Do you like small ?

[Cov]

I like small because I'm a minimalist.

My current PC is a mATX in a Silverstone SG01.


And now I have just figured that there's a smaller formfactor called: Mini ITX.
My plan is to carefully select the components and build one within the next 1 or 2 months.
It doesn't have to be a monster like my previous one, but it should be able to take my E8400 Wolfdale.

I would be very grateful if you could comment on my following findings please.



1. The PC case









Little video clip of the Lian Li PC-Q07
Please don't forget to click on HD for better picture quality.


2. The Motherboard

Full sized ATX = 305 x 244 mm
Micro ATX = 244 x 244 mm
Mini ITX = 170 x 170 mm
Nano ITX = 120 x 120 mm
Pico ITX = 100 x 72 mm


Intel DG45FC







3. The HDD (SSD)

I would love to have this one, but it's not out yet ...

• Affordable Third-Generation SSDs Based on Multi-Level Cell (MLC) Flash Technology, Equivalent to a 40,000 rpm Hard Disk Drive (HDD).

• The G3 SSDs are more than five times faster than the fastest 7,200 RPM HDDs and more than twice as fast as SSDs shipping in 2008.

• The G3 SSDs provide a Longterm Data Endurance (LDE) ... sufficient for over 100 years of typical user usage.

• An SSD upgrade improves the user experience like nothing else you can do to a computer.

For the time being I'd get the WD10EADS or WD10EACS.


The RAM and thePSU.

Comment away ...

[scaryjim]

Looks like a nice setup! If you really like small this casemight be worth a look as well - the built in PSU is only 120W, but it should be capable of coping with that board + your E8400.

[Biscuit]

For the motherboard i would go for this then you can still use a PCI-E graphics card if you like.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Shuttle SFF PCs are smaller than the Sugo SG01 and are fully featured PCs with good expansion for the size. I have both G2 and P2 series Shuttles and they have no problem taking a lot of normal components.

The Lian Li measures 193mm x 280mm x 208mm. The Shuttle G2 chassis measures 30 x 20 x 18.5 cm. The Shuttle H7 measures 310(L) x 200(W) x 185(H) mm.

The SP45H7 has a p45 based motherboard too:

http://eu.shuttle.com/en/Desktopdefa...70_read-14913/

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148245

It has 4 dimm slots, a PCI-E 2.0 16x slot and a PCI slot. The Shuttle PSUs are actually server ones. Shuttles use FlexATX motherboards.

BTW carefully check some of the mini-ITX motherboards which havd PCI-E as some do not run at 16x but at slower speeds.

[Biscuit]

yeah sorry that was totaly the wrong link i posted earlier my bad

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_5542.html

[Pob255]

yeah sorry that was totaly the wrong link i posted earlier my bad

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_5542.html

I was just going to say the nvidia 9 series would be better than a g45

the case while nice not as small as other mITX cases mainly because of the full sized psu
you want small look at others, power will be the biggest issue
http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1422.html

[MadduckUK]

have to say, for a m-itx that case is at least twice the size it needs to be, no m-itx case should come with a 5.25" bay for a start

apart from the e8400/ a ssd slotting in do you have any other requirements?

[Grey M@a]

The Shuttle SFF PCs are smaller than the Sugo SG01 and are fully featured PCs with good expansion for the size. I have both G2 and P2 series Shuttles and they have no problem taking a lot of normal components.

The Lian Li measures 193mm x 280mm x 208mm. The Shuttle G2 chassis measures 30 x 20 x 18.5 cm. The Shuttle H7 measures 310(L) x 200(W) x 185(H) mm.

The SP45H7 has a p45 based motherboard too:

http://eu.shuttle.com/en/Desktopdefa...70_read-14913/

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148245

It has 4 dimm slots, a PCI-E 2.0 16x slot and a PCI slot. The Shuttle PSUs are actually server ones. Shuttles use FlexATX motherboards.

BTW carefully check some of the mini-ITX motherboards which havd PCI-E as some do not run at 16x but at slower speeds.

They are capable systems alright, I have a Q6600, Asus 800GTS 512 Dual slot gpu in there and 4gb ram with a 500GB HD and it flies along in the SX38P2 Pro, used 99% of the time for gaming.

Heat is a bit of an issue as with the dual slot GPU its a tight squeeze xD Never had any serious problems with it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

They are capable systems alright, I have a Q6600, Asus 800GTS 512 Dual slot gpu in there and 4gb ram with a 500GB HD and it flies along in the SX38P2 Pro, used 99% of the time for gaming.

Heat is a bit of an issue as with the dual slot GPU its a tight squeeze xD Never had any serious problems with it.

My SD37P2 has a Q6600,4gb of RAM,two HDDs,a DVD rewriter, a card reader and an HD4830 with a dual slot cooler. For a short period I even had a 8800GTS 512mb!

[Grey M@a]

My SD37P2 has a Q6600,4gb of RAM,two HDDs,a DVD rewriter, a card reader and an HD4830 with a dual slot cooler. For a short period I even had a 8800GTS 512mb!

I stuck with one HD at the time as this is a gaming rig so never needed anymore but it has the usual dvd burner etc

I just stuck with the 8800GTS 512mb atm as the games don't cripple it as yet, when the time comes I will looking into doing a bit of chassis hacking to squeeze a newer card in there Happy with it atm, although DoW 2 is the only thing I am playing on it atm and now doing a lot more work on it so the system is overkill for what I use atm, normally on the xbox for gaming these days as after a day at work I cba sitting at the computer to play games. Was alright a year or two ago as all my friends were massive pc gamers now they have all jumped ship to the 360 so to get any decent games with them I have to jump onto the 360 myself. I still can't get used to FPS on the consoles xD 14 years of mouse and keyboard just don't do you any favours for FPS on a 360 controller.

[Cov]

... If you really like small this casemight be worth a look as well ...

It's got something ...

... The Lian Li measures 193mm x 280mm x 208mm. The Shuttle G2 chassis measures 300 x 200 x 185 mm. The Shuttle H7 measures 310(L) x 200(W) x 185(H) mm ...

My Silverstone SG01 of course is bigger but actually tower styles are my favourites.
Nothing against Shuttle, but this time it has to be a Mini ITX tower.

For the motherboard I would go for this then you can still use a PCI-E graphics card if you like.

I was just going to say the nvidia 9 series would be better than a g45

Cheers mates, I was hoping for input like this one.
See, I never looked for ITX form factor before.






Bit-Tech.net





Zotac seems to be on a mission ... (19th Feb 2009)


You know what is funny ?
I was always annoyed that motherboards still came with historic floppy & PS/2 sockets, too many extension slots and didn't follow our gadgets getting smaller and smaller anyway.
Thought step-by-step we might get there and suddenly, BOOOM ... I discovered Mini ITX !

Mini ITX comes much, much closer to what I always had in mind ... can't wait to start my new little Monster rig

... apart from the e8400/ a ssd slotting in do you have any other requirements?

Hmmm, nope ... oh, hang on, I wished I could use 8 GB RAM instead of 4.
But that might be one of the sacrifices for getting smaller.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I stuck with one HD at the time as this is a gaming rig so never needed anymore but it has the usual dvd burner etc

I just stuck with the 8800GTS 512mb atm as the games don't cripple it as yet, when the time comes I will looking into doing a bit of chassis hacking to squeeze a newer card in there Happy with it atm, although DoW 2 is the only thing I am playing on it atm and now doing a lot more work on it so the system is overkill for what I use atm, normally on the xbox for gaming these days as after a day at work I cba sitting at the computer to play games. Was alright a year or two ago as all my friends were massive pc gamers now they have all jumped ship to the 360 so to get any decent games with them I have to jump onto the 360 myself. I still can't get used to FPS on the consoles xD 14 years of mouse and keyboard just don't do you any favours for FPS on a 360 controller.

Also you cannot play Crysis on a console...yet!!

Remember that the 9800GTX,9800GTX+ and the GTS250 have the same G92 chip found in the 8800GTS 512mb but with lower power consumption and higher clocks!! With the newer 40nm chips coming out this year there probably be a card the same size as your 8800GTS 512mb but with lower power consumption and higher performance.

I had an 8800GTS 512mb last year in the Shuttle but exchanged it back for the previous HD3870 as I was not gaming that much and it was fast enough for my needs - also I needed the money!!
Managed to FUBAR the HD3870 so hence I got an HD4830 as a replacement.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It's got something ...






My Silverstone SG01 of course is bigger but actually tower styles are my favourites.
Nothing against Shuttle, but this time it has to be a Mini ITX tower.






Cheers mates, I was hoping for input like this one.
See, I never looked for ITX form factor before.






Bit-Tech.net





Zotac seems to be on a mission ... (19th Feb 2009)


You know what is funny ?
I was always annoyed that motherboards still came with historic floppy & PS/2 sockets, too many extension slots and didn't follow our gadgets getting smaller and smaller anyway.
Thought step-by-step we might get there and suddenly, BOOOM ... I discovered Mini ITX !

Mini ITX comes much, much closer to what I always had in mind ... can't wait to start my new little Monster rig



Hmmm, nope ... oh, hang on, I wished I could use 8 GB RAM instead of 4.
But that might be one of the sacrifices for getting smaller.

I assume you have heard of pico-ITX?

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16340/1

http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=11693

[Cov]

I assume you have heard of pico-ITX? ...

You asume right, but ... how about the preformance difference between Mini- and Pico-ITX ?
Does Pico still come with Socket 775 ?

Initial searches didn't bring much in regards to Pico-ITX PC cases.





It's getting better and better ...
How very funny do the massive PC cases look like compared to these models ? Hahaha !

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Have you looked at the Silverstone SG05??

http://www.silverstonetek.com/produc...=sg05&area=usa

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=17489

The dimensions are:

222 mm (W) x 176 mm (H) x 276 mm (D).

[Cov]

... actually tower styles are my favourites ... this time it has to be a Mini ITX tower.

Looks like it's gonna be the Lian Li PC-Q07 for me this time.