ITX Workstation build

[IntoxicatedPuma]

Hi All,

I will be putting together my new workstation this week but it will take awhile before I get it to where I want. I figured I'd create a thread as it will go through several stages.

I will be using the following parts to start with:
Primo P115EA Case
1x Noctua 12cm front intake - or a Thermaltake Riing 12cm fan (orange LED)
2x Noctua 8cm rear exhaust
Silverstone ST30SF
Gigabyte B85N Phoenix Wifi
Intel Xeon E3 1231 v3
Noctua NH-U9S cooler
Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer (Orange LED) 2x4gb 1866mhz
EVGA GTX 660 2GB
Transcend 370 mSATA 256gb SSD
Crucial M500 480gb SSD

I plan to upgrade it over the next few months when I get the money for other parts or they become available:
Upgrade the power supply to Corsair SFX with custom sleeving
2x 2TB 2.5 hard drives (mirrored) for storage

I will be using it for video and photo editing, and occasionally light gaming.

I'll be setting up a desk for it in the summer - hopefully with a 34inch monitor

Case is ordered but won't arrive till tomorrow I think. Rest of the parts are ready from an old build so they're ready to go in

I will also be building a Test Bench during the same time that I want to use for testing stuff and playing around. It will be using an Asus B85M-Gamer motherboard, G3258 processor, some RAM i have laying around, an Asus R7 240 2gb graphics card, and an OCZ Trion 240g SSD. I haven't ordered the Test case yet but i will do that this week. I'll be testing CPU coolers (and writing reviews on them!) on it mostly.

Pictures will come tomorrow if the case arrives!

 

[IntoxicatedPuma]

Case arrived: Pictures below!

Asus B85M Gamer motherboard and the OCZ Trion SSD for it also arrived.

I've got all the parts for my Workstation so I will get to work on that soon. My Testbench still is waiting for its frame and may not arrive till Friday. So I guess I will have something to do on Saturday

 

[Pat-Roner]

Case arrived: Pictures below!

Asus B85M Gamer motherboard and the OCZ Trion SSD for it also arrived.

I've got all the parts for my Workstation so I will get to work on that soon. My Testbench still is waiting for its frame and may not arrive till Friday. So I guess I will have something to do on Saturday

Wow, thats an interesting case.

I can only find it on chinese sites - is this so?

 

[IntoxicatedPuma]

Seems to be, I feel I saw it on a French website somewhere though. I first saw it on JD.com (Chinese online retailer) in late December, so maybe it will come to other markets soon.

The build quality seems to be fairly good so far, the panels feel about as good as Fractal or Silverstone, although some of the edges don't feel quite as smooth. Not bad, just not great. I'll post some more pictures when I get home this evening.

The post on Chiphell.com for it: https://www.chiphell.com/article-14734-1.html
Chiphell.com's Review of it: https://www.chiphell.com/portal.php?mod=view&aid=14734&page=6
CowCotLand (FR) link for it: http://www.cowcotland.com/news/50840/test-boitier-primo-p115ea-itx.html

 

[Pat-Roner]

Seems to be, I feel I saw it on a French website somewhere though. I first saw it on JD.com (Chinese online retailer) in late December, so maybe it will come to other markets soon.

The build quality seems to be fairly good so far, the panels feel about as good as Fractal or Silverstone, although some of the edges don't feel quite as smooth. Not bad, just not great. I'll post some more pictures when I get home this evening.

The post on Chiphell.com for it: https://www.chiphell.com/article-14734-1.html
Chiphell.com's Review of it: https://www.chiphell.com/portal.php?mod=view&aid=14734&page=6
CowCotLand (FR) link for it: http://www.cowcotland.com/news/50840/test-boitier-primo-p115ea-itx.html

It also looks pretty damn good. I like the fact that they where able to get space behind the mobo.

Yes, plase do! Imma follow this thread.

 

[IntoxicatedPuma]

 

[IntoxicatedPuma]

Well, its up and running but it desperately needs a modular power supply with some custom cable lengths. I will need to take it apart when the corsair SFX comes out (I don't think an SFX-L will fit and I hate the noise of the 80mm fans!) And get some custom cables for it. Until then it's a tight fit inside. I will also need to get a fan controller because those Noctua are a bit loud at full blast with a splitter.

 

[Pat-Roner]

Looks good! How are the thermals? Are there any room for fans in the back?

Btw. What kind of sata cables are you using?

 

[IntoxicatedPuma]

Thermals are good. Using Noctua NH-U9S and just the rear 80mm Noctua fans (120mm isn't plugged in) it was under 55 on prime 95 + furmark on the CPU and 75 on the GPU. SATA cables are Silverstone...PP-11 maybe? The really small and short ones that go off to the side.

Edit: Just some thoughts on the case.

I would almost have preferred a slightly wider case to allow for
A) change the orientation of the power supply so the cables can go out the side.
B) allow for a bigger fan in the front and rear
C) allow taller CPU coolers. The Noctua fits but just barely. 130mm is the limit on this.
I think they could do with a shorter case in height, the extra PCI slot isn't really useful unless you have a 3 PCI slot width card, and then I think just a small gap on the end would be nice, although it does have a ton of cable routing spaces at the top (and bottom).

At it's current size, it would not be difficult to make it a micro-atx case - in fact their is a case that you can get that's almost the same size and is Micro ATX:

This sunmilo case is 18.9L:
300mm tall x 180mm wide x 350mm deep, 140mm CPU clearance and 300mm GPU clearance.

The Primo is 15.9L:
280mm tall x 165mm wide x 345mm deep, only 130mm CPU clearance and 305mm GPU clearance.

Although, it seems a little ridiculous I am complaining about the size of a 16 liter case.....I guess it's more the waste of space, as next to my girlfriends PC that is 13L, I can't tell a difference in size.

 

[IntoxicatedPuma]

An update on the thermals... Apparently furmark wasn't pushing the 660 as hard as I thought. I bumped up the clocks a tiny bit and started hitting 85C on the card while running Unigine Valley and FarCry Primal. I took it apart to check for dust and re-apply thermal paste, then plugged in the front 120mm fan and set it up pointing half at the video card and half towards the CPU and now I'm at 78C

 

[Pat-Roner]

Well, thats pretty respectable temps. Temps on the CPU?

With the new corsair sf-600 launching any day now, you'll be able to get a nice PSU as well.

 

[IntoxicatedPuma]

CPU is about 60C after running alot of benchmarks.

I want the new SF-600 to release soon so I can get some shorter cables in here and clean it up a bit. I also want to upgrade the video card to either an R9 380 or GTX 970.

 

[Pat-Roner]

CPU is about 60C after running alot of benchmarks.

I want the new SF-600 to release soon so I can get some shorter cables in here and clean it up a bit. I also want to upgrade the video card to either an R9 380 or GTX 970.

Thats not bad at all. The ncase M1 also tends to get a bit hot.

Yeah, according to corsair, it's on it's way, and should pop up in webshops soon. Theres at least a couple of listings in where I live.
If you want really good cables, go to www.icemodz.eu and you can order custom length cables for a pretty good price, and the quality is awesome.

Theres more wether you want the 390 or the 970 - they're more similar in performance, but I would choose the 970 just because of the efficiency. Thats nice to have in a small and "hot" itx case.

 

[IntoxicatedPuma]

R9 390 is about 2500rmb here and I have trouble finding any that aren't triple fan, which won't fit so well. The GTX970 I can find for about 2200rmb and can get with a dual fan or blower cooler. The R9 380 also in dual fan but more affordable 1500rmb. I had a GTX960 before and I think it performs better than the 380 at 1080p, so I may think about that with a nice overclocked too...

 

[IntoxicatedPuma]

Test bench is built!

Now I need to wait for my next paycheck and the SF450 to release in China so I can get to some cable management on my new workstation..

 

[Skylatian]

What case is this? It’s wonderful and seems to be exactly what I’m looking for. I can’t find it anywhere though.

 

[Vlad502]

I guess is sunmilo BG2 matx

 

[tinyitx]

This looks like a Sunmilo case, BG2 or BG3?