Suggestions for cloning a X51 Mini?

[ZeroWashu]

What I am aiming for is something with a foot print similar to Alienware's X51, something I can hide behind the monitor. I would most likely put it up with a 27 Dell, or similar display. Hardware wise I want to support 16g, 3.2+ (i5?) processor, and equivalent to Nvidia 680 series cards. Are there 680s that fit in slim line cases? Most likely I would run only a 256g SSD in this machine and back it with 16g or whatever is best for 7Pro or the main board; having seen some that like odd numbers like 6/12.

I am trying to determine if I can build a Windows system combined with 2560x1440 27 display for under 2k or if I should buy the latest iMac instead. Please don't bother with flaming the Mac, as an AIO its price isn't out of line and the current generation is actually nicely equipped.

[vesseblah]

Hardware wise I want to support 16g, 3.2+ (i5?) processor, and equivalent to Nvidia 680 series cards. Are there 680s that fit in slim line cases?

With Mini-ITX boards you can go all the way up to overclocked i7-3770K if you want, that's not gonna be a problem. No high performance graphics card ever comes in slim line form factor, but what you can do is get a PCIe riser and install the graphics card lying down. Or find a SFF case that comes with the riser included. Also you'll have problems finding SFF PSU that can handle cards as big as GTX680, biggest I've seen end up somewhere around 350W.

I am trying to determine if I can build a Windows system combined with 2560x1440 27 display for under 2k or if I should buy the latest iMac instead.

iMac will have about half the GPU power of GTX680 because it's made out of laptop parts and if you want to play the other 90% of games without mac version you'll need to boot camp and make it really expensive windows box anyway.

[Deleted]

bit fenix mini atx can fit a 680 + i7-3730k with both watercooled iirc.
lots of options and please don't throw away the money for apple underpowered pc

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Fractal Design, Silverstone Coolermaster and Bitfenix have ITX cases that can take a full 2-slot graphics card. You would probably want a graphics card with a blower cooler that exhausts out of the back of the case to keep the internal temperature down.

Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe, i5 3570K/3770K, HD 7970GHz/GTX680. You might want to look at the Phanteks PH-TC90LS CPU cooler.

[ZeroWashu]

Looked up the cases, so this is at least doable however price might get a bit silly with some options that are out there. Thank you for the suggestions guys... time to play around at NewEgg

[BicycleMafioso]

Silverstone Sugo SG09. A µATX-case smaller than many mITX-cases. A real pleasant one to build in as well, apparently. It's not super slim, but it is surprisingly small.

[Lemmiwink]

Silverstone Sugo SG09. A µATX-case smaller than many mITX-cases. A real pleasant one to build in as well, apparently. It's not super slim, but it is surprisingly small.

I would like to second that for small form factor, Silverstone has really amazing cases. They are wonderful to assemble in, small and sexy looking and the build quality is fantastic. They also seem to nail cooling better than their competitors (I haven't checked the test numbers here but after assemblig about 6 different small cases the last 2 years, this is my impression).

For pure asthetics I would go for the Node 304 though, that case is just beautyful. Not that this woulf matter much to you if you're gonna have it behind your screen but.....