S4 Mini Advice/Help/Suggestions/All of the above

[Philjd7]

I will preface my potentially lengthy post by saying I am a 100% novice when it comes to PC gaming. I have had interest in building a PC for a while however it has seemed like a daunting task and also I had not stumbled upon a form factor that really caught my attention...until now. I stumbled upon the S4 Mini and I am definitely intrigued with it and considering using that as my entry into PC gaming however I have no experience building PCs and am not 100% sure what a practical build would look like and also I do not believe I have the capacity to mod the build in any serious fashion like some of the creative geniuses in this thread and others.

The PC I would like to build would theoretically be used for:
Gaming at 1080p @ 60+ FPS and 4k @ 30+ FPS
Media streaming, multi-tasking, etc

I have attempted to research builds and such and so far this is what I have come to:

Processor -- Intel i7 7700k (I figure potential future proof?)

Motherboard -- (Not sure which would give me the best bang for my buck)

Memory -- Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory

GPU -- ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Mini

Storage -- 2tb Seagate Firecuda SSHD + Seagate 5tb 15mm HDD (I'd prefer hefty storage again for future proofing)

Power supply Case -- NFC-Systems S4 Mini

*Much of this is straight copied from PC Price Picker*

My concerns are:
I am looking for as close to a purchase and connect and run build as possible
Budget I saw on the PC part picker was sub 2k -- so ideally I would like similar
Overheating concerns
Being a 100% novice, I have 0 idea about BIOS diagnostics and such, which is why serious help is needed lol


BTW -- The case looks too freaking good not to at least see if this could be my first PC --

 

[DocH]

hey bud i think you may have posted in the wrong section. This is usually for people creating cases and not builds. Sounds like you are looking to do a build.

build logs are here for starting one and seeing existing ones:
https://smallformfactor.net/forum/category/build-logs/

You can always ask for some help in the S4 Mini thread here:
https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/nfc-systems-s4-mini.96/

Lastly a lot of your information your looking for is here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX_hxpkQMkx2qKSArbXOHrw

I am assuming you saw my build posted over there. Do some research and if you get stuck let us know on the SFF forums. Would it be easy as your first build. No it wouldn't but that doesn't mean you can't do it at all. If you purchase the accessories and case here:

http://nfc-systems.com/shop/

It will be easier as you won't have to do as much moding. Watch the youtube video josh did and you will be up to speed and look at other peoples builds on the forums before you decided exactly what you want.

 

[Philjd7]

Yeah I did actually. Thanks for the help - I will definitely look more into those threads and that channel to try and flesh out more details.

 

[Kmpkt]

Since you won't be able to get a case for a while (unless you already ordered one in the last batch), I would strongly caution you against buying any parts yet. While planning is obviously fine, its kind of moot at this time. Computex is in a week and we should see next generation product reveals from AMD (Vega GPUs), Intel (Coffee Lake/HEDT) and Nvidia (Volta). Odds are that all of these will be very SFF-friendly product releases and the amount of efficiency/power you can get into an S4 at the same price point will be significant.

 

[Philjd7]

Great point - thanks for that. I'll definitely need to take a look at that as well. Realistically speaking I won't be able to make any purchases for a few months but I figured getting info now would help me in the long run + my biggest obstacle is trying to avoid modding things on my own. I am glad I was directed to this site.

 

[jeshikat]

Thread moved

 

[Kmpkt]

The only thing I might think about buying now would be your M.2 (if you want to buy one) and your RAM since memory has been skyrocketing in price and as far as I know is forecast to continue doing so. DDR4 and PCIe M.2 won't be significantly different on the next generation of hardware.

 

[CubanLegend]

I will preface my potentially lengthy post by saying I am a 100% novice when it comes to PC gaming. I have had interest in building a PC for a while however it has seemed like a daunting task and also I had not stumbled upon a form factor that really caught my attention...until now. I stumbled upon the S4 Mini and I am definitely intrigued with it and considering using that as my entry into PC gaming however I have no experience building PCs and am not 100% sure what a practical build would look like and also I do not believe I have the capacity to mod the build in any serious fashion like some of the creative geniuses in this thread and others.

The PC I would like to build would theoretically be used for:
Gaming at 1080p @ 60+ FPS and 4k @ 30+ FPS
Media streaming, multi-tasking, etc

I have attempted to research builds and such and so far this is what I have come to:

Processor -- Intel i7 7700k (I figure potential future proof?)

Motherboard -- (Not sure which would give me the best bang for my buck)

Memory -- Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory

GPU -- ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080 Mini

Storage -- 2tb Seagate Firecuda SSHD + Seagate 5tb 15mm HDD (I'd prefer hefty storage again for future proofing)

Power supply Case -- NFC-Systems S4 Mini

*Much of this is straight copied from PC Price Picker*

My concerns are:
I am looking for as close to a purchase and connect and run build as possible
Budget I saw on the PC part picker was sub 2k -- so ideally I would like similar
Overheating concerns
Being a 100% novice, I have 0 idea about BIOS diagnostics and such, which is why serious help is needed lol


BTW -- The case looks too freaking good not to at least see if this could be my first PC --

That build you have planned sounds eerily similar to my current S4 Mini build. You can find it by clicking in my signature for my S4 Mini #193 build thread.

Just know that to fit the 1080mini inside the S4 Mini, you'll need to purchase the alternate 7mm 2D or 3D acrylic bezel, the original aluminum wrap-around bezel wont fit the 1080mini inside the S4 Mini.

 

[Philjd7]

That build you have planned sounds eerily similar to my current S4 Mini build. You can find it by clicking in my signature for my S4 Mini #193 build thread.

Just know that to fit the 1080mini inside the S4 Mini, you'll need to purchase the alternate 7mm 2D or 3D acrylic bezel, the original aluminum wrap-around bezel wont fit the 1080mini inside the S4 Mini.

Yeah - I attempted to mix and match as best as I could with what info I was able to find however your build always seemed to be what I considered the better one. My main issue is that I don't have the same mod ability as you or virtually anyone else who mods due to lack of access as well as lack of experience. If there was a way to mimic your build without actually modding much, that honestly would be great. I definitely want to build my own SFF PC - I just know my current limitations.

 

[CubanLegend]

Yeah - I attempted to mix and match as best as I could with what info I was able to find however your build always seemed to be what I considered the better one. My main issue is that I don't have the same mod ability as you or virtually anyone else who mods due to lack of access as well as lack of experience. If there was a way to mimic your build without actually modding much, that honestly would be great. I definitely want to build my own SFF PC - I just know my current limitations.

Well you dont need to have a delidded CPU, so a stock 7700k is fine. And you dont need to go for the LP53 cooler, so a stock NHL9i is fine. Thats a ton of modding removed right there.

Youd have to mod your HDPLEX DC-DC connector to fit the 1080mini like shown here in this video at 7minutes 53 seconds
or you could send your HDPLEX to Josh to do it for you. Speaking of modding the HDPLEX, You could also contact josh to do the custom cutting of your HDPLEX cables for you, contact him to see if he can either sell you a modded HDPLEX for your motherboard, modded to your liking (if he offers that), or you can do what I did and send him your HDPLEX to cut your cables to length and make them all one color. If you dont want to mod you can still fit all the original HDPLEX cables inside your S4 mini, they'll just be a little bunched up and wont all be one color.