Streacom FC8 Evo HTPC/Gaming Build: The 110W Wonder

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Sep 12, 2011
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My last experience with a small form factor build was with an Antec Aria Micro-ATX case back in 2004. The thing worked quite right... power problems, heat problems, etc. When I built my last desktop in 2010, I just wanted a lot of power for the money, so I went with the traditional Core i7-930/Radeon 5850 in an Antec 300 chassis. It's still quite the machine, but after adding a second 5850, the thing consumes a LOT of juice (~620W under load).

For my next build, I wanted a machine that would fulfill several roles:
1) HTPC in my living room
2) Spare gaming machine when I have friends over
3) Portable machine for LAN parties.

For this build, I wanted the form factor to be so small as to require compromises. The SilverStone SUGO SG-05B is a great case, but with an ATX power supply and room for a full-length, double slot video card, the only major compromise is the inability to SLI. I wanted something smaller. The Alienware X51 was quite inspiring. I really liked the decision to go with a 90 degree riser and slim chassis. For what I wanted to do, however, I wanted the ability to build and upgrade the machine myself and I didn't want something flashy like the Alienware.

I looked for slim cases designed with a 90 degree riser in mind, and all the ones I found were micro-ATX, no mini-ITX to be found.

So I started looking into a half-height video card. HTPC video cards have gotten much better in recent years, the PowerColor 5750 struck me as the first mass-market half-height card that could game fairly decently. (Yes I know about AFOX and it's crazy low profile 7850). More recently Sapphire released the 7750 low-profile, and after reading the reviews, I decided it was the card to build the system around.

For the case, I decided to go with the Streacom FC8 Evo. Going with a PicoPSU-powered machine required compromises, but ultimately, I wanted a very small machine, so compromises were to be expected.

I opted for the newly released Ivy Bridge Core i3-3220T. With a 35W TDP, I knew passive cooling wouldn't be a problem. A dual-core 2.8 GHz chip isn't a barn-burner, but I knew it would be enough to handle the vast majority of games (I agree it will probably choke on big SC2 battles).

Motherboard was a tougher choice, as the FC8 is somewhat picky about motherboard layout. Streacom to their credit publishes a list of comparable motherboards, but almost all the motherboards were H67 based and I wanted a newer H77 motherboard. I picked the Asus P8H77-I as it had good reviews and the features I wanted.

For power, I bought the PicoPSU 160W and a 192W AC adapter (a poor decision).

8 GB of RAM and an old 500 GB hard drive I had laying around and I was in business.

Specs:
Streacom FC8 Evo Case
Core i3-3220T
Asus P8H77-I
8GB G.Skill ram
Sapphire 7750 low profile
PicoPSU 160W-XT
Hitachi 500 GB hard drive.




After receiving all the components, I put it together on my bench, just to verify everything was working correctly. After installing Windows 7 and "Testing" Tribes: Ascend, I was pretty pleased. Still though, I had a major problem, the 192W AC Adapter I purchased, used a Mini-DIN 4-pin connector, and the FC8 has a cut-out for a 5mm barrel connector. So I purchased a 120W AC adapter with a 5mm barrel connector and a Kill-a-Watt meter.

The results of power testing were excellent:


Simultaneously running Prime95 and Furmark the machine consumed 110W while stress testing. Pretty impressive for a machine that runs Tribes:Ascend at 1080p with everything maxed out.

Pulling <100W under normal usage, meant that I could switch down to the 120W AC adapter, which solved the power connector issue.

This was the most challenging computer I've built, and I've probably built ~10 machines. It was challening because of two main reasons, one, certain tiny oversights by streacom when designing the case and two, the heatpipes.

Right off the bat, I encountered a problem, removing the top cover requires unscrewing two screws that are located in between the heat sink fins. ALL of the screwdrivers in my fairly well equipped tool kit were either two short or two fat to reach the screw. After trying to kludge something together for about 20 minutes, I broke down, walked to the hardware store, and bought a long thin magnetized philips head. That helped quite a bit.

With the case off you can see the drive assembly held in place by 4 small screws:


After removing the drive assembly you can see the case connectors. I was a bit miffed to learn that neither Asus nor Streacom included a USB 3.0 internal connector cable... I will have to add that at a subsequent date:


Naked case:


The Intel CPU heatblock:


Asus mobo with Intel chip installed:


Installing the Heatblock mounting nuts:


Installed the mobo in the case:


the passive cooling assembly, 4 heat pipes and an aluminum block. Don't forget the Arctic Silver!


The top piece to the heat block. In a minor design oversight, the springs are "coiled" the wrong direction. When you tighten the screws, the edge of the spring catches on the inside lip of the screwhole and it shaves a small amount of aluminum. That wouldn't happen if the springs were coiled the other way. Or alternatively a small washer in between the spring and the heat block would also do the job:


Be liberal with the TIM:


Getting this whole thing copacetic was hard. Heatpipes required some bending and tweaking to get everything together:


The view from the side:


With that done, the rest was a snap. Installed the Sapphire 7750:


Installed the hard drive and assembly:


Voila:


From the Rear:


CPU Temperature under Prime95 load:


The GPU gets very hot under Furmark (as is to be expected for a convection cooled case):


Under normal circumstances the fan barely spins, and while playing a graphics intensive game the GPU gets to about 82C.

I'm happy with how the build went. I was very concerned that cramming a 7750 into a convection cooled case was going to end with letting magic smoke out, but so far so good.

gofasterplease
 
Although I'm not really worried about damaging the card, 83 C under load is enough to make the little fan on the 7750 work pretty hard. That makes it the loudest component in the system. Adding a very small case fan to pull hot air out of the case would radically lower the temperature inside the case, meaning that the 7750 fan wouldn't need to work as hard.

Can anyone recommend a very small, very quiet , low wattage case fan? I've got a free molex connector as well as the CPU and Chassis fan motherboard headers.

I'm thinking something like the "AcoustiFan™ DustPROOF Quiet Computer Case Fan - 60mm" from Quiet PC.

thanks,
gofasterplease.
 
Wow, this is a nice log, thank you for sharing it. I've been looking to build an ultra portable low-power rig like this.

You mentioned that the PicoPSU 160W and a 192W AC adapter was 'a poor decision'.

What would you do differently?
 
The 160W PicoPSU was great, but the 192W AC adapter used a Mini-DIN connector that was incompatible with my FC8 Evo. I could have drilled it out and used it anyway, but since I was so far under the actual rating of the AC Adapter, it made way more sense to return the 192W and buy a 120W adapter that used the proper 5mm barrel connector. That was the only major screw up.

gofasterplease
 
Very interesting thread for me - I'm just about to do my first ever build with the fc8-evo and your photos & text are informative. I am wondering though - what parts / surfaces did you apply the thermal paste to, and when? I can find lots on the internet about applying paste to a "normal" cooler, but not sure how the paste should be applied with the heat pipes, and the only photos I can find seem to show one thing while the text describes another. Thanks for any advice or links you can offer.
 
Basically any time you have two metal surfaces that need to conduct heat, you need a lot of grease. So between the interfaces of CPU->aluminum block->Heat pipes->Chassis blocks, you need grease.

PS as an update to this thread, I installed a small 12V case fan that I affixed to the inside of the case with command strips. At 12V it was too noisy, so I rewired it to 7V and it's basically silent, it leaves the machine cool enough for my comfort.

gofasterplease
 
I think ultimately the solution will be integrated GPU's powerful enough to play games on.
The 7750 has a 55W TDP... actively cooling it in a case without fans is hard. Passively cooling it in a case without fans is going to be VERY hard, even if you could re-route the heat to the exterior of the chassis with heatpipes.
 
That's a very nice computer. I'm looking to build a system very similar to this one with the same FC8 Evo case and Asus P8H77-I motherboard but am concerned that there isn't enough space above the SATA ports due to the heat pipes being above them. The system I'm building would require access to at least three of those SATA ports.

Did you notice any issues with the heat pipes being in the way of the SATA ports?
 
Not 100% sure, but I do recall it being a tight fit. My machine has two drives. I recall essentially wedging one of the connectors in. If that's true, I think a third SATA is off limits. If you don't need discrete graphics you could put in a PCIe card with internal SATA headers but you know that.

Easier solution is another motherboard.
 
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For you guys using the 150/192w Pico...this adapter works just fine w/o any modifications. I've field tested(aka beat it to an inch of its life) it to the nth degree. Performs stellar and has no problems with the 6570, 6670, or the 7750 with a Core i3 XXXX.

I'll mention, I've done quite a few builds with the Wesena cases...I'm surprised that HD 7750 isn't overheating on you. In a regular case...the HD 6570 runs warm.

Best,

LC
 
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Adding the "case circulation fan" was pretty key to keeping the temp of the 7750 nice and cool under load. It also has the side effect of helping cool whatever other parts on the mobo w/o a heat block stay cool.
 
I am looking to make a Haswell build using the FC8 Evo case.

It appears that the following motherboards are incompatible due to the CPU socket being in the top half of the board:

ASRock Z87E-ITX
ASUS Z87-ITX
EVGA Z87 Stinger

However I have found a board where the CPU is located in the bottom half of the board:

Gigabyte Z87N-WiFi

I would be very grateful if anyone could help me take a look at the layout of this board and confirm whether it would likely be compatible?
 
Really cool build.

Has anyone tried the FC7 Evo? That allows a (small) fan for the CPU.
 
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