Mini ITX build for girlfriend - office / light gaming £400

[Ciber]

I ordered the Sandisk Extreme SSD and 2 x 2gb RAM from Amazon and the motherboard from Scan. The mobo says stock overdue since the 6th but I ordered in the hope they would have it in a few days. Just the CPU and DVD to order now.

[trippedup]

Yippee!!!

[Ciber]

Yippee!!!

Could you post up the passmark score for your current PC?

[trippedup]

Could you post up the passmark score for your current PC?

Can't remember exactly without running the programme again. It was something like 2,9??

[Pob255]

Again sorry I've not kept up with this, haven't been on hexus much the last couple of weeks

The fan filter I used was this one http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm...an-top-product
I've not used that akasa aluminium filter, it looks decent, the aluminium ones I've used in the past are the corrugated ones, that helps by increasing the surface area so they don't clog as fast.
Fan adaptors are the easy way of just knocking the speed down slightly http://www.scan.co.uk/products/shark...m-and-noise%29 you don't get control but it's not generally that needed on a case fan and it's a lot less wires to route around which is good for a small case.

Have you bought a psu? one you could look at is the novatech gaming ones http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...ov-psg400.html these are rebranded OCZ ModXStream Pro psu's
On the sleeve vs ball bearing fan, in all honesty I'd not be that worried.

Hydraulic bearings are another name for sleeve bearings with a fluid channel, a straight sleeve bearing is just two tubes inside each other, normally made out of graphite in high speed applications, as the bearing turns the surface wares slightly and you get a thin layer of fine graphite powder that acts as a dry lubricant.
Other materials can be used of course, but a dry sleeve bearing made of a material which doesn't ware doesn't hold up well to high speeds (we're talking over 60rpm here in terms of high speed)

A Hydraulic bearing is a sleeve bearing with some form of groove or slot cut into one of the sleeves and a tiny amount of oil added, the slot/groove, acts as a reservoir for the oil, the oil forms a cushion so the sleeves don't rub.
Advantages here over a dry sleeve bearing is still fairly low cost with a greater life span and more robust materials can be safely used (until all the lubricant dries out or leaks out)

A Rifled bearing is basically the same but the groves are cut in a spiral pattern and you have some form of larger reservoir at each end of the bearing, the rotation of the fan draws the oil up the grooves into the bearing, keeping it in circulation and helping to prevent the bearing drying out.

You can also get other forms like Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) or self-stabilising oil-pressure (SSO) where you have a far larger amount of fluid between the
two sleeves with some way of keeping the fluid in, so that the fluid is not so much acting as a lubricant but a pressure cushion and it acts live a third sleeve in the middle of the other two.

Ball bearing still generally work the same way as a sleeve bearing, but with the addition of deep grooves in which balls are placed, so the two sleeves don't touch but run on the balls. (often with oil lubricant added to help things along) they tend to be less susceptible to damage because harder/stronger materials are needed to resist ware caused by the balls.
A major advantage to ball bearings is that if the lubricant dries out or it starts to get excessive ware the bearing get noisy but doesn't suddenly cease up, they tend to die slowly and give you warning, unlike sleeve bearings.

Some big dangers with sleeve bearings tends to come from the quality of the materials and manufacturing used, how smooth is the working surface? and materials like graphite can easily become fractured which will greatly effect the life and performance of the bearing.
Another major issue is that sleeve bearings are far less resistant to lateral force and off centre rotational forces.
There is far less resistance to something pulling one sleeve out of the other and such forces can cause lubricant to get drawn out of the bearing faster as it rotates.
In the case of fans sleeve bearing are worn faster by slight imbalances in the fan blades, when the centre of mass is lightly off the bearing get squeezed on the opposite side increasing the wear and/or forcing the lubricant out.
While cheaper than ball bearing or fluid cushion bearings, quality and quality control play a big part in both the cost and life span of a sleeve bearing.
Hydraulic or Rifled bearings are both fairly cheap easy ways to greatly improve the life of the bearing and are commonly used on fans.

[Ciber]

Thanks Pob. That's all useful info!

Can't remember exactly without running the programme again. It was something like 2,9??

It would be more like 290. Like this from my little shuttle XS35GSV3:

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

On the sleeve vs ball bearing fan, in all honesty I'd not be that worried.

I have had plenty of bog standard sleeve bearing fans wear out,or become increasingly noisy in various applications over the last 8 years, as I primarily use SFF systems and I run them at constant speed. Plenty. They are of the bog standard type which use dry bearings. They are the commonest type because they are cheap and they are still used in a large number of PSUs models and many of them are very old models too(ranges using them include the Corsair CX series PSUs). They are not even using rifle bearing or hydraulic bearing. You forget,that companies will cost cut even to save a few pence.

If they were using FDB or SSO bearings then I would not worry so much,as these seem to last a while,ie,Noctua uses the latter type,but they don't,as they just use cheaper,older models.

The other aspect is that dust buildup seems to affect standard sleeve bearing fans worse than the other types I have used,which is more of a problem in SFF systems.

You can get away with case fans,since you can replace them easily,but not a PSU in a SFF rig,unless you are willing to take the PSU and replace the fan yourself.

I use a Scythe one in my other SFF system as a CPU fansink and I expect to have to replace it under two to three years ,as there are no slim enough ball bearing versions.

I have had to replace a couple of FSP PSUs,used in some compact cases too,since the sleeve bearing fans wore out or became much noisier over time,as the PSUs were a major component of the case exhaust,and they were Yate Loon fans,not some unknown make. I have had Sharkoon ones wear out,a few Akasa Vortexx Neos,etc which start exhibiting issues within two years.

Moreover,looking at all the higher grade PSUs,I have had a gander at,not a single one uses bog standard sleeve bearing fans. They are only for cost cutting purposes. I am not interested in giving people short term recommendations for SFF systems,so that in two to three years time,the fan starts having issues.

They might be OK in full sized system,with better ventilation,but I would not use a PSU with a bog standard sleeve bearing fan for any SFF PC I would build.

If anything the development of Hydraulic,Rifled,FDB and SSO bearings,does indicate that bog standard sleeve bearing fans have issues with regards to lifespan,otherwise why bother??

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Repeat post.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Ahh!!!!! Repeat post.

[Ciber]

I have got the PSU suggested by Cat. Ball bearings fan sounds like a very good thing. Here are the bits so far. I have got the case ready for the mobo. I hope scan will send it soon!



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I have removed the small fan. Not a 'fan' of 80mm fans but I might try it in with a speed reducer. I have found some Noctua 'Low Noise Adapters' left over from a CPU cooler which have a resistor in the middle wire. I presume these should work. I will probably let the motherboard control the CPU fan. Assuming the mobo has CPU fan speed control.

[trippedup]

I have the fan suggested by Cat. Ball bearings fan sounds like a very good thing. Here are the bits so far. I have got the case ready for the mobo. I hope scan will send it soon!



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I have removed the small fan. Not a 'fan' of 80mm fans but I might try it in with a speed reducer. I have found some Noctua 'Low Noise Adapters' left over from a CPU cooler which have a resistor in the middle wire. I presume these should work. I will probably let the motherboard control the CPU fan. Assuming the mobo has CPU fan speed control.

Yippee again!!!!

[Homeking]

Looking good!

Hope Scan won't be too long getting the motherboard. No good offers on the processor that I can see at the moment but the best price seems to be Novatech at £94.98:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...00okhjbox.html

Also didn't realise that TCB cashback at Novatech was as much as 4.04% (so long as you don't use PayPal):

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/novatech/

so you'd get it a bit cheaper.

[DanceswithUnix]

This got me in the mood to try and complete my build.

I have a low profile CPU heatsink that I want to use which required a replacement fan. That turned up before I moved house, but I can't find where it got packed *sigh*. There is a 120mm fan somewhere for the drive bay fitting in case I decided to use it as well, though my motherboard can only drive one chassis fan so I probably won't bother.

Oh well, guess I will order another fan and watch how your build goes in the mean time

[trippedup]

This got me in the mood to try and complete my build.

I have a low profile CPU heatsink that I want to use which required a replacement fan. That turned up before I moved house, but I can't find where it got packed *sigh*. There is a 120mm fan somewhere for the drive bay fitting in case I decided to use it as well, though my motherboard can only drive one chassis fan so I probably won't bother.

Oh well, guess I will order another fan and watch how your build goes in the mean time

Hope you enjoy the process as much as *I* hope I'm going to enjoy the end result :-)

[Ciber]

So, I got this fan filter: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120mm-Meta.../320837688349?

The raised bits around the screw holes were a problem as they meant the screws would be too short so I flattened them with some big pliers. Here it is fitted and the ODD is in.




Then I popped the front back on which just pushed on and off from the front.



I got the CPU from Ebuyer. A week after the mobo should have been in with Scan I asked them if I would have it this week and they said it would be sent by Wednesday. Wednesday comes along as I ask if it will be here by Friday and if not I will have to cancel it and they cancel the order. All pretty annoying. So I got it from Novatech and here it is:



Very tidy and compact it looks as well!

I formatted the drives and installed them the other day. The drive trays are nice and easy to use with plastic rails that seem pretty standard and two holders that each hold two 2.5" drives. You can have 1 HDD and 4 SDD that way or 2 HDD and 2 SDD or 3 HDD so that is plenty of room for upgrades.

Ready for the next stage:




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[Biscuit]

Looking good man