Aerocool DS Spec advice - anyone had one?

[liquidtmd]

Hi - considering the below spec, with the intent to use the mesh top as opposed to the Solid / Silent one with the DS. Comes in at £858. Anything I'm particularly missing? General exp with the Aerocool case would also be appreciated.

Case
AeroCool DS Cube Black Edition Window Mini-ITX

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4570 (3.2GHz) 6MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® H87I-PLUS: Mini-ITX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)

Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ R9 270X - DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable

Memory - 1st Hrd Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st DVD/-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY


Processor Cooling
INTEL STANDARD CPU COOLER

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

Power Cable
1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)

Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Softwar
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Delivery
PCS EXTRA-CARE DIAMOND DELIVERY - MON-FRI, PRE-NOON (£9)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity 1

 

[keynes]

is it for gaming?

 

[liquidtmd]

Yes - part emulation and moderate gaming. My expectations are in check with the benchmarks of the 270x in terms of FPS and resolution, my gaming won't go above 1080p. After experiencing an SSD in my laptop, the speed offered by them is pretty much essential now and I can't go back. The stock cooler of the I5-4570 has had fairly solid reviews. Most sites seems to say go with a PSU of over 500w with the 270x but the configurator on PCS actually allows a 350w PSU - so I've split the difference and gone with a 450w.

My budget is set around the £850 limit and want something nice to look at, relatively quiet and cool. I've looked at the thermals offered by the Aerocool - not unreasonable with the mesh top, although that combined with the R9-270x is something I'm curious about. Ideally I prefer the look of the Aerocool over the Bitfenix.

 

[keynes]

The stock cooler of the I5-4570 has had fairly solid reviews

Is that when gaming or day to day tasks? I checked reviews when it was first released and the stock cpu cooler was not as good as a cheap air cpu cooler. I assume with a mini pc there could be slightly higher temps.
If you are not looking at very demanding games the spec looks fine, I'd personally drop the SSD to get a better gpu. It is easier to add an SSD than replace a GPU.

 

[liquidtmd]

I checked reviews when it was first released and the stock cpu cooler was not as good as a cheap air cpu cooler..

Something I'd consider - any idea if PCS offer that facility or will add that to the configurator? As the only CPU Cooling options currently revolve around the Coolermaster 120m which isn't listing as compatible with the Aerocool.

I did consider dropping the SSD and upping the GPU to a 280x - any idea how the thermals and noise of the 280x compares to the 270x, and the long term viability of it being fine in the small form chasis - all cards offered by PCS will be reference, yes?

 

[keynes]

They are reference GPUs, you could check benchmarks online regarding temps.