Planning my new sff

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pchacker

n00b
Joined
Mar 16, 2011
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23
1. What will you be doing with this PC?
1. Gaming
2. Web browsing

2. What's your budget?
I'd like to spend around 800NZD for this (around 600 USD), This is not including shipping as shipping anything to nz is crazy high prices.

3. Where do you live?
I live in the North Island of a small place called New Zealand.

4. What exact parts do you need for that budget?
Case, psu, motherboard, ram, cpu, graphics, hdd, fans(depending on chosen case)

5. If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
I dont plan to reuse any parts

6. What specific features do you need in a motherboard?
I need sata 6Gbs, usb 3.0
I want raid ( if possible)

Which is more important, size of the system or having the particular feature?
If i have to go larger than mini itx to obtain raid support i would dump the raid, but if i can get it in mini itx then thats all good. Also with regards to system size im aiming for the smallest possible whilst still being able to play modern games at 1280x1024 with medium setting on.

7. What resolution output do you need? my 19" lcd is 1280x1024.

8. Does this system need to fit into a particular space?
Its gonna fit on my desk (extremely tiny)

9. How comfortable are you with custom case design/modification and electrical wiring?
I have done some basic modding before, but its all been a bit ghetto if you know what i mean.( think cable ties to attach huge fan to a graphics card heatsink). I do have a dremel but havn't really used it that much. Iam willing to mod if it comes down to it.

10. How important is the noise/silence of this system?
Noise isn't really a factor as long as i cant hear it from the other end of the house

11. How mobile does this system need to be? I would like to be able to comfortably pick it up and carry it round in a small sports bag, so not too heavy.

12. Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? I have a win 7 home prem 64bit

13. When do you plan on building/buying the PC? I have about half the money now, it will take me roughly 7 weeks to save up the rest.

Whew lots of questions lol, i hope i get some good advice:D
 
get a normal atx power supply. Myself and many others have wasted money on micro atx PSUs.
 
You need SATA-6 & RAID? -- planning on running multiple SSDs? I mostly know the Intel front, so someone else would need to chip in w/ the AMD viewpoint, but the only intel mITX board I know of that would a) fit your budget (so no sandy bridge) and b) have raid is the DFI Lanparty P55-T36, and they're pretty hard to come by (ebay or forums only) :)

Of those two which would be more important, RAID or Sata-6 (remember, sata-6 is good up to about 750MB/sec which is about 5x of any spindle HDD)?

I'm leaning towards a weaker CPU and a modern GPU if you're planning on gaming, say a i3 or a lower end i5 with a radeon 6850. I think you should go w/ 8GB of DDR3 since prices are rock bottom right now.

Let me scull around for some prices and see what I can come up with.
 
Last edited:
Machupo said:
You need SATA-6 & RAID? -- planning on running multiple SSDs? I mostly know the Intel front, so someone else would need to chip in w/ the AMD viewpoint, but the only intel mITX board I know of that would a) fit your budget (so no sandy bridge) and b) have raid is the DFI Lanparty P55-T36, and they're pretty hard to come by (ebay or forums only) :)

Of those two which would be more important, RAID or Sata-6 (remember, sata-6 is good up to about 750MB/sec which is about 5x of any spindle HDD)?
.
Click to expand...

Sata 6 is the most important to me currently, rather than raid. Im just gonna stick with 1 ssd right now, as i usually only play 3 or 4 games at max, then uninstall when ive clocked them.
 
ok -- so SATA6 is tops, then USB3, then mITX form factor and finally RAID -- back to the drawing board ;)
 
Ok, all from newegg, so shipping might kill ya.

215 - Intel Core i3-2100 + AsRock H67M-ITX (has usb3 and sata6)
40 - Mushkin enhanced essentials 4GB kit (2x2gb) ddr3 1333
165 - Sapphire Radeon 6850 1GB (comes with a $10 newegg gift card)
120 - Sugo 05 w/ 450w psu
70 - WD Black 640gb sata6 hdd

$610 before shipping.

modifications:
- if you had another $40 you could get 8GB of ram instead of 4gb
- if you had another $60 you could get a i5-2300 quad core instead of the i3-2100
- you mentioned SSD in your previous post, do you even need that caviar black? if not, find something on a forum (I assume you're needing a storage drive, so a used 2TB green or something for a similar price), OR cut it out of the list and get the quad core or more ram instead

just the first draft :)
 
Newegg doesnt ship internationally, so i found all the parts the cheapest i could in new zealand, and the total is 1273 including shipping, i cant believe its that high, since the exchange rate right now is .75US=1NZD. Maybe my expectations are too high?
 
wow -- we can probably back down a generation on the cpu and gpu, honestly for just 1280x1024 gaming -- what is available/what are the prices locally for you?
 
actually, can you ship from HK, Malay, China, or TW (aus. butchers pricing, so I'd recommend not them)??
 
Just by doing a quick look around at NZ prices, it seems that you may have to go for an option that doesn't have everything you want. However, some of it is really not needed right now for your system, but rather future proofing.

All prices in NZ,
i3 540 $150
Gigabyte h55n $190
Silverstone SG05(300W) $150
4GB(2x2GB) Varies from $50-70 so we'll average it at $60
Video card...up to you since prices suck really bad. I found a 6850 for $280, gtx 460 $275, 5770 for $200, if you want to go older you can get a 4850 for $150.
2.5" SATA HDD WD Black $80

Just used http://pricespy.co.nz/ to compare prices. I do not know all the reputable etailers in NZ so it is your call where you get the components from. But, $800 is doable for a decent system. However, I do not think you really need SATA6 since you are going to be running a with a HDD. RAID maybe for the future, but I think an SSD upgrade would be a better choice. The gigabyte board does have USB3 so you have that area covered.
 
in mITX if you want Raid & USB 3.0 best option is the Asus M4A88T-I Deluxe AM3 board (its actually the most feature packed mITX board I know of)
 
Ok, with all these suggestions, and with NZ's extreme prices taken into account, ive decided upon this config.

Sugo sgo5
gigabyte h55nusb3
gskill 4 gig 1600mhz
core i5 750 (for gta4)
8800gt from auction site trademe
hdd yet to decide upon ssd or mechanical

In fact i went ahead and bought the 8800gt OC, it was 80NZD, so about 60USD maybe. I looked up some benchmarks and found the 8800gt can pretty much play all the new games at 1280x1024. Also dx11 doesnt bother me.

So hows this configuration look?
 
pchacker said:
Ok, with all these suggestions, and with NZ's extreme prices taken into account, ive decided upon this config.

Sugo sgo5
gigabyte h55nusb3
gskill 4 gig 1600mhz
core i5 750 (for gta4)
8800gt from auction site trademe
hdd yet to decide upon ssd or mechanical

In fact i went ahead and bought the 8800gt OC, it was 80NZD, so about 60USD maybe. I looked up some benchmarks and found the 8800gt can pretty much play all the new games at 1280x1024. Also dx11 doesnt bother me.

So hows this configuration look?
Click to expand...

Looks like a good setup, I would have went with a radeon 5670 as an alternative since it will be on par(if not a bit faster) with the 8800gt, consume less power, and have a warranty to boot. But, since you have purchased the 8800gt it will do pretty decent. SSDs seem to be quite expensive in NZ so it is your call if you want to purchase one. I have been using SSDs since the beginning of last year and I will never use a standard HDD for my OS and most of my programs. It was the largest leap in performance since experiencing the jump to the radeon 9700 pro back in 2003 (for me).
 
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