[H]ard Sff Club

dayum

whoa

Hey SFF club, check out what's coming from EVGA. The Hadron:



Looks like we have a challenger to the Prodigy as the best ITX gaming chassis.

http://www.evga.com/articles/00777/

Deleted.

It comes with a Gold rated 500W.

Looks like a flex ATX unit.

The case comes with its own psu (500w - 80+ gold rated). It's available for $189.99, so it is not cheap.

Deleted.

Better Pics I made outside








Plans :
Abusing the system, Making a propper mount for the SSD´s on the CPU Side, Cleaning up the wires.
Maybe I ditch the rear mounted Quickcouplers as by now the internal cooling capacity with a slim 140 and a 45mm thick 240 Radiator is sufficient.

techrat said:

Yep. Proprietary PSU, it looks like.

http://techreport.com/news/25336/low-profile-psu-mini-itx-motherboard-collide-in-evga-hadron-chassis

That's enough for me to put this on a "don't buy" list.

Click to expand...

I emailed EVGA about it. Apparently it is sourced from FSP Group and is the same model as this one, just painted black. So while not a realistic option, replacement it for another is possible. FSP does offer 600 and 700 watt versions, but they are longer than the 500 watt version, and might not be compatible (not to mention restricting airflow).

#beastMODE

Silverstone TJ08-E and SG05

Hello,

I'm currently the owner of a SG07, pretty happy with it.

But I've become a bit obsessed with SFF and making my rig as light and small as possible, while still keeping it pretty powerful.

So I've taken a look at the contents of my SG07 :

Mobo
Gaming CPU (2500k in my case)
"Enthusiast/performance" graphic card
PSU
AIO cooler (antec 620)
Storage (1 HDD and 1 SSD)
1 big fan to make the case breathe

(theorically I'm not using all the space available as there was still space for 1 more 2.5' storage device and a slim optical drive, but things feel pretty cramped already)

Now, I can't help but think I should be able to make things even smaller, while retaining 99.9% functionality for gaming, if I moved to :

a SFX PSU instead of the ATX used in the SG07.
Removing the SSD/HDD combo and going for a 480gb msata SSD. I'm thinking 480gb should be quite enough for gaming needs in the next years, as videos/docs are mostly stored on a NAS

I'm just curious if someone has tried this before (going totally without 2.5/3.5 drives), and if they designed a specific case to get things as small as possible, maybe using a riser ?

hyp36rmax - how are the temps and noise levels in that SG05? Any what kind of psu are you using?

techrat said:

Yep. Proprietary PSU, it looks like.

Click to expand...

It's a standard 1u server PSU, just not ATX or SFX format. Shuttle have used them for years.

FSP do a whole range of them up to 700W - see here.

dmoney1980 said:

hyp36rmax - how are the temps and noise levels in that SG05? Any what kind of psu are you using?

Click to expand...

The temps are pretty good: CPU is 30-35 C and GPU is 64-69 C at load. It's not very loud at all. I'm using the Silverstone ST45SFG 450Watt Gold Modular PSU. I'll have updated numbers and a more detailed analysis once I get my water-block for my GPU.

saxovtsmike said:

Better Pics I made outside

Plans :
Abusing the system, Making a propper mount for the SSD´s on the CPU Side, Cleaning up the wires.
Maybe I ditch the rear mounted Quickcouplers as by now the internal cooling capacity with a slim 140 and a 45mm thick 240 Radiator is sufficient.

Click to expand...

What case is that?

edward78 said:

What case is that?

Click to expand...

iirc that is a heavily modified bitfenix prodigy.

ekuest said:

iirc that is a heavily modified bitfenix prodigy.

Click to expand...

Cool, that case having the odd handle thing around the case is annoying. Is is hard to take the handle thing off? What are the measurements of yours?

edward78 said:

Cool, that case having the odd handle thing around the case is annoying. Is is hard to take the handle thing off? What are the measurements of yours?

Click to expand...

i dont remember. it's not my build, i just remember reading his build log a while ago. if you want to check it out here's a link: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1778130&highlight=

edward78 said:

Cool, that case having the odd handle thing around the case is annoying. Is is hard to take the handle thing off? What are the measurements of yours?

Click to expand...

The handles are easy to remove, but the handle mounting holes are exposed when you do this, and it looks awful. It looks like those are custom side panels.

[EDIT] oops. Looks like a link was posted to the build. Go check it out.

Just finished this the other day. I wanted to try the matx for a lan pc, and with a older platform(s775)


Hardware is in signature

I'm new to the club with my new ITX build.

Corsair 250D
Asus PZ97I-Plus
Intel i5-4690K
Corsair H100i (my first time with water cooling was surprisingly easy)
eVGA GTX 980
Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1866
Samsung 840 Evo 500GBx2
WD Black 2TB 7200RPM
Corsair AX760i



Been installing software and transferring files all day... and it's gonna be a long night of it, too.

Tyler-Durden said:

Corsair H100i (my first time with water cooling was surprisingly easy)

Click to expand...

I shouldn't be dissing, but mate, its easy enough when you buy a closed system. Try and buy all the parts alone, and then try to get 'em to fit. Or find out that parts don't fit fit together. THAT is hard(kinda).

Just putting in the rad, and mount the cooling head, thats nothing.

Although i would say that closed systems they have come with the last couple of years, looks really nice, and they practically the same

Anyone have a Thermaltake Core V1 build pics?

Just started modding it a few weeks ago:

Corsair 250D
Asus H97
i5-4440
Corsair XMS3 8GB
AMD HD 7970
Corsair RM750
2xCorsair LS128GBSSD RAID0
2xWD1.5TB

The progress of my Silverstone TJ08-E Rebuild #Phase02











Build Log: Link

I've been a long fan of densely built systems. I see too many otherwise great cases, that are just a lot of empty space on the inside. I recently did a build for a lab I work at, and I have to recommend the Silverstone Precision PS09B for cheaper builds.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163247

I was impressed by the build quality,price, and that it is a case that isn't any bigger than it needs to be.

Does a Gigabyte Brix count?

Pix:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1041333265&postcount=19

Maor pix:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1041382813&postcount=30

How much was it?! Pretty nice for being so small! I like the way they lay everything out in the tiny case.

lillimon04 said:

How much was it?! Pretty nice for being so small! I like the way they lay everything out in the tiny case.

Click to expand...

Gigabyte Brix GB-BXi7G3-760 (800 USD shipped)

Crucial 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 SODIMM kit (120 USD shipped)

Samsung EVO 840 250GB mSATA SSD (120 USD shipped)

Total: 1040 USD shipped

Already have Windows licenses so that doesn't factor into total cost, but you could easily get a Microsoft Windows 7 Professional license from someone here for about 55 USD.

I also put a Kingston HyperX 120GB 2.5" SSD in it as well to use for TMP and TEMP system variables + user profile AppData location. Got this SSD from a laptop that I put an 80GB Intel SSD in.

This tiny thing can run Skyrim at 1920x1200 on maximum quality settings and still give me smooth superfantastic framerate.

Play any newer games on it?

lillimon04 said:

Play any newer games on it?

Click to expand...

Not yet. Far Cry 4 is on the list though -- bought a copy from an [H] member. Need to download and install.

i think i heard they were pretty loud. is it bad at high load or pretty bearable?

ekuest said:

i think i heard they were pretty loud. is it bad at high load or pretty bearable?

Click to expand...

I personally find it quite tolerable.

I did the first mission of getting to the tower as a speedrun and kept it mostly the same pathway. Not perfect but that's OK; for practical purposes this is sufficient. By default, it selected 1920x1080 for my resolution and the "High" profile.

1920x1080 on "High"
Minimum FPS: 30
Maximum FPS: 58
Average FPS: 43

Then I would change the video profile, restart the mission, and do it again

1920x1080 on "Very High"
Minimum FPS: 26
Maximum FPS: 51
Average FPS: 37

1920x1080 on "Ultra"
Minimum FPS: 24
Maximum FPS: 50
Average FPS: 34

Just got a Lian-Li PC-Q28B, I'm going to put my build in it this weekend. Anyone have experience with this case?

So can I be a member ? Sorry for the bad pics






Sorry for the bad pics will make some outside soon...

Specs :
i5 4670k @ 4.0ghz
Corsair H100i
8Gb Ram 1866mhz
512Gb Crucial M100
2 x 2Tb Green
280x Sapphire
Kraken G10 with H75

Stays really cool!
gaming GPU temps stay around 45c !
Build For Lan Partys

Way back in the day (in Internet time) I demonstrated a mod on here to turn an XBox 360 203 Watt PSU into a secondary power supply for the video card. I was running a GTX 275 at the time.



http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1712969

I tried other SFF setups that would allow me to go back to using a single PSU, such as the Fractal Node 304 case, but kept coming back to my trusty Shuttle box. Hard to beat having 4 RAM slots in a SFF build. (Does anyone still do this anymore or is everything mITX 2 RAM socket now?)



Few things have changed since then. I've become heavily involved in the video and graphics department at the studio and that requires more resources. More ram (hence the Shuttle), more space and power in general.

I rebuilt my Shuttle to go from an Athlon II x4 630 2.8Ghz to a Phenom II 1055t x6 2.8/3.3Ghz CPU. Honestly, I could have skipped that part. Video rendering is dog slow on a CPU, no matter how you slice it. 50% improvement over a handful of hours is still several hours waiting for it to be finished.

Had to give up my GTX 275 because of a Steam/DirectX bug that caused unresolvable crashes. Got a 640GT on sale because it required no additional power, had CUDA support and 2GB Ram which was perfect for the Shuttle as it only has a 250Watt PSU.

Unfortunately, After Effects won't use a GT 640 (despite having 384 CUDA cores) for GPU Raytrace Rendering, so I picked up a used GTX 470 (one of the cards specifically mentioned to be supported by AE) from another member on the HardForums and resurrected my XBox 360 PSU.

XBox PSU still runs great.



Due to my triple fan setup, temps almost never break 100f internally. Only the GPU breaks 100f and at the most, it hits about 120-130f. Direct side fan does the trick.

Because of how nice it is to have GPU Rendering when using apps like After Effects, I decided to cobble together my spare parts into a new SFF build to use only as a render box for projects in the studio instead of at home. It would cut our Mac Pro (12 Core Xeon based) rendering times from 2 1/2 hours to about 10 minutes at the same quality level. Just getting to minutes within a deadline by the time something finishes rendering can be a big headache even when you plan for that kind of overhead. We don't do enough easy breathing and I want to change that.



Some of you folks may have seen this case making the rounds. It's a generic/white box design being branded and resold by some case brands. Usually DIYPC and Raijintek.

http://www.eteknix.com/raijintek-metis-mini-itx-aluminum-chassis-review/

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811353044

The case has some flaws. But it's also probably the best compromise between size and utility that I've seen yet. I always felt the Node 304, while a really, really nice case... just didn't make use of its internal space all that well. This case also uses discrete panels for the sides, which I've always preferred over the single piece "U" shell type cases.



Case is actually a lot roomier than it looks from the outside. My A8-5500k is in there with an MSI mITX Mobo. Soon another GTX 470 will be in there along with my Antec 620W PSU. Plenty of room for both, which is nice. Nothing's installed yet since my PSU is currently tied up powering a failing NAS box being backed up to another external drive. Sigh.



Proportionately, it's about as wide and about a third taller than my Shuttle box while being slightly less deep.

Can't wait to see the looks on some peoples' faces at the studio (I train a lot of interns that don't know any better) that my sub $300 build is going to kick the snot out of the Xeon Mac Pros in render time. Box will be headless, network accessible and used via TeamViewer exclusively for rendering finished projects... So largely transparent as people will still be using the Mac Pros for content creation itself.

Specs for Shuttle:

Phenom II 1055t x6 2.8/3.3Ghz 95 Watt CPU
Shuttle XPC AM3 based Barebones Box with 250 Watt PSU
24GB Ram DDR3 1333
30" Apple Cinema Display (DVI)
EVGA GeForce GTX 470
XBox 360 203 Watt PSU
120GB SSD, 500GB HDD dual mounted behind the fan controller
Some 10-odd TB of Disk Space slowly being recovered (sigh)

Specs for DIYPC Box:

MSI FM2-A75IA-E53 mITX FM2 Motherboard
A8-5500k 65 Watt APU
2GB Ram (for now)
320GB HD
Asus GeForce GTX 470
Antec Neo Eco 620W

Having the DIYPC case in my hands, feeling it and working within it... I think it's now my go-to case for mITX builds. They did a lot of things right with it and SFF cases without visible drive bays are sorely lacking. Design may be a bit spartan compared to what gets posted here but that's exactly why I like it.

i'm getting ready to start my itx build ,but having some trouble deciding on a good budget board. i been looking at the gigabyte z97n gaming 5,and the asus z97i-plus. anyone have experience with these boards?

I have always used huge cases for my builds. For the past 10 years or so, I'd been using a CM Stacker 810 (the original) for my main rig.

Last year, I got hold of a Coolermaster Elite 130 from a friend, and I thought, 'why don't I build an itx system!'.

Fast forward a couple of months later... The Stacker is no more (sold), and now my main rig is housed in a Corsair Obsidian 250D.

I don't think I'm going ATX or even mATX ever again.

Here are a couple of crappy tablet pics from my build:









And a wide shot of the desk:



I'm using the following:

i7 4790k
Asus Maximus Impact VI
2x8GB low profile Crucial DDR3L at 1600Mhz
Nvidia Geforce GTX 780Ti
Samsung 840 Pro 512GB
ADATA SP900 128GB
Seagate 4TB HDD
a Pioneer slim (laptop style) optical drive

I've gone the tried and tested air cooling route: Corsair case fans all around and a Noctua NH-L12 for the CPU with a push-pull setup (120mm and 90mm fans).

I used my s1366 rig's 1KW Corsair PSU (overkill, I know, but it fit perfectly inside the little Corsair case and it just works!).

I kept the Elite 130 case and I'm itching for another ITX build - perhaps AMD flavored... We 'll see.

^^^^
yep moved all my gigantor boxes over to matx and mitx. I've even swapped out most of my 3.5" 2tb drives over to laptop drives. never going back..

obligatory pic of a couple of my sff boxes..