Hello,
This project was born out of some frustration over intel's desktop chip policy. I built the mini EPW hoping to fit a good Broadwell CPU, and OC it to death thanks to good cooling abilities. Than, when chipzilla finally decided to sell some broadwell cpus, there were only 2 available, and - if you ask me - grossly overpriced. If figured: for that price, I could keep the better-than-expected-g3258, buy a good vga card and get much better results. So my Coolcube AIR got finally its gtx 960, freeing up a palit gtx 750 ti stormX. Seeing some other "sandwich itx" rigs on this forum inspired me to try to fit the card within the smallest possible space. Yet I wanted it to be clean - no wild boreholes or ugly screws visible on the case. To sum it up, here is my objective list:
-clean
-small
-re-use all parts of the mini-EPW
-fit the palit gtx 750 ti
Fortunately my favourite case constructor came up with a new case, offering nice possibilites. (Thank you again Dennis!)
First, the case is only 80mm tall which is just enough to fit a vga card over the cpu cooler, and accomodate sdd/hdd sidewise.
Second, it comes with a second plate/bracket placed just beneath the top cover (which means 2 plates on top of another), intented to hold hdds.
And finally, the case comes with 3x COM holes pre-drilled, offering enough opening to pass nearly all types of cables, including an HDMI one...
I spent some time measuring stuff, crunching numbers and measuring again, until a new plan emerged, and the part-gathering started.
Old Parts:
-CPU: intel g3258 aniv. ed.
-Thermal Paste: arctic mx-2
-Mainboard: Asrock z97m-itx/ac
-Wlan card: Qualcomm AR9264 + 2x external Antennas
-Ram: corsair vengeance low voltage white pc1600 cl9
-SSD: crucial mx100, 256Gb
-hdd: WD blue 7500LPCX slim
New Parts:
-Case: realan e-mini e-w80 (without PSU): around 60€ (including shipping from china)
-PSU: pico-box z2-atx-160: 12€
-CPU cooler: Titan DC-155A915Z: 8€
-CPU fan: noctua NF-A9x14: 9€
-Vga fan: Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 14: 10€ - ebay
Building parts:
-1x PCI-E riser x16 (15cm) 5€
-1x aluminium plate cut to 192.5*200mm 8€ - ebay
-Various screws 5€
-Various tools 15€
Total: around 130€.
Now without further cliffhanger, here is the result:
This project was born out of some frustration over intel's desktop chip policy. I built the mini EPW hoping to fit a good Broadwell CPU, and OC it to death thanks to good cooling abilities. Than, when chipzilla finally decided to sell some broadwell cpus, there were only 2 available, and - if you ask me - grossly overpriced. If figured: for that price, I could keep the better-than-expected-g3258, buy a good vga card and get much better results. So my Coolcube AIR got finally its gtx 960, freeing up a palit gtx 750 ti stormX. Seeing some other "sandwich itx" rigs on this forum inspired me to try to fit the card within the smallest possible space. Yet I wanted it to be clean - no wild boreholes or ugly screws visible on the case. To sum it up, here is my objective list:
-clean
-small
-re-use all parts of the mini-EPW
-fit the palit gtx 750 ti
Fortunately my favourite case constructor came up with a new case, offering nice possibilites. (Thank you again Dennis!)
First, the case is only 80mm tall which is just enough to fit a vga card over the cpu cooler, and accomodate sdd/hdd sidewise.
Second, it comes with a second plate/bracket placed just beneath the top cover (which means 2 plates on top of another), intented to hold hdds.
And finally, the case comes with 3x COM holes pre-drilled, offering enough opening to pass nearly all types of cables, including an HDMI one...
I spent some time measuring stuff, crunching numbers and measuring again, until a new plan emerged, and the part-gathering started.
Old Parts:
-CPU: intel g3258 aniv. ed.
-Thermal Paste: arctic mx-2
-Mainboard: Asrock z97m-itx/ac
-Wlan card: Qualcomm AR9264 + 2x external Antennas
-Ram: corsair vengeance low voltage white pc1600 cl9
-SSD: crucial mx100, 256Gb
-hdd: WD blue 7500LPCX slim
New Parts:
-Case: realan e-mini e-w80 (without PSU): around 60€ (including shipping from china)
-PSU: pico-box z2-atx-160: 12€
-CPU cooler: Titan DC-155A915Z: 8€
-CPU fan: noctua NF-A9x14: 9€
-Vga fan: Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 14: 10€ - ebay
Building parts:
-1x PCI-E riser x16 (15cm) 5€
-1x aluminium plate cut to 192.5*200mm 8€ - ebay
-Various screws 5€
-Various tools 15€
Total: around 130€.
Now without further cliffhanger, here is the result:
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