Small Mini ITX PC Spec / Advice

[PeterStoba]

Hello Hexus, been a while! Finished my exams, moving house soon and space is at a premium

My current PC based around the Silverstone SG05 was fine but I'd like to try something smaller and that requires less power and runs a bit cooler/quieter! At the moment I have a Gigabyte H55N-USB3 with an i3 530, 4GB of DDR3 and a 40GB X25-V.

Now, I was thinking of something AMD based as I don't need alot of speed for web browsing and SD playback. Found some ITX motherboards with CPUs built in, are these more powerful than the Intel atom or not? Would I be better with an AM3 CPU on a different board?

My other question is case and PSU, seen some Antec ones with 150w PSU, should that cope with 1 SSD, Dual core CPU and onboard VGA?

Thanks in advance, no doubt there'll be more questions coming!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Why don't you get a laptop?? Even a small nettop will be dwarfed by the 24" screen you have. Why don't you rest the screen on the SG05?? An i3 should not be running hot and the stock cooler is not that noisy with my Core i3 2100. Most of the smaller cases will have worse cooling too.

Maybe,you need to look at one of the following cases with a low power consumption CPU:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/wesen...-silver-no-psu

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/wesen...e-black-no-psu

A 35W Core i3 2100T would do the job or if you can wait one of the 65W Llano A8 quad cores when it is released. There are H61 and H67 mini-ITX motherboards available and FM1 mini-ITX motherboards for Llano have also been seen. You will need to get a 150W DC-DC PSU.

Edit!!

The advantage of the Llano is the fact it has a decent IGP.



The A8 IGP is not that far off the performance of an HD5570 DDR3:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4448/a...ance-preview/3

[mikemikemi]

Also agree, an i3 shouldn't be too hot and is already reasonably low power.

AMD E350, would be less power therefore should be quieter and has more power than the Atom. However, I would look at seeing what you can do with quietening your existing set up as it is quite low power anyway.

Power consumption:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i...essor-review/7

Suggests a 150w PSU should cover your existing set up.

[PeterStoba]

Why don't you get a laptop?? Even a small nettop will be dwarfed by the 24" screen you have. Why don't you rest the screen on the SG05?? An i3 should not be running hot and the stock cooler is not that noisy with my Core i3 2100. Most of the smaller cases will have worse cooling too.

A 35W Core i3 2100T would do the job or if you can wait one of the 65W Llano A8 quad cores when it is released. There are H61 and H67 mini-ITX motherboards available and FM1 mini-ITX motherboards for Llano have also been seen. You will need to get a 150W DC-DC PSU.

Edit!!

I already have a netbook for portable stuff, A laptop I'd pay a premium for and I already have some bits I can use for the 'new' system. There's the fact I just want to build a system again really.

My i3 isn't hot or noisy I just want the new system to be quiet too

Yeah I've seen the low power Pentiums too, they'd cost about the same as a Brazos based system would really. It'd draw more power and be noisier than the passive Brazos would though?

I'm looking at the ASUS P8H61-I with a Pentium G620T or the Zotac FUSION350-A-E.

Could go with the slightly more expensive option of an Athlon II X2 240e with a 880GITX-A-E motherboard for slightly more power and it'd still be quiet?

Also agree, an i3 shouldn't be too hot and is already reasonably low power.

AMD E350, would be less power therefore should be quieter and has more power than the Atom. However, I would look at seeing what you can do with quietening your existing set up as it is quite low power anyway.

Power consumption:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i...essor-review/7

Suggests a 150w PSU should cover your existing set up.

As above, it's not hot or high power I just think it can be less. I might look into it but I really want something new

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I already have a netbook for portable stuff, A laptop I'd pay a premium for and I already have some bits I can use for the 'new' system. There's the fact I just want to build a system again really.

My i3 isn't hot or noisy I just want the new system to be quiet too

Yeah I've seen the low power Pentiums too, they'd cost about the same as a Brazos based system would really. It'd draw more power and be noisier than the passive Brazos would though?

I'm looking at the ASUS P8H61-I with a Pentium G620T or the Zotac FUSION350-A-E.

Could go with the slightly more expensive option of an Athlon II X2 240e with a 880GITX-A-E motherboard for slightly more power and it'd still be quiet?



As above, it's not hot or high power I just think it can be less. I might look into it but I really want something new

I would wait another two for the desktop Llano processors to released. The 65W A8 quad core looks quite interesting and I suspect power draw will be quite decent at low loads looking at the mobile versions. The 65W TDP includes a 400 shader IGP and the northbridge too.

If you are going for a current CPU and motherboard combination I would consider the ASUS P8H61-I and a Pentium G620T. However,I would not pay more than around £65 for the motherboard. You will also need to use 1.5V DDR3 RAM with the Sandy Bridge CPUs.

[scaryjim]

Could go with the slightly more expensive option of an Athlon II X2 240e with a 880GITX-A-E motherboard for slightly more power and it'd still be quiet?

If the motherboard allows undervolting you should find a 240e with the stock cooler stays very cool and quiet (my Sempron 140 running at 1.05v stays under 40C with the stock CPU fan running no higher than 2k rpm): get a decent third party cooler and you should be able to keep it even cooler and quieter...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Here are some pictures of a few Llano mini-ITX motherboards:

http://vr-zone.com/articles/exclusiv...red/12409.html

http://www.htpcreviews.org/asus-f1a7...-computex-2011

[PeterStoba]

What sort of time frame are we looking at for these new motherboards, more than a few weeks?

Yeah I'm aware of the AMD running cool. I think I just need to decide on an AMD system and find a suitable case for it

[mikemikemi]

What about this for a case:

http://www.silverstonetek.com/produc...=lc12&area=usa

Would make for a nice small build, although limited by no fans and 120w PSU, enough for an E350 though.

[PeterStoba]

What about this for a case:

http://www.silverstonetek.com/produc...=lc12&area=usa

Would make for a nice small build, although limited by no fans and 120w PSU, enough for an E350 though.

Looks nice, can't find the 120w version cheap enough anywhere though! £130 is too much. Don't think the other version would cope with the power needed!

I was looking at the 150w Antec ISK-300 which is alot lower priced. Think that would run okay with an E350 based system like this - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/268797?

[mikemikemi]

Looks nice, can't find the 120w version cheap enough anywhere though! £130 is too much. Don't think the other version would cope with the power needed!

I was looking at the 150w Antec ISK-300 which is alot lower priced. Think that would run okay with an E350 based system like this - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/268797?

Judging by this:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4134/t...-for-miniitx/7

The 150w in the Antec should be more than enough.

[Ulti]

Just a heads/thumbs up on the Antec ISK-310 150W, I've got that case with an i3 530 along with a 5570 and it runs completely fine without ever cutting off due to not receiving enough power. The PSU is also pretty silent IMO.

[malfunction]

What about this for a case:

http://www.silverstonetek.com/produc...=lc12&area=usa

Would make for a nice small build, although limited by no fans and 120w PSU, enough for an E350 though.

Looks nice, can't find the 120w version cheap enough anywhere though! £130 is too much. Don't think the other version would cope with the power needed!

I was looking at the 150w Antec ISK-300 which is alot lower priced. Think that would run okay with an E350 based system like this - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/268797?

FWIW I have a Silverstone LC19R which - presumably - uses the same 120W PSU. Could be a one-off but there was quite a bit of high pitched whine coming from the PSU and I ended up replacing it with a 150W Pico PSU + brick instead.

[PeterStoba]

FWIW I have a Silverstone LC19R which - presumably - uses the same 120W PSU. Could be a one-off but there was quite a bit of high pitched whine coming from the PSU and I ended up replacing it with a 150W Pico PSU + brick instead.

That's not something I'd expect from silverstone, wonder if it was a one off? Thank you though

Just a heads/thumbs up on the Antec ISK-310 150W, I've got that case with an i3 530 along with a 5570 and it runs completely fine without ever cutting off due to not receiving enough power. The PSU is also pretty silent IMO.

Thanks alot for that! I'm pleasantly surprised at that, how are temps?
I guess your using the i3 stock cooler? Any chance of some pictures, all I've seen so far is a review that looked quite cramped!

[cam1986]

I like the idea of an itx system. I for one hate pc noise so it would have to be 'quiet' pc. Can an itx be quiet?

[PeterStoba]

Yeah ITX can be quiet if you pick the right components, just like any other computer