First SFF build

[Wee]

So last week my PC decided not to POST anymore, so it's given me the budge to build a new system. It was a pretty old system anyway, and was really looking for any excuse to do an upgrade. I'm really keen to go small this time around, so would like a mATX (or is it mITX ... is there a difference?). I haven't the foggiest about SFF machines, so looking for any advice on the build I can get. It'll be used mostly for gaming, so something that can handle the latest games some-what decently would be nice.

Think I'll be needing the whole sha-bang ... including:

Case (I hear the Silverstone Sugo 1 is the one to have, no?)
Motherboard
Processor
RAM
Graphics card
Hard Drive
DVD Drive (sata)
Some sort of cooling
PCI-E Wifi card
PSU

If I can get a decent system for around the £500 mark, can stretch a little more if need be, that'd be excellent.

What would you guys recommend? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Guardsmon]

The difference between mini-itx and m-atx is the size. Mini-itx is only 17x17cm while M-atx is 24.4x24.4cm.
This makes it a lot harder to fit all the components which pushes the price up and makes expansion harder.

For gaming it would be best to look for m-atx. (unless you really want to go very small when you should be looking at the zotac 9300 mitx board and a sg05.) One of the other problems with mini-itx is that it will take some time before the new chipsets are implemented and you are stuck with AM2 and 775. m-atx provides support for a wide range of sockets including the new i5 and i7's.

If you are looking for cases like the Silverstone SG01, 02, 03 & 04, Lian li V350/1 then you can fit the same size parts in as if you were in a ATX setup, with the exception of the motherboard of course and GPU length needs to be taken into consideration in some cases.

 

[Guardsmon]

I've broken your budget by quite a bit, but for £635 you can get this:
i5 750 2.66ghz retail
Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2
2x2 G-skill 12800 Cl8 ddr3
ATI 4870 1024mb
Seagate 320GB hdd
Sony optiarc dvd-rw
Lian li v351b
OCZ stealthxstream 600W

Admittedly if I was going to build it from scratch and was going to overspend as much as that I'd probably try and get a better PSU (but they are just so damn expensive atm) and a better GPU.

However if you want to keep within budget:
get a cheaper case
Look at the Q8200 and something like a G43 (if you can find it DFI do the T2RS P45) and 2x2 gb of DDR2

With just replacing the Lian Li v351 with the 350 I got the price down to £500.

 

[sev]

AAre there special psu's designed for M-Atx and mini-atx? or will a 'normal' psu work on them?

 

[Kezmo]

Matx will take a full size(normal psu) though because space is limited it's best to get a modular psu for a tidy build and good airflow.

 

[Guardsmon]

AAre there special psu's designed for M-Atx and mini-atx? or will a 'normal' psu work on them?

There are m-atx power supplies of various forms, though which you get is dependent on the case you get. (m-atx, flex-atx, pico...)

As Kenzo said you can use a standard ATX2.2 power supply with most sff motherboards, but it is suggested (like I did with my specs) that you get a modular as you will most likely struggle with space.