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First ITX Build. Stick with 1155 or upgrade to 1150?

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System Name Air Cooled Caselabs BH8
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Hello TPU. I just received the Caselabs Mercury S3. I have been parting out my ATX build and would like to start building this system within a few weeks. I am an intel person,.This system will serve two purposes:
1. Gaming
2. General Pc Use

Here is the hardware I currently have:
Caselabs Mercury S3
Thermaltake 775W PSU
Swiftech h20-x20 all in one liquid cooling system, 240mm
I5 2500k
8gb G-skill ripjaw 1600 ddr3
1 TB HDD

Questions:
#1. Should I sell my I5 2500K and upgrade to Haswell? If so, which CPU for moderate OC?
#2. If the answer to selling I5 is yes. What CPU and Mobo (ITX) would you recommend? If the answer is no, what Mobo (ITX) would you recommend? Need WIFI in the mobo.
#3. If the answer to #1 is yes, what liquid cooling block would you recommend for 1150?
#4. Keep the ram or upgrade?
#5. What SSD (just need it for running OS and such)?
#6. Video Card? They are always changing and I am "out of the loop." I do intend on liquid cooling the video card.
#7. Liquid cooling the graphics card requires another radiator for proper heat exchange correct? If so would you recommend another 240mm radiator or 120mm?

I intend to run this system for the next two years or so. Just wanna be able to play current games without lag with some stable FPS in shooters and MMO's. ITX is new for me and the caselabs mercury s3 allows for exceptional modding with little restrictions compared to other ITX cases. I am liquid cooling both video card and CPU.

Thank you as always great community of TPU.
 
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1) The i5 you have should do 4.8-5Ghz on 1.4-1.55V(It will survive trust me I run a 3960X on the same volts since the day they came out and it's fine) at which point it will be equal or faster than a average OC(4.4Ghz) haswell i5 4670K. So you should pick up an Asus Z77-I Deluxe and use that.
2) N/A
3) N/A
4) Keep the ram unless you want to help our HWbot team.
5) I don't SSD so go with someone else's suggestion
6) An R9 280X will run 75% of games at 1080p maxed at 60FPS and cost around 300$ if you have more money buy an R9 290 which will run everything maxed at 60FPS at 1080p.
7) The i5 throws of very little heat even at 5Ghz so you'll only need an extra 120mm to cool the card
 
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I think you can safely keep that 2500K and OC it for gaming, but if you need to change motherboard to get itx then it really depends if you want to spend the money for new CPU as well. The difference from 2500K to 4670K is small, but its there - notably in the power savings. It will not really matter in games if you are not super-enthusiast user that NEEDS to have highest score in benchmarks.

I would advice you on a mobo that has good power phases. For the 4670k I definitely think you should buy the upcoming MSI gaming mini itx motherboard or the asus ROG impact mostly because of the better sound chips. For the 2500k I think a good asrock wifi mobo will do the job (in the perspective you don't want to spend a lot, since you wont spend for cpu).

Definitely keep the ram for now, you have an optimal ram and currently prices of ram for 2x8GB with 1866mhz is ridiculously high. Easily upgradable in a year or two (just to reduce the total amount you have to cash out now). A large + faster kit might give you 2-3% more FPS in games at the cost of 200$ +, not worth it since you don't *need* 16GB yet.

If you have the cash, buy a 840 EVO 500GB and don't use any other drives, otherwise maybe get a sub 100$ 120gb ssd from Samsung or Toshiba or Plextor. Don't consider read/write speed, consider the IOPS in 4k random read/write and the random access time.

IF you do a full custom waterloop, the you DEFINATELY want to buy the AMD 290 non-X but make sure you buy a brand that can be flashed to 290X. In the UK, overclockers.co.uk are offering pre-flashed 290 to 290X saving you 50-60GBP and you can also buy it ready-to-go with EK waterblock installed for some more savings. In any case, I advice you to buy EK blocks unless you want something else in particular which will only affect the looks of your hardware and maybe 2-3c in temps which u don't care about since they will be low anyway. Also, you can buy the EK D5+res100 combo and fit it in there as I did - you will need to drill 2 holes and purchase some supports EK sells (nothing special) . (I can upload a pic of my system to help you figure out things better if you want).

I got the S5 case so it is just very slightly bigger than yours. Two 240mm rads will fit just fine if the are not thicker than my HWlabs SR1. Note one of my two rads is 280mm. Also, you can't use push/pull due to space restriction unless u find some trick that I didn't :D

BE WARNED: a rad thicker than 30mm in the top *may* prevent you from placing a fitting that will lead to the CPU.
 
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Cooling Phanteks PHTC14PE 2.5K 145mm TRs / Custom waterloop / Phanteks PHTC14PE + 3K 140mm Noctuas
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I would advice you on a mobo that has good power phases. For the 4670k I definitely think you should buy the upcoming MSI gaming mini itx motherboard or the asus ROG impact mostly because of the better sound chips. For the 2500k I think a good asrock wifi mobo will do the job (in the perspective you don't want to spend a lot, since you wont spend for cpu).
Haswell doesn't need a good VRM to OC because A: they don't clock very high B: the VRM outputs a minimum 1.8V so you don't get high current draw on the VRM which is what VRMs have a hard time with. So if you're looking at haswell boards look at features like onboard sound, Wifi, USB3.0, Ethernet and SATA port count not VRM quality that only applies to CPUs that pull 90+ A on stock volts.
 
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Haswell doesn't need a good VRM to OC because A: they don't clock very high B: the VRM outputs a minimum 1.8V so you don't get high current draw on the VRM which is what VRMs have a hard time with. So if you're looking at haswell boards look at features like onboard sound, Wifi, USB3.0, Ethernet and SATA port count not VRM quality that only applies to CPUs that pull 90+ A on stock volts.

I wrote that badly, I indeed meant good VRM for the 2500k mobo specifically, but to look for good sound chip on a Z87 mobo such as the two I mentioned since they are available on this new gen.
 

stinger608

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Keep everything and grab an AsRock z77e-itx! Frigging great little boards with tons of overclocking options. That is if you can find one for around $120 to $130.
 
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