List of the parts I will use to build my new machine. And some notes with it.
Box #1
Well, there is (was) a Box #2 in the plan to, from start. Basically it was the same setup, but with a smaller chassi - the FT03-mini and it had a mini-ITX MB (same as the one below but in another form factor). After some thinking I decided to go with the larger chassi. That makes me use the same disks/disk setup I have in my Mac Pro and also I get a few xtra PCI slots, in case. The chassi is still much smaller than the Mac Pro. It’s about an inch lower and wider, but only about 55-60% of the length.
The plan, focus and goal is to build a new desktop with ATI graphics, so by chosing an AMD CPU I get the graphics right away and I can save some money initially on skipping the graphic card. I’ll get one later on. So, “all-in” on AMD. It’s not going to be a hard core gaming machine, but I do work with some graphic/design so I still need something thats great. Today in my Mac Pro I have the ATI Radeon HD 5570 card. The onboard graphics is… The MB says HD 8000/7000-series and the CPU says Radeon R7, so either way - newer and better.
Anyway, here’s my build…
Chassi
Silverstone Fortress SST-FT03T (titanium)
The chassi arrived a few days ago. The Titan color is really nice. Though, it was darker than I expected it to be. Almost graphite’ish bronze like. First I thought, “WTF is this..?” - but once on the desk it looked really good.
Here’s a short video clip of the chassi.
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H (rev. 3.1)
An mATX motherboard with 8x SATA and USB3. It looks very good and promising. Great spec’s and features.
CPU
It’s a 65W CPU that looks really good. I don’t need the beefiest ones for my use. The importance here is to get the AMD/ATI graphic. That it is power friendly is nice as well.
2 tests…
I would say it looks like it’s comparable, and a little bit better than the i5 processor.
CPU cooling
Cooler Master: Seidon 120V VER.2 (EU only)
This will be (more than) enough since the CPU is only 65W. It’s possible to mount it with an existing fan to get 1 on each side, but I’ll only use the included one to save space and also because the MB just have 3 (4-pin) fan connectors. 2 for “sysfan” and one for “cpufan”. The last one will probably be used for the top fan in the case.
RAM
CORSAIR Vengeance® Pro Series — 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 DRAM 2133MHz
16GB is more than enough. The APU can use up to 2GB for the graphics, so 14GB left (I have 10GB/1066Mhz in My Mac Pro).
Wi-fi
Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I (rev. 4.2)
A Wi-fi card with 802.11/ac and Bluetooth 4.2. I especially like that the antenna connectors are detachable. Meaning, I can get other ones and put inside the chassi instead.
PSU
750W, modular… I bought this one on “BlackFriday” at a good price, ≈ $45,- off. First I chose this one, but was going with the 650W model later, to save a few bucks. But when I checked my list on Black Friday I found this one and it was cheaper than the 650W model.
Disks
One of the reasons I picked this chassi over the smaller model (FT03-mini) was that I can make use of all my disks I have today.
- SSD: OWC 120GB Mercury Electra™ 6G
- 2x SATA: WD RE4 500GB (WDC WD5003ABYX-01WERA1)
The SSD is really good, but the SATA disks are only SATA II/3G, so perhaps I should get a new one (6G) as well. The RE4 model is good though.
To deal with later…
CD/DVD
I’m not going to put one in now, but later. The chassi needs a slim drive - slot loading. There is one, quite expensive, and since I’m going to get a Mac mini instead of my Mac Pro - to keep (my OS X installation) as a spare. I can take that DVD.
When I upgraded my Toshiba laptop with an xtra disk I also bought an external chassi for the DVD. So, I have an external if I need one.
Graphic card
I will have to take a better look at graphic cards later. The reason to this build is I can get it up and running without a graphic card. As mentioned - the reason to get “all-in” on AMD is because of the graphics. And since I want the AMD/ATI graphics it was an easy decision. And I don’t want to use the Intel graphics… &/or in any Intel nVidia-mix. So, the AMD CPU was an ideal choice for me.
One card I have looked into a little bit is the XFX RADEON R7 360 CORE 1050MHZ 2GB DDR5, or perhaps one from the 200-serie (260X) with 1GB DDR5. I’m not into build a gaming machine. But I need it to work with graphic/design programs. In my Mac I have the ATI Radeon HD 5570 1GB, which is a great graphic card, and whatever I chose for this computer, that craphics will be better - even the onboard graphics are better.
Well, I’m really exited by this build. And this will also be my first new real “PC” that isn’t a Mac. I’ve had other PC’s of course. Most old’ish ones or built from junk parts. But now when switching - this is the one, and I’ll get a Mac mini to put my OS X installtion in, as a spare. It will mostly be to be able to keep my old work and files and if I can’t find replacvements for all programs immediately… That’s mainly Photoshop I’m worried about. I have Gimp to, but haven’t learned the program fully. It’s a lot of same-same, but a few things somewhat different &/or “backwards”. Much is of course based on habits and routines. I’ll get there. Of all programs I have I think I only have 2 or 3 missing in my Arch installation today. So, there are no worries - more like a “better safe than sorry”-solution.
The hardware… I really like the style and thinking behind the design of the chassi. And it saves space to. Not too small but still saves a lot of space. The over all specs of the different parts are great, but perhaps not on the edge. But, it’ll do fine for me. The goal was to find/build a good solid piece of computer to have as my new main computer.
If there’s something I’ve missed or perhaps overlooked? Please comment or ping me on Twitter.