Sub $1K first SFF attempt at a build. Please comment, chuckle. warn or advise.

cargo

Minimal Tinkerer
Original poster
May 22, 2019
3
2
Hi. This is my first post and I feel a little guilty about presenting as so needy.
I've never built any computer let alone a SFF but I have until September to figure it all out.
I'd just like to know if I have made any (many) egregious errors in my component selection. Or if my summer will feel like I am trying to put an aircraft carrier into a bottle during assembly..
My goal is sub 1000 dollars.
Capable of running most current games on medium + settings at 60+fps
Reasonably quiet
SFF ish (woohoo!)
ok here goes.....
Intel - Core i5-9400F 2.9 GHz 6-Core Processor
Noctua - NH-U12S 55 CFM CPU Cooler
ASRock - H310M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
G.Skill - Aegis 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Western Digital - Blue 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Zotac - GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB GAMING Video Card
NZXT - H200 Mini ITX Tower Case
Silverstone - 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified SFX Power Supply
Silent Case fans ???
Comes to about 1000 dollars Canadian before shipping
This is my absolute ceiling (of course I would prefer a better cpu and graphics card) and if we add something we have to shave something else.
Who is kidding who .... my budget ceiling is 800 bucks but I expect this community understands how I got over budget.
Anyway, I hope I posted somewhere near the correct forum.
Thanks to anyone who comments and passes judgement.
Oops, please move this to buids if it belongs there, sorry.
thankyou
 
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Kmpkt

Innovation through Miniaturization
KMPKT
Feb 1, 2016
3,382
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Personally I'd wait until after Computex (next week) as we will be seeing new Ryzen 3000 series GPUs, new AMD 500 series motherboards and Navi GPUs. While you may not end up wanting any of these products, I am thinking that we'll see a drop in prices of current generation hardware as NVidia and Intel change prices to compete. Depending on where the Navi GPUs land you might be able to get a substantially better GPU for your money.

As far as build errors go, I don't really see anything major but there is some room for improvement:

- Given that you're looking at a 65W TDP on your CPU you could probably save a decent amount on money on your CPU cooler. Hyper 212 Evo comes to mind and would save you about 40 bucks Canadian. Considering your CPUs TDP is substantially below the capacity of the cooler you shouldn't have any issues.

- If you're set on going Intel, know that the CPU performance doesn't significantly scale with RAM speed. You could probably save a few more bucks by going with a 2400 MHz kit. You're also going to want a 2 x 4GB kit instead of a 1 x 8GB kit to take advantage of the benefits provided by using Dual Channel RAM. If you want the same RAM just buy this kit (https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/product/TZwqqs/gskill-memory-f42400c15d8gis)

- If you're not set on an Intel based system, I'd personally go for a Ryzen build based on the 2600 (or the 3600 which will be released next week). It comes bundled with the very adequate Wraith Stealth which keeps you from needing to buy a cooler at all (ie. 80 bucks in savings).

With the extra savings, I would consider bumping from the 1660 to the 1660ti or just enjoy the extra cash

Also worth mentioning is that if you live near a Memory Express, they will price match and beat your PC Part Picker profile by 10% of the difference in price.

Finally if you're anywhere near Victoria, BC I have some spare new/nearly new stuff that I'd be willing to part with for below retail.
 
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Biowarejak

Maker of Awesome | User 1615
Platinum Supporter
Mar 6, 2017
1,744
2,262
If you use the motherboard box as the case, you can get away with about $100 over without losing much performance:
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/K8ky6s

I don't recommend this, though, and you can totally fit it in an LZ7. I would definitely nix the hard drive given your requirements, and maybe step down on capacity since I bumped it to a terabyte despite only using a 500gb unit myself. Also, going to AMD saves you cooler money at the cost of higher ITX motherboard prices.

Honestly I would consider just saving for longer, you'll have a less compromised build.

-edit-

And welcome to the forum!
 
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cargo

Minimal Tinkerer
Original poster
May 22, 2019
3
2
Thank you so much for your feedback. It looks like I might have enough cash left over to buy food in the fall now. I'll absolutely hold off on buying anything until after Computex. Never even crossed my mind. There are so many good ideas for me to chew on. Thank you both for your time. ?
I knew I should have bumped the 8GB of ram to 16GB as priority over childish aesthetics like the case!
 
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LeChuck81

SFF Lingo Aficionado
May 6, 2019
129
36
I would look into the Ryzen 5 3600. And in X570 MoBos. The latters may be more expensive than Intel's H310s but they'll offer future-proof and/or desidered features, mainly PCIe 4.0 and/or support for faster RAMs. Faster RAM is a great value for Ryzen CPUs, they work better the faster the RAM is.
And, as @Biowarejak suggested, I'd rule out the HDD. If needed, could eventually add a SATA SSD later.
As for RAM. If you currently aim for 8 GB for budget's sake, I'd go for a 1x8 GB but would also double it as soon as budget allows.
Going for 2x4 means you'll have to toss them as soon as you want to upgrade RAM, while going for single slot will give you room for upgradeability without any waste.
 
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SFF EOL

Cable-Tie Ninja
Dec 9, 2018
154
36
In the UK the sell through on old CPUs (as in Zen/Zen+) is ongoing and I would expect it to be finished by September for pretty much all Zen (Ryzen 1) and low stocks on Ryzen 2 in some parts of the range. For example you would have to look hard for a Ryzen 1600 from major supplier- they got discounted below £120 and went a while ago it seems. And further up is going the same way, the 2400G is probably discounted as far as it can go because it eats into the stock below it otherwise. I sort of missed out on the 1600 when it hit £116, I waited for it to go lower but they ran through stock and now at the moment the 1600X is still sat £50 more. I have a 1060 6GB and it is a solid 1080p card for medium upwards settings matched well with a Ryzen 1600. I did overclock but it isn’t really an overclocker (about 7%)- or I just ran out of interest as it plays games fine like that. It has a nice 65W TDP which is very easy to cool- that said mine is in a full case on sealed loop and benefits from Noctua fans, not sat in a warm room.

I wouldn’t be moved by PCIe 4 until/unless you can make a strong use case. I think it will be irrelevant for at least 2 years for the vast majority- especially on your budget. It would be like chasing SSD when they first launched, nice to have but a big budget commitment and the tech wasn’t always great at first. I’m a great believer in balanced systems and when people can get good overclocks on PCIe and whatever you will be able to afford won’t benefit from PCIe4 I can’t see the argument for it.

And if you go with an Intel chip the decisions are different, I am focussed on AMD mainly because that is the ‘informations nouvelless’ and so everyone is focussed on that. I don’t know the parity between Can $ and £ Stirling, in the UK we generally just have parity with the USA $ so £1 = $1 whatever the underlying exchange rate for PC stuff (not everything). And you have to take in to account the UK market will have its peculiarities and particulars that might not be the same in Canada. And the older CPUs will obviously be great value on the second hand market regardless.

Also I think if you can a 2TB HDD would be much better, especially in a SFF where it isn't like just chucking in another disk without great thought, if you have spent ages on cable management swapping out will be more a job of work and you may not have space for a 2nd drive.
 
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sheepdog43

Caliper Novice
Feb 17, 2019
25
12
That cpu comes with a heatsink, save your money on the Noctua and put it elsewhere, it's an easy upgrade later. Adjust the speeds in bios/software so it runs warm but not hot and it should be pretty quiet unless you're really pushing it.

Power supply, switch to the Corsair 600, it will run much cooler and nearly silent. The cost difference is minor but the performance and future proofing is major, and it has modular cables to boot.
 
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LeChuck81

SFF Lingo Aficionado
May 6, 2019
129
36
I wouldn’t be moved by PCIe 4 until/unless you can make a strong use case. I think it will be irrelevant for at least 2 years for the vast majority- especially on your budget. It would be like chasing SSD when they first launched, nice to have but a big budget commitment and the tech wasn’t always great at first. I’m a great believer in balanced systems and when people can get good overclocks on PCIe and whatever you will be able to afford won’t benefit from PCIe4 I can’t see the argument for it.
To be honest, I consider PCIe 4.0 a luxury too. The only thing that will use the added speed are NVMe SSDs and even so, unless one works with big files, the difference in daily usage will be hardly noticeable. The new X570 should support faster RAMs though and, with ZEN CPUs, that's always a good thing. If @cargo plans future upgrades to the system, and so selling the old RAM for faster onem, the new chipset will have its beneficial effects.
Also I think if you can a 2TB HDD would be much better, especially in a SFF where it isn't like just chucking in another disk without great thought, if you have spent ages on cable management swapping out will be more a job of work and you may not have space for a 2nd drive.
As @cargo says, he's building a gaming machine, a good 512 GB is a nice start and, should the need occur, he could get an external USB 3.x SSD, if adding an internal one proves to be too difficult.

Given the tight budget, something has to be sacrified. My logic is that a single slot RAM can easily be doubled or changed, and same goes with storage. Both with less money than a GPU or a (MoBo+)CPU.