I'm trying to build a quiet itx gaming box. Here's what I am thinking so far:

Case: Silverstone SG06 (already purchased)CPU: Intel i5 3450RAM: 4GB x 2 sticks of this Samsung low profile memoryMotherboard: Undecided, but an H77 would be fine. I would like to have WIFI and Bluetooth on board if possibleGPU: To come later. I'll use onboard for now but eventually would like to see a Nvidia competitor to the AMD 7750/7770CPU Cooler: i will try the stock cooler, but if that turns to be too loud, the Scythe Big Shuriken 2 (Rev B) looks appealing. I'm worried that it is too big and will cover the PCIE slot, though. Is there an H77 motherboard where this will not be an issue?Storage: An SSD (around 60GB) for boot, and a 500gb WD Scorpio blue Suggestions for the SSD are welcome.

Any ideas or comments are welcome, especially around planning for the Motherboard, GPU, and CPU cooler. It's my first ITX box and it looks like more planning for physical fit is required for these little cases!

fits with a mm or two clearance next to the PCI-E slot, as far as I can tell. I haven't put itin the case yet, so this is just based on the parts free-standing, though with the HS allmounted. Also, when installing the HS I rotated it to the position that looked to havethe best clearance on the slot side.

Perhaps consider a Scythe Samurai ZZ. I don't believe it interferes with the PCI-e slot.

For an SSD, I'd pick one that is known to be reliable, i.e. Crucial m4 64, Samsung 470 or 830, or some of Intel's own SSD's. Perhaps Sandforce-driven SSD's are reliable at this point but I wouldn't take the chance. All contemporary SSD's perform virtually the same, so you don't need to worry about performance.

Perhaps consider a Scythe Samurai ZZ. I don't believe it interferes with the PCI-e slot.

IIRC the ZZ should be too much high to fit inside a Sugo. Other good candidates (to fit a discrete graphics) are the classical choices for similar setup: the Thermalright AXP140 (fanless or with a Scythe slim), and the Prolimatech Samuel 17 (with a fan of choice). BTW, I don't think you may go safely fanless with an i5 3450 inside such a cramped space.

Any comments on the following motherboards?ASRock Z77E-ITX $159.99: I don't need the Z77, but the price is within my budget. Has Wifi, but that's not super important to me. Would have preferred bluetooth. I am not overclocking, so that's not a factor.ASUS P8H77-I $108.99: Pretty solid reviews. Good priceASRock H77M-ITX $119.99: Is there any reason to pay more for this over the Asus? Some complaints about an odd layout.Intel BOXDH77DF $149.99: Not really considering this board. The Firewire port is the only differentiator, and I don't have any Firewire devices.

Think about getting a 128GB SSD instead of the 64. - performance bump- the 64GB might not be large enough. I have 64.5GB used on my SSD and it contains my OS, apps and just one game (19GB). Data is elsewhere.

Yikes, the Asus Z77 board is $199.99 CAD. Quite a bit more expensive than the H77. I guess i need to decide if I want to pay that much basically for Wifi and Bluetooth (again, I am not overclocking), or if I just want to use the $90 savings to add them on as USB dongles when I need them.

Is there any reason why I shouldn't choose the Asus H77 board? I think at the moment it is between the Asus H77 and the Asrock H77. Is there anything on the Asrock that makes it worth the extra $10?

@CA_Steve:Thanks for the suggestion. I was looking at a 120GB drive this morning and I think I will probably go with that. It's the OCZ Vertex Plus. I am aware that it is older and using the Indilinx controller, but my thinking is that the jump from HDD to SSD is way bigger than any difference in performance within SSDs. The Vertex Plus looks like it had some trouble with earlier firmware but looks solid enough with the latest firmware.

It's the OCZ Vertex Plus. I am aware that it is older and using the Indilinx controller, but my thinking is that the jump from HDD to SSD is way bigger than any difference in performance within SSDs.

In general, yes. But, the Vertex Plus is 18 months old and pretty wimpy for random reads/writes. This affects the gaming benchmark. The WD Velociraptor scored 151, Vertex Plus 254, Crucial C300 128GB scored 314 and the 300-325 range is where all the current gen. SSDs hang out. I'd spend the extra bucks and get the Crucial C4.

Thanks for the reply about the SSD. It made me do some more searching and I've found a 120GB OCZ Agility 3 for the same price as the Vertex Plus so I'll go with that. Now I just need to figure out the motherboard and I'm pretty much ready to go!

The ASUS board has FanXpert (or fanXpert+, but definitely not FanXpert 2). It makes fan controlling much easier and you don't have to mess around in the BIOS/UEFI. So save the 10 $ and go for the ASUS H77.

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