I am dedicating my build in memory of my late parents (new pic 1). My father Cyril, who at the time of his passing, this project brought me great solice, and my mother Rita, who passed 19th April 2020 peacefully at home with my sister and myself beside her, gave us continual devotion. May the Almighty grant their dear souls rest together in eternal peace. A meritable learning in their honour - Despite these strange times, we ought not dwell excessively on sad news, rather convey our strengths to others less fortunate with cheer and smiles, irrespective of our personal pain.
Huge satisfaction building first PC for home-office, family videos & gaming.
"Black Magic" (chocolates) denote range of established components &
"Tardis" (Dr Who) the implausibly small box housing them.
Aim :
To build a transportable PC of durable longevity with strong performance and multiple options.
Outcome :
Modified in stages, arguably portable (a lead brick), it's a functional joy to use. Delivers ~60FPS at 4K in games & is audibly tolerable.
Notable Features of Build (unique/value)
ITX size case (18.5L) optimised for ATX parts, performance, cooling, storage scope, clutterless cabling & disguised as a box.
- Motherboard facilitates all components, enables stable overclocks & has vast features.
- Smartly designed giant Noctua NH-D15S quietly air-cools delidded, overclocked 8700K with minimal footprint, freeing space for additional components.
- 32GB Optane offers durability for boot, Win10 O/S & HDD acceleration at SSD-like speeds.
- Undervolted & overclocked Zotac 1080ti Blower GPU aids cooling and restricts noise in 4K gaming.
- Twin slim 140mm Prolimatech fans assist cool air input and equally large dual Noctua's remove hot air quietly.
- Aesthetically matched attractive RGB peripherals (Patriot Viper V770 keyboard & Logitech G203 mouse "breathing white" simultaneously).
- 27" AOC AG271UG IPS panel, gives crisp 60Hz 4K gaming with added G-Sync.
- Black cables, Noctua Chromax and EVGA adapter enhance appearance and simplify routing.
- Vertegear Triigger 350 chair/headrest & rockable footboard provides best comfort & posture, extending system use.
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Parts Summary :
Intel Core i7-8700K 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor : Delidded & overclocked (4.8GHz) multi-core 12-thread Coffee-Lake CPU - should last years.
Noctua NH-D15S 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler : 6yr warranty. No fuss air equal to water cooling. Fits in Core 500 & clears RAM. Quiet (25dB) Keeps 8700K 4.8GHz cool (35C rest; 65C max).
Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut 1 g Thermal Paste : Liquid metal TIM for delidded CPU. Having overclocked to 4.8GHz a CPU temp drop of -10C welcome in space-compromised ITX PC set-up.
ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard : Thunderbolt 3 (20Gb/s). Solid overclocking. Underboard m.2 sites Optane plus 5 usable SATA ports for mix of HDD's, SSD's and 5.25" Blu-ray.
G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory : Decent quality RAM. Advertised as Corsair but ASRock UEFI recognise as 2 x 8GB DDR4 G-Skill. Clock easily to stated 3200MHz.
Crucial MX500 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive : Fast, quality inexpensive SSD
Samsung 860 Evo 2 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive : Fortuitous purchase of large capacity SSD, considered best in the marketplace, at its lowest ever price.
Seagate Barracuda 3 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive : Paired to 32GB Optane caching module for formidable mix of quick boot/access/storage at low cost.
Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11 GB Blower Video Card : Ideal for 18.5L case. Ejects hot air out of back for low temps (35C rest & 65C max 4K gaming). Noise tolerable (45dB max). Overclock max 2012MHz. Unsurpassed value due to sustained longevity and relevance as a power GPU.
Fractal Design Core 500 Mini ITX Desktop Case : Compact, affordable, holds lots of full-size gear. Filters vac with lid on. Front PSU for big CPU cooler & low temps. Rout "out of box" (pic5) for air space. Inexplicably efficient cooling intrinsic to case design despite diminutive volume.
SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply : Silent. 10yr warranty. Overkill power for build upgrading.
Pioneer BDR-209DBK Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer : Effective and neat but occupies space in ITX build driving temps up 10C. NB: Disc players noisy in sector searches most noticeable during malware scans.
Noctua NF-A15 HS-PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan: Replaced brown Noctua fan for "all black" look - runs dead quiet.
Noctua NF-A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan : Replaced noisier 3-pin Fractal fan at rear of case. Gained 4-pin speed control and "all black" aesthetics.
Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 14 fan 98 CFM 140 mm Fan : Two top inputs, (one over CPU stack). Splitter cable to 4-pin pwm socket. Quiet yet shift more air than replaced Noctua. CPU rest temp low (35C) at 4.8GHz.
AOC AG271UG 27.0" 3840x2160 60 Hz Monitor : Quality "affordable" 4K, 60Hz, IPS, G-Sync, 27" monitor, partnered to an overclocked Zotac Blower 1080ti GPU for games at 60FPS. No dead pixels.
Patriot Viper V770 Wired Gaming Keyboard : Bargain price for a quality mechanical keyboard with alluring RGB while bristling with useable features.
Logitech G203 Prodigy Wired Optical Mouse : Cheap yet perfectly designed for gaming - RGB a bonus.
Logitech Z333 40 W 2.1 Channel Speakers : Decent sound and power for PC speakers.
Intel Optane Memory Module 32 GB PCIe M.2 80mm MEMPEK1W032GAXT : PC boots quickly. Crisply opens .exe and content files. Low cost storage paired to large HDD. Unexpectedly resilient.
der8auer Delid Die Mate 2 - CPU IHS Heatsink Removal Tool : Eliminates risk from de-lidding process.
Noctua NA-HC3 chromax.black.swap heatsink covers (for NH-D15, NH-D15S & NH-D15 SE-AM4) : "All-black" aesthetic enhancement without detriment to CPU's thermals.
EVGA 600-PL-2816-LR PowerLink Adapter : Black aesthetic & allows GPU cables to rout outside small case to help airflow.