Sometime around May, the HDD of my trusty i7 2600K DAW which I built around 2011 crashed. It was a hard crash with no sign of wear and tear, no disk noise, no bad sector warning. It was working all the way till I tried to access the SD card reader and the PC was not responding. The HDD was dead upon a reboot.
 
Just about a week before the crash, I was so lucky that I did some folder management by moving the project folder of the above HDD to another drive. It contains all my projects since Sonar X1. Phew.. I did lose other data but those are not as important.
 
I was also thinking about building another system that is small enough for me to carry it out to site. I was looking at the Gigabyte Brix, Zoltac ZBox, Intel NUC, notebook, etc.. but I do really want something with an i7 6700K or 4690K.
 
I got in touch with Jim Roseberry for consultation and to help gather and test the CPU, motherboard and memory and to ship it to me for further assembly. Since I'm half a globe away, it would be more affordable for me to buy the other parts locally.
 
So, I've just finished assembling my new DAW :-
 
CPU i7 6700K / Asrock Z170 mini ITX MB / 16GB memory
1x Samsung Evo 850 120GB SSD - Windows 10 Pro boot drive
2x Samsung Evo 850 500GB SSD setup as raid 0, total space of 1TB - Program / Data / Samples
Antec H600 Pro liquid CPU cooler
Cooler Master PSU G550M
Cooler Master Elite 110 case
 
I've got some older PC slim cases lying around - but after some trials and errors with the cooling system and getting a standard size PSU, I've decided to get a new Cooler Master Elite 110 case. The space inside is very tight but the extra case fan added to the liquid CPU cooler fan does the job effectively.
 
If you're looking for a system and is undecided, I do recommend you to get in touch with Jim Roseberry for his good consultation service.
 
--------------some pictures-------------
 
Test setup - scratching my head how to put all the stuff inside the casing :)

 
3 SSD, barely noticeable and very light weight compared to HDD.

 
Very tight space but the double fans sandwiching the liquid radiator (the front one hidden in view) does the job effectively blowing air out to the front.

 
Modular power supply - but I ended up using all the 3 supplied cables.

 
Small DAW and not that heavy - most of the weight comes from the PSU and liquid CPU cooler.

Congrats Albert!!
It's like having a new Ferrari right? (well almost)

Mesh
Congrats Albert!!
It's like having a new Ferrari right? (well almost)

Thanks, well yes, something like that :)   I'm actually sitting down and counting the fast SSD boot time ! Sonar starts up really fast too.

tomixornot

Mesh
Congrats Albert!!
It's like having a new Ferrari right? (well almost)

Thanks, well yes, something like that :)   I'm actually sitting down and counting the fast SSD boot time ! Sonar starts up really fast too.

Yeah, that's what I immediately noticed with the SSD as a boot drive......my boot time is about 10 secs and I'm still impressed after this 3 year build. :))

I'm surprised that with the new build you opted for such a small system drive (120 GB).  I'm guessing you already had it, and was convinced you could save money there, but believe me, you will regret it six months down the line.    
 
Yes, you can install programs on the other drive, but the constant vigilance and workarounds needed to maintain adequate free space is not something you should have to worry about nowadays when 256 GB SSDs are fairly cheap. 
 
Better to upgrade that drive now than later when you've got stuff scattered all over the place.  Just my opinion.
 
Edit:  I just noticed you have the other drive setup as RAID 0, and plan to put everything else there... including programs.  Is this something you discussed with Jim?  I'm just curious because I've never seen anyone do that with a DAW (Create a RAID 0 array and put everything - programs, samples, data - on it).

 
Thanks for the feedback JonD.
 
I do agree that 120 GB is kinda small. But my original intention of this new DAW is mainly for off site recording use doubling as gig PC running backing tracks, software synth and vst effects, looper, etc, with only a few specific programs to be installed. The content shall be duplicated by my other i7 2600K main DAW (which is still off line awaiting funds for some HDDs purchase). But I've sort of over spent, so the i7 2600K PC would have to wait for a while.
 
I can still get another Evo 850 120GB and raid 0 it up with the current 120GB doubling the size for boot disk, as well as moving back program to this larger main drive.
 
Jim did suggest raid 0 for better performance for samples drive. I'm the one deciding program to go into this same raid setup since the current boot disk is only 120GB.

Update.
 
Today I've added another 120GB Samsung Evo 850 to the system (thanks JonD) :-
 
C: Windows boot drive + some programs : 2x 120GB Samsung Evo 850, raid 0, total capacity 223GB
D: Other programs + samples + data : 2x 500GB Samsung Evo 850, raid 0, total capacity 931GB
 
I've also re-routed the liquid cooler tubing towards the opposite side (compared to the pic at the first post) so that the 2 tubes now flow more natural to the radiator / fan without having to go below the PSU.
 
There's a concern regarding the Antec 600 Pro liquid cooler installation. After installing the back plate, it raised the motherboard about 2 to 3 mm higher (the back plate itself touched the bottom of the case) - so when you put in screws on the 4 sides of the board, it bend slightly, curving up in the middle. Due to this, I did not tighten the 2 front screws too much (the screws that are away from the MB back panel) making it less stress on the curve.
 
Main problem :- When I installed the new SSD, one of the SATA port failed to detect the new drive! I did some trouble shoot (switched cables, etc) and it narrowed down to a particular port at the motherboard. I tried further by removing all the cables and attach only one cable - at the problem port, by moving the cable a bit to the side, at first the system hung while booting (before reaching the bios). I take this as some sort of feedback - instead of simply not detecting it. Move the cable again, the board is able to detect the drive and boot to bios. ( using another cable also produced the same result - sometimes can detect, sometimes failed ).  But when I inserted all the 4 SATA cables, that particular port again failed to detect the drive. Running out of option, I tried to load the bios default - no help either.  
 
I tried to tighten just a little, both the front motherboard screws (where I set it a little lose earlier). Problem gone!! phew.. Note sure why making the board a bit more stressed at the middle curve-up helps.
 
Testing it further now, letting the system run for a while, making sure it's fine.
 
Edit :
Btw, after running the system with a single SSD for a few days (which is kinda fast already).. and comparing it with raid 0 setup today, I can say that files related operations (copy, etc) is even faster !

Nice going, Albert!
 
If you don't already use imaging software (Acronis True Image, Paragon, Macrium Reflect, etc), I strongly recommend you look into it and get in the habit of making regular image backups.  Many of the free versions are sufficient for simple image/restore, but for anything fancier like scheduled or incremental backups, you'll need the commercial version. 
 
You can use any external drive, but here I would recommend USB 3 -- fast as hell (important when you're moving tens or hundred of GB of data), and you don't have to buy a new external drive... Take one of the old HDs you have lying around (preferably 120GB or bigger), put it into a USB3 hard drive enclosure, connect to the USB3 port on your PC, and be amazed at your new transfer speeds!

Nice build and congrats on it!!
The square form factor might make it a little clunky to carry. I'm thinking out loud here...what if you somehow added a carrying handle to it? It's a shame they don't make a case that's more like a suitcase...and you'll still need a monitor, keyboard and mouse. I'm not seeing a huge advantage in the area of portability. An advantage over a stock case, yes, but nothing like a laptop.

You can get a suitcase like padded case with rollers.
You'll have to look around to find it.
 
A couple years back, I took out a similar custom "cube" PC to host virtual instruments via Forte' or Cantabile
The rolling case held the "cube" a small LCD monitor... and mini wireless keyboard with glide-point.
All the speed of a full tower... and none of the limitations of a laptop.
To get a laptop with similar capabilities, you're looking at $2000-$3000 (running a desktop CPU).