Downsizing current gaming rig to mini-ITX.

Tsukiyomi91 · Mar 26, 2014

I was wondering whether it's a good investment to downsize my current gaming rig since it's a little too big & bulky... Any decent Z77 Chipset-based mini-ITX motherboards out there under the US$200 price tag? And a nice AIO CPU Cooler Kit to go along with it (also under US$200 price tag). Casing on the other hand, I've already picked the Bitfenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Casing (White). For chassis fans, I'll be using the ones that comes with the chassis for the time being. Any help/advise/recommendations will be appreciated.

RCoon · Mar 26, 2014

Tsukiyomi91 said:
I was wondering whether it's a good investment to downsize my current gaming rig since it's a little too big & bulky... Any decent Z77 Chipset-based mini-ITX motherboards out there under the US$200 price tag? And a nice AIO CPU Cooler Kit to go along with it (also under US$200 price tag). Casing on the other hand, I've already picked the Bitfenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Casing (White). For chassis fans, I'll be using the ones that comes with the chassis for the time being. Any help/advise/recommendations will be appreciated.

I've done the exact same, only inside a smaller case (The silverstone SG-08). I can't recommend the ASRock ITX because mine broke, and was incredibly thin. Not to mention there were chips on the underside of the board which make mounting a custom cooler almost impossible without causing damage. I can recommend the EVGA stinger, Gigabyte wifi too. The MSI was lacking heatsinks on the VRM's so I didn't bother with one of those. The Asus P8Z77 delux ITX board is also very good, but I don't like the colour scheme at all.

There are plenty of cheap AIO's, the Corsair H55 for example, or the MSI Dragon Liquid AIO (Which is only £40 in the UK). Eventually I upgraded to an mATX though, as the Aerocool DS is the same size as the prodigy bar a few inches, and allows more than one PCIE slot, which I intend to dump a dedicated sound card into shortly. One thing I specifically looked out for on my ITX board was 5.1 onboard sound support for my headset.

Tsukiyomi91 · Mar 26, 2014

thanks for helping me out. For now I better go check to see if the IT retail shops still have those boards you mentioned or not. For the coolers, how about Cooler Master's lineup of AIO Cooler Kits? Are they any good like the other competitor in terms of value, performance & design? Just asking for more proofs about them.

RCoon · Mar 26, 2014

Tsukiyomi91 said:
thanks for helping me out. For now I better go check to see if the IT retail shops still have those boards you mentioned or not. For the coolers, how about Cooler Master's lineup of AIO Cooler Kits? Are they any good like the other competitor in terms of value, performance & design? Just asking for more proofs about them.

CM's Seidon's are pretty good, I have nothing bad to say about them. In benchmarks they seem very capable. Depends entirely on how much you want to spend on an AIO.

Shou Miko · Mar 26, 2014

i recently stepped down from a Micro-ATX system to a ITX system and went from a CoolerMaster Haf XB to a Bitfenix Prodigy it's atleast half the size smaller even it's cramped inside and i am using a H80i watercooler on my i5-4670k.

silkstone · Mar 26, 2014

+1 for the seidon. I get good temps with mine. CM have a newer AIO out that seems to perform a little better, too.

Tsukiyomi91 · Mar 27, 2014

again, thanks for the help guys. Appreciated it~ ^-^ Time to save up for the upgrades!!!

System Name	Rainbow Puke Machine :D
Processor	Intel Core i5-11400 (MCE enabled, PL removed)
Motherboard	ASUS STRIX B560-G GAMING WIFI mATX
Cooling	Corsair H60i RGB PRO XT AIO + HD120 RGB (x3) + SP120 RGB PRO (x3) + Commander PRO
Memory	Corsair Vengeance RGB RT 2 x 8GB 3200MHz DDR4 C16
Video Card(s)	Zotac RTX2060 Twin Fan 6GB GDDR6 (Stock)
Storage	Corsair MP600 PRO 1TB M.2 PCIe Gen4 x4 SSD
Display(s)	LG 29WK600-W Ultrawide 1080p IPS Monitor (primary display)
Case	Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow (White) w/Lighting Node CORE + Lighting Node PRO RGB LED Strips (x4).
Audio Device(s)	ASUS ROG Supreme FX S1220A w/ Savitech SV3H712 AMP + Sonic Studio 3 suite
Power Supply	Corsair RM750x 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular
Mouse	Corsair M65 RGB FPS Gaming (White)
Keyboard	Corsair K60 PRO RGB Mechanical w/ Cherry VIOLA Switches
Software	Windows 11 Professional x64 (Update 23H2)

System Name	HP Omen 17
Processor	i7 7700HQ
Memory	16GB 2400Mhz DDR4
Video Card(s)	GTX 1060
Storage	Samsung SM961 256GB + HGST 1TB
Display(s)	1080p IPS G-SYNC 75Hz
Audio Device(s)	Bang & Olufsen
Power Supply	230W
Mouse	Roccat Kone XTD+
Software	Win 10 Pro

System Name	Rainbow Puke Machine :D
Processor	Intel Core i5-11400 (MCE enabled, PL removed)
Motherboard	ASUS STRIX B560-G GAMING WIFI mATX
Cooling	Corsair H60i RGB PRO XT AIO + HD120 RGB (x3) + SP120 RGB PRO (x3) + Commander PRO
Memory	Corsair Vengeance RGB RT 2 x 8GB 3200MHz DDR4 C16
Video Card(s)	Zotac RTX2060 Twin Fan 6GB GDDR6 (Stock)
Storage	Corsair MP600 PRO 1TB M.2 PCIe Gen4 x4 SSD
Display(s)	LG 29WK600-W Ultrawide 1080p IPS Monitor (primary display)
Case	Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow (White) w/Lighting Node CORE + Lighting Node PRO RGB LED Strips (x4).
Audio Device(s)	ASUS ROG Supreme FX S1220A w/ Savitech SV3H712 AMP + Sonic Studio 3 suite
Power Supply	Corsair RM750x 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular
Mouse	Corsair M65 RGB FPS Gaming (White)
Keyboard	Corsair K60 PRO RGB Mechanical w/ Cherry VIOLA Switches
Software	Windows 11 Professional x64 (Update 23H2)

System Name	HP Omen 17
Processor	i7 7700HQ
Memory	16GB 2400Mhz DDR4
Video Card(s)	GTX 1060
Storage	Samsung SM961 256GB + HGST 1TB
Display(s)	1080p IPS G-SYNC 75Hz
Audio Device(s)	Bang & Olufsen
Power Supply	230W
Mouse	Roccat Kone XTD+
Software	Win 10 Pro

System Name	Lynni PS \ Lenowo TwinkPad T480
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 7700 Raphael \ i7-8550U Kaby Lake-R
Motherboard	ASRock B650M PG Riptide Bios v. 2.02 AMD AGESA 1.1.0.0 \ Lenowo 20L60036MX Bios 1.47
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 Chromax.Black (Only middle fan) \ Lenowo WN-2
Memory	G.Skill Flare X5 2x16GB DDR5 6000MHZ CL36-36-36-96 AMD EXPO \ Willk Elektronik 2x16GB 2666MHZ CL17
Video Card(s)	Asus GeForce RTX™ 4070 Dual OC GPU: 2325-2355 MEM: 1462\| Nvidia GeForce MX™ 150 2GB GDDR5 Micron
Storage	Gigabyte M30 1TB\|Sabrent Rocket 2TB\| HDD: 10TB\|1TB \ SKHynix 256GB 2242 3x2 \| WD SN700 1TB
Display(s)	LG UltraGear 27GP850-B 1440p@165Hz \| LG 48CX OLED 4K HDR \| AUO 14" 1440p IPS
Case	Asus Prime AP201 White Mesh \| Lenowo T480 chassis
Audio Device(s)	Steelseries Arctis Pro Wireless
Power Supply	Be Quiet! Pure Power 12 M 750W Goldie \| 65W
Mouse	Logitech G305 Lightspeedy Wireless \| Lenowo TouchPad & Logitech G305
Keyboard	Akko 3108 DS Horizon V2 Cream Yellow \| T480 UK Lumi
Software	Win11 Pro 23H2 UK
Benchmark Scores	3DMARK: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/89434432? GPU-Z: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/details/v3zbr

System Name	Gaming System / HTPC-Server
Processor	i7 8700K (@4.8 Ghz All-Core) / R7 5900X
Motherboard	Z370 Aorus Ultra Gaming / MSI B450 Mortar Max
Cooling	CM ML360 / CM ML240L
Memory	16Gb Hynix @3200 MHz / 16Gb Hynix @3000Mhz
Video Card(s)	Zotac 3080 / Colorful 1060
Storage	750G MX300 + 2x500G NVMe / 40Tb Reds + 1Tb WD Blue NVMe
Display(s)	LG 27GN800-B 27'' 2K 144Hz / Sony TV
Case	Xigmatek Aquarius Plus / Corsair Air 240
Audio Device(s)	On Board Realtek
Power Supply	Super Flower Leadex III Gold 750W / Andyson TX-700 Platinum
Mouse	Logitech G502 Hero / K400+
Keyboard	Wooting Two / K400+
Software	Windows 10 x64
Benchmark Scores	Cinebench R15 = 1542 3D Mark Timespy = 9758

Downsizing current gaming rig to mini-ITX.

Tsukiyomi91

RCoon

Tsukiyomi91

RCoon

Shou Miko

silkstone

Tsukiyomi91