[wanako]

So, after my wife saw me build my computer, Onyx, she decided that she wanted me to build one for her too, instead of buying another laptop or a pre-built system, much to my extreme delight.

She just wanted it small, "cute-ish", and more significantly more powerful than the old Intel Core Duo T2300 laptop she
currently has. She will only use it for web-surfing, HD movies, music, Photoshop, Office and other general use stuff. She is not a gamer, AT ALL, so graphics performance is not a concern.

I was first thinking mini-ITX, but after she heard the sound performance of my new Xonar DG, she wanted to have it too, so Micro-ATX was the only way to go.

I will have $550~ish for hardware to work with, so this is what I've come up with:

Case: SILVERSTONE Sugo SG01-BF - $99~ish (it floats around this price. Amazon has it for this price).
She loved the classy look of this case. She thinks cases with glossy surfaces look tacky. I tend to agree.

Motherboard: ASRock H67M (B3) - $79.99
Biggest reason for this is SATA III interface. Since H61 doesn't support SATA III, this is the cheapest H67 I could find, and I love ASRock.

CPU: Intel Core i3-2105 - $134.99
More than enough power for what she'll use it for and the HD3000 graphics will suffice if she ever needs to do something more intensive.

RAM: CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) - $24.99
Again, this will keep her system happy for her uses for quite some time. If she ever needs more later, the upgrade is easy and cheap.

SSD: Crucial M4 64GB - $94.99
This is the part that's gonna make her little system awesome and wow the hell out of her.

Optical: Pioneer CD/DVD Burner - $18.99
She does a lot of DVD burning to archive all of her television programs and anime and stuff.

Sound Card: ASUS Xonar DG - $29.99
"Because I SAID SO!" -wife

PSU: Corsair CX430 v2 - $44.99
Quality-proven Corsair unit.

Wireless NIC: Rosewill Wireless Apapter - $11.99
She's kinda far from the router.

TOTAL: $540.91. Oh, yeah. I'm good.

I'll be getting a lot of these parts from Amazon. Free shipping + no tax = WIN.

For now, I'll make do with the stock Intel HSF until: a) it gets too hot, b) she starts complaining about the noise, or c) all of the above. After that, I'm thinking on getting one of these:
Cooler: Scythe SCKZT-1000 80mm Kozuti - $39.99

So yeah, this is my plan so far. I, personally, think it's a pretty damn solid build. It should meet and exceed her needs and should last her for many years to come. It also gives me the satisfaction of building an SSF system. Also, you don't see an HDD listed because I already have one from an unused external ready to go. Luckily, I bought one, along with my 2TB Green, before the prices of HDDs skyrocketed last year, and kept it unused in case she wanted me to build something or if I were to need it in an emergency.

If any of you have any suggestions or comments for improvement, let me know. Sometimes there may be a great part out there not listed on Newegg that I may not know about, like BitFenix. God, I wish I knew about their cases before I built my system. I would've easily put that little extra down for one of their cases.

 

[psyclum]

TJ08-E is the way to go

 

[wanako]

Quote:

Originally Posted by psyclum

TJ08-E is the way to go

I personally liked that one, but she wanted the smaller SG-01.

If I were building a Micro-ATX gaming machine, then yeah, TJ08-E would be my pick, hands down.

 

[wanako]

Ok, so I FINALLY got the extra cash and parts to build it, got everything running, hit one little snag but it now works! Like I said, this will be my wife's PC and she's coming from an early 2000s mobile Celeron to a Core Duo T2400 1.8GHz to a BEASTLY i3 2105 + Crucial M4 SSD combo. Needless to say, she LOVES IT!

Now, PICS!!!

Silverstone Sugo SG01-BF



I loved this case. Brushed aluminum front panel, easy to work with, excellent workmanship.

ASRock Z68/USB3


All my builds so far have used ASRock MBs and have not failed me so far.

Intel i3 - 2105


The Little BEAST! 3.1 GHz of WIN!

Corsair 4GB RAM

First set was faulty after running memtest86+ and Corsair, being the homeboys that they are, replaced them with no problems and sent me a fresh set. This is why I keep buying from you.

 

[wanako]

Crucial M4 64GB

This thing makes the system fly! I love M4s

ASUS Xonar DG

Once my wife heard the sound quality on my machine, she REQUIRED to have one too.
I happily obliged.

Rosewill Wi-Fi

Didn't want too much cable clutter. This one is basic but will do whatever I need it to do.

ASUS DVD Burner

She archives a lot of her shows.

Corsair CX430v2 PSU

This thing will power anything that she puts in there.

Some shots putting it together.





AAAAND that's it. I decided to keep the Intel HS as it will suffice for her needs, until it starts to die or something, and later on, when I get my GTX670, I'll be transplanting my current GTX560Ti on her computer. Just for shiggles.

So yeah, this is the first SFF system I've built and I enjoyed it. New experience for me.

 

[stealthybox]

You could have totally done this build in an ITX system

Wouldn't have been able to necessarily fit a 560 in there, but you could have done it.

 

[wanako]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stealthybox

You could have totally done this build in an ITX system

Wouldn't have been able to necessarily fit a 560 in there, but you could have done it.

Nope. I couldn't have. I know I'm eventually going to put my 560Ti in there AND she wanted the Xonar DG which is PCI. Believe me, had I seen the possibility of going MITX I would've done it, but the missus wanted some extra stuff so I settled on the MATX for the extra expansion slots. I got a good middle ground I think. The system is still quite compact.

 

[stealthybox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanako

Nope. I couldn't have. I know I'm eventually going to put my 560Ti in there AND she wanted the Xonar DG which is PCI. Believe me, had I seen the possibility of going MITX I would've done it, but the missus wanted some extra stuff so I settled on the MATX for the extra expansion slots. I got a good middle ground I think. The system is still quite compact.

Oh, well that wasn't entirely made evident when you addressed form factor in your original post.

Regardless, nice to see another well documented SUGO build.

 

[wanako]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stealthybox

Oh, well that wasn't entirely made evident when you addressed form factor in your original post.
Regardless, nice to see another well documented SUGO build.

SUGO Cases are nice! I was surprised at the quality of it when I first opened the box. It was the first time I've dealt with a SilverStone case. One of these days I would LOVE to build a TJ08-E. I drooled just looking at it.

 

[stealthybox]

Yeah,

SilverStone is pretty well regarded I think.
Would love one of their cases

 

[void]

Nice little system

I do like the Sugo series of cases but damn they are to cable manage nicely.

 

[wanako]

Quote:

Originally Posted by void

Nice little system

I do like the Sugo series of cases but damn they are to cable manage nicely.

Thanks. Yes, she quite the potent one, and once she gets my 560Ti she'll be a little BOSS.