New case for my Main PC and Mini-ITX HTPC/LAN Rig

[Biscuit]

Now my plan was to miniaturize all my PCs and put them in mini-ITX or micro-ATX cases but i think it wise to have one case with a full size motherboard in so there is plenty of room for future expansion.

Main PC
As im waiting for Sandybridge/Bulldozer to be released before i consider changing my trusted Q6600 i will be pretty much just switching my current system into a new case. Only thing which i think i will be changing is the hard drive. Currently im running 2 x 500GB F3s in RAID 0 with a load of other old drives for storage.

Im thinking about a move to SSD but as the size of them is considerably lower than mechanical disk drives im not sure of the best way to manage the system. Im thinking hardware wise i would get 80-120GB SSD then use my F3s in RAID 1 for storage but my windows install has a tendancy to creep quite far over 100GB due to my rather large steam collection. How do you guys manage your installations with SSDs?
I see the 600T is set to release in a week or so, think im gunna stick a pre-order in on that for my main system as it ticks pretty much all my boxes. Anyone else thinking the same?

Media Centre
I currently have a media centre for the lounge which also acts as my media NAS but i would quite liek to split the operation. I would like to give the media centre some gaming credentials so a midrange GPU however i would also like it to remain small and portable so i can pop it in a suitcase and take it up to mates house for little LANs. Casewise im really set on making it Mini-ITX have looked at the PC-PQ08 which i really like and the Lan Gear Da MOM (however this isnt released yet) but other recomendations are cool.
As for the motherboard/cpu etc which route is the best, i5/i3 or AM3 as i have spotted USB3 capable boards from both socket types?
Can anyone whip me up a spec... budget isn't massively important but i would like the whole thing (including my 600T, SSD for main computer and NAS) to be under £1000 really. I can probably creep over that but i would rather not.

The NAS rebuild is pretty simple and basic, i have a hardware RAID card and i want to stick loads of 2TB drives in it and RAID 5 them up. I will probably just keep it in my current media centre case for now but i would like a new motherboard preferably something with mega low power, its only real requirement is that it is Mini-ITX ready for moving into a NAS case in the future and it has a PCI-E x4 slot for the RAID card.

[PeterStoba]

As for the motherboard/cpu etc which route is the best, i5/i3 or AM3 as i have spotted USB3 capable boards from both socket types?

The AM3 board, would that be the Asus M4A88T-I or have I missed out on the ideal board? I'm looking for something similar myself

[Biscuit]

Yeah thats the one one http://www.ebuyer.com/product/227079

As it only uses SO-DIMMs i was thining this stuff might go with it quite well
http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...prodID=1874842

[dirky]

You can always move your steam folder to another hdd if you find it taking up too much space

[Biscuit]

http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/43...6b2f4e434aa297

Have a look at that?

I havent included the mobo for the NAS as i might wait for the new AMD low power chips

Alternatively the above mobo and ram with this

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-A...MHz-95W-Retail

[Pob255]

Yes move the steam folder off.
When I do a seperate hdd windows installation, it is just windows and a couple of heavly used programs, like antivirus and internet browser, current mmo of choise
Everything else goes onto a seperatse drive.

it does mean when you install stuff you never just keep hitting "next" and always use the advanced options to make sure you install it to the correct location.

on itx vs matx vs atx
ITX is still limited in terms of top end systems (esp as we've now lost DFI who was one of the main companies pushing the limits of ITX)

mATX is more doable option, generally I hardly use any additional expansion cards these days so mATX is not a major issue now.

EDIT: Scan still have some of the DFI motherboards in stock
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/DFi-L...-see-full-spes
thoes are the best ITX board you can get atm
there's very few AMD AM3 itx boards about http://www.ebuyer.com/product/227079 however most only go up to 95w cpu's

also should point out that the h55 ITX boards have the cpu right next to the gpu slot so cpu coolers are very limited on the boards.

[Biscuit]

it wnt be overclocked or aything liek that so i will probably be sticking with the stock cooler.

Im leaning towards that asus motherboard an a tricore athlon II at the moment, throwing bits of the order in scan and bits in ebuyer the total comes to just short of a Kbut i did put in the new OCZ Vertex 2E whch is about £200... not sure if thats really necessary.

[shaithis]

As much as I would like an SSD in my HTPC, I have decided (for me at least) it is not worth it.

I use the sleep function anyway on my HTPC and find the HDDs perfectly adequate for what they are asked to do on a daily basis (not much!).

[Biscuit]

I havent put an SSD in my media centre thats for my main PC which i game on and stuff. The HTPC is getting a Momentus XT (hybrid drive) so it has a decent balance between the two.

Il post up pics of what i propose later on when im home from work, let me know what you think.

[Biscuit]

Is how it stands at the moment

Total £998.23

[Biscuit]

in a change of heart i think im just gunna soup the crap outa my main PC


With the OCZ Vetex 2e
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/225416

[scaryjim]

So much for waiting for Bulldozer / Sandy Bridge

[Biscuit]

Yeah i got a bonus from work and its burning a hole!!

I really dunno what to do if im honest, that case isnt actually that small.
HELP ME

[scaryjim]

what spec's the existing media box?

Methanoid has a nice looking mitx server case for sale in this thread which has 4 hot swap bays (you could run the NAS OS off USB or a 2.5" drive - either SSD or mechanical).

It sounds like otherwise you want a small, easily transportable rig to double as a media box and lan box? What kind of res are you likely to play at, and what kind of games? If you could manage with something like a 5570 rather than a 5770 / GTX460 it'd give you more options in terms of a smaller computer...

EDIT:
Here's an Atom motherboard that would meet your server requirements too: D510, takes standard DDR2 DIMMs, PCIe X16 slot. Should be fine for a NAS, and it's "only" £85. Add some cheapish DDR2 and you could have your entire NAS for ~ £200 (plus hard drives) there.

[Pob255]

Yes that's a nice miniITX NAS case

While I like the overall look and layout of the 600T the price is way too steep for my pockets

The other cases that have recently caught my eye are the Phantom and HAF 912
The Phantom is a bit big for my tastes these days (maybe if I could afford watercooling) the HAF 912 I think would make a nice blank canvas for modding, however I'd want the cheaper basic HAF 912 not the HAF 912 Plus (I'd be repainting it anyway so why pay extra for something I'm going to redo)
However in another of thoes bizar twists of incomprehensible decisions of case manufactures, the Plus version only seems to be available in the US and only the Plus version in the UK.

I was going to sugest the lain-li PC-Q08 or PC-Q11 for the portable system if you go ITX

Although I'm now a bit confused as to what you're looking at doing?

[Biscuit]

Motherboard for the NAS is sollddddd.

Current spec is my old IP35-E with an E1200, 1GB DDR2 667MHz and a HD5450.

I will be playing a mix of modern and old skool games really and at a res of 1080p, as i said it will be a LAN box so i may well go to an iSeries this year. Really needs to have some juice in the GPU!

Damn my stupid 5870 why does it have to be so big!