Just another (Sandwich) ITX

E

Eddie666

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 3, 2009
Messages
75
Hi guys, this is my new htpc/downloading station/light gaming....the sandwich itx!: based on a celeron j1900, 8gb of ram, one ssd crucial mx100 256gb and (last but not least) one evga gtx 750 ti; all is powered by a pico psu 150w and cooled by a scythe slim 120mm fan, placed on the top of the vga (which it's original fan was removed)
the case is 200*80*225 mm (W*H*D)

56cd62ca4a8b5ce3b496d375f3be9991.jpg


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to fix a bit the rear area (where I cut heavily, cause at first the vga was mounted downwards) I have created a small metal plate to fill the area:

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Finally, using a cover mesh I made a new top cover, trying to recreate as close as possible to the original one; as you can see from the photos it's not perfect (the right side is a bit 'up), but I'll fix later...for now it's ok.

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about the temp, with this setup I could have keep the pc semi-fanless; the cpu is made to be fanless, and the GPU temp rise up and than will stabilize to about 55° for web browsing/watching videos has no problems; considering that the ambient temp is dropping down everything worked perfectly. However, I preferred to keep the fan running continuously, at 400rpm (speed at which it is inaudible) because I prefer to have a minimum air ventilation
now the gpu in full load does not reach 65°, the cpu has no problems, and the pc is absolutely quiet and fairly efficient.
 
the j1900 has just a passive cooler on:

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and It works well, also with the gpu installed on

there is only 1 fan in the system, the scythe 120mm
 
mmh I don't know.....this is not a 100% case made by myself...it's just a little mod of an existing case...
 
buzzyc said:
How does the GTX750Ti go, given it's plugged into a PCI-E 1x slot?
Click to expand...
+1 on this question

Also I'd like to know how do you support the card? Is there anything more than just dvi connector screws and flexible riser?
 
buzzyc said:
How does the GTX750Ti go, given it's plugged into a PCI-E 1x slot?
Click to expand...

SaperPL said:
+1 on this question

Also I'd like to know how do you support the card? Is there anything more than just dvi connector screws and flexible riser?
Click to expand...

the card is supported by the DVI screws, while the same pcie cable placed under support itself in the middle, while at the end of the pcb I put two little plastic shims that rest directly on the heatsink of j1900.

despite being only pcie 1x and the j1900 for cpu, I must say that the card performs well: in the most recent benchmarks that test mainly the video card (like 3dmark and Unigine) the differences are minimal,

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/8697739

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2821676

while the impact is greater in games, but I can play even the latest titles at 1080p / 900p, medium / high details: for example, I quietly played crysis 2, crysis 3, tomb raider, Mafia2, grid without problems
one of the games which instead runs worse is HL2, as the source does not support multicore and is cpu limited (in game I have one core at 100% while others do not do practically anything)
 
Here there are just a couple of benchrmaks (from the nvidia control panel I have set "triple buffer" to On an "Adaptive vsync", so max FPS are capped to 60):

Mafia2

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Tomb Raider

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Batman Arkham City

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I'm actually quite amazed by those results!
Who'd have thought an embedded Celeron and PCI-e 1x could do so well.
 
DIDAC said:
Ciao Eddie ;)
Nice job!
Click to expand...

Ehilà, grazie e ciao! ;)

buzzyc said:
I'm actually quite amazed by those results!
Who'd have thought an embedded Celeron and PCI-e 1x could do so well.
Click to expand...

Me too! here there are others in-game screenshots from Crysis 3 and Grid; I would like to remember that we are not talking about an high/tech game station, but it's just a gaming machine that uses less than 100w in game, and that allows you to play all titles, obviously lowering details.


CRYSIS 3 (900p):

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GRID:

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Another interesting thing about these screenshots is the use of bandwidth pci-e (it's the second number from the left, in the "GPU" line); The first one is the gpu load, which as you can see is almost always very high, while the second one rarely gets to
70% (that means that the bandwidth with medium-high resolutions using a single vga is not so basic)
 
What GPU specifically is that? Not really finding a 750ti w/ no power requirement.
 
It's a evga gtx 750 ti SC (it hasn't the extra power connector), which fan has bee removed.

from this

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to this

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;)
 
I wonder what kind of improvements you would see if you wen with a 16x cable versus a 1x ? ;)
 
Does that restrict the performance/bandwidth of the 750ti by going from the x16 slot to the x1 slot?

What are the cons of this ? ((if there are any).
 
Probably going to be building something very similar on the J2900 boars ASRock offers here in a month or so for my living room TV. Wondering what the prospects of the 950/950ti will be by the time I decide to do it.
 
Sorry for reveving this "old thread", but I like to look at the picture every now and then because this build is amazing and I'm planning to make something similar in the future aswell.

And thus I have to ask something I just noticed about the pictures.
Why did you switch the PicoPSU
http://hostthenpost.org/uploads/56cd62ca4a8b5ce3b496d375f3be9991.jpg

To a DCDC?
http://hostthenpost.org/uploads/df7f5957c75f5b0ec91f34dcf4a61dfe.jpg

I was planning to go for the picopsu, but these pictures made me think it doens't give you enough power for the build.
 
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By the way, a pico can easily handle this low power cpu with a 750 ti. You'll be fine.
 
Trying something similar over here; how much cpu cooler clearance do you have ? How much between the 120mm and the vga heatsink ? Any chance of stacking a 30mm cpu cooler, the vga + heatsink and finally the slim 120mm fan wihtin 80mm ? Thanks a lot for your help.
 
Cool build! I did another build just like this in the "PicoPSU requirements for an SFF build" thread. Only difference was a GTX 645 instead of GTX 750 and that I used a Haswell Core i5 with a normal mITX motherboard.

One thing that I've noticed is my CPU temps can get high in this sandwich mode under load. I've mitagted this with intake and exhaust fans on the side of the case, but it still isn't ideal. What CPU cooler are you using with this?

EDIT: Nevermind, I see the passive cooler.
 
Gave me a bit of inspiration to create my next lightweight gaming machine, kind of like a more weightier Alienware Alpha which is fully upgradable.

I'm using a similar case but it's slightly longer than yours [a Powercool Q5] to accommodate a HD-Plex 160W DC-DC PSU fixed to a custom bracket at the end and I'm going to blank the DVD slot with a dummy plastic bezel stuck to an interior glued metal cover plate

The case will be on it's side upright like a mini tower and have a pair of slim scythe fans on each lid mounted externally funneling air in one side over the CPU and bare GPU then sucked around and out underneath the motherboard

He's initial photos showing the sandwich having made some crude cuts but has proved the concept and the cpu should get enough air. I used a fixed riser instead though as this offers a lot more ridged stability for the GPU's PCB.

It's running a 65W Haswell i5, Silverstone NT07-115X Heatsink, EVGA 750Ti Superclocked [stripped down], 8GB Low-Pro 1600 RAM, 250GB SSD [for now] and there's room for another one stuck on the other interior wall as well. A 160W HD-Plex will be at the longer end on a custom bracket all running off a 240W Dell Power brick.







 
Cool Man! let me know how you're temperatures will be! I suppose that you'll install the 12mm fan on the top of the case, with the airflow directed on the cooler of the cpu/gpu, right?
 
I'd go for low profile 750/TI and try to laser cut/mill a sheet of thick metal as the radiator that would be heavily perforated above the cpu cooler.
 




She Runs!

Did some re-wiring to keep it all neat. Fortunately the ATX 24-pin male-male cable on the HD-Plex power supply is quite short so I've bonded it to a raised aluminium plate with thermal glue.

I split the SATA power peripheral output cable outputs so that the 12V wire pair just power a short red LED strip along the front whilst the wire pair for the 5V are all I needed to drive the SSD.

Fixed the SSD to the case bottom with double-sided tape and has a rubber spacer for the PCI riser bracket to sit on. There is also room for a 2nd SSD on the opposite wall.

Updating Windows-7 tonight and sleep on the idea of installing WIndows-10. Will run some benchmarks tomorrow.
 
I don't mean to be mean or anything, but awww, man... I was really liking your work on the interior and modding of the case, but that outer fan just killed it for me :( though you have a huge advantage of being able to fit a dust filter now...
Looking forward to temp benchmarks! :D
 
CaneyJ said:




She Runs!

Did some re-wiring to keep it all neat. Fortunately the ATX 24-pin male-male cable on the HD-Plex power supply is quite short so I've bonded it to a raised aluminium plate with thermal glue.

I split the SATA power peripheral output cable outputs so that the 12V wire pair just power a short red LED strip along the front whilst the wire pair for the 5V are all I needed to drive the SSD.

Fixed the SSD to the case bottom with double-sided tape and has a rubber spacer for the PCI riser bracket to sit on. There is also room for a 2nd SSD on the opposite wall.

Updating Windows-7 tonight and sleep on the idea of installing WIndows-10. Will run some benchmarks tomorrow.
Click to expand...

:eek: ;) you won the SFF section sir!
 
Just finished a similar project: the mini EPM (eco-power-multimedia station). Full log here.

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