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Thread: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

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    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    So, case-knowledgable Hexites. I have a quandry.

    I want to run a small-scale low-traffic web server from home. The very cheap Via Artigo barebones from linitx looks a shoe in, and I currently have a linitx credit note which makes it even more attractive.

    BUT

    The Via C7 processor it runs is only 32bit, and I'd like to run 64bit software

    So, I can get an mitx mobo with a 64bit CPU for a similar price, but that means I need to minimise my cost on everything else to make a 64bit system a viable alternative. My biggest concern is the case. It's going to sit in the dining room, so has to look good, be pretty quiet, and it should be as small as possible. Ideally it should also take a pair of 3.5" drives (although one 2.5" and one 3.5" would do), however I'm not bothered about optical drives (I can boot off USB to install the OS and install daemon tools for everything else!) so I guess if it could take a full size optical drive I could mount one 3.5" in that space? Obviously I don't *mind* modding cases, but I'd prefer not to in this instance.

    Price should be less than £50 inclusive of a PSU.

    Yes, I'm aware that my request may be impossible! But nonetheless, anyone got any suggestions?

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    Re: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    Have no idea if this is any good to you, just seen it earlier on today.
    http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...paign=products

    TBH, I'm not sure if it'll fit your criteria, so you'll have to do a bit of searching, sorry.

    I've used the Sugo SG05, good case IMO but I think its around £80!

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    Re: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    Ah, I had seen that, but dismissed it for looking a bit too gamerish. It does seem to meet all my requirements (although it's at the top end of my price range), will have more of an investigate!

    Cheers

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    Re: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    I have looked into that before, apparently the PSU is pretty noisey

    I think you are going to struggle with that budget, style costs either money or time (usually both) unfortunately

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    Re: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    Yeah, I didn't think I was going to turn up anything I'd not seen already - but my google-fu is notoriously weak so there was always the chance that someone else might have picked up something I'd missed!

    I'm edging closer and closer to just buying the Artigo and having done with it - perhaps I can upgrade to a mitx server down the line...

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    Re: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    First thought is this media pc case if there are already AV components nearby that you can hide the server in:

    http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...ov-vision.html

    Mixed reviews on whether the PSU is silent or a bit noisy so I guess but I guess in this price range there is going to be an element of luck.


    Revo nettop? Over budget at 180 quid, but fully assembled and with E450 dual core quite powerful for its size.

    http://www.ebuyer.com/319567-acer-re...c-pt-sj4ec-003

    Fails on the twin drives requirement, but does come with 320GB drive built in which I would hope would be enough for a small web server?

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    Re: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    This is my favourite mini-itx case, but it's a bit short of drive space for you. On the plus side, it's small and very simply designed so it blends in well. And it's in budget.



    http://www.itx-warehouse.co.uk/Produ...ProductID=1019

    Or its brother



    http://www.itx-warehouse.co.uk/Produ...ProductID=1020

    And just for the sake of utterly unaffordable eye-candy, if I was going to go Mini-ITX again (and was absolutely loaded), I'd get one of these.

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    Re: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    Quote Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix View Post
    First thought is this media pc case if there are already AV components nearby that you can hide the server in...
    Nice case, but the server needs to sit in the dining room on by better half's desk and that'd take up more room then she's willing to give, I think!

    Quote Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix View Post
    Revo nettop? Over budget at 180 quid, but fully assembled and with E450 dual core quite powerful for its size.
    Seriously considered that at the start of the process, but it's too far out of budget sadly (one thing making this possible is a £45 credit note at linitx, which would allow me to get the mobo for next to nothing!)

    Quote Originally Posted by snootyjim View Post
    This is my favourite mini-itx case, but it's a bit short of drive space for you.
    Yeah, I like those too, but they're at the top end of the budget, and I would prefer something I can get 2 HDDs in (one for OS and sites, one for backup!).

    Thanks for the suggestions everyone, but the more I think about it the more the Artigo makes sense. Now I just need to sort my software out

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    Re: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    Do you already have a PSU to hand?? I might have a suggestion.

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    Re: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    Quote Originally Posted by snootyjim View Post
    This is my favourite mini-itx case, but it's a bit short of drive space for you. On the plus side, it's small and very simply designed so it blends in well. And it's in budget.



    http://www.itx-warehouse.co.uk/Produ...ProductID=1019

    I've got one of those....




    I may not have been able to remember which Jim sold it to me...

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    Re: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    Quote Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH View Post
    Do you already have a PSU to hand?? I might have a suggestion.
    I've got an ATX FSP psu that I was planning on selling on with an old case, but could potentially be used. Is this going to be the beautiful Lian-Li tower I was looking at earlier?

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    Re: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    I did quite a bit of research befoire I came up with the case I linked to in your other thread (the m300)

    Problem is that most decent and small itx cases tend to be on the pricey side compared with the atx counterparts - I suppose because the sale volumes are lower.

    Mini-itx would seem to be the way to go though, in terms of power consumption, although again, the mobo cost is somewhat higher than the equivalent atx or micro atx board. However, set against that, some of these boards are suppkliued with the CPU fitted, which makes them a more attractive proposition.

    The case I linked to has a 40mm fan fitted (with space for another) and as the CPU heatsink is itself fanless, I have connected that to the COU fan header, so it is pretty quiet. The pico psu 240>12 v converter has a fan, but I have never heard it come on as the whole set up takles significantly less than the 120Watt Pico PSU delivers. (IIRC the whole system with two 2.5" drives takes less than 40 Watts) and has a footprint slightly larger than my Draytek 2800 router.

    I'll take a photo later and post it up.
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    Re: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    What about a basic old laptop? Numerous places sell refurbished ex-corp kit - small, low power etc etc?

    Edit - http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/product....roduct=SOLV776

    I'd imagine that would be fine for limited dev work?
    Last edited by dave87; 02-02-2012 at 07:03 PM.

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    Re: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    Quote Originally Posted by scaryjim View Post
    I've got an ATX FSP psu that I was planning on selling on with an old case, but could potentially be used. Is this going to be the beautiful Lian-Li tower I was looking at earlier?
    I sent you a PM. The Lian Li Q07 looks much nicer though.

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    Re: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    Quote Originally Posted by dave87 View Post
    I've got one of those....




    I may not have been able to remember which Jim sold it to me...
    We have a load of the 8K07's at work, it's the same case with a different bezel, http://www.maplin.co.uk/mini-itx-cas...20w-psu-348170
    While 120w might not sound like much for a psu, at work it's running a c2d on an intel g41, 4gb ram, with a single hdd and silm dvd fine.
    Down side is there's only space inside for a single 3.5" hdd, you could fit a 2.5" drive into the slim dvd slot if you needed an 2nd drive.

    If you've got a spare ATX psu then a a lian-li Q07 is really nice, although I think that only takes 1 hdd, but you could put a 2nd into the 5.25" bay

    Slightly over the budget Aplus CS-102B http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aplus-CS-102...8214595&sr=1-1
    The included PSU is a Tagan TG300 U 3311
    SFX psu, should be the same as the Tagan TG-300FX which was the retail version (which had a black case)
    +3.3V +5V +12V -12V -5V +5VSB
    18A 20A 18A 0.3A 0.3A 2A

    case data sheet http://www.maxpoint.de/de/gfx/produc...tasheet_En.pdf 1.0mm SECC steel, that's not some thin and flimsy cheap ]case.

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    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: Cheap, attractive *and * practical mitx case?

    Thanks for the input everyone. After some careful thought and budgetary calculations, however, I've decided that the only sensible option at the minute is to go for the Artigo - it will do everything I absolutely *need* for minimal outlay.

    However, I am going to keep this thread live for a while because one thing about getting the Artigo is that it'll be cheap enough to not preclude me saving up towards something else better in six month's time or so. So the current future temptation is a Xeon E3-1220L - a 20W TDP dual core (4 thread) sandy-bridge Xeon, no IGP, clocks at 2.2GHz, turbos to 3.4GHz! Should be an absolute monster for the kind of work I want it to do...

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