R9 390 in a mITX Case

[Newfie]

I'm wondering if anybody can share their experience with using the R9 390 in an mITX form factor.

I'm presently looking at the XFX DD R9 390 and I might place it into the CoolerMaster Elite 130 mITX case. I have seen cases where people have had trouble keeping their 290/290x at an acceptable temperature and I definitely do not want that to happen.

I'm pretty brand neutral as long as it fits my budget and my desire to have a SFF case for portability. I'm also considering switching to a GTX 970 for a similar price.

Thanks!

 

[Elixer]

Is the Nano out of your price range? That would be the best one, hands down, if price is of no concern.
That case supports: "Supports ultra high-end graphics card up to 343mm / 13.5 inch, such as AMD HD7990 and NVIDIA GTX690"
http://www.coolermaster.com/case/mini-itx-elite-series/elite130/

I know the Tri-X 390 has the best cooler, and the DD isn't bad either, I doubt you can go wrong with either of those.
The 970 is a partitioned card (3.5GB + .5GB VRAM), and IMO, best to stay away from that line.

 

[Newfie]

The R9 Nano is out of my price range, unfortunately!

I was talked out of buying a R9 380 and now am looking at my R9 390 options. I know it's a rather "warm" card so I want to make sure it wont cook itself in the case.

Finding a balance between small size and performance has been a bit of a challenge. The Node 304 and Corsair 250D are a bit large and examples like the Sugo SG13 are amazingly small, but seem to have poor airflow. The Elite 130 seems like a nice balance (I think).

 

[Gikaseixas]

It won't be a problem, the 390 non reference has pretty good cooling performance, very robust performance, packs generous amount of memory but will require a higher wattage PS.

The GTX 970 has lower power consumption, is a bit easier to cool but has a memory setup that might give you problems specially now that games are starting to demand more and more memory allocations.

Both very good cards I would say but I would give the nod to the AMD one in this case.

 

[iiiankiii]

Normally I would recommend a R9 390 over the GTX 970 For SFF case, don't do the 390. The extra heat needed to be exhausted might give you trouble in a small case with limited air flow. Sure, the cooler on the R9 390 is more than capable of displacing heat from the GPU, but, that heat needs to be exhausted out of the case.

That's the reason why I believe the GTX 970 is a better choice in this situation. The Asus GTX 970 Mini is nice and cute, but the single 8 pin connector limits its TDP and boost clocks. Since your case can fit a full size card, I would grab a full size GTX 970.

Of course, the best solution is the R9 Nano. I guess that's out of the question due to the price.

 

[Seba]

Of course, the best solution is the R9 Nano. I guess that's out of the question due to the price.

Wouldn't a R9 Fury X be better (because it is water-cooled and it is easier to exhaust from the case the heat generated by it)?

 

[iiiankiii]

Wouldn't a R9 Fury X be better (because it is water-cooled and it is easier to exhaust from the case the heat generated by it)?

Well, it depends. Since there is only 1x 120mm fan slot, you'll have to make the choice between an AIO CPU cooler or the Fury X. I guess the decision is entire up to the user. Personally, I would rather use that slot for the CPU cooler because CPU heatsink restriction is real in this small case.

 

[Techhog]

I'd go with a reference 970.

 

[Newfie]

Are there any alternative SFF cases that may accommodate the R9 390? I know the Bitfenix Prodigy may be able to, though it's a bit large for my liking.

 

[Headfoot]

I cant recall the case, but there is one that lets the graphics card vent straight out the side. Modern SFF cases are well designed and will let you use monster video cards without any trouble.

 

[Headfoot]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2414541

 

[Newfie]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2414541

That looks pretty neat! SilverStone's Milo and Raven Series cases are nice for the price (ML08 caught my eye). The only sticking point is that you need SFX(-L) PSU's which are costly from what I have seen so far. I'll keep looking though!

Small and cheap with good airflow is not the easiest balance to find, haha.

 

[Seba]

Are there any alternative SFF cases that may accommodate the R9 390? I know the Bitfenix Prodigy may be able to, though it's a bit large for my liking.

So you don't already have that CoolerMaster Elite 130 mITX case?

Why it is so important to have a small case? A slightly larger mATX case will not have as many limitations.

 

[NomanA]

I cant recall the case, but there is one that lets the graphics card vent straight out the side. Modern SFF cases are well designed and will let you use monster video cards without any trouble.

Yes, CoolerMaster Elite 130 has the same side vents. The GPU will blow straight out of the side. The PCIe slot will be right next to the edge. R9 390 should run fine in this case.

 

[NomanA]

That looks pretty neat! SilverStone's Milo and Raven Series cases are nice for the price (ML08 caught my eye). The only sticking point is that you need SFX(-L) PSU's which are costly from what I have seen so far. I'll keep looking though!

I'd say go for CoolerMaster Elite 130. I have it running with three hard disks (12 TB) and an M.2 SSD, and for a while I also had an R9 290 there, and it worked fine. I used the fans that come with the casing, and they are quiet, although the PC is sitting in a closet, so it's hard to hear it in any case.

It's a very well designed MiniITX case.

 

[Newfie]

So you don't already have that CoolerMaster Elite 130 mITX case?

Why it is so important to have a small case? A slightly larger mATX case will not have as many limitations.

Portability and space in a small apartment. I may move it on a semi-frequent basis depending on what I want to use it for (TV vs. Desk) and depending on what space my SO & other roommate is using.

I've looked at other cases and some of the ones I have considered in the past are the Temjin PJ08 (~30L), the Corsair 250D (28L), Bitfenix Prodigy (~34L) and they all seem big for what I am looking for.

I only want one GPU, a i5-4460/4590 CPU and I have no interest in overclocking the GPU until it's necessary. I figured that I can shrink down the volume of the case significantly which may make my life easier. I like the Elite because it's smaller (33% less volume than the PJ08), it's lighter and it's cheap.

I'd say go for CoolerMaster Elite 130. I have it running with three hard disks (12 TB) and an M.2 SSD, and for a while I also had an R9 290 there, and it worked fine. I used the fans that come with the casing, and they are quiet, although the PC is sitting in a closet, so it's hard to hear it in any case.

It's a very well designed MiniITX case.

Thanks for the info. If you can recall, what kind of temperatures the 290 hit in that case?

 

[tential]

So you don't already have that CoolerMaster Elite 130 mITX case?

Why it is so important to have a small case? A slightly larger mATX case will not have as many limitations.

It's PC gaming.
Do what you want. Once you start compromising, you might as well play 30 fps PS3 games.
We decide what we want, and then we make it happen. That's the best part of PC gaming, you make it exactly what you want to be.

 

[Seba]

It's PC gaming.
Do what you want. Once you start compromising, you might as well play 30 fps PS3 games.
We decide what we want, and then we make it happen. That's the best part of PC gaming, you make it exactly what you want to be.

Limiting the component choices just so that you can use a case smaller by a few inches than a regular case is what I would call a compromise.

 

[Newfie]

Limiting the component choices just so that you can use a case smaller by a few inches than a regular case is what I would call a compromise.

But I already have a good idea of what internal components I want. I'm just trying to see if there is a SFF case that A) I will like and B) that will work with the components I have chosen (i5-4460, R9 390, 1xSSD 1xHDD, 8GB memory, etc...)

My apartment is small and my desk/TV space is small, so ideally I would like a small case.

 

[Seba]

You do not have to justify your choices. I was just pointing out that choosing a small case means that you have to make some compromises when picking components. My last post was a reply to tential's "Once you start compromising" argument.

 

[Newfie]

You do not have to justify your choices. I was just pointing out that choosing a small case means that you have to make some compromises when picking components. My last post was a reply to tential's "Once you start compromising" argument.

Fair enough!

I agree that you have overly flexible at times with component choice in SFF builds. It's not helpful that information on part compatibility is sometimes spotty at best. Picking a case has been a PITA and switching to a GTX 970 is still on the table.

Hopefully it will all be worth it soon enough, haha.

 

[Lulxii]

Hey I saw your post about the 390 in the mitx case. I wanted to know if you had any success? I'm in school as well and carry my desktop back and forth when I travel. I have a corsair air 240, but I have the exact same build you mentioned so I wanted to see what you ended up doing. Thanks for any help.

-Lulxii

ps. I'd PM you, but I just registered this account for the sole purpose of asking. Something about 25 posts

 

[Hitman928]

You're at a point now where Polaris is almost out and should give you about 390 performance at a drastically reduced power consumption which will make a mITX case more feasible.

 

[Crono]

Hey I saw your post about the 390 in the mitx case. I wanted to know if you had any success? I'm in school as well and carry my desktop back and forth when I travel. I have a corsair air 240, but I have the exact same build you mentioned so I wanted to see what you ended up doing. Thanks for any help.

-Lulxii

ps. I'd PM you, but I just registered this account for the sole purpose of asking. Something about 25 posts

I have a 390 (XFX) and also happen to be getting the Corsair Air 240 coming in on Friday. I'll let you know if I can get it running cool with the stock case fans or whether it requires more cooling. I do have two 380s to fall back on, though. The 390s are tricky to keep cool under continuous full load without proper airflow even in larger cases (I put two in a mid-tower and managed to keep them both under 80C at load mining), but it's doable with good fans.

Hitman928 is right, though, it's ideal to wait for cooler and more efficient cards if you can. But I'll report back how my new build fares this weekend.

 

[BrAiNWaFeR]

The Elite 130 is a badass MITX case.. I currently have a i5-4670K overclocked to 4.2ghz .. yes it is kinda cramped for space a modular power supply helps alot,, but i also run an oversized PSU EVGA super nova g2 .. semi modular and have fit my gigabyte 970 g1 and my new 1070 g1 in there.. have a zalma cnps 8900 quite low pro cooler .. and crucial ballistix low profile 2x 8gb ( 16 gb ) CL 8 ram...
was lucky i ordered that low pro ram cuz zalman i ordered later wouldnt have fit will full size ram... don't let the haters tell you your compromising...absolutely false information.. this case is not compromising, i have a full oversized vid card, oversized psu , full i5 chip overclocked with aftermarket cooler.. some of the fastest cas timing ram you can get.. all in this little guy... i love how easy it is to pack it up in my suitcase with a 27" gaming monitor... aswell as it fit on my entertainment stand very well for HTPC use... considering going with a liquid cool tho soon for sure... temps in summer get to almost 80c with that overclock... 67-74c during load ( gaming ) during normal weather on overclock..