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Looking for a tiny case (with dvd drive)

Y

you2

[H]ard|Gawd
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Aug 10, 2004
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(this is a duplicate from cases - sorry for the duplicate i'm not sure which forum is correct)

I'm looking for a tiny case that isn't too expensive. The requirements are the following:

Must have a slot for dvd (or slim dvd) drive.
If pre-built system (like intel nuc) it must have vga or dvi (which can be adapted to vga)
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So far I'm thinking the following:
Intel b75 (or z77 if I can find one cheap) mini itx; G2020; 4GB (skill); either an old 250GB hd (3 1/2) or an SSD. The computer will be left on 24/7 and my parents are unhappy when it crashes.
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The closes case I've found is silverstone SG05BB which is 8.74" x 6.93" x 10.8
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I wouldn't mind something a little smaller and (perhaps with modular psu). With Psu the aboe case is $119
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163231

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Anyways is that my best options or any alternatives to consider ?
 
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I did - the nuc is $300 (not sure if it includes the processor) also the NUC only has hdmi out. So the price is a little high but the road-block is the lack of dvi/vga. There was another nuc competitor that had vga out but they used h61 which i was kind of hoping to avoid (prefer b75, x77 or maybe h67).

liangr said:
Have you considered a slim external dvd drive+NUC?
Click to expand...
 
Have you taken a look at zotac's zbox solutions? I personally haven't tried them but they look interesting and they have been at it for a while now. There are others like sapphire edge, asrocks vision but they carry a premium.

Also as for custom builds... I personally would try a wesena case.
 
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Yea zotac was the one using the h61 - well they have the D525 solution but that is too slow; The wesena case looks interesting; do you think it is better option than the SG05BB - hard for me to tell how how they compare (I think the SS might have better cooling but the wesena is smaller ?
http://www.amazon.com/Wesena-ITX2-B-Black-Aluminum-chassis/dp/B0058HLEBE/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

(197mm×197mm×75mm (7.75x7.75x3) but requires an en external psu). So basically a 1/2 height of the silverstone case but the psu has to go on the floor?. Hum. Any opinion on cooling ?
 
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Antec ISK-300-150? Can't use a 3.5" drive, but laptop HDDs are cheap and SSDs are getting cheaper. It runs around $75-$80. The isk-300-65 is another option as it is uses an external power brick, but that version is harder to find.
 
you2 said:
I did - the nuc is $300 (not sure if it includes the processor) also the NUC only has hdmi out. So the price is a little high but the road-block is the lack of dvi/vga. There was another nuc competitor that had vga out but they used h61 which i was kind of hoping to avoid (prefer b75, x77 or maybe h67).
Click to expand...

HDMI is basically just DVI with audio lines. You can get an adapter to change HDMI to DVI, and you said you were fine with DVI. You can also get HDMI to VGA adapters.
 
Screes said:
HDMI is basically just DVI with audio lines. You can get an adapter to change HDMI to DVI, and you said you were fine with DVI. You can also get HDMI to VGA adapters.
Click to expand...

Doesn't work, you can't change digital to analog without a converter.

As for cooling I'd just stick with stock cooling if you don't plan for any overclocking.
Also what do you plan to do with this system?
 
liangr said:
Doesn't work, you can't change digital to analog without a converter.
Click to expand...

HDMI to DVI: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812270286
DVI to VGA: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814998101

No converter necessary.

They make HDMI to VGA adapters too, just didnt see one at newegg, but i know they exist because i have one on the back of my TV.

The only difference between DVI and HDMI is the lack of audio in DVI, and some DRM stuff built into HDMI to keep you from pirating video content.
 
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Well they mostly web browse, or play simple games like solatire/hearts (nothing that requires gpu or will stress the cpu). It won't be overclocked; the current system is around 600 (g200 is 2200 and i3 is 2700) with regards to processing power. Unfortunately it has to run windows as they can't deal with linux or andriod.
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from the discussion i'm a bit surprise that you can convert hdmi to vga but there are a couple of adapters on amazon such as this one:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3TNOHHD9WUZ2M/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R3TNOHHD9WUZ2M
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(they are active converters but from the reviews they seem to mostly work then again this review suggest it might be unwise).
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Input-A...?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0
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so maybe that $300 nuc would work? Does it include an i3 ?


liangr said:
Doesn't work, you can't change digital to analog without a converter.

As for cooling I'd just stick with stock cooling if you don't plan for any overclocking.
Also what do you plan to do with this system?
Click to expand...
 
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Screes said:
Point being, you can get a cheap $5 HDMI to DVI or HDMI to VGA adapter. So you don't have to limit yourself to non HDMI hardware.
Click to expand...

But you can't get an HDMI to VGA Adapter, there might be converters but they are not cheap afaik.
Your idea of HDMI>DVI>VGA won't work, because when you use an HDMI to DVI adapter it would only carry digital signal which can't be directly adapted to VGA.
It is like in GPUs when one dvi can be used as VGA with an adapter while the other won't work because it is digital only.
 
We just went through this - if you look on amazon (hdmi vga) there are 3 or more active converter in the range of $8 to $20; but at least one review suggest they are cheatinig and drawing too much power (out of spec) and this might damage the mb (in some cases).

Black5Lion said:
But you can't get an HDMI to VGA Adapter, there might be converters but they are not cheap afaik.
Your idea of HDMI>DVI>VGA won't work, because when you use an HDMI to DVI adapter it would only carry digital signal which can't be directly adapted to VGA.
It is like in GPUs when one dvi can be used as VGA with an adapter while the other won't work because it is digital only.
Click to expand...
 
I think I've decided on one of antec 310, antec 110, in-win bp655 or silverstone sg05. The nuc looks interesting (that last one is an i5 for $400 + the rest of the components). I think minidp-vga is not passive so it will put stress on the 65 watt power supply.
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