Streacom FC9 Alpha Fanless Chassis Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Streacom FC9 Alpha Fanless Chassis Review - There are more than a few enthusiasts that have been experimenting with the "smaller and quiet is better" end of the computing spectrum the last few years, and because of this more companies are delivering mini-ITX and micro-ITX cases. Streacom is one of those companies looking to shrink the footprint and banish the sound.
 
Really cool case. As you mentioned, the price is a bit much to stomach but I'd consider it to replace my HTPC Plex server chassis.

I'm really surprised you were able to run the enthusiast setup off of a 240W PSU.
 
I have often wondered about these types of 'self-cooling' cases, but nobody seems to want to review them except European sites in a foreign language. Kudos for your bravery!

Other than the power supply issue, the price isn't that bad considering you don't have to buy a 3rd party CPU cooler. Good aluminum cases always cost a little extra and the clean lines on this one make worth the extra cost. Just get a second as a stand for the main one and put all your extra drives in it. I will take 2!!!
 
A lovely review. Thank you. As a paid up member of the silence is good brigade, it's a pleasure to see attention paid to this key aspect of PCs. It's a shame about the price, though. I hope that you will take a look at the Streacom FC10 Alpha in due course, as that could be paired with the fanless GTX 750 Ti for a modest 1080p gaming rig, and other fanless chassis. Indeed, I'm hoping that the GTX 1050 Ti will be fanless when it is released.
 
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I've tried similar builds using Streacom's FC7 and FC8 cases, and there are a few more things that have to be considered. First, most of these mini power supplies only provide a 4 pin atx p2 power connector, which means either limiting your choice of motherboards to ones where only 4 pins are required, or rigging some sort of 4 pin to 8 pin converter connector. Second, if you want an optical drive, slot loading drives cost approx. twice as much and are much slower than standard optical drives, assuming that you can even find one to buy. And it would also be a good idea to make sure that whatever motherboard you're using will boot up without any load connected to the fan connectors. You may have to boot with fans and then set the bios to ignore the missing fans before finishing installation.
 
Thanks for the great review Steve/Kyle.

Streacom makes some amazing blocks of metal, these things have always been a dream buy of mine but the price has always kept me away. The PSU to me wasn't so much of an issue but I was able to buy a great HTPC case with the Antec Fusion which can house a normal PSU and gives a bit more breathing room for components. Granted its only 2 HDD's but I only need one.

The biggest thing I dislike about this case is the requirement for a slot loading optical drive as mentioned by dwd999. I don't think I've ever seen one that was priced well or offered good performance, you are only paying for aesthetic.
 
In my situation, I literally got the next to last Sony BD-5850h available for sale in the U.S. but it was hugely expensive, around $160 for a drive that reads at 6x. I had to settle for a Panasonic UJ-265 the second time, which was only $80 but wouldn't read some BD-Rs that all my other drives would read. It might help if Streacom switched to an opening that takes tray load slim drives, since LG currently makes those and they seem to be more readily available. Since I had those drives, I switched to larger Silverstone ML-07 cases for a while, but then I gave up on those since I wanted a larger cooler and now I'm using Grandia 09 cases so I can have a full size optical drive and enough room for a Noctua C14S cooler.
 
I have a few questions from the review:

1. The spec list has asterisks for CPU TDP but no explanation. What does the explanation say about using 95W CPUs?
2. Smoke test. You write that since there are no fans that test can be omitted. I think the flow due to convection is very important for this type of case and therefore makes a smoke test decidedly relevant.
3. Temperatures. With the discrete graphics card added you get a CPU temperature as high as 81 degrees. Did the CPU throttle, or could it still run at full speed?
4. Did the discrete GPU share heatsink with the CPU, or was it cooled at the opposite case wall?

DrLobotomy said:
I have often wondered about these types of 'self-cooling' cases, but nobody seems to want to review them except European sites in a foreign language. ...
Click to expand...
SPCR review them (in English) if/when available. (Rarely get test samples for free and can't afford to buy them.)

dwd999 said:
... slot loading drives cost approx. twice as much and are much slower than standard optical drives, ...
Click to expand...
Drive speed shouldn't be much of an issue in a HTPC. DVD/Blueray is played in x1 anyway.
 
Seems like a fine product but the price is about 3 times what I'd be willing to pay. I don't think it's a great choice for multi-core systems, even at lower clocks.
I mean, my Node 304 Black is fairly quiet even with a spinner. Most people think it's a just a cute bass box anyway
 
Olle P said:
1. The spec list has asterisks for CPU TDP but no explanation. What does the explanation say about using 95W CPUs?
2. Smoke test. You write that since there are no fans that test can be omitted. I think the flow due to convection is very important for this type of case and therefore makes a smoke test decidedly relevant.
Click to expand...
I had wondered about #1 myself, I assume it was copied from the case's product page and the note had gone unnoticed or was forgotten.
I agree about #2, though you won't be able to see much since the case is entirely closed except for the vents. You'd have to guess as to what the actual airflow inside the case is, unless you can fashion a plexi cover to replace the actual case, and that'd change airflow because of the difference in radiated heat. :/
4. Did the discrete GPU share heatsink with the CPU, or was it cooled at the opposite case wall?
Click to expand...
Looks like he left the stock cooler on the dGPUs, so fans and sink were separate from the CPU's cooling solution. I'd be interested in seeing what kind of cooling you could get by installing heatpipes that go to the top of the case onto a dGPU, but that's definitely mod territory and not something you could do with a stock case, since the GPU's core is often in different locations on the card (though, I guess you could bend the heatpipes to make up for that, but that requires a certain finesse. D: )
 
Olle P said:
1. The spec list has asterisks for CPU TDP but no explanation. What does the explanation say about using 95W CPUs?
2. Smoke test. You write that since there are no fans that test can be omitted. I think the flow due to convection is very important for this type of case and therefore makes a smoke test decidedly relevant.
3. Temperatures. With the discrete graphics card added you get a CPU temperature as high as 81 degrees. Did the CPU throttle, or could it still run at full speed?
4. Did the discrete GPU share heatsink with the CPU, or was it cooled at the opposite case wall?
Click to expand...

1.) The link above the graph goes directly to the Streacom website with a specification list and a max TDP explanation that simply states the obvious: "As with any passive cooling solution, environmental conditions will have an impact on the performance. A TDP of 95W is only recommended when the chassis is placed in a location with adequate air flow and moderate ambient room temperature." We covered that in the article as well.

2.) This is a fanless chassis. A test to measure flow created by convection is drastically different than the test we use to measure flow created by fans.

3.) At no point did throttling occur during testing. We note any CPU throttling / performance issues when they occur. While 81ºC may seem high, it is well below the temperature rating for this CPU.

4.) The GPUs had their own heatsinks. I am not aware of an option to add heatpipes to the GPUs for this chassis.
 
wow, it really eliminated the SLI fan noise eh? what % were those fans running at under load? must have been loud (with the door off
 
Momo said:
wow, it really eliminated the SLI fan noise eh? what % were those fans running at under load? must have been loud (with the door off
Click to expand...

The fans on the AMD R7 250 are very, very small. Even at 71% fans speed under full load you couldn't hear a thing through the thick aluminum panels.
 
I like fanless, not just for reduced noise, but also for:

Stopping dust ingress, and removing fans as a point of failure.

Being fanless turns the PC into a piece of maintenance free equipment, that you put in home theater and forget it.

As opposed to needing to remember to clean out the dust, and do fan replacements when they fail (which they regularly do).

Also when the case is the heatsink, it seems like you could always aim an external fan at it if you want to cool it more if you are going to be gaming/encoding a lot of video.
 
every time I've tried to get my PC quieter, I'd just end up being annoyed by the sound of whatever became the loudest. Fans, water pump, caps, speaker buzz, etc. Now I just say fuck it and use fans. For a HTPC a limited number of quiet fans and a fan off at idle PSU would be my pick.
 
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