Project Mini-AMD

[1_legged_sheep]

Disclaimer: Parts are in, I'll post pics tonight after I get home so this will qualify as an "official" build log.

Yes I'm doing another mini-ITX build, this time I'm going smaller then I've ever gone before.

Parts arriving Thursday:
Case = IN WIN BP655.200BL
PS = SeaSonic SS-300TFX Bronze 300W
MB = ASRock A75M-ITX
CPU = AMD A8-3870K
Heatsink = ZALMAN CNPS8000B
Memory = G.SKILL Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600
SSD = 2 x Crucial M4 128gb
Vid = SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 (low profile)
DVD = SAMSUNG USB 2.0 Slim External
Media Controller = nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum Panel
Cooling = Enermax 80mm Uc-8Eb Enlobal Magnetic Baraometric Bearing

Planned Mods:

The 5.25 and 3.5 bays are useless to me so I'll probably get rid of them. My plan is to mound the two SSD's to the bottom of the case in front of the MB. I'm not sure if I'll drill holes for standoffs or just screw them directly to the bottom of the case or just cheat and use double-sided tape.

On the video card side of the case I plan on adding vent holes. It will be something similar to the vent hole mod I did here only it will be directly though the side of the case instead of in a window.

On the top (top if it's laying flat in a desktop type configuration). I'm going to add a window around where that top vent is. I'll probably add vent holes to it to help out the Zalman heatsink.

Lights: I'll either add a 4" cold cathode kit in front of the MB or maybe try out one of those LED lighting kits. I'm also going to try to replace the 92mm fan on the heatsink with a light up 92mm fan of the same color.

 

[1_legged_sheep]

Project #1: Add a side vent so the video card can pull in fresh air.

Case before modding:

Case with its top off

To get that side 80mm fan out there is a clip at the base of the fan housing you have to push on. I about never found the damn thing!

The SFX power supply had a clip in the bottom of it to help hold it in. If the Seasonic doesn't have the same thing I may need to dremel this tab you see here off.

 

[1_legged_sheep]

Case naked

Stock case fan details in case anyone was interested:

I slid a piece of paper under the vent on the opposite side so that I could get a nice pattern:

Completed pattern:

Pattern taped on. I've done this before so I knew to put tape over the whole thing or the dremel will tear up the paper:

 

[1_legged_sheep]

Post drilling from the inside of the case:

Here's were I epic failed. I randomly drilled holes along the bottom. I pulled my head from my ass before doing the top but not before the damage was already done:

From the side it doesn't look as bad but I'm still kicking myself over it!

 

[1_legged_sheep]

That's it for tonight. Hopefully things go better tomorrow. I'm thinking I may have to go double sided tape on the SSD's, or maybe drill some 3.5 to 2.5 adapters into the bottom of the case?

 

[bonnev659]

sub to this mod

looking forward to seeing it

 

[1_legged_sheep]

All the parts lined up:

Trying to decide where to place the SSD brackets. I put the MB in so I could gauge how much room I had. I decided to run horizontal facing the side of the case.

I'm glad I went with the special low-profile memory. I cleared the Zalman heatsink by about .2 inches!

View of the MB from above with memory and heatsink installed:

View of the MB from an angle:

 

[1_legged_sheep]

Here's my custom SSD bracket mod. I had to drill holes in the bottom of the brackets and then matching holes in the bottom of the case to screw the brackets into. It's very precise dremel work but everything matched up!

Slightly different camera angle. You can see the MB standoffs to the right. There's not a lot of spare room in this build!

View from the side with everything installed:

View from above with everything installed. Cable management is tricky in these builds but with no DVDRW I had a little extra room to tuck thinks under.

 

[1_legged_sheep]

That's it for tonight. I'll try to get finished pics posted tomorrow along with some benchmark results.

 

[ronski]

Hi 1-legged!

I've read your log with great interest, because i would like to build the same thing. Minus the extra GFXcard and plus a dvd drive

I've some questions which you might be able to answer:
- what do you think about the original PSU, is it enough to drive the 3870?
- is there enough room between the cpu-cooler and dvd drive? (planned cooler is a shuriken, which a little lower than yours)
- could you place some extra pictures of the front?

Thanks, and looking forward to your log additions!

 

[Jesse B]

Looks like this could be an interesting build... subbed!

 

[jackofalltrades]

I think where you drilled those crazy holes I would dremel out the whole thing and put in modders mesh to look a little more precise.
That is my only beef, the rest is good!

 

[1_legged_sheep]

I think where you drilled those crazy holes I would dremel out the whole thing and put in modders mesh to look a little more precise.
That is my only beef, the rest is good!

Yeah I'm thinking of putting a fan grill or something similar over it to cover my mistake. I'll post more pics of the front and finished pics with the media center display later tonight.

what do you think about the original PSU, is it enough to drive the 3870?

I have no clue on the original PSU. It could be good, I'm just paranoid and NEVER use the included PSU. I think it actually got half way decent reviews, but I had extra money in the build and decided to play it safe and go SeaSonic. The original one is a 200w max though. The CPU I chose is 100W, add some fans, DVD, HD or SSD, and I'm not sure how close you would be. I don't have a killawatt to take a reading for you sorry.

is there enough room between the cpu-cooler and dvd drive?

It will be close... damn close and not very fun in the cable management department. I'm really liking my USB powered external DVDRW, I definitely don't regret going external.

 

[1_legged_sheep]

Some completely non-official benchmark results: I'm running Tera at 1920x1080 on the default "high" setting and having no issues at all.

WoW runs great, skipping along at 60fps in Stormwind also at 1920x1080.

Skyrim also runs like a champ, 1920x1080 on high with some AF and AA enabled even.

Official benchmark below... it may not look too impressive but thats at 1920x1080 on "Very High" and with AA enabled. I had to use those settings to compare it to my previous builds.

 

[1_legged_sheep]

Pics of the final result. That's an XBox 360 controller in the 2nd pic to give you a reference to how small this build really is.

 

[ronski]

lookin good!!!!

Nice VFD

 

[bonnev659]

very nice benchmarks for this mini

 

[DPete27]

I'm planning on doing almost the exact same build with the exception of the RAM. I'm using G-Skill Sniper ram whose heatspreader sticks exactly 0.4" above the top of the dimm. Can you verify the exact clearance between your ram and the bottom of the CPU cooler. It's going to be close and I dont want to get screwed. Even another picture looking down the end of the RAM would be helpful.

 

[CaptNumbNutz]

I'm planning on doing almost the exact same build with the exception of the RAM. I'm using G-Skill Sniper ram whose heatspreader sticks exactly 0.4" above the top of the dimm. Can you verify the exact clearance between your ram and the bottom of the CPU cooler. It's going to be close and I dont want to get screwed. Even another picture looking down the end of the RAM would be helpful.

He already answered that. Using the low profile G.Skill RAM without the tall heatspreaders of the Sniper RAM you mentioned, he had .2 inches of clearance between the RAM and the Zalman heatsink he used. So your likely answer is that RAM you propose on using will not fit if you use the same Zalman heatsink as the OP.

Here is the answer for you since you must have missed it the first time:

I'm glad I went with the special low-profile memory. I cleared the Zalman heatsink by about .2 inches!

 

[DPete27]

I know he said "I'm glad I went with the special low-profile memory. I cleared the Zalman heatsink by about .2 inches!"

"About .2 inches" sounds like an estimate, not a measurement, unless you've got a dial caliper (which I used to measure the extension of the heatspreader past the top of my ram). The Ares ram does have a heatspreader, so it will stick up some amount over the top of the dimm. That means I'm probably looking at less than 1/8" of clearance issues. That's a little closer than I care to eyeball off a picture.

The reason I'm interested is because the CNPS8000B is currently on sale for $18 which is very reasonable IMO.

 

[paradyme]

I have almost this exact same setup but with an A10 5800k + ASRock FM2 Motherboard. I even just ordered the Seasonic PSU yesterday.

Your case mod for the GPU side of the case is probably gonna be a life saver for me. I have the same GPU installed and am getting ridiculously high temperatures(85'C+) on my GPU while gaming.

And seeing all that space in your case made me decide to rip out the DVD/HDD bracket and go with a custom bracket like you.

I also managed to mount a slim 120mm fan to the large vent on the case. There are no screw holes but there is some kind of mount for brackets in each of the four corners that I looped some heavy duty twist ties around and secured it.

Also without the DVD/HDD bracket, it seems like there would be room to add another 80mm intake fan opposite to the 80mm outake fan.


Oh just wanted to add something. The stock power supply seems to have enough juice in it to run the A10 5800k + 6670 in dual graphics mode for every game(TERA, Alan Wake, LoL) I have thrown at it. I still ordered the Seasonic PSU just so I can have some headroom to do some OCing once I get the temperatures under control.

 

[HAF72]

Wow awesome build, want to do something like this one day!

 

[Taranabas]

Looks sweet, I really like the display. Have you considered desoldering the wires you aren't using from the psu and sleeving up the bundles? It would clean things up really nice! Great job!

 

[DPete27]

Just wanted to follow up here as I had posted before. I'm using the MSI A75IA-E53 mITX FM2 mobo with the Zalman CNPS-8000B and G-Skill sniper series memory. I fitted the CPU cooler up last night and it DID fit over the ram, but with an almost imperceptible amount clearance. (definitely not enough to see in a picture)

The cooler only overhung half of the first dimm so I ended up taking a metal file to the underside of the CPU cooler fins in order to produce a more comfortable ~1/32" of clearance between the cooler and the RAM heatsink.