A tiny, 7.25L case sporting an i7 7700K and GTX 1080 Ti! Heaps of pictures too!
Parts List
Let's start straight off with the spec sheet. I purchased most items back in February with eBay's 20% off deals from Futu Online where possible. I found this a bit cheaper than the usual brick and mortar stores like MSY, Umart or IJK.
| COMPONENT | ITEM | PRICE |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel 7700K (Delidded) | 479.20 |
| MOBO | ASUS ROG STRIX Z270i | 280.00 |
| RAM | Corsair Vengeance LED 32GB 3200Mhz C16 | 300.00 |
| SSD1 (OS+APPS) | Samsung 850 EVO 500GB | 204.00 |
| SSD2 (GAMES) | Samsung 850 EVO 1TB | 399.20 |
| SSD3 (RECORD) | Samsung 960 EVO 1TB | 599.20 |
| GPU | Galax GTX 1080 Ti | 0 (gift) |
| PSU | Corsair SF600 | 162.00 |
| CPU FAN | Noctua NH-L9i | 40.00 |
| MONITOR | Acer Predator XB1 XB271HU | 863.20 |
| CASE | DAN A4 SFX | 388.35 |
| TOTAL | $3715.15 |
To sum up this build nicely as you can find reviews and benchmarks everywhere else:
CPU - Intel i7 7700K
The i7 7700K is the best Kaby Lake CPU to get. Good for gaming, video editing and virtualisation.
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix Z270i
Has pretty much every feature at the time under the sun including 2 M.2. slots...on an ITX board!
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LED 32GB 3200Mhz
Here's the exact link to it: http://www.corsair.com/en-gb/vengeance-led-32gb-2-x-16gb-ddr4-dram-3200mhz-c16-memory-kit-red-led-cmu32gx4m2c3200c16r
The most RAM possible at the moment. While not the fastest memory around, anything above 3200Mhz isn't worth the price from most benchmarks I've seen.
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB, 1TB & 960 EVO 1TB
Three drives. One for the OS, one for Games and one for Recording Gameplay. I chose the 960 EVO for Recording Gameplay as the faster speeds are beneficial when moving large files around. They don't make any difference in loading times.
GPU: Galax GTX 1080 Ti
A gift from my girlfriend. The 1080 Ti is the 2nd best graphics card to get from NVIDIA behind the Titan Xp which isn't sold in Australia. Temps go from 28C to 81C in Winter.
PSU: Corsair SF600
The Corsair SF600 is a crazy good power supply. JonnyGURU gave it a 9.7/10. It's THAT good.
CPU FAN: Noctua NH-L9i
The Noctua NH-L9i is best noise-to-performance ratio cooler than can currently fit in this case.
MONITOR: Acer XB271HU
The XB271HU is IPS, has G-Sync and goes up to 165hz. The only thing else it could do is 4K and HDR. I chose to go with 1440p as I doubt I could get stable frames from the latest AAA games I tend to play.
CASE: Dan A4-SFX
I waited a few years for this build, made possible with the Dan A4-SFX case. I've been following the [H]ardForum thread since Dan first posted it with a prototype from sheet metal. It's come a long way since then with two Kickstarters for the Dan A4-SFX case.
What makes the case great is that's the smallest gaming case in the world. It's almost impossible (I tried) to find any case at the moment that can fit a full-size GPU and be less than 10L. I'm not sure there's any other configuration to get it smaller without throttling.
The case is unique in that there are two sections. On the right-hand side, you put have your motherboard and power supply. From there, a PCI-e riser cable travels to the left-hand side of the case where the GPU is installed. This makes it so both the CPU and GPU have their own separate cooling; a common problem with small cases.
Installation and Test Bench
Before I had the case or a 1080 Ti, I threw everything on a test bench to use. I thought it would be funny to share. I had it like this for about a month before the case arrived.
Here's a demo of the boot times. Spoilers: 12.02 seconds. I was using a screwdriver to short the power button pins in lieu of a case.
Pictures
To wrap it up, here a few shots I took over the weekend.
I used to have another GTX 1080 Ti
Before the Galax 1080 Ti, I had a Gigabyte Gaming 1080 Ti. It was horribly loud and hurt my ears with how loud its coil whine was. I was able to get a refund on it luckily.
