I'm planning to buy a new pc in a week or so, but I ran into some troubles while choosing the chipset. (Z87/97)
I configured this build about a while ago before the Z97 motherboards arrived. (Note the use of the Samsung evo msata ssd to save some valuable space)
The problem is that none of the new Z97 itx motherboards have an msata slot, they all have an M.2 slot. And since the M.2 ssds are new and expensive I can't decide what to get...
A)Keep the Asrock Z87E and hope I won't have to much troubles with the new i5-4690k.
B)Get a Z97 motherboard (probably the Asus Z97I or the Gigabyte Z97N wifi) and get an M.2 sata ssd. The available M.2 sata ssds are still expensive for what you get and are slower than the Samsung evo. (for example the Crucial M550) The M.2 PCI ssds are not an option, they are just to expensive imo.
C)Stick with the current build, including the 4670k?
i5-4690k is not intended work on Z87 boards. You will almost always need a Z97 board if you want to overclock.
I'd get the Z97 chipset, skip both the MSATA and M.2 SSDs, and just get a 2.5" SSD. For freak's sake, its a Node 304.
Edited your build to help with current pricing: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/r7XWBm
H80i is expensive. I have a Seidon 120V in my Node 304, and It has been cooling my i5-3570k nicely. Pump does have a little bit of noise, and fan is loud(replaced with a noctua one), but I managed to pick mine up on a sale for $30. Currently clocked at 4.2ghz(still tweaking voltage) and max temp is under 65c.
Haha you're right, I'm probably overthinking things :)
The onboard ssd is a really neat feature tho, it would save a power and sata cable and I could even remove all HDD cages... Oh well
So on with the build: the H80i is indeed expensive, but since the 120V is a budget aio it cools about as good as the 212 evo which also fits in the node and is half the price. If I want to cut some cost here I'd probably go with the evo or H60.
Current build: here, any comments? I'm either going with this or with the Asrock you chose with the blue ram.
You still need a place to mount that hard drive. If you want, a lot of people are taping/velcro-ing their SSDs in the front, right under the fans. Just remove the front part of the case and velcro it there. Push the front back onto the case and your SSD is hidden.
There's the Seidon 120M and 120XL if you want higher performance. I'm quite satisfied with my 120V, esp for the price I paid for it. Also, fitting an air cooler requires you to pay attention to the motherboard. Since the motherboard is so small, you must pay attention to where the cpu socket is located. Find one that is far away from the PCIe slot, so that you can orient something like a Hyper 212 properly to aid with the airflow of the Node 304.
The build I created versus the build you created should perform exactly the same. However, I'm a bit concerned with the monitor in your build, as it has a response time of 8ms. This is a lot for gaming(not sure what you want to do with the computer), and you will probably experience ghosting. Look into a monitor with 5ms of latency or less.
The 120XL costs even more than the H80i, but your point still stands. I'll go with the H60.
And I want to go with an IPS panel (multiple reasons), the U2414H got a good review and has a thin bezel. I played some games on a Dell U2412M to get a reference and (for me) the input lagg not a problem at all. (mainly css to get 60 fps at native lol)
I might go with the Crucial MX100, looks like it's a bit better value than the evo.
Still a valid option. Early reports of Devil's Canyon seem to reveal that there's not much improvement over the previous generation Haswell. You can still use a Z97 board if you want as well.
I'm going with the Asus Z97 board because it costs about the same as the Gigabyte board and it has M.2, so if I really want I can still get one in a year or two and re-use the old ssd in a laptop or something. I don't think I'm going to notice the different audio codec and I could still save some money if I go with the Crucial MX100 in the second build. I think I'll go with the second one :)
-The mx100 was out of stock and I couldn't find one for a decent price so I went with the evo. The <4 seconds boot time is awesome.
-I got a large discount on the screen because it was used as a display model for a week. I asked for detailed pictures before ordering and everything looked good. So far I haven't found a single scratch.
-A local store with a very good reputation had the GTX770 listed for the price of a 760. I bought the card thinking they would eventually cancel the order but I actually got it. The gpu was doa and I'm still waiting for a replacement. They're stalling the replacement which I didn't expect at all from them. (Trying to give a refund instead of a new card etc)
-I got Windows industry pro 8.1 through Dreamspark and so far I'm happy with it, I did install classic shell tho.
-I've had the keyboard and mouse for a while now and the mechanical keyboard is awesome. I bought them when they had a 20% discount on everything which was nice.
-I'm still a bit confused with the H60 since you can't visually check if the pump is running or not. I initially connected the pump to the cpu header and the fan to the casefan header. However, the pump made a loud rattling noise when I turned it on. Checking their website and switching the two cables fixed that problem and temps seem to stay under 55°C with Prime95 running.
The build itself went well, I didn't expect I had to push that hard onto the ram and cpu latch tho. I had one faulty sata cable but got a replacement the next day. After that I got all the cables out again and routed them a bit better.Now I'm just waiting for the gpu to finish it.
Anyway, thanks the advice and for showing me that the Node is large enough to easily fit everything and that I shouldn't be over thinking things that much :D