Hi. I am new to computer building but am dedicated and have done quite a bit of research. I need some help.
I was recently given an old Haswell i7 4790 from a friend. This is the heart of my new build.
It just so happended that the only readily available LGA1150 mobo that I could find is thin mini ITX. The Asus Q87T which I have purchased.
My brother threw me 8Gb of old DDR3L 1600 that he had lying around.
Intended use is an all round HTPC (small and quiet) attached to my network where I can surf, stream - basically do all my computing from the couch with my TV as a monitor. The issue of course will be that being quiet and cooling an 84w TDP CPU in a small case are not very compatible.
I have not been into gaming in the past but now I have kids that have started to show an interest. Was thinking of starting with the iGPU but would be nice to have the option to add a dedicated GPU later - not a deal breaker though. I can always look at larger cases then. I would like 2 x USB 3.0 on the front as a minimum (audio I/O would be nice too). I would also like to put a good Wifi/BT card in it. I was looking at a Broadcom 3x3 which would require 3 antennas of some kind. If the case was alluminium then will require some modification I think.
I started looking into cases that are small but none seem to be the right fit. The motherboard has a DC jack at the back and I have an old Dell Power brick from a laptop which will suit (130w) but again would need another solution for down the track if adding a GPU.
Silverstone PT13B. Reasonably priced and very small. Will have cooling issues and all low profile fans that are small enough to fit inside this case do not seem to be quiet.
HD Plex H1.S V2. Pricey but nice. Sceptical that I will not have heat issues.
Streacom FC8 alpha. As above. Also same price as HDPlex for me (which seems like a better built case with better cooling) as getting the SH8 pipes required for my motherboard are an extra significant cost.
InWin Chopin. Reasonably priced. Still has limitations on cooling fans which rule out some of the decent ones (Noctua etc).
M350 - USB on front seems to be behind a door. Are they 3.0? Better fan clearance. Maybe.
Just going round in circles at this point really.
Can anyone give some advice?
I was recently given an old Haswell i7 4790 from a friend. This is the heart of my new build.
It just so happended that the only readily available LGA1150 mobo that I could find is thin mini ITX. The Asus Q87T which I have purchased.
My brother threw me 8Gb of old DDR3L 1600 that he had lying around.
Intended use is an all round HTPC (small and quiet) attached to my network where I can surf, stream - basically do all my computing from the couch with my TV as a monitor. The issue of course will be that being quiet and cooling an 84w TDP CPU in a small case are not very compatible.
I have not been into gaming in the past but now I have kids that have started to show an interest. Was thinking of starting with the iGPU but would be nice to have the option to add a dedicated GPU later - not a deal breaker though. I can always look at larger cases then. I would like 2 x USB 3.0 on the front as a minimum (audio I/O would be nice too). I would also like to put a good Wifi/BT card in it. I was looking at a Broadcom 3x3 which would require 3 antennas of some kind. If the case was alluminium then will require some modification I think.
I started looking into cases that are small but none seem to be the right fit. The motherboard has a DC jack at the back and I have an old Dell Power brick from a laptop which will suit (130w) but again would need another solution for down the track if adding a GPU.
Silverstone PT13B. Reasonably priced and very small. Will have cooling issues and all low profile fans that are small enough to fit inside this case do not seem to be quiet.
HD Plex H1.S V2. Pricey but nice. Sceptical that I will not have heat issues.
Streacom FC8 alpha. As above. Also same price as HDPlex for me (which seems like a better built case with better cooling) as getting the SH8 pipes required for my motherboard are an extra significant cost.
InWin Chopin. Reasonably priced. Still has limitations on cooling fans which rule out some of the decent ones (Noctua etc).
M350 - USB on front seems to be behind a door. Are they 3.0? Better fan clearance. Maybe.
Just going round in circles at this point really.
Can anyone give some advice?