I've been thinking about building a small gaming computer again

The specific Palit GeForce Ti550 I chose for its shorter length BTW. Personally, I’d never buy open box.

oh you saw the open box mobo.

here are all the socket 1155: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=mini+itx+1155&x=0&y=0

the lower end model of the mobo is only $80:

“It has less features so its cheaper. No Wifi. No SATA III (6Gbps). No eSATA. No SPDIF. And I believe only 6 PCIe lanes (the H67 has 8).”

USB 3.0, sound, hdmi and free 2-day shipping still make it great price at $80.

The SG05 one on newegg has only a 300w psu not a 450w psu though. you might have to order the case from somewhere other than newegg.

http://www.thenerds.net/ASUS.ASUS_P8H67_I_DELUXE_Desktop_Motherboard_Intel_Socket_H2_LGA_1155.P8H67IDELUXEREV30.html?affid=8

Would these guys be a reliable vendor? And is this the same thing?

Seriously hardware is way more confusing than I remember!

Things are actually way easier nowadays.

Never heard of that site. You should get the non-Deluxe version I linked to on Newegg.com. It’s cheaper. Plus, what video card are you going to put in it?

You might be able to get away with ordering the SG05 case from Newegg.com too with 300W psu if it’s a power sipping video card you go with.

Basically the thing you posted. I’m confident about putting the parts together (I know my way around a screwdriver) but the technical specs are completely in-n-out.

amazon.com has the 450w one:

They have the mobo too: http://www.amazon.com/P8H67-I-DELUXE-REV-3-0-Motherboard/dp/B004QF0VFE/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1315858364&sr=1-1

ignore the 1 star review from the noob who tried to install the drivers off the cd and installed Norton.

sg06 has a different bezel if you like: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163151&Tpk=sg06

Win7 home premium is $99 at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

the drawback with small cube systems is you often have to disassemble the entire box to get at various parts so upgrading/moving video cards is a chore.

google sg05 build and there are many pictures in many forums or building/review videos on youtube.

I’ve bought obscure/discontinued parts from them (needed a specific motherboard with 4 PCI-X slots) before without issue.

Look how crazy close the heatsink sits on this board to the PCIE slot:

Two more pics:

hmm, didn’t someone tell me never to place components on the outside of those antistatic bags?

Who else is in this foolish endeavor with me? It can only end in tears.

Size comparison between full Antec tower and cube here:

Here are one and two reviews where the layout of the case is broken down. Another one here

Another build video here.

Here’s one for the smaller one and one from newegg.

I’m going to mount my cpu and its fan into the the mobo with ram before i carefully position it into the case.

Make sure you download all your drivers ahead of time onto a USB stick from websites and don’t rely on the CD.

Looks like Tech Report already was thinking the same thing as me with the same parts: http://techreport.com/articles.x/21462/2

You should be fine with the non-deluxe. Yes, the board comes with Ethernet onboard.

That article you linked is awesome and I shall obey it! I was about ready to break down and bribe a friend to figure it out for me because my brain has transformed into mush of late.

Now I’ll just ship, screw and play; probably use Ubuntu at start until I have time to get 7 going through work.

edit: Bought, paid and waiting. Should be here sat/sun. Win!

What did you all buy?

Exactly what was in the article. I figure if they’re right, it all fits together, and if not I send it back and cry. They had newegg product links in the description, so I literally clicked and added to cart before hitting the buy option.

oh the 1tb samsung not 2tb and the 6850 video card?

Yep! I don’t have music, movies, photos etc on my computer (streaming services, or I just don’t have any) and I use well under 90gb at the moment. So a 2tb drive seemed like massive overkill.

As far as video cards, I don’t know them from my elbow, so I got the recommended one since I wasn’t sure if the one you suggested would fit or work with this setup. Whatever, it’s already such a huge upgrade that I doubt I’ll notice.

I also picked up a thumb drive (8gb) which I’m gonna use to install ubuntu. Was considering doing it over the network since I’m set up for that anyway (long story) but it’d be nice to have a convenient non-iphone/netbook storage device for projects.

Turning my old machine into a vpn storage box so that I can share stuff with my brother (and myself at work) and generally have good times. If I get really adventurous I’ll set up a murmur and an xmpp server on there so that I can use it for gaming with friends.

All in all very exciting, so thanks a bunch for helping with minibeast purchase!