First Ever Cube
by PingPonguin Posted on: 11/28/2022
Build Description
I originally built this PC to replace our aging desktops, which would struggle to do anything, even web browsing, since it had SATA II hard drives at the time. I built this mini ITX cube to do that, and I later decided to make it a gaming PC. I further upgraded it over the years to play games, such as Planetside 2 and Starcraft 2, since they are fun to play with friends. However, I do play singleplayer games from time to time, such as Fallout New Vegas and 4. Since I already "maxed out" my motherboard with the 6700k, I'm going to buy an RTX 3060ti hopefully. It will be bottlenecked by the CPU, but I plan to keep the GPU for a very long time.
Favorite Feature
I love how small it is! Even though the mini ITX case is on the larger size, the Thermaltake Core V1 is the only one I could get for the budget. It is amazing how much performance you can get with such a small case (22.68 L)!
i7-6700k
Qty: 1
$80.00
I upgraded this from a i5-6400 for cheap ($80 after shipping and tax), which is why I have this paired with an H170 motherboard.
Gigabyte H170N-WIFI
Qty: 1
$0.00
Back then, I bought this board bundled with an i5-6400 for just $205 for both, which was a great deal at the time and essentially meant that I paid for the i5 and got this mini ITX board for free.
EVGA GTX 1050 SC
Qty: 1
$110.00
I got this back in late 2017. In retrospect, I should have gotten a 1050 ti, since it has 4GB of VRAM. I am currently limited by the 1050's 2GB of VRAM, and I am planning to upgrade soon
Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB DDR4-2400
Qty: 2
$75.00
At first, I started with a measly 8GB of ram, but I later upgraded to 16GB to accomodate multitasking and more demanding games. Unfortunately, because of the H170 chipset I am running the sticks at 2133 MHz instead of the rated 2400 MHz since I cannot do XMP profiles.
Thermaltake Core V1 mini-ITX Mini-Tower Computer Case - Black
Qty: 1
$30.00
At the time, I thought this case was so cool! I could fit all the hardware I needed with just <23 L of volume! It also had a window, and so I could see all the cool stuff inside. Its now outdated, and compared to more modern ITX designs, it doesn't accomodate modern (and larger) video cards as well, and is somewhat space inefficient. Did the job though!
Corsair CX450M 450 Watt 80 Plus Bronze ATX Power Supply
Qty: 1
$45.00
It did the job. Although the fan is technically a sleeve bearing, and is mounted horizontally, nothing bad has happened yet in the 5 years I have used it so far.
Zalman CNPS9500AT
Qty: 1
$30.00
This all copper, flower style heatsink looks sick! Cooled my i5-6400 extremely well (it was low wattage anyways), and for my i7-6700k, it still works fine since I am running it at stock clocks. Beautiful CPU cooler.
Seagate FireCuda 1TB 2.5" Hard Drive
Qty: 1
$60.00
I bought this hybrid HDD to do bulk storage, since at the time SSDs were very expensive. It does the job, but in some games when loading it causes stuttering.
Intel 600p 256GB NVME M.2 SSD
Qty: 1
$70.00
At the time, I thought it was amazing how I could get a PCIe NVME SSD that was only the size of a stick of gum! Definitely outdated now by todays standards in terms of speeds and capacity, but did, and still does, the job of being my main boot drive.