Description

Before you comment about how I already uploaded, I felt like there were enough changes to justify a re-upload. I can take it down if needed.

CPU- The Athlon 750k fit my budget and got good reviews. An easy overclock pushed it to 4.4GHz

Motherboard- A great mITX board with wireless AC, which is perfect because I don't have Ethernet near my computer. Overclocks nicely, but lacks any good software features. (Like Asus AI Suite or anything like that)

Cooler- Works fine, but temperatures are a little higher than I like. Probably just a thermal paste problem which can be fixed in the future.

GPU- The 7870GHz is a good card and I easily pushed it to 1300MHz memory and 1250MHz core. Now with Mantle, Battlefield runs a constant 80fps high settings at 1920x1200. Can get a bit loud with the overclock, but I don't really care.

HDD and SSD - The HDD is... well... an HDD. The Sandisk Cache seems to be working...

Case- The case was very good for the price, and it was compatible with 120mm water coolers. I have the PSU facing down and pulling hot air out of the case and exhausting out the back.

Peripherals- The Corsair K40 and the CM Storm Recon totaled at about 100$, and 100$ well spent. Both have excellent software and capabilities beyond what I need. As for monitors, I have a dual monitor setup with a 1920x1200 NEC monitor as the main one, and an ancient 1650x1050 Samsung monitor as a secondary. I got them for free from a shipping mistake. The Siberia V2 I got for my birthday and the mic sounds nice, and the sound is good enough for music.

All in all, the build went well and redoing cable management lowered the core temp 4 degrees. I used velcro ties from amazon and I would recommend them to anyone who wants their cable management to be better. The noctua fan is dead silent, as expected. The dust filters were a welcome addition as a large collection of dust was building up without them. (I did clean out the computer after these pictures.)

Great gaming setup for around 900$. Framerates are over 60 in any game besides Crysis 3, which is just a very intensive game.

Feel free to leave feedback or opinions or suggestions

Comments

  • 68 months ago
  • 12 points

You sir are a cable management god

  • 68 months ago
  • 7 points

Thanks, I redid it soon after I completed the build and it certainly paid off

  • 58 months ago
  • 2 points

He is a god D: I feel like it would be hard to work with cables in a case like this D:

  • 68 months ago
  • 5 points

Cable management rocks, I wish I was that good!! Great build!!

  • 68 months ago
  • 2 points

Thanks!

  • 68 months ago
  • 2 points

Great little machine! I really like the look of that video card.

  • 68 months ago
  • 2 points

Yeah I was a little bit uneasy about how the brown PCB would look but it turned out fine in the end

  • 68 months ago
  • 2 points

That's a bad mount on the CPU cooler with either thermal paste or it's not on there correctly. It might ruin your god-like cable management, but dat CPU is hot!

  • 68 months ago
  • 2 points

Yeah, I think I might get different thermal paste and reapply, because I bet that I could push this to 4.8 if I wanted

  • 67 months ago
  • 2 points

Nice job! Great cable management. I need to get similar dust filters for my build. :)

  • 67 months ago
  • 2 points

can you post a lint to the zip ties exactly ? I found couple of ones on amazon but I wasnt sure. thanks.

  • 66 months ago
  • 2 points

Nice cable management lol

  • 66 months ago
  • 1 point

Thanks mate

  • 66 months ago
  • 1 point

Np

  • 64 months ago
  • 2 points

Why didnt you go with the 760k its 5 more dollars and more powerfull

  • 64 months ago
  • 2 points

When I bought the 750k the 760k was 15$ more and I didn't mind overclocking. 4.4ghz exceeds the 760k

  • 64 months ago
  • 2 points

awesome build at this price tag. how's the computer been running since? any temperature changes?

  • 64 months ago
  • 2 points

It has been serving me well. The GPU seems to have some sort of strange clock speed self-adjustment which makes it perform badly in some games (like Minecraft) but for my uses it doesn't really matter. If I were to buy this computer in 2014, I would have added an R9 270 and an Athlon 760k instead. The 860k comes out soon which will most likely be my first major upgrade.

  • 64 months ago
  • 1 point

sweet and good to know. thanks for the reply!

  • 56 months ago
  • 1 point

have you checked your gpu temps? that could be the cause of its loudness and other issues. its easy to see how that would be a problem when overclocked in that tiny case.

  • 68 months ago
  • 1 point

Nice Destiny screensaver.

  • 68 months ago
  • 2 points

I'm hyped for that game, as you can probably tell

  • 61 months ago
  • 1 point

+1 for destiny

  • 67 months ago
  • 1 point

I am about to put a similar build together, is there a reason why you replaced the front 120 mm fan? Also, how is your air flow through the system? I assume with the dust filters, you have fans pulling in cool air and pushing hot air out?

  • 67 months ago
  • 2 points

I put in the Noctua fan because it is quieter and has higher performance than the fan that came with the Seidon 120v. The front fan is basically the only intake for this case so I recommend running a push pull configuration on the radiator. My temperatures are higher than I'd like currently but I'm betting that that is because of a bad thermal paste application. In addition, something (I'm guessing the WiFi) of the computer causes some games to rubber band badly, BF4 included. Cable management is easy as long as you order Velcro ties along with your parts.

  • 67 months ago
  • 2 points

Did you do a push pull setup? I only see the Noctua fan that does the pushing. I am not an expert at this at all, so maybe I am missing something.

I will gladly pick up those Velcro strips. I can see those being extremely useful. Those and the Modular power supply should make for easy cable management. I assume based on your pictures that a semi modular power supply was easy and efficient enough?

Also, I almost forgot to complement your build, it looks very well done. Going to use this build as a blueprint for mine this summer.

  • 67 months ago
  • 2 points

Thanks, I can answer any questions that you have. The Seidon 120v didn't come with screws for a push pull setup, so I just got one good fan. If you did go with the push/pull route then the airflow in yours would be much better than in mine. The semi-modular power supply and the velcro straps makes cable management relatively easy to do but making upgrades will be a pain because of the non-modular cables in the semi-modular power supply, so I recommend going fully modular if you can.

  • 63 months ago
  • 1 point

Yeah, the reason your CPU can be OCed to 3.8ghz is because your parts don't consume a lot of power.

With an i5 4690k and R9 290, there's barely any room to overclock.

  • 61 months ago
  • 1 point

Looks like a great build. Why does the title say "$550?"

  • 61 months ago
  • 1 point

The price of the computer without peripherals was 550$

  • 61 months ago
  • 1 point

I got that now...

  • 61 months ago
  • 1 point

oh then never mind my comment sorry bout that

  • 61 months ago
  • 1 point

bang 4 buck ratio: 1:10,000,000,000

  • 49 months ago
  • 1 point

1 bang, 10,000,000,000 buck? Jkjk, but thats what that means.... switch the numbers around and youll be set! \,,/(_^)\,,/

  • 59 months ago
  • 1 point

That side case modification is awesome! The cable management is amazing! I love this build. I am planning to use the CM 130 Elite for my first build, and this is a great inspiration. (note to self, buy more cable ties...)+1

  • 59 months ago
  • 1 point

I personally, after using it for over a year, despise it. I was initially like you, completely stoked about using such a small form factor case, but there is literally no room to expand, cable management is a pain, and you wind up regretting ever going mini-ITX. I hate to burst your bubble, but going mATX is the way to go if you want compact, yet room to expand.

  • 59 months ago
  • 1 point

Wow, what a bummer. I have been looking at a lot of small case builds on PCPP, and I'm sorry to hear that you don't love it. Its one of the nicest rigs I've seen. My plan is to build a solid little rig, play it for a year or two, sell it, and then see whats on the market. You really should give yourself more credit for creating such a sweet little rig. Thanks for the heads up though.

  • 52 months ago
  • 1 point

How is the corsair keyboard holding up for you? Thought about buying one, but I wanna get feed back first...

  • 52 months ago
  • 2 points

Really badly, actually. WASD key paint already wearing out. Do yourself a favor and go mechanical

  • 50 months ago
  • 1 point

i open your build two days ago, i don wanna close the link... i wish i could sabe my favorite build's... but well... i just type here cause' iwant u to know a really like this build . +1 all day !

  • 49 months ago
  • 1 point

What are your cpu temperatures at 4.4ghz? Im thinking abput getting the seidon for my build.

  • 15 months ago
  • 1 point

What framerate on GTA V?