Going for it, new build, any recommend CPU?

[LeeW]

Just ordered this case, want to reduce space requirements for my PC. Still want it to be gaming capable so I am taking the RTX 2070S from my existing PC and putting it in here.

Do you think getting a Mini ITX board to also move over the i7-10700 is a good move (heat wise) or would I be better looking at a Ryzen 5?

Want to be able to game on this machine, not a big gamer but a few hours here and there on WoW, Satisfactory, Cities Skylines, that kind of thing.

Decision on CPU aside I should be able to use the existing components:

PSU
Memory
GPU
Drives

 

[diamond.g]

A B550 + 5600X would be fine. You could splurge for a 5800 if you wanted 8 cores instead of 6. What speed is the RAM you have now?

Or the 11400F is good alternative to the 5600X.

 

[LeeW]

What speed is the RAM you have now?

This is what I have now.

HyperX Fury HX436C17FB3K2/32 Memory Module 32 GB 3600 MHz DDR4 CL17 DIMM (Kit 2 x 16 GB), Black

 

[velocityg4]

Ryzen 5000 series is definitely a good choice for heat and performance. I didn't get the Ryzen 5600x because AMD prices were insane at the time.

If you go with Intel. I'd get the 11000 series. As they have better speeds than the equivalent 10000 series and PCIe 4.0. It's a redesigned CPU with much better IPC. The 10th gen is basically an old design where they just kept cramming in more cores.

I will say my i5-11400 works like a champ for gaming. I'd prefer that over the 11400F. Just because it's nice to have an iGPU to fall back on for troubleshooting.

You should be able to move your other components over to the new build.

 

[LeeW]

Looking in my spare parts box the only thing I am missing is the Motherboard & PSU, thinking I may just try it with the i7-10700 and see how it goes. I even have a Noctura low profile CPU cooler. No idea when I bought that.

Would mean I only need the case, Small Form PSU and motherboard to do a complete build. I am hoping the heat will be less of an issue with this case as it has mesh sides rather than glass/plastic, so the cooling should be far better despite its size than my existing case.

 

[velocityg4]

Looking in my spare parts box the only thing I am missing is the Motherboard & PSU, thinking I may just try it with the i7-10700 and see how it goes. I even have a Noctura low profile CPU cooler. No idea when I bought that.

Would mean I only need the case, Small Form PSU and motherboard to do a complete build. I am hoping the heat will be less of an issue with this case as it has mesh sides rather than glass/plastic, so the cooling should be far better despite its size than my existing case.

I didn't get that you already had a 10700. It'd be absurd to replace it. Nothing new will offer enough gain to be worthwhile.

I'd get a decent motherboard. Something with a Realtek s1220a chipset for audio, USB 3.1 gen 2 and Z series. My preferred brand is Gigabyte.

 

[LeeW]

I have been more used to MSI, never had any issues, seen this one. Looks ok and ticks all the boxes I think.

MSI MEG Z490I UNIFY Motherboard Mini-ITX, LGA1200, DDR4, 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5.1, USB 3.2 Gen2, Type C, M.2, Thunderbolt 3, Gen 4 Ready, 10th Gen Intel Core

Powered by Intel 10th Gen Core processors, the MSI MEG Z490 UNIFY (mini-ITX) begins its dark conquest with a design made to accomplish any task with cruel efficiency. Connect to ultra-fast networks with Dual LAN including 2.5G LAN and Wi-Fi AX. Move bulky files faster with USB 3.2 Gen 2 x 2, capa...

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[Steve Adams]

I have the 10700 and it's awesome, fan only spins up when I am pushing video editing through resolve. Other than that, I don't notice much heat. The tiny cooler that came on my system does not help with the resolve heat, but a swap to noctua fixes that. I would go with that processor. I am really not a fan of AMD, have a few back in the day of the xp1800 to 3000 and they all made claims of being faster than the intel counterpart, but was never true in real world performace, only on synthetic benchmarks.

 

[LeeW]

The tiny cooler that came on my system does not help with the resolve heat, but a swap to noctua fixes that.

I have this one, (Amazon), not much room inside for anything else. But again, with the benefit of 3 fans plus the mesh sides, I am hoping it will be enough. The only time it will get pushed is gaming and not that often.

Going to set aside some time on Saturday to do this, my patience will likely be fully tested

 

[Steve Adams]

I have this one, (Amazon), not much room inside for anything else. But again, with the benefit of 3 fans plus the mesh sides, I am hoping it will be enough. The only time it will get pushed is gaming and not that often.

Going to set aside some time on Saturday to do this, my patience will likely be fully tested

Oh. Cool I am looking at something like that for my server. IT's an older xeon server with 4 14tb drives and a 256gb ssd for OS. That cooler ist till much better than my stock one. You will be fine.

 

[diamond.g]

I have this one, (Amazon), not much room inside for anything else. But again, with the benefit of 3 fans plus the mesh sides, I am hoping it will be enough. The only time it will get pushed is gaming and not that often.

Going to set aside some time on Saturday to do this, my patience will likely be fully tested

CPU Cooling is a hard topic. I loved my aircooler on my x399, but realized that it was dumping too much heat in the case for my 6900 to handle. I ended up upgrading my CPU, but also went with water cooling instead. I've watched a few Optimum Tech videos and have noticed they like water cooling their SFF builds.

 

[LeeW]

CPU Cooling is a hard topic

Indeed. I will go with the proposed cooler plus it will have 1x 120mm fan pulling in from the bottom, 2x 120mm pushing out on the front. the GPU will be blowing straight out through the mesh side, which alone is significantly better than standard cases.

There is scope to use a 120mm AIO cooler as an alternate solution if the temp is an issue. Like the GPU, the CPU will be on other side with a mesh panel for the heat to get through.

I am really not seeing a situation where the cooling on this case will not be better if not significantly so vs a standard mid-tower case.

I Will update at the weekend, everything should be arriving tomorrow.

 

[diamond.g]

Indeed. I will go with the proposed cooler plus it will have 1x 120mm fan pulling in from the bottom, 2x 120mm pushing out on the front. the GPU will be blowing straight out through the mesh side, which alone is significantly better than standard cases.

There is scope to use a 120mm AIO cooler as an alternate solution if the temp is an issue. Like the GPU, the CPU will be on other side with a mesh panel for the heat to get through.

I am really not seeing a situation where the cooling on this case will not be better if not significantly so vs a standard mid-tower case.

I Will update at the weekend, everything should be arriving tomorrow.

What case is that again? Sounds like you are doing a vertical mount for it?

 

[Steve Adams]

Indeed. I will go with the proposed cooler plus it will have 1x 120mm fan pulling in from the bottom, 2x 120mm pushing out on the front. the GPU will be blowing straight out through the mesh side, which alone is significantly better than standard cases.

There is scope to use a 120mm AIO cooler as an alternate solution if the temp is an issue. Like the GPU, the CPU will be on other side with a mesh panel for the heat to get through.

I am really not seeing a situation where the cooling on this case will not be better if not significantly so vs a standard mid-tower case.

I Will update at the weekend, everything should be arriving tomorrow.

I am sure you will be fine.

 

[LeeW]

What case is that again? Sounds like you are doing a vertical mount for it?

Phanteks Innovative Computer Hardware Design

phanteks.com

I am sure you will be fine.

I think so. Whilst I continue to use the M1 Mac Mini and love it, the reality is that Apple has pissed me off one too many times with dodgy keyboards, Bluetooth issues, display issues and so on.

This build is the next step towards moving back to Windows and a PC I control in terms of hardware choices and repairability. Will be keeping the M1 but won't be looking to upgrade any time soon if at all.

 

[Steve Adams]

Phanteks Innovative Computer Hardware Design

phanteks.com

I think so. Whilst I continue to use the M1 Mac Mini and love it, the reality is that Apple has pissed me off one too many times with dodgy keyboards, Bluetooth issues, display issues and so on.

This build is the next step towards moving back to Windows and a PC I control in terms of hardware choices and repairability. Will be keeping the M1 but won't be looking to upgrade any time soon if at all.

Welcome to the club. I have purged the fruit from our lives except for our iPhones at the moment. They are getting changed out ASAP with inexpensive android motorola phones. Enough of stuff not working and failing prematurely like you said.

 

[Steve Adams]

I would use this case just to rile up the locals! More powerful for 1/3 the cost!

Dune Pro - PC Cases

Dune Case is a leading designer and manufacturer of premium high end PC Hardware including computer cases, monitors and accessories.

www.dunecase.com

 

[LeeW]

The case arrived, this is going to be surprisingly easy, they have really thought this case design through.

 

[maflynn]

I would use this case just to rile up the locals! More powerful for 1/3 the cost!

Dune Pro - PC Cases

Dune Case is a leading designer and manufacturer of premium high end PC Hardware including computer cases, monitors and accessories.

www.dunecase.com

In all honesty I really do like the dune pro case (And by extension the Mac Pro case). Like the real Mac Pro, this case is on the pricey side. I guess they were really delayed on their initial offerings, but seem to be shipping them in batches.

I semi-tempted to get this and go through another rebuild. There's some things I'm unhappy with what I did and this may present an opportunity to not only correct the build but improve on.

 

[velocityg4]

In all honesty I really do like the dune pro case (And by extension the Mac Pro case). Like the real Mac Pro, this case is on the pricey side. I guess they were really delayed on their initial offerings, but seem to be shipping them in batches.

I semi-tempted to get this and go through another rebuild. There's some things I'm unhappy with what I did and this may present an opportunity to not only correct the build but improve on.

What's funny is I balk at spending so much on a case. Yet I'm perfectly willing to blow 40 hours modding a case.

 

[LeeW]

Wasn't even a challenge and I am a complete novice builder. Took me 2 hours.

 

[mi7chy]

I like how it looks like the GPU thermal is somewhat isolated from the motherboard component/CPU side. My GPU runs like an oven at max graphics quality so afraid of cooking other components. Can you change the orientation of the GPU in that case so that the GPU top exhaust is pointed at the rear case fans (assuming they're exhausting air out of the case) instead of the enclosed part of the case?

 

[diamond.g]

I like how it looks like the GPU thermal is somewhat isolated from the motherboard component/CPU side. My GPU runs like an oven at max graphics quality so afraid of cooking other components. Can you change the orientation of the GPU in that case so that the GPU top exhaust is pointed at the rear case fans (assuming they're exhausting air out of the case) instead of the enclosed part of the case?

Unless you have a blower style cooler on your GPU, it probably intakes air and blows it across the fin stack. Which should get evacuated by your case fans.

 

[LeeW]

Can you change the orientation of the GPU in that case so that the GPU top exhaust is pointed at the fans instead of the enclosed part of the case?

No, but not really an issue to be honest. The airflow is excellent, aside from the mesh sides the top cover is slatted so heat is still going out of the case top, not accumulating. With the GPU facing directly on the mesh side the temp difference compared to my old build it's night and day. So much cooler. It was always sitting around 55C with light usage. As I type this it is 42C and the fans are off, they were always on before.

So you have the GPU blowing straight out one mesh side, the CPU blowing straight out the other mesh side. On top of that, the bottom fan is pulling and the two back fans pushing.

I have not looked at the fan curves yet. The CPU is a bit hotter than my old machine with light usage, by about 10C but then I was using this cooler, now using this one. I was going to go with a 120mm AIO but as I had that low profile cooler I decided to give it a go. But the temps are not bad.

Under load when playing something intensive (for me) such as satisfactory it went to 69C and held which is not bad.

Also worth noting I am in Scotland, the temp for most of the year rarely gets above 10-12C at any point in the day/night. Right now we are in a summer heatwave, 20C and nearly midnight so that is going to impact the thermals when comparing to my previous machine when I last looked at those temps in much cooler weather.

 

[LeeW]

So got around to tweaking the fan curves and dropped the temps a fair amount. Silent at idle. Once it ramps up it does get noisy but I never gave any thought to the fans, just grabbed what I had. Will probably order 3 Be Quiet Slient Wings which will bring the Db down quite a bit then that is the new machine all done.

Really pleased with it though. Such a small footprint.