Looking for a Mini-ITX case

[ellroy80]

You can get sheets of AcoustiPak (think they call it AcoustiPak Xtra???), which I figure should be enough for this case. I think it's around the same price as the Silverstone stuff.

 

[ellroy80]

Also the Enermax fan is more than likely too wide to fit in the second vent hole, especially since the LED and Power connectors are there:

The fan on the side is the stock fan which is 25mm wide, same as the one you just bought. Look at the spacing difference between the sides, as well as the LED and Power board and connectors

Case arrived today. You're not kidding, definitely not enough room for a second fan.

 

[EndersShadow]

Case arrived today. You're not kidding, definitely not enough room for a second fan.

Yup but my oh my does it look sexy

 

[ellroy80]

Alright, got everything installed. Here are the components:

Asrock H77M-ITX Mobo
i3-3225
Gelid Slim Silence CPU cooler
8 gb Samsung DDR3 (the low profile, low voltage stuff)
Samsung 256gb 830 SSD
Samsung SpinPoint 1 gb HDD
PicoPSU (160W + 192W power adaptor).

Just some thoughts on things that have been talked about in this thread.

1) If you don't want to modify the drive bracket, you'll need to use a 1U CPU cooler. The Slim Silence is perfect for this. I don't think you'll fit anything taller in, unless you modify the HDD bracket - I think there's 5mm between the top of the cooler and the bottom of the HDD bracket (so you could use a cooler with max height of 33mm).

2) Space is definitely at a premium. I've got the case full, except for the DVD drive slot and PCI slot. Cable management is important. It'll be interesting to see how things go if I decide to install a dedicated video card. It'll definitely fit, but it's going to be tight.

3) You could not turn a HDD 90 degrees and put it at the front of the case to use a taller CPU cooler, the HDD would be too wide.

4) The Slim Silence fan is LOUD at full speed. I turned it down in the BIOS and it's now nice and quiet. I've yet to run Prime95 (still installing all my software) so I can't tell you what temps it keeps the CPU to, or if it spins up under load.

That's all I can think of so far. I'll write more when I do more testing.

 

[ellroy80]

Hit a max of 81 degrees after 10 minutes of Prime (4 workers) and Furmark running. Not too bad, given the size of the cooler and the minimal case airflow.

 

[EndersShadow]

3) You could not turn a HDD 90 degrees and put it at the front of the case to use a taller CPU cooler, the HDD would be too wide.

Comment on #3.

You can take a 2.5" HDD and spin it sideways and mount it in the 3.5" HDD bracket space. That was what my comments were in regards to. It does require some modification to the HDD bracket to make holes for the SATA and SATA power connectors however.

I havent been able to mod mine as I spent the last week in the hospital but I believe my Noctua cooler is waiting for me at work and I hope to have it modified when I get back from vacation.

 

[grandmaster]

I'm looking to make a similar build myself. Essentially I want the smallest, most well ventilated case I can find that has provision for an expansion card.

HTPC-ITX7 looks good, but significantly larger than the Travla C292 which would be preferable I have no need for an optical drive.

The Travla is completely unavailable in the UK and I'd be looking at a minimum of $250 to import it from the USA, which is crazy money. Travla itself won't let me buy one direct from Taiwan which is annoying.

Are there any other decent alternatives with similar build quality?

 

[halcyon419]

look at the InWin BM639 also, its small enough but can still fit a 5.25" optical drive and 3.5" hard drive, plus it has good airflow