Hi All,
Decided to join the Prodigy club as I think it is the most awesome ITX box around. I wanted the size to fit a decent sized GPU.
I wanted to keep the build below £1k and did just that.
I was considering Watercooled but decided that would be something for the future
I stuck with air cooled to not be greedy.
I have been a laptop gamer up to now and never gone near a desktop so it was an interesting experience and I expected more problems but it was actually a breeze and the outcome is certainly what I was looking for to have at home.
The Build.
Bitfenix Prodigy Matte Black Mini ITX Case - £59.99 - Ebuyer.com
Bitfenix Recon Matte Black - £29.99 - Ebay.com
Bitfenix 230mm + 140mm added to 2x120mm fans - £20.00 - Amazon.com
ASRock Z77e Motherboard - £94.99 - Amazon.com
I7 3770k Genuine Intel Quad Core - £230.00 - Ebay.com
Palit Jetstream GTX 670 - £275.00 - Amazon.com
Hyperx 240GB 3k SSD - £129.99 - Amazon.com
Hyperx Genesis 8GB 1600 - £30.00 - Amazon.com
Corsair TX550 watt PSU - £59.99 - Ebay.com
Zalman CNS9900 Max Cooler - £39.99 - Ebay.com
Sprotex 145 piece PC Toolkit - £29.99 - Ebay.com
£999.93
Problem.
I only really found one problem and found the build a lot easier than I thought it would be from something so small. The ASRock Motherboard is very very nice and I wanted it more than the Asus which was £50 more expensive here in the UK. The problem is the MSATA Port being so close to the CPU bracket and you do have to do some modding to either the port or the bracket itself to get it to fit.
Size Issues.
The CPU cooler was a knightmare to fit, the thing ways nearly a kilo and you need to make sure you support the motherboard afterwards.
For the record this is the only hench sized CPU cooler I could find that will fit, and it will fit. Be aware that you must have the thinner side heatsink towards the PCI-e slot and it will lean against any 25mm rear exhaust fan. On the Spectre fans it will not touch the fins so everything was nice and snug.
The GTX 670 Palit is a little overkill but looks the dogs and I wanted it, really there is no need for the 680 as the 670 can do nearly the same job and the difference being the 680 is 57mm depth and the 670 is only 47mm depth with only the 2 fans and as you only have 47mm from the PCI slot to the case you need to go 670. I did and it fits absolutely perfectly, does not touch the case by literally 0.1mm but fits simple.
I won't post any benchmarks here unless needed this is solely the build. Mainly because I was greedy and chose Corsair Dominator RAM to begin with as per the pictures without taking into consideration the CPU cooler
so I have now had to return them for HyperX Ram and am only able to run a single channel stick at the moment and it bottlenecks me something rotten. However initial tests with an overclock of 4.4Ghz on the CPU and the GPU running at 1250 CORE and 1750 MEM I get around 10k in 3DMark11. Physics is way too low however.
I also went for the top mounted 120mm fans like some of you. I like the look
Wires, so many wires....make sure you have plenty of cable ties to hand
Also I took a movie of the scary moment I hit the power button expecting an explosion and hefty bill. 8)View My Video
Very pleased with my build. Happy to answer any questions. But have to say thank you to a lot of people who posted their builds it helped me so much to decide on what to buy these days etc having no knowledge at all of desktops.
Take Care
Chris
Decided to join the Prodigy club as I think it is the most awesome ITX box around. I wanted the size to fit a decent sized GPU.
I wanted to keep the build below £1k and did just that.
I was considering Watercooled but decided that would be something for the future
I stuck with air cooled to not be greedy.I have been a laptop gamer up to now and never gone near a desktop so it was an interesting experience and I expected more problems but it was actually a breeze and the outcome is certainly what I was looking for to have at home.
The Build.
Bitfenix Prodigy Matte Black Mini ITX Case - £59.99 - Ebuyer.com
Bitfenix Recon Matte Black - £29.99 - Ebay.com
Bitfenix 230mm + 140mm added to 2x120mm fans - £20.00 - Amazon.com
ASRock Z77e Motherboard - £94.99 - Amazon.com
I7 3770k Genuine Intel Quad Core - £230.00 - Ebay.com
Palit Jetstream GTX 670 - £275.00 - Amazon.com
Hyperx 240GB 3k SSD - £129.99 - Amazon.com
Hyperx Genesis 8GB 1600 - £30.00 - Amazon.com
Corsair TX550 watt PSU - £59.99 - Ebay.com
Zalman CNS9900 Max Cooler - £39.99 - Ebay.com
Sprotex 145 piece PC Toolkit - £29.99 - Ebay.com
£999.93
Problem.
I only really found one problem and found the build a lot easier than I thought it would be from something so small. The ASRock Motherboard is very very nice and I wanted it more than the Asus which was £50 more expensive here in the UK. The problem is the MSATA Port being so close to the CPU bracket and you do have to do some modding to either the port or the bracket itself to get it to fit.
Size Issues.
The CPU cooler was a knightmare to fit, the thing ways nearly a kilo and you need to make sure you support the motherboard afterwards.
For the record this is the only hench sized CPU cooler I could find that will fit, and it will fit. Be aware that you must have the thinner side heatsink towards the PCI-e slot and it will lean against any 25mm rear exhaust fan. On the Spectre fans it will not touch the fins so everything was nice and snug.
The GTX 670 Palit is a little overkill but looks the dogs and I wanted it, really there is no need for the 680 as the 670 can do nearly the same job and the difference being the 680 is 57mm depth and the 670 is only 47mm depth with only the 2 fans and as you only have 47mm from the PCI slot to the case you need to go 670. I did and it fits absolutely perfectly, does not touch the case by literally 0.1mm but fits simple.
I won't post any benchmarks here unless needed this is solely the build. Mainly because I was greedy and chose Corsair Dominator RAM to begin with as per the pictures without taking into consideration the CPU cooler
so I have now had to return them for HyperX Ram and am only able to run a single channel stick at the moment and it bottlenecks me something rotten. However initial tests with an overclock of 4.4Ghz on the CPU and the GPU running at 1250 CORE and 1750 MEM I get around 10k in 3DMark11. Physics is way too low however.I also went for the top mounted 120mm fans like some of you. I like the look
Wires, so many wires....make sure you have plenty of cable ties to hand
Also I took a movie of the scary moment I hit the power button expecting an explosion and hefty bill. 8)View My Video
Very pleased with my build. Happy to answer any questions. But have to say thank you to a lot of people who posted their builds it helped me so much to decide on what to buy these days etc having no knowledge at all of desktops.
Take Care
Chris
