New Machine - matx i7 build - comments and help welcome

[ak47]

I have been relatively happy with my Q6600 in an Akasa Eclipse with Seasonic PSU and Ninja Heatsink.

Now its time for a new machine to last me the next few years. My current shortlist which I like critique and suggestion from your experience (Small tower case this time):

Case: Fractal Define Mini (Clean looks and USB3 support otherwise I would go for a P180 MIni). Any others? Looking for small and simple - not necessarily black!
PSU: Nexus NX-5000 only one I can find in the UK at reasonable price (I would prefer a Seasonic S12II but can't find anyone with stock in the UK) which is silent.
Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Pro Matx
CPU: Core i7 2600 (no K as I don't overclock).
Mem: 2x4Gb of some sort - nothing fancy
Drive: Some 2.5 HDD of around 500Gb or so - what ever seems cheapest at the time.
Heatsink: Mugen 2? A heatsink at reasonable price - around 40 GBP or so. Or Coolermaster 212 (thats seems to be a bargain if I don't need to upgrade the fan).

Anything you guys would change from your experience - I would happily trade it for cheaper componets (H/S or PSU for example) if the cheaper alternatives are not significantly worst. The i7 and motherboard is pretty fixed (need z68 with displayport support).

[cordis]

Looks like a good list, the only thing I'd critique is the hard drive. In terms of reliability, the 2.5" drives I've had always seem to fail fairly badly, I'd be worried about using one as the main drive. The case should have enough room to mount a good 3.5" disk pretty quietly, get a WD green drive or something like that, and you should be fine. Unless you're talking about an SSD as your 2.5" drive, in which case that would be great.

[ak47]

To update my list after more research

PSU - change from Nexus NX-5300 to Seasonic S12II 620 as Scan has this in stock for 65 GBP deliverer (Nexus about 80 GBP delivered). And I have had good experience pereviously with Seasonic S12 PSU's.

CPU Cooler - can get a Coolermaster 212 Plus for 22 GBP, is this significantly worst than a Mugen2 at half the price?

[boost]

CPU Cooler - can get a Coolermaster 212 Plus for 22 GBP, is this significantly worst than a Mugen2 at half the price?

Not too much, if you want quiet you should get a different fan, Scythe PWM maybe.

I don't understand why you want to buy a 600W PSU for your system. Without a dedicated graphics card it will draw 130W load at maximum.

[ak47]

I don't understand why you want to buy a 600W PSU for your system. Without a dedicated graphics card it will draw 130W load at maximum.

I tried some combos on those power calcs and addes a AMD graphics card as this may possibly be a future addition if I fancy trying a hackintosh. So was looking for a 420w Seasonic but can't find any stock - so next up was the 520. Out of stock but for a minimal amount more, the 600 is available.