Going ITX

[g0ggles1994]

Hey everyone

I've been looking at doing some upgrades to my rig, specs are in my signature. I've mainly been looking at building a Mini ITX cube reusing my SSD, HDDs, PSU and cooler. Everything else is going to be new since my 780 is showing its age now (Plus its power hungry as hell) and I've been looking for Z97 ITX boards but here in the UK a decent one (I refuse to buy AsRock, been there, never again) is like gold dust so Zen or Kaby Lake it will be.

I'm mainly just wondering if anyone else has made the switch to ITX and is there any advice I could get or any warnings? Pretty much got my heart set on an Obsidian 250D.

Many Thanks

 

[tinytomlogan]

Off topic - if you still have the board Id put money on BIOS flashback fixing the borked board.

You have to change the BIOS file name to something specific to get it to work and be picked up (look in manual or google) then put that on a USB stick thats empty beside that and follow the instruction in the manual on where to put the stick (only one port works) and how long to press the button for etc etc

Ive brought boards back from the dead like this and its worth a look as long as you follow ALL points (especially the naming thing, its has to be changed or wont work)

 

[barnsley]

I'm moving away from ITX. IMO its great if you're moving all the time and want a legitimately small/interesting PC. However its crap if you either have a lot of storage or you're pretty fussy about temperatures. I'm moving to ATX as I've bought two GPUs.

For advice I'd say:
- Get a card that has a blower type gpu cooler aka reference/founders edition
- Really, really REALLY plan things out
- buy the best fans you can get

Personally I'd avoid the 250D and shop around for something else.

 

[g0ggles1994]

Off topic - if you still have the board Id put money on BIOS flashback fixing the borked board.

Ironically it was BIOS Flashback that ruined it. I've used it since day one making sure I had a BIOS that supported my 4790K. What happened this time was that the power cut out while the update was being done (Yep, the joy of pre-paid meters) and once I got the power back on, I tried doing another flashback and it just wouldn't have it, would just flash error every time, so I just thought about not messing around with downtime and got the cheap MSI board as I need the rig for my uni work as well.

But thanks anyway TTL. By the way, it was your video that convinced me to buy my H440 which again, thank you.

I'm moving away from ITX. IMO its great if you're moving all the time and want a legitimately small/interesting PC. However its crap if you either have a lot of storage or you're pretty fussy about temperatures. I'm moving to ATX as I've bought two GPUs.

For advice I'd say:
- Get a card that has a blower type gpu cooler aka reference/founders edition
- Really, really REALLY plan things out
- buy the best fans you can get

Personally I'd avoid the 250D and shop around for something else.

Thanks for the advice mate, I thought about temps and such and it generally the space aspect of it that I want, my H440 is taking up too much room so I thought a little cube would look great on my desk. Also fair enough on the dual GPUs, I've ran SLI in the past and I really struggle to try and justify the sheer cost of it, especially with all the horror stories with game optimizations and such. Any particular reason to avoid the 250D? From what I've read it's the best one I can get, especially since I've got a H100i

 

[Dawelio]

Hey dude,

I've gone from ATX -> mATX -> mITX -> mATX and now back to ATX again.

I also went the ITX road as I wanted something small and space saving. Although, I'm with barnsley on temperatures, that is a real pain in the arse to be honest.
When I was on ITX, temps were hard to control really, and they tend to get hot due to it's limited space.

The cases I have experience with though are the Corsair 250D (which you are considering) and the Cooler Master Elite 110.

From my experiences the Elite 110 is a cute little case, that take the least space you can get really. Although it does have it's restrictions, such as an SFX PSU would be best suited for it. It has limitations in terms of GPUs measurements and it can only hold an 120 AIO if you wish for watercooling.

The 250D is one of the more famous ITX cases out there, although it's quite big in my eyes, especailly since my previous experience with the Elite 110.

The 250D absolute worst and weakest point in my eyes are the cable management. It barely has ANY cable downs at all in the case and you basically need to tie all the PSU cables togheter in order to keep down on the floor itself. If you don't get like those doublesided cable hold downs and then use a zip tie around the cables on them.
It was a nightmare keeping the cables clean in that case and I spent numerous hours with it and frustration was really building up, untill I realized that no matter how much I tried, it wouldn't become good at all. The case just has too bad of a cable management design in it, unfortunately.

It does support an H100i in it, which is one of it's stronger points and you CAN fit an 200m fan in the front, but it's tight and only work with certain fans of that size (I've tested).

And with an 200m fan in there, the airflow was quite nice indeed. My mom has the 250D now after I built her an PC of older parts that I had. And I gotta say, aesthetically, it's one of the builds that I'm most proud of.

In my eyes, the 250D is a bit of a hard choice really... I know the feeling when you want to get an ITX case and the 250D looks really promising. But when you've worked it in, you'll get a second opinion on it completely, as it's not really build friendly in terms of cable management, which is a huge factor in terms of overally airflow and temperatures in ITX builds.

Hope this helps a bit, I'm aware that it's not much positive thoughts etc for you, but I rather be honest from my personal point of view, rather than not being. For you to be aware of my experiences with it, to keep these things in mind. That it can be quite tricky to work with, when you make your decision of which case.

Any other questions you might have, let me know and I'll try to help you out the best I can

 

[g0ggles1994]

Hey Chrazey

Don't worry about most of it not being positive, any advice from people who have proper hands on experience whether positive or negative is appreciated, and just want to say a big thank you for giving me such a detailed look at it, will most certainly bear it in mind. I have looked at the Elite 110 but its the whole not being able to recycle my PSU and cooler is what put me off because right now, I wouldn't have the budget to do an entire new system otherwise I would do.

Again, thank you for that comprehensive reply, means a great deal