# mATX Build



## Dia01 (Feb 10, 2015)

Hey guys, I've been thinking about upgrading my ageing X58 system to a smaller mATX build, my current thoughts are as follows:

*CASE*            Corsair MicroATX Carbide Series AIR 240 White
*MB*               ASUS S1150 MicroATX Maximus VII Gene Motherboard
*CPU*              Intel S1150 Core i7 4790K 4.00Ghz Quad Core CPU
*RAM*             DDR3 16GB (2x8G) 1866MHz Kingston HyperX FURY BLACK RAM
*GPU*              NVIDIA GTX970 4GB ASUS OC STRIX
*COOLING*     Corsair H105 High Performance CPU Liquid Cooler
*HDD*             256GB Samsung XP941 M.2 PCIe SSD Drive
*PSU*              Using my existing Corsair AX1200

Any thoughts, advice?


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## peche (Feb 11, 2015)

Pretty good.. i'm wondering if it's a little big that PSU for your project,
Excellent hardware by the way fella!

Regards, 
.


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## bonehead123 (Feb 12, 2015)

Looks like a pretty good setup overall, just a few ??

1)  What OS are you planning on using
2)  Are you not planning on using a spinning HDD for storage and keep the SSD as an OS Boot drive ?
3)  Are you not gonna have an Optical drive ?  (no matter either way, just curious)
4)  What provisions, if any have you made for cooling beyond the cpu cooler ?

FYI....I am in the process of buying parts for/building a similar, albeit slightly lower-spec'd machine, and these are some of the questions I was asked from the start....


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## Dia01 (Feb 12, 2015)

peche said:


> Pretty good.. i'm wondering if it's a little big that PSU for your project,
> Excellent hardware by the way fella!
> 
> Regards,
> .


I was planning to use my existing PSU, save buying another.  Normally, yes I agree it would be overkill



bonehead123 said:


> Looks like a pretty good setup overall, just a few ??
> 
> 1)  What OS are you planning on using
> *Currently using Windows 10 Preview, I was going to upgrade to the final when time came
> ...


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## HammerON (Feb 12, 2015)

Looks pretty good. As an owner of the Corsair AX1200 (for about 3 years and many different builds), I couldn't agree more with keeping it for your new build. Wonderful PSU

What will the new build be used for? If gaming, what resolution do you utilize?


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## Dia01 (Feb 12, 2015)

HammerON said:


> Looks pretty good. As an owner of the Corsair AX1200 (for about 3 years and many different builds), I couldn't agree more with keeping it for your new build. Wonderful PSU
> 
> What will the new build be used for? If gaming, what resolution do you utilize?



Generally I use the PC for day to day tasks and I game a little atm at resolution 1920x1080 using a 27" Samsung SA350 which is plenty for me

I was thinking of going with a MSI Z97M Gaming mobo, any good bad experiences from anyone?


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## Hood (Feb 12, 2015)

Dia01 said:


> Hey guys, I've been thinking about upgrading my ageing X58 system to a smaller mATX build, my current thoughts are as follows:
> 
> *CASE*            Corsair MicroATX Carbide Series AIR 240 White
> *MB*               ASUS S1150 MicroATX Maximus VII Gene Motherboard
> ...


The M.2 drive is very tempting, I know because I got a Plextor M6e when they came out.  The problem is, you won't ever notice the increased sequential speeds. Your daily use scenario involves mostly small 4k reads and writes by the OS.  The XP941 won't feel noticeably faster than an 840 Pro or 850 Pro, it only looks better in sequential benchmarks.  Using the M.2 slot will also disable 2 of your Intel SATA ports.  Asus M.2 slots only support PCIe 2.0 x 2 lanes, the XP941 is PCIe 2.0 x 4 lanes, so it won't perform at full speed anyway unless it's mounted in a PCIe x 4 M.2 card, or used with a board that has an "ultra M.2 slot" (PCIe 3.0 x 4 lanes).  Like the Asrock Z97 Extreme 6 (which disables at least 3 SATA ports if M.2 is populated).  Either way, it's probably not worth the expense and trouble unless you have the extra PCIe lanes of the X99 chipset and Haswell E CPU (28 to 40 lanes).  Z97's 16 lanes are not enough to support fast M.2 without sacrificing something, possibly also VGA bandwidth.


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## Dia01 (Feb 12, 2015)

Hood said:


> The M.2 drive is very tempting, I know because I got a Plextor M6e when they came out.  The problem is, you won't ever notice the increased sequential speeds. Your daily use scenario involves mostly small 4k reads and writes by the OS.  The XP941 won't feel noticeably faster than an 840 Pro or 850 Pro, it only looks better in sequential benchmarks.  Using the M.2 slot will also disable 2 of your Intel SATA ports.  Asus M.2 slots only support PCIe 2.0 x 2 lanes, the XP941 is PCIe 2.0 x 4 lanes, so it won't perform at full speed anyway unless it's mounted in a PCIe x 4 M.2 card, or used with a board that has an "ultra M.2 slot" (PCIe 3.0 x 4 lanes).  Like the Asrock Z97 Extreme 6 (which disables at least 3 SATA ports if M.2 is populated).  Either way, it's probably not worth the expense and trouble unless you have the extra PCIe lanes of the X99 chipset and Haswell E CPU (28 to 40 lanes).  Z97's 16 lanes are not enough to support fast M.2 without sacrificing something, possibly also VGA bandwidth.



I understand all that and quite honestly you're right.  My understanding though (if I'm correct) is that the 256GB XP941 M.2 only just over saturates the SATA M.2 interface by about 80MB/s anyway, the 512GB XP941 is a different matter again.  As far as performance and what I generally use the PC for, I agree, I won't see a great difference at all from a 840 Pro or 850 Pro for example for the majority of tasks put to use.  Honestly, buying a X99 for the additional lanes is really just an expense I don't want and from the reviews I've read, reduction from PCIe x16 to x8 for the GPU won't hurt the performance of a 970 GTX in any case. More than anything really, I just like new tech and quite honestly the M.2 just interest me atm.  Thanks though, good comments


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## Hood (Feb 12, 2015)

Dia01 said:


> I understand all that and quite honestly you're right.  My understanding though (if I'm correct) is that the 256GB XP941 M.2 only just over saturates the SATA M.2 interface by about 80MB/s anyway, the 512GB XP941 is a different matter again.  As far as performance and what I generally use the PC for, I agree, I won't see a great difference at all from a 840 Pro or 850 Pro for example for the majority of tasks put to use.  Honestly, buying a X99 for the additional lanes is really just an expense I don't want and from the reviews I've read, reduction from PCIe x16 to x8 for the GPU won't hurt the performance of a 970 GTX in any case. More than anything really, I just like new tech and quite honestly the M.2 just interest me atm.  Thanks though, good comments


This article from TweakTown explains the difference - 
To get that level of performance, Samsung tapped a new 3-core controller and paired it with Low Power DDR2 DRAM and 19nm Toggle MLC NAND flash. The UAX controller is a PCIe to SATA bridge that operates on PCIe 2.0 in either x2 or x4 mode. To get the most out of your XP941, you need to use an x4 slot, but using an x2 (10Gb/s) slot will only reduce the sequential read by 80 MB/s and have little or no effect on the sequential write speed.

Read more at http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6630/samsung-xp941-256gb-ultra-m-2-pcie-ssd-review/index.html
So the x2 slot won't slow it down much, but still...I agree, X99 isn't worth it, too many problems with DDR4 and overclocking, but it will natively boot Windows from an XP941 (Z97 requires workarounds/UEFI booting)


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## Dia01 (Feb 12, 2015)

Hood said:


> This article from TweakTown explains the difference -
> To get that level of performance, Samsung tapped a new 3-core controller and paired it with Low Power DDR2 DRAM and 19nm Toggle MLC NAND flash. The UAX controller is a PCIe to SATA bridge that operates on PCIe 2.0 in either x2 or x4 mode. To get the most out of your XP941, you need to use an x4 slot, but using an x2 (10Gb/s) slot will only reduce the sequential read by 80 MB/s and have little or no effect on the sequential write speed.
> 
> Read more at http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6630/samsung-xp941-256gb-ultra-m-2-pcie-ssd-review/index.html
> So the x2 slot won't slow it down much, but still...I agree, X99 isn't worth it, too many problems with DDR4 and overclocking, but it will natively boot Windows from an XP941 (Z97 requires workarounds/UEFI booting)



What is worrying more than anything for me is the actual heat these things create:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Samsung-XP941-Plextor-PX-G256-M6e-M-2-Qualification-575/

I'm really not too sure ATM which way to go and to even upgrade or not.....


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## Dia01 (Mar 2, 2015)

So I've settled on my new mATX build and placed order's for the following:

*CASE* Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Micro Tower Chassis Glacier White
*MB* MSI Z97M Gaming Motherboard
*CPU* Intel S1150 Core i7 4790K 4.00Ghz Quad Core CPU
*RAM* DDR3 16GB (2x8G) 1866MHz Kingston HyperX FURY REDRAM
*GPU* MSI NVIDIA GTX 970 Gaming 4G Graphics Card
*COOLING* Corsair H105 High Performance CPU Liquid Cooler
*HDD* Samsung 850 EVO Series 250GB SSD
*PSU* Using my existing Corsair AX1200

I've decided to go with the EVO instead of the XP941 m.2 which is more sensible at this moment and to keep the cost down.  I also chose the Enthoo Evolv over the Air 240 case, a little more expensive but a much better premium product I think.  I also thought the MSI Z97M should hold up quite well from the reviews I have read, this was a toss up between the Asus Gene VII but the cheaper price was the deciding factor at the end of the day.  All in all the system cost me in total $1,897.22 AUD which I think is a reasonable price for a mid-high end gaming rig.


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## Hood (Mar 2, 2015)

Dia01 said:


> So I've settled on my new mATX build and placed order's for the following:
> 
> *CASE* Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Micro Tower Chassis Glacier White
> *MB* MSI Z97M Gaming Motherboard
> ...


Very sensible.  I'm jealous - I really wanted to get an Evolve case for my recent mATX build.  I opted for the Thermaltake Core V21, which is also a decent, sturdy case.  Couldn't justify the cost for my "budget overclocked gamer", and I knew it would Quickly be gone anyway (already sold!).  But no case could ever look as premium as one with 1/8 inch thick aluminum panels all around...maybe next build....


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## Dia01 (Mar 18, 2015)

Hood said:


> Very sensible.  I'm jealous - I really wanted to get an Evolve case for my recent mATX build.  I opted for the Thermaltake Core V21, which is also a decent, sturdy case.  Couldn't justify the cost for my "budget overclocked gamer", and I knew it would Quickly be gone anyway (already sold!).  But no case could ever look as premium as one with 1/8 inch thick aluminum panels all around...maybe next build....


 
I can say now that the Evolv is such a great little case for a mATX build, no issues with build quality however I did have some issues fitting my existing 1200w PSU in position due to the hard drive cage obstructing, but managed to get it in without too much fuss.


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## krusha03 (Mar 18, 2015)

Build looks great, we want pictures when its done


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## Dia01 (Apr 3, 2015)

Build complete, nothing special, only a few very minor mods, very happy, no fuss build 


     

*CASE* Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Micro Tower Chassis Glacier White
*MB* MSI Z97M Gaming Motherboard
*CPU* Intel S1150 Core i7 4790K 4.00Ghz Quad Core CPU
*RAM* DDR3 16GB (2x8G) 1866MHz Kingston HyperX FURY RAM
*GPU* MSI NVIDIA GTX 970 Gaming 4G Graphics Card
*COOLING* Corsair H105 High Performance CPU Liquid Cooler
*HDD* (OS) Samsung 850 EVO Series 250GB SSD, (Gaming) OCZ Vertex 3 120GB, (Storage) WD Caviar Black 1TB
*PSU* Existing Corsair AX1200


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## d1nky (Apr 3, 2015)

I'm planning on getting that same case, imo best looking matx of all time. Also plan full custom loop again.

How much space would be left at the bottom if 2 graphics cards were installed, i can't find a pic with 2 up-to-date cards at all. I'm gessing not a lot of room.

Sexy looking build, keep us updated to any changes.


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## Dia01 (Apr 3, 2015)

The case is definitely worth it.  Only advice is to ensure you use a smaller PSU than the AX1200 which I'm re-using from a previous rig.  The length will conflict with the bottom HDD cages which currently holds my WD Caviar, I had to be a little creative but made it work eventually.  As far as SLI and room at the bottom, there won't be much left at all as you can imagine from only two PCI-e slots remaining.


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## krusha03 (Apr 3, 2015)

Dia01 said:


> Build complete, nothing special, only a few very minor mods, very happy, no fuss build
> 
> View attachment 63809 View attachment 63810 View attachment 63811 View attachment 63812 View attachment 63813
> 
> ...


Nicely done. love the case


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## OtherSyde (Apr 22, 2015)

Nice build! My sole and only regret is that with that small dark window, all those awesome beautiful components can't be seen from the outside! Are you going to put a light of some sort in there to brighten it up?


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