Cooltek U2 build, sense check before I go too far.

Mr Whippy

New member
I'm wanting to have a second machine as a backup for work and also for a dedicated gaming set up for driving games, so also having decent GPU to power something like a trio of 1080p 27" screens, or a widescreen 34" curved Dell or LG 1440p screen.

This new machine might become the main one, and my current one the backup one. I'm not entirely sure right now.
But I'm fed up of huge cases. They just seem like they hold lots of dead air and empty space these days.

So I want all the best of everything also in a small case. Quiet, fairly cheap, small, powerful. Not too much to ask for haha.



Current thoughts are:

Cooltek U2 in red £60

Red themed Asus ITX X97 mobo ROG thingy £150

i5 or i7 @ 4.0ghz or so with Noctua NHD14 or equivalent, I'm pretty sure it fits alongside VGA but I guess the mobo config will determine that. £250-£300

Zotac GTX970 (looks like it's 20-21cm long, the U2 can accommodate 22cm VGA cards) £260

Any ram, I'm not really sure on ram but I have some mid-range corsair stuff that fits under my NHD14 right now that seems ok. But I'd probably get 16gb at least, and if it's cheap enough 32gb. £100

M2 drive for storage. Data can go on the other machine, or a NAS if I get around to it. Probably 256gb should be ample, with a split partition for system/local data. £150

PSU, whatever fits and does the job. Looks like I have more choice than ever these days. £100

CD/DVD can be external USB so that isn't a problem.

Hopefully those ROG boards have good audio so that is covered there.




So far I'm at around £1150, which seems a lot, but it'd be more than ample for any current games/workload needs I have, and hopefully it'd be fairly quiet too. And it's really nice and small too.


Have I missed anything really obvious?

It'll have WiFi, LAN, audio, decent processor, lots of ram, nice GPU, fast HDD... I really can't think what else it's missing and seems like a great price considering the spec and size etc.


I'll try figure out more exactly what I want but there are so many mobo choices even in ITX. And how they impact VGA position and CPU cooler position are really the main problems hehe.



Thanks for any thoughts/advice at this early stage.

Dave
 
you will get in trouble with the psu and the NH-D15, they will be very close together, it fits but just barely, also dont hope for anything nice for cable Management :D otherwise it should be good to go
 
I've done super rough measurements and it looks like this Zotac one just fits, but the reference ones looks about 5cm too long :(

The alternatives are a Node 304 case but I really like the idea of a smaller footprint and more vertical height so the desk space used up is lower.

I also looked at the Silverstone Fortress Mini but they're surprisingly not THAT small.




TPC, I think the NHD14/15 are about the same size, but yes it's a risk that if something isn't perfect that it'll get into the VGA or PSU space.

I'm not averse to an AIO water cooler, I quite like the idea of one just for fun. But I've heard they are not as quiet as an NHD14 which is what is putting me off... not that my current NHD14 is particularly loud ever.


I saw NZXT just released a 14cm thicker rad AIO, but I'm not sure that it's not now too big for these SFF builds. It'd be great to see a thicker rad 120mm one :)


Cheers

Dave
 
the zotac one is 204mm long so you will have enough space ;) and a single 120 rad in the back like the one from nzxt or even the one from corsair will be silent. May have a look at them
 
That sounds like great news for those options then!

Thanks for the exact specs on the Zotac length. It looks to be a perfect little card given the power for SFF boxes.
No overhead above the PCI slot, short length, and constrained well within the double slot size.
I suppose the only real issue to watch may be noise levels vs some of the others... if perhaps the cooling capacity is reduced etc.



AIO seems an easy approach too. I can just mount a fan at the front to bring air in from the front sides (with some modding to improve air flow over that riser plate), and then the rear fan upgraded and internally mounted on the rad should do a pretty nice job I think.

It also relieves a lot of worries about RAM and PSU airflow/interference using an AIO.


I'll start building up a specific shopping list shortly.

It looks like the red case is tough to find, so I might just go for black at this rate... unless I can get a red one sent over from Germany.


Thanks again

Dave
 
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