Recommended Build Lists

Welcome to the Circle Pro recommended build lists. This is currently a work in progress. Please direct questions, comments and suggestions here.

To ensure you're building a compatible system we highly recommend only buying parts listed on this page.

We find the best prices and most reliable suppliers for the parts you need and list them here. We prioritise linking to a single supplier because sourcing all parts from the same place means you can buy everything you need in minutes.

If you're confident finding your own parts, see case requirements here and a full compatibility list here.

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$1758.12 USD

$2283.12 USD

$3827.07 USD

Great value. High clock speed processor with 8 cores. High speed storage and RAM.

Processor

3.7GHz 6-core 8th-gen Intel i7-8700K with Turbo Boost up to 4.70 GHz

Notes: Gret single core performance of up to 4.7Ghz, with consistent six-core performance of 3.7Ghz. Good for gaming and productivity.

$369.99

Storage

Samsung EVO 970 250GB NVME M.2 SSD

Notes: We recommend using M.2 slot NVME drives as your main system drive. They're up to 3 x faster than SATA based SSDs and can be installed directly on the motherboard, meaning less cable clutter in your case.

$89.99

RAM

Corsair Vengeance 16GB kit (2 x 8GB) DDR4 2400Mhz

Notes: It's important to make sure the RAM you get is low profile, as the radiator tubes have to pass over them. If the RAM is particularly tall, it might prevent the case from closing.

$94.99

Graphics

ZOTAC GeForce RTX 2060 Mini 6GB GDDR6

Notes: This card has good cooling and silent fans. Zotac sell similar size cards in RTX 2070, 1070Ti, 1080 and 1080Ti variants.

It's important that the graphics card you get isn't longer than 213mm. Any longer and it won't fit in the case.

$369.99

Motherboard

ASRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac LGA 1151 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Notes: This motherboard has the three necessary fan headers required for this case (CPU, case and PUMP), customisable fan curves, a single M.2 NVME slot, overclocking ability, and Thunderbolt 3 support (it is the only mini-itx motherboard on the market that supports TB3 currently).

$179.99

Power Supply

CORSAIR SF Series SF450 450W 80 PLUS GOLDSFX Modular Power Supply

Notes: This power supply is modular and has a high quality silent fan. 450W is plenty for this build.

Other brands have fans that make enough noise to be audible in operation.

$89.99

Cooling

Thermaltake - Water 3.0 Extreme S AIO Liquid Cooler

Notes: It's important that cooling block has side mounted angle-adjustable liquid tubes otherwise it won't fit in the case.

It's also important to make sure the cooling block isn't taller than 48mm - this excludes NZXT coolers for instance.

Also, a known issue is that radiators with square edges don't currently fit, such as the Coolermaster ML240.

See full compatibility list.

$94.38

Radiator Fans

Noctua NF-P12 PWM

Notes: We highly recommend getting these or similarly quiet fans. The noise difference in the overall experience of using these compared to the stock fans with the radiator is night and day.

2 x $19.95

Case fans

Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM premium-quality quiet slim 120mm fan

Notes: We designed the case specifically to use these new Noctua NF-A12x15 fans. If you want to use another type of fan, make sure they are no more than 15mm thick or they won't fit.

2 x $19.95

Circle Pro Case

A beautifully simple mini-itx modular case meticulously engineered by Circle Studio

$389

A balance of power and value. High clock speed processor with 8 cores. High speed storage and RAM.

Processor

3.6GHz 8-core 9th-gen Intel i9-9900K with Turbo Boost up to 5GHz

Notes: Excellent single core performance of up to 5Ghz, with consistent eight-core performance of 3.6Ghz. Great for gaming and productivity.

$529.99

Storage

Samsung EVO 970 500GB NVME M.2 SSD

Notes: We recommend using M.2 slot NVME drives as your main system drive. They're up to 3 x faster than SATA based SSDs and can be installed directly on the motherboard, meaning less cable clutter in your case.

$139.99

RAM

Corsair Vengeance 32GB kit (2 x 16GB) DDR4 2666Mhz

Notes: 64GB is the maximum RAM this motherboard supports.

It's important to make sure the RAM you get is low profile, as the radiator tubes have to pass over them. If the RAM is particularly tall, it might prevent the case from closing.

$219.99

Graphics

ZOTAC GeForce RTX 2070 Mini 8GB GDDR6

Notes: This card has good cooling and silent fans. You can also get this card in 2060, 1070Ti, 1080 and 1080Ti variants from Zotac. It's important that the graphics card you get isn't longer than 213mm. Any longer and it won't fit in the case.

$529.99

Motherboard

ASUS ROG Strix Z390-I LGA 1151 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Notes: This motherboard has the three necessary fan headers required for this case (CPU, case and PUMP), customisable fan curves, two M.2 NVME slots, overclocking ability.

$209.99

Power Supply

CORSAIR SF Series SF450 450W 80 PLUS GOLDSFX Modular Power Supply

Notes: This power supply is modular and has a high quality silent fan. 450W is enough for this build, although you could consider going to 600W for more headroom.

Other brands have fans that make enough noise to be audible in operation.

$89.99

Cooling

Thermaltake - Water 3.0 Extreme S AIO Liquid Cooler

Notes: It's important that cooling block has side mounted angle-adjustable liquid tubes otherwise it won't fit in the case.

It's also important to make sure the cooling block isn't taller than 48mm - this excludes NZXT coolers for instance.

Also, a known issue is that radiators with square edges don't currently fit, such as the Coolermaster ML240.

See full compatibility list.

$94.38

Radiator Fans

Noctua NF-P12 PWM

Notes: We highly recommend getting these or similarly quiet fans. The noise difference in the overall experience of using these compared to the stock fans with the radiator is night and day.

2 x $19.95

Case fans

Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM premium-quality quiet slim 120mm fan

Notes: We designed the case specifically to use these new Noctua NF-A12x15 fans. If you want to use another type of fan, make sure they are no more than 15mm thick or they won't fit.

2 x $19.95

Circle Pro Case

A beautifully simple mini-itx modular case meticulously engineered by Circle Studio

$389

A 10-core processor. 64GB RAM. A serious workhorse.

Processor

3.3GHz 10-core Skylake -X Intel i9-7900X

Notes: 10 core performance ideal for multi-threaded workflows like rendering. There is also an 18-core processor in this range.

$1123.75

Storage

Samsung EVO 970 2TB NVME M.2 SSD

Notes: We recommend using M.2 slot NVME drives as your main system drive. They're up to 3 x faster than SATA based SSDs and can be installed directly on the motherboard, meaning less cable clutter in your case.

$497

RAM

Corsair Vengeance 64GB kit (4 x SO-DIMM 16GB) DDR4 2666Mhz

Notes: This motherboard only supports SO-DIMM RAM (shorter RAM, normally seen in laptops). 64GB is the maximum this motherboard supports.

$424.19

Graphics

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1080Ti Mini 11GB GDDR5

Notes: It's important that the graphics card you get isn't longer than 213mm. Any longer and it won't fit in the case.

$699

Motherboard

ASRock X299E-ITX/AC LGA 2066 Intel X299 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Notes: This motherboard has the three necessary fan headers required for this case (CPU, case and PUMP), customisable fan curves, 2 x M.2 NVME slots, overclocking ability.

A known issue with this board is that when the SATA daughter board is connected, the liquid cooling tubes from the radiator physically collide with it, preventing the side panel of the case from closing. This means we recommend removing the SATA daughter board and only running M.2 NVME drives with this motherboard.

$399.99

Power Supply

CORSAIR SF Series SF600 600W 80 PLUS GOLDSFX Modular Power Supply

Notes: This power supply is modular and has a high quality silent fan. 600W is required for this build.

Other brands have fans that make enough noise to be audible in operation.

$119.96

Cooling

Thermaltake - Water 3.0 Extreme S AIO Liquid Cooler

Notes: It's important that cooling block has side mounted angle-adjustable liquid tubes otherwise it won't fit in the case.

It's also important to make sure the cooling block isn't taller than 48mm - this excludes NZXT coolers for instance.

Also, a known issue is that radiators with square edges don't currently fit, such as the Coolermaster ML240.

See full compatibility list.

$94.38

Radiator Fans

Noctua NF-P12 PWM

Notes: We highly recommend getting these or similarly quiet fans. The noise difference in the overall experience of using these compared to the stock fans with the radiator is night and day.

2 x $19.95

Case fans

Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM premium-quality quiet slim 120mm fan

Notes: We designed the case specifically to use these new Noctua NF-A12x15 fans. If you want to use another type of fan, make sure they are no more than 15mm thick or they won't fit.

2 x $19.95

Circle Pro Case

A beautifully simple mini-itx modular case meticulously engineered by Circle Studio

$389

Things you will need to source yourself:

Monitor
Keyboard
Mouse
Headphones
Speakers