mITX Build idea for LAN parties

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1

So I'm thinking about doing a new PC build. I had to sell a budget pc i made with an A10-6850k apu. It ran great for the games I was playing at the time but now I've started playing some pretty demanding games and streaming them on twitch through a Lenovo W530 I bought through my college. It's so much easier to lug a laptop around and play at LAN's than it is to lug around a full sized ATX computer.

Anyways... Im wanting to build a really sweet LAN party rig since most of my gaming isn't done at home but at the local LAN center or at friends houses. Im thinking about doing a build in an EVGA Hadron Hydro with an i5-4690k, ROG Impact mobo, and an R9 290/290x (havent decided on GPU). But beyond that im wanting to do a watercooling loop for the "Awesome Factor" and attach a retina display to the back of the case with a swing/scissor arm combo. I've got my part listed and price comes to around $1500 which is in my budget but im wondering about the practicality of the system. Part breakdown below, any suggestions?

Part Breakdown: (Part -> Reasoning)

1) EVGA Hadron Hydro -> Small case, 80+ Gold 500w psu, Watercooling options.

2) i5-4690k -> Good performance, price versus an i7 (I stream on Twitch, but other than that i don't do any video editing)

3) Asus ROG Impact -> Love the looks, Sound daughter board, overclocking features, M.2 slot if i decide to use it.

4) R9-290/290x -> Price to performance (compared to Nividia 780/780ti), Red color scheme

5) Avexir Core Series 1600 mHz RED Led 2x4gb -> I just like the LED's (Might grab something else if its on sale)

6) WD Blue 1tb -> Storage. Want SSD but don't wanna run over the budget, might add a M.2 drive of Samsung SSD later.

7) Adafruit Qualia 9.7 -> Retina Display with display port board (rozsnyo is out of D2P boards, and this comes with a custom enclosure i can mod a scissor and swing arm to so i can move the display around)

2

looks good to me.

i would suggest a R9-290 in there, best bang for buck. wenn it comes to gpu´s. But you need to be sure that everything fits inside the case, some 290 cards are a bit longer then normal, like the sapphire tri X / Vapor X, or Gigabyte Windforce OC. they are 305mm or so...

3

I'll be grabbing a reference card since I'll be water cooling, length shouldn't be a problem. Its the water block height that might get in the way lol.

 

4

sounds interesting cant wait to see it.

5

I like the fact that you're going for the small retina display, next step would be to build it in and build a tenkeyless mechanical keyboard in and make it into a Compaq III Portable lookalike. That formfactor should come back, it was great.

Custom watercooling on a PC that's going to be hauled around to LAN parties is not such a great idea though. Two AiO's instead of a custom loop with res might do the trick, but air cooling would be safer in my opinion.

6

I agree about the Compaq lol, it would be nice. The custom loop is the only way to go though, the case only supports a single 240mm rad in the top and i know a H100i wont fit without some modification and running the rad in the top piece of the hydro and routing tubing through the rear ports is the only way to go. I dont think a CLC would work unless i cut open a space for the cpu block in the rear to fit it through with the tubing.