![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
I used to go to a lot of LAN parties, so I have become accustomed to having a computer dedicated to taking to LAN parties. I also made them SFF. Initially I used mATX cubes/towers such as the Ultra MicroFly, Aspire X-Qpack2, Antec NSK3480, Cooler Master Elite 341. More recently I made the move to mini ITX with a Lian Li PC--T7R.
I was messing around with another ITX build and tossed some games on it, and it worked great! Thus I upgraded the graphics card and am now going to use it for my next LAN rig (after I figure out which drives to use). I don't have a full build log, but here are the specs and a couple pics from when I swapped out the graphics card.
Core i5-2500K (stock speeds)
stock cooler
8GB DDR3
Zotac H67ITX-C-E motherboard
Antec ISK 300-150 case
random slim ODD
random SSD (temporary)
low profile Sapphire Radeon HD 4650 (old card)
low profile MSI Radeon HD 6570 (new card)
Doesn't sound like much of a graphics card upgrade, but it was. The 4650 was a crippled version with 64-bit DDR2 (unknown speed) while the 6570 has 128-bit DDR3 (667MHz = 1333MHz data rate). Clock speeds are both 600MHz, I think. That makes the 6570 a bit gimped too, since normally they are 650MHz. There are 480 stream processors on the 6570 versus 320 on the 4650. Also, I read somewhere that supposedly the 6570 has a 5W lower TDP. I did not find any measurable difference in power draw from the wall, which peaked at just under 110W while gaming for both cards. I fully understand that I could have gotten a Radeon 6670 for higher performance, primarily due to the higher clocks (800MHz core, GDDR5 memory). Still, I decided on the lower end card for the sake of paying only $50 versus $100. The CPU is also a bit of an overkill, but it was a spare I purchased from Micro Center for cheap. I think I would be happy with a Core i3.
Performance-wise I did not take "before" benchmarks, but performance did seem a bit better and I have "after" numbers. Not sure how accurate these are, but the numbers came from MSI Afterburner's monitoring window, after ALT-TABbing out of the game.
Didn't play too long so temperatures never went over 60ºC. GPU usage was around 98-99% during gaming.
Graphics settings were 1920x1080 resolution, but otherwise with game defaults.
Modern Warfare 3 avg around 91FPS
Team Fortress 2 avg around 80FPS
Not too bad for a computer that measures 12.90" x 8.70" x 3.80".
Here are the boxes the cards came in.
The cards themselves. They came with normal brackets, and included the low profile brackets which I have already installed in this pic.
Top view of the system with the newer card installed.
Side view showing the new card installed.
Side view, with the cover on.
Rear view. Note that the ports and card don't quite line up in the case. You'd think that with Antec's years of experience selling cases that they would not have stuff misaligned, but they do. I've heard it is also a problem in their even smaller ISK 100 case.
I was messing around with another ITX build and tossed some games on it, and it worked great! Thus I upgraded the graphics card and am now going to use it for my next LAN rig (after I figure out which drives to use). I don't have a full build log, but here are the specs and a couple pics from when I swapped out the graphics card.
Core i5-2500K (stock speeds)
stock cooler
8GB DDR3
Zotac H67ITX-C-E motherboard
Antec ISK 300-150 case
random slim ODD
random SSD (temporary)
low profile Sapphire Radeon HD 4650 (old card)
low profile MSI Radeon HD 6570 (new card)
Doesn't sound like much of a graphics card upgrade, but it was. The 4650 was a crippled version with 64-bit DDR2 (unknown speed) while the 6570 has 128-bit DDR3 (667MHz = 1333MHz data rate). Clock speeds are both 600MHz, I think. That makes the 6570 a bit gimped too, since normally they are 650MHz. There are 480 stream processors on the 6570 versus 320 on the 4650. Also, I read somewhere that supposedly the 6570 has a 5W lower TDP. I did not find any measurable difference in power draw from the wall, which peaked at just under 110W while gaming for both cards. I fully understand that I could have gotten a Radeon 6670 for higher performance, primarily due to the higher clocks (800MHz core, GDDR5 memory). Still, I decided on the lower end card for the sake of paying only $50 versus $100. The CPU is also a bit of an overkill, but it was a spare I purchased from Micro Center for cheap. I think I would be happy with a Core i3.
Performance-wise I did not take "before" benchmarks, but performance did seem a bit better and I have "after" numbers. Not sure how accurate these are, but the numbers came from MSI Afterburner's monitoring window, after ALT-TABbing out of the game.
Didn't play too long so temperatures never went over 60ºC. GPU usage was around 98-99% during gaming.
Graphics settings were 1920x1080 resolution, but otherwise with game defaults.
Modern Warfare 3 avg around 91FPS
Team Fortress 2 avg around 80FPS
Not too bad for a computer that measures 12.90" x 8.70" x 3.80".
Here are the boxes the cards came in.
The cards themselves. They came with normal brackets, and included the low profile brackets which I have already installed in this pic.
Top view of the system with the newer card installed.
Side view showing the new card installed.
Side view, with the cover on.
Rear view. Note that the ports and card don't quite line up in the case. You'd think that with Antec's years of experience selling cases that they would not have stuff misaligned, but they do. I've heard it is also a problem in their even smaller ISK 100 case.
