Beginning to plan my first SFF build, could use some advice.

[Latr0s]

Hi, I'm looking into building a SFF mITX PC and would like to get some advice as I begin to put together a parts list. I want to focus on simplicity without sacrificing power, the most intensive thing I do is gaming but I want to be able to get good frame rates and quality from titles like the Witcher 3 and similar future releases. I fell in love with the Louqe S1 Ghost and am pretty certain I'm going to go for that case, but aside from that i'd like some advice on what direction I should pursue.

• Should I stick with Intel or give AMD a try?
• Watercooling or traditional air cooling for the cpu?
  
• I'm thinking of getting a GTX 1080 or a 1080ti if budget allows, but don't know if I should get a founders card or a custom one, maybe even watercool it?

I want to keep my budget at or under $1800 and want to focus on robust parts that'll last a long time. Ideally I'd like to keep the rig as quiet as possible as well but I understand the limits associated with the form factor and how important it is to focus on keeping it cool. I don't intend on overclocking the system immediately to increase the life of the build, but would like to keep the option open in the future if I need to squeeze some more performance out.

Any other tips are appreciated, and thanks in advance for any input!

 

[jtd871]

Budget, Performance, Silence - pick 2.

You're asking AMD vs Intel, want a quiet mITX build and are musing about a 1080/ti on a $1800 budget. I think that you will need to make some sacrifices from this initial stance.

Initial comments:
AMD 2600X for value compared to similarly priced Intel and longer-term socket compatibility, + decent included air cooler. Overclocking is moot with Ryzen and XFR2.
Loque Ghost is a boutique case and will eat into your budget. You may want to go with a more mass-produced case to preserve your budget.
1080/ti will be more power-hungry, hotter, noisier and expensive (over a third of your budget) than even a 1070/ti, so unless you really need to push that many pixels (and can afford a monitor that will require that kind of horsepower) I'd be selecting your GPU more carefully. The 1060 and possibly 1070 open cooler cards have probably better air cooling in small cases with high air turnover than blower cards and some even run passively under modest loads.
Watercooling erodes the value proposition for the 2600X a bit due to the included air cooler, and increases the size of the case you initially need to buy vs. just an air cooler to fit the rads and fans.

 

[Latr0s]

Thanks for the reply! Sorry I made my initial post rather hastily; my $1800 budget was made with the assumption that I'd be bringing over some components from my old build as I am sure I can use my ssd and possibly my RAM (G.skill Ripjaws V 3200 2x8GB) again. As for the Louqe I realize that its a premium case however I'm rather picky when it comes to picking equipment I'll be using daily and making sure that it has the right "feel" on my desk is more important to me than with most people. The $1800 budget does not include the case, as I'm already pretty set on the Louqe and the only questions I have are concerning the internals. Additionally, I'm going to continue using my 60hz 1440p monitor for the time being but have plans to upgrade to a higher refresh rate in the future, so that is also not a consideration for the budget as of now.

That said, going off of what you wrote I'd definitely pick Performance and Silence and leave the budget with a little flexibility.

• Concerning the CPU I have only ever used intel but am considering AMD because I have read that the new i7s run rather hot if you don't delid them (Something I've never done and would rather avoid until I learn more about it). If it comes at the cost of less driver support and compatibility with games by switching to AMD then I'll just stick with Intel
  
• When it comes to cooling I'm primarily wondering how the interplay between what type of cpu cooler I use and how my graphics card cools itself affects the ambient temperature and airflow in the case.

I apologize if my questions seem to be coming out of left field, I've only built one other ATX PC and have mostly just taught myself via youtube and build guides. I appreciate any help immensely!

 

[Latr0s]

This is what I'm considering at the moment:
PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/HZqdr6

CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($347.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus - ROG Strix Z370-I Gaming Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($178.93 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (Purchased For $0.00)
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB STRIX GAMING Video Card ($799.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Corsair - SF 600W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply ($114.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1440.81

 

[jtd871]

Concerning the CPU I have only ever used intel but am considering AMD because I have read that the new i7s run rather hot if you don't delid them (Something I've never done and would rather avoid until I learn more about it). If it comes at the cost of less driver support and compatibility with games by switching to AMD then I'll just stick with Intel

I don't know what you mean about driver support and compatibility with AMD CPUs and games. AMD Ryzen CPUs are fully x86-compatible and have been on the market long enough that the initial major teething problems have been largely sorted through firmware.

When it comes to cooling I'm primarily wondering how the interplay between what type of cpu cooler I use and how my graphics card cools itself affects the ambient temperature and airflow in the case.

If the case is small enough and the coolers have access to fresh (cool) air from an intake vent, then the fans themselves should turn over the air inside the case several times or more per minute. Not having the Ghost, I will suggest that you check out builds that use it in the Loque Ghost and Build Logs fora on this site.

 

[Latr0s]

I don't know what you mean about driver support and compatibility with AMD CPUs and games. AMD Ryzen CPUs are fully x86-compatible and have been on the market long enough that the initial major teething problems have been largely sorted through firmware.

Gotcha. I only asked because while I've never used AMD I know friends that have in the past and I remember them having some issues, this may have concerned AMD graphics cards more than the processors.

I'll be sure to check out the build logs! Thanks again.

 

[APSinc]

I guess case limitations are going to be the main decision factor when deciding on a cooler. You can't really overclock with an L9i from what I've read so any overclocking in a low-profile build will have to be done with watercooling. I've been favoring the Noctua nh-l12s because it offers some overclocking headroom, particularly in well ventilated cases, but most SFF cases don't support the necessary 70mm clearance.

From what I've read most of the teething issues have been worked out with the latest iteration of Ryzen, so it's mostly a matter of workload, where Ryzen generally performs better for more multi-threaded tasks while tasks that benefit more from clock speed than parallelization will be better with Intel's offerings, though reading reviews and such suggests that even heavily parallelized tasks may still benefit more from clock speed than core/thread count.

I've also been seeing 1080ti cards for sale on Newegg and Amazon for less than $700, so if you shop around depending on what you want out of it you might be able to pick one up for about $650.

 

[Beardedswede]

Most people don’t need overlocking. Only make sense I my thinking if you are a professional gamer or work related. Otherwise it’s mainly for fun , or it just feels good kinda thing. It affects temp and fan noise quite a lot. Air is superior for most uses and never stops working or needing to maintaining more then removing dust as you know.. But then again sff is a bit special. I would wait for the new processors to come out in a month or two if You can wait. And I only if you need a crazy cpu or overclocking I would be the L top hat and water cooler.

You don’t need to wwatercool the gpu.
Dont make it complex just becomes u can