New PC Build: mATX?

It wasn't video cards, and they've taken care of it already. Apparently motherboards with the B3 designation are fixed.

As far as I know you can't buy the "old" non B3 motherboards with the fault anywhere :)
 
I stick mostly with Mini-ITX because I don't do much gaming or CPU stressing, so I really need very little space for adequate GPU and airflow. That Q-11 case is awesome, and I really wish I knew about it when I built my current box. I just spent a few minutes looking at their other mITX cases and I really want one.
 
As far as I know you can't buy the "old" non B3 motherboards with the fault anywhere :)

Yep, they were pulled from the market during the recall. In fact, it was about a month before you could buy an 1155 MOBO again. You could get a Sand Bridge but not a board for it. Also, the issue had nothing to do with video. It was an issue with the SATA 6GiB chipset.
 
Thanks, this helps me out a lot. I think I prefer an Asus board to a Gigabyte too.

Edit: The Q11 seems to be sold out everywhere as well sadly. I like the really small footprint, it's so much smaller than LianLi's mATX cases. Anyone else make a case like the Q11?

I don't know about the Gigabyte boards (they also make a couple of H67 Sandy Bridge boards), but the Asus boards have an EFI BIOS, which is much simpler to navigate (you can even use a mouse and some functions are drag and drop).

As for the Q11 case, the store I use in Australia is saying an ETA of 21st April for their next stock. Another similar case is the Lian Li PC-Q08, which is lower, but a little wider and deeper than the Q11. Of the other manufacturers, Silverstone seem to make a lot of small form factor cases, probably the closest to the Q11 is the Fortress FT03, which is quite tall, but not very deep. It will take a microATX board. One draw back of it that it only accepts a slot loading optical drive, which limits your options. The only ITX case made by Fractal Design is a NAS box .. you could build a PC in it, but it has no space for an optical drive (you'd need a USB optical drive to go with it).

As for shipping cases long distances .. I bought my Fractal Define R3 from a store 800 km away ... it arrived in perfect condition. :)
 
I stick mostly with Mini-ITX because I don't do much gaming or CPU stressing, so I really need very little space for adequate GPU and airflow. That Q-11 case is awesome, and I really wish I knew about it when I built my current box. I just spent a few minutes looking at their other mITX cases and I really want one.

What case are you using?

I don't really stress my computer too much too often either, but I still want something that can handle a decent CPU and GPU. Looks like mini ITX is up to the job if I find the right case though.


As for the Q11 case, the store I use in Australia is saying an ETA of 21st April for their next stock. Another similar case is the Lian Li PC-Q08, which is lower, but a little wider and deeper than the Q11. Of the other manufacturers, Silverstone seem to make a lot of small form factor cases, probably the closest to the Q11 is the Fortress FT03, which is quite tall, but not very deep. It will take a microATX board. One draw back of it that it only accepts a slot loading optical drive, which limits your options. The only ITX case made by Fractal Design is a NAS box .. you could build a PC in it, but it has no space for an optical drive (you'd need a USB optical drive to go with it).

As for shipping cases long distances .. I bought my Fractal Define R3 from a store 800 km away ... it arrived in perfect condition. :)

I guess the suppliers here would get their shipments around April 21st too then... not that far off, but I'm not really the type to wait around once I decide to do something.

My issue with the Q08 is from a design perspective, I don't like the big fan opening up front nor the cheesy blue LEDs in it. The Q11 is just so perfectly understated.

I was eyeing the Silverstone FT03 myself a little while ago. Nice case, amazingly small footprint, but the slot loading drive is a dealbreaker for me and I'm not sure, but I think the grilles are made of plastic which would make the whole thing feel too cheap for my tastes.

Plus, my local supplier is out of stock on the black FT03 anyway... fuck, why is there such a shortage on cases right now? Until now I've never wanted a case that somebody in town didn't have for sale right away.

Edit: Oh, and I'm not worried about buying from non-local suppliers because of damage to my stuff. What I meant was I didn't want to buy a big heavy case from Newegg's US site due to customs charges and delays, that's why they have Newegg.ca (but they have a lot less cases, presumably due to shipping or storage issues to/in Canada).
 
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Wait for the Q11. Only 10 sleeps away :)

Yeah, I should. Only thing is as I've been saying my old computer is dying.

i7 2600 in the Q11 should be such a sleeper though, if I can borrow an automotive term. Speaking of which, any reason to get the 2600K? I don't plan to O/C, not with a case like that.

It's only about $25 more, but I'm already basically wasting $100 not buying an i5.
 
You don't need to bother with the K. You can't overclock with the H67 chip (the P67 is the chip which allows overclocking). I have a 2600K in my new PC and even without overclocking it is very quick. Most intensive stuff I do is video recoding ... it sped through a 3D recode of the Top Gear Polar Special (Director Cut) ~2GB in 15 mins yesterday without overclocking. The only reason to get a K would be if there was any chance of you transplanting the processor into another board at a later date. $25 extra isn't much in the scheme of things though.
 
Just spent a few hours looking at cases. It's hopeless, utterly hopeless.

I was hoping to get this build together soon but I can't even pick a case. I've looked at every case on the market and they are all either too big, too flashy, lack USB 3.0 up front and most of them aren't even in stock or about to be in stock anywhere.

I swear I'll just go and pick up a laptop and be done with it. It took me a month decide to go with a desktop and now I've stalled at the first step which is finding a case. :rolleyes:

Excuse the rant, but this is the fourth night I've spent looking at cases with no results. I can wait until the R3 or Q11 are in stock but there's no ETA and even then those aren't my dream cases; the R3 is still too big and the Q11 is missing an external 3.5" bay (and I still somehow feel more comfortable with mATX over ITX).
 
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Where do you keep your desktop? I think you're overthinking it a bit, but then my personal preference is to use whatever case will hold the parts together and focus on what's inside. I really don't like the layout of my case, it just matters so little and affects me so seldom that it doesn't bother me very much.
 
For the longest time I had it sitting by the TV in the living room, and had a long cable running to my study where I had a second screen hooked up.Recently I just moved it to my actual desk though, and that's where I would intend to put the new computer.

I just want something aesthetically pleasing, that's all. Like I said towers actually have the smallest footprint of any form factor, but most of them don't tickle my fancy in the design department.

I was just checking out ATX towers and even those are mostly out of stock. I think maybe everyone was waiting for Sandy Bridge to upgrade because all decent cases seem to be back ordered, regardless of the size (unless it's some super slim SFF case or some giant full tower).

Edit: For instance, I'm kind of digging the Lian Li PC-9F even though it's a straight up ATX case and nothing like what I originally wanted. But is it in stock? No, obviously not.
 
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Is there any way I could run a i7 2600 and say a Radeon 5750 with only passive cooling?

Because I really like this case and it's tiny... but no fans:

PC-Q07-b.jpg
 
I tracked down a Q07 in town and I'm about to go pick it up along with the rest of the stuff.

If this works it's going to be a hell of a marvel, cramming so much into so little. I hope it all fits because you can't exactly exchange computer parts like jeans from The Gap.

The ASUS motherboard uses 204-pin sticks of RAM which makes me kind of limited, but from what I've read H67 can't do faster speeds than 1333MHz anyway. I am getting the 2600K though since it's on sale and actually in stock as opposed to the non-K.
 
It won't turn on. :cry:

Ten hours, $1.300 and two hands full of cuts and scrapes and it won't fucking start.

I rechecked everything, it all seems fine. I just spent weeks diagnosing my old comp, I can't do it again. I think I might actually cry...
 
^ You've put it together already?

Won't start (no power) or won't boot into the BIOS?
Assuming the components are OK, I'd look again at the power and reset button attachments to the motherboard (make sure they are on the correct pins and if so maybe swap the polarities around). Make sure the RAM is fully seated, maybe even look again at the CPU and make sure it is the right way around in the socket.
 
No power whatsoever...the little standby green LED comes on but that's it.

I tried everything over and over again, save for re-seating the CPU. I was under the impression you could only fit them in the right way round.

I have some other stuff to note about the build but I'm simply not in the mood. Literally spent 12 hours hovering over the PC to be, and the worst thing is I'm still without a properly working computer even though I've invested considerable money and time into a new machine. :(

Edit: Yeah, I got all the bits and attempted to put it all together. I'm not a patient person in general, and my old desktop crapping out constantly made me not waste time. You can see what I bought posted here... I thought maybe I got incompatible RAM or somehow ended up with an incompatible board/CPU combo, but it doesn't seem like I made a mistake there.
 
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I was going to say PSU, but then I remembered you're using a known good one. I suppose it could be something as unlikely and stupid as a bad switch, so maybe just short the power button pins together and see if it turns on.
 
Echoing what others have said... that really sucks, but what can you do? Pull out all components until you're down the the bare minimum, and see if you can get any response out of it. Maybe even do some testing outside of the case if its hard to work with. Shorting the pins is a good start.
 
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