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ils411 on 19 January 2010
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Garcian Smith said:
ils411 said:
great thread! very informative!

could somebody advise me regarding mini-itx? i'm thinking of upgrading to a new pc and need to save space so i'm considering a mini-itx rig. is that any good? or will it be too weak to play current games?

Thanks!

And no, I wouldn't recommend Mini-ITX for a gaming machine. You'll be hard-pressed to even find a mini-ITX mobo with an AM3 or LGA1156 socket (most use AM2+ or some older Intel socket), even a single PCI-E x16 port, or support for DDR3 RAM. In other words, the standard is poorly suited for gaming.

If you're looking to save space and you want to go with the Athlon II X3 435-based "standard gamer" build, then I'd start with a Lian Li PC-V351B and a Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H Micro-ATX mobo and go to town from there. That'll give you a case that's smaller than your standard mid tower, but with all of the features of a standard ATX build (minus one or two PCI ports and expansion slots). The video card will take up one of the PCI ports as well as the PCI-E, but that still leaves you with a PCI-E x1 port for a wireless card or TV tuner and a PCI port for whatever you might need a PCI port for.

A few caveats, though: First, a Micro-ATX case won't be able to fit most larger video cards, but you should be able to squeeze a Radeon 4770 or 4850 in there with little effort. Second, Micro-ATX cases may be difficult to build in for a first-time builder. Make sure that you get a modular power supply in order to minimize stray cables.

For comparison's sake, by the by: The Lian Li is 14.69" x 10.98" x 10.31", while the Cooler Master Centurion 5 (my standard recommended ATX mid tower) is 18.90" x 7.95" x 17.13"

Thanks for the advice. I'll keep them in mind while i try and put together my first  ever build. though this may be the first time i try to build a pc from the ground up, i have been keeping my current desktop for the past so many years :P i haven't gamed on this pice of trash for years!i dont realy know what board this shit has as i just got this from my brother and never bothered upgrading. though i have replaced the video card when the really old 32mb gforce crap gave, also replaced the psu when it exploded (funny,  everything still works even after it literaly went up in smokes), replaced the optical drive, hdd and added some ram. 

Haven't found much of a reason to upgrade. But with Starcraft2 and Diablo3 in the works i think its about time that i build myself a nice new rig or at the least something that can run those two games at settings between low and midium settings i'm not too particular with graphic details. I look more into gameplay though having nice graphics give some insentives.

on a side note, anybody knows if they've released the system requirements for starcraft2 and diablo3?

edit: nevermind i looked it up

StarCraftWire.net Minimum Specifications:

  • CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
  • Memory: 1 GB RAM
  • Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce FX 5500
  • Hard Disk Space: Undeterminable*

StarCraftWire.net Alternative Minimum Specifications:

  • CPU: Athlon XP 2500+
  • Memory: 1 GB RAM
  • Graphics Card: ATI Radeon 9700
  • Hard Disk Space: Undeterminable*

http://starcraft.incgamers.com/articles/comments/starcraft-2-system-requirements

damn, if that's the minimum specs then i'll just upgrade my freakin video card in my crapy p4 2.6Ghz PC and BAM! LOL