:

Well, it would not be possible I think to meet all your requirements with the budget you originally gave us. A decent CPU and GPU alone make a big dent in 600 Euros and you are just getting started.

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I see your point. I wish realising my situation could also make my budget bigger! I'll probably save a bit more money and come back to this.

I know you didn't want to resort to this, but at that budget, a laptop would be your best bet. Something like this would do pretty well for you (not great, but not bad either). The only not-good thing about it is the monitor resolution is 1600x900. It wouldn't be the fastest either, but that's to be expected at this price point with this budget.

Dlaw said:

I know you didn't want to resort to this, but at that budget, a laptop would be your best bet. Something like this would do pretty well for you (not great, but not bad either). The only not-good thing about it is the monitor resolution is 1600x900. It wouldn't be the fastest either, but that's to be expected at this price point with this budget.

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With his hot climate and the overheating concerns the OP expresses I have concerns about going the laptop route for a gamer.

trents said:

With his hot climate and the overheating concerns the OP expresses I have concerns about going the laptop route for a gamer.

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I agree, but 600 Euros won't take him far with a desktop. Either way, I think OP's response (wait and save) is the best option he has right now.

*Cough Cough
USED
Check out the used market in your area , with skylake out many ppl are upgrading to Skylake from Sandy bridge , you might be able to save a bunch by picking up a used 2500k with a 7970/770gtx and beable to handle 1080 and the SB will be nice on temps with a small case . just saying .