Passive Llano gaming build!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I saw this on another forum:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...0#post20978700

[Ulti]

Very nice, I'm tempted to get one of these when Trinity comes out!

Can never get rid of the upgrade bug with anything in life!

EDIT: Their other case selections are lovely:
A super slim mini-ITX/micro-ATX case here: http://www.streacom.com/products/fc5...nless-chassis/
MicroATX + Single slot graphics card will allow for some pretty nice gaming. Unfortunately it's depth of 325mm is too deep for me though.
(Wow though, £225!)

Still looking for a perfect case that is between 20cm x 20cm x 70cm and 27cm x 22cm x 90cm ish that supports 2x 2.5" drives with 4x USB slots on the front, an SD card reader slot and an optical drive bay.

My Antec ISK100 is small enough but lacks an optical drive bay and SD card reader. The FC8 is a bit too big size wise for me in depth, and unfortunately doesn't have enough USBs on the front!

Sigh, if only I could DIY my own case!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It seems the OEM for the Streacom and Wesena cases is Viako:

http://www.viako.com/viako/index.asp

http://viako.en.ec21.com/

[UseItNow]

It seems the OEM for the Streacom and Wesena cases is Viako:

http://www.viako.com/viako/index.asp

http://viako.en.ec21.com/

Thanks CAT!

I wants this one:
http://www.viako.com/viako/product_view.asp?idx=107

Thats a lovely case and remote, I'd defo get one of those especially if it was under 320mm in depth!

Any UK stockists?

[Sprite]

I emailed Viako a few months ago and they said they didn't plan on having UK stockists and wouldn't sell me a single case. They've started turning up on ebay now: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1707271087...ht_5292wt_1163

The same guy also stocks ones similar to the Streacom cases:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1208297001...ht_5143wt_1163
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1208297026...ht_5160wt_1163

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

IIRC,I did e-mail that seller a few months ago regarding a specific case and they can order specific cases for you.

Edit!!

It was this one:

http://www.viako.com/viako/product_view.asp?idx=117

The case seems to have modular construction. It the same one as what UseItNow wants as it can take a SFF PSU. The case in the first link which daniel.phillips provided is the same but comes with a DC-DC PSU - you need a dedicated backplate for an SFF PSU.

[Ulti]

Think I'll get the Tendraw H116 and an external card reader and leave the card reader plugged in.

It's going to be 33% bigger than my ISK100 though! ISK100 = 3.7L, H116 = 4.9L!

I like the look of the Seed MU-380 too but it's not very suitable for my desk as it's deeper than it is wide.

There's a massive markup on the H116 though, it's only ~£40 on taobao! (Basically a Chinese cross between eBay and Amazon) I wonder if I could call them and talk to them with my Chinese and get them to send one to the UK? Or perhaps get my mum to bargain with them haha. I can't imagine EMS or any other form of shipping from China to UK being cheap though...

I could wait till next time I go to China and bring one back with me in the suitcase? Lol.

EDIT: Just did a quick search, ridiculous postage prices for things over 1kg!

Also found a review of the case: http://bbs.htpc1.com/thread-194222-1-1.html

Lots of wasted space for the 3.5" support though.. But it means when HDD prices fall again, I can buy a 3.5" HDD just incase my HDD gets full in the future (64GB C300 and 250GB WD Scorpio Black are my only storage drives! Yet I've still got 25GB + 80GB between them!)

Does anyone know how hard it would be to "cut" a hole where the half-height PCI-E slot would fit?


Not sure if the case is high enough though, if it isn't, could I use a riser slot thing?

[shaithis]

I'd be tempted to make it in a marginally bigger case with an add-in passive card for hybrid cfx.

[scaryjim]

Does anyone know how hard it would be to "cut" a hole where the half-height PCI-E slot would fit?

...

Not sure if the case is high enough though, if it isn't, could I use a riser slot thing?

How hard the cut would be depends on the material. PCI plates aren't really big enough to get a jigsaw in, so you're looking at either a reinforced cutting disk or some kind of rotary grinder (like the diamond-point bits I use on Project Cunning Plan). The actual process is simple, but if the metal's think it'll take a lot of time and patience.

As to the height, it does look kind of close to the mark. I've got a couple of low profile cards at home, I could measure the height of the backplate if you wanted, so you could get an idea of whether there's enough space. You could definitely use a riser, but *most* PCIe risers are left-turning, so the graphics card would come out over the 3.5" drive and the heat wouldn't have anywhere to escape to. If you could get hold of a right-handed riser the card would fold back over the motherboard, with the outputs over the motherboard's IO section and the heatsink / fan pointing directly upwards, which might be better for heat dissapation (and yes, I have on several occasions considered modding mitx cases to do exactly that ).

[Ulti]

How hard the cut would be depends on the material. PCI plates aren't really big enough to get a jigsaw in, so you're looking at either a reinforced cutting disk or some kind of rotary grinder (like the diamond-point bits I use on Project Cunning Plan). The actual process is simple, but if the metal's think it'll take a lot of time and patience.

As to the height, it does look kind of close to the mark. I've got a couple of low profile cards at home, I could measure the height of the backplate if you wanted, so you could get an idea of whether there's enough space. You could definitely use a riser, but *most* PCIe risers are left-turning, so the graphics card would come out over the 3.5" drive and the heat wouldn't have anywhere to escape to. If you could get hold of a right-handed riser the card would fold back over the motherboard, with the outputs over the motherboard's IO section and the heatsink / fan pointing directly upwards, which might be better for heat dissapation (and yes, I have on several occasions considered modding mitx cases to do exactly that ).

I'll probably stick with my 2.5" drives so it'll be fine I guess with a riser.

Ah hassle both ways for me.. Either gotta wait for Trinity to come out, or I can use my current build (perfectly fine for my usage except lacking for even casual gaming) + a 6570. However, not sure if waiting for Trinity would be better and then installing all my things again, or just cutting out the case and using a 6570... I don't have any tools in my house though, not that I'm aware of anyway. I could probably ask my dad, but I'd rather do it myself.

[GeorgeStorm]

Looks awesome, I'm a fan of llano, currently using it as my main pc, haven't tried a lot of gaming, but I've really found that memory has a huge affect on gaming performance (currently using a 3870k)

Seeing this is making me want to build a passive llano setup for the family htpc when I get back at easter