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Man the M1 is a dope looking case. The vent holes and aluminum aesthetic remind me of my old PowerMac G5 tower, RIP.
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Jan 30, 2021 15:08
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 13:06 |
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PC building thread is indeed your friend. If portability isn't a requirement, you can do far better in terms of capability and longevity for the same $.
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Apr 14, 2021 15:03
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Thinking about rebuilding my current rig in to a SFF form factor and looking for recommendations, specifically: 1) mITX AM4 mobo with wifi and bluetooth on board edit: forgot to add, this is driving a 2600X so no need for anything crazy, but would like one USB-C port at least. 2) a case that will be compatible with an ATX form factor PSU. GPU is a 1650 Super so that's not too much of a concern in terms of space. I would like space in the case to go to a bigger GPU at some point but I doubt I'll ever be trying to run top of the line beefy cards. I don't care about being tiny, just small enough to sit on my desk without taking up a huge footprint. Budget I figure up to about 200 bucks though if there's a compelling reason to spend more I'm open to ideas. I am willing to pay more for higher quality. I see the NR200 getting recommended, also have looked at the Meshilicious that will be out soon as well as Ncase M1. Are there any other options that are particularly good, or people who have strong opinions? Give me your takes! KYOON GRIFFEY JR fucked around with this message at 15:29 on May 26, 2021 |
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May 26, 2021 15:20
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blah I have a nice new and fairly good Seasonic FOCUS Gold 750W PSU but you guys are probably right and if I do that I open up to a Thrilling world of poo poo like the Dan A4 so maybe that is the way to go.
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May 26, 2021 19:13
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Got deep in a rabbit hole on open cases (eg XProto-L). They look cool. I can re-use most of my ATX components other than the motherboard. I don't have pets or kids. What's the real downside?
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May 26, 2021 21:03
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I placed an order for the Xproto-L, let's see how dedicated I am to cleaning the sumbitch
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Jun 9, 2021 02:20
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I got my stupid xproto L case this week. probably put it together over the weekend or the following week. if there's interest I can post some pictures of the build process/end result and thoughts and opinions.
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Jul 1, 2021 13:46
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It's technically not SFF but it's certainly m-ITX , and people told me to  so here is the saga of the Xproto-L. Apologies in advance for my disaster-area desk. For those who aren't aware, Xproto is a vertical butterfly-style open case made by Xtia, a Chinese outfit. It hit mainstream about a year ago, and uses a SFF PSU, m-ITX mobo, and can accommodate founders' edition and smaller 30X0 cards. Since then, they've updated the line with water cooling and AIO mount parts, as well as the case I bought, the Xproto-L. I was running a not-particularly-hardcore build circa late 2019 (2600X and a GTX 1650 Super on a X570 motherboard in a ATX case with a 750 watt PSU), but wanted to move to some smaller form factor and put the case on top of my new sit/stand desk. I also didn't want to throw out a bunch of perfectly good two year old parts in the process, so the Xproto-L was interesting to me. The L is bigger and allows a standard ATX PSU as well as the beefiest 30x0 cards. The only thing I needed to replace was the motherboard. I bought a B450 motherboard for $95 bucks as a Microcenter open box and was off to to the races. I ordered the case, a custom flat right angle DisplayPort cable extension, and some custom cables for my Seasonic Focus GX-750. The total was $220 shipped, which included $40 bucks for FedEx international air, the only option available. Kind of ridiculous. Once out of the overpack, the case is really nicely packaged:  In this Styrofoam square are all the case parts, a screwdriver and an small allen key, some custom cabling, a PCI-e 3.0 riser, and all the hardware in a nicely organized box. The packaging was very impressive.  Mostly out of the packaging (one case side didn't fit in the photo). That's an inch mat if you're looking for scale. The long dimension is about 16", the short dimension is about 7", and the depth is about 7" total (each side, plus a center section)  The finish is very nice, it's much darker and bluer than I expected. It's really quite a striking color. The quality of all the pieces was very good. No scratches or scrapes and even finish.  I saw that in 2020 users complained about wrinkling on the bends in the case but it's hardly discernible here.  Starting off - these standoffs hold the two halves of the butterfly apart and are mostly used for cable management.  PSU and mobo in place on the one side. I had misplaced the PSU (one notch too high) and this ended up being more difficult than it should have been. Due to the height of the wifi antenna connectors on the Gigabyte B450 I Aorus Pro Wifi, it was very hard to get the I/O panel in to place. I ended up having to take off the padding on the rear of the I/O panel to get it to all fit in, but it did eventually. You can see that the main motherboard cable is not very well routed - the instructions suggest to route it down in between the motherboard and PSU, and then back up to the motherboard. This was not possible with the stiff cables they included. I ended up setting it in a giant loop.  Back side of the first half of the butterfly. You can see the riser cable for GPU, the power cable for GPU ready to run to the other half of the butterfly, and the CPU cable plugged in to the mobo and PSU.  The halves of the butterfly are tentatively together. This means the power button is attached as well as the PSU extension cable that puts the wall plug in to the top panel with the GPU and mobo I/O. This is where things started to go a little sideways.  You can probably see the problem - the PSU extension cable will not plug in to the PSU, because the lower part of the butterfly is screening the PSU 's power port. There is not enough clearance between the PSU and the lower part of the case in the foreground to plug in the cable to the PSU. I suspect there are three problems - first, the Focus GX-750 has its power input at the extreme side of the case. Second, the window in the case is really designed for a SFF sized PSU. Third, the ATX PSU must be mounted lower than a SFF PSU in order to clear the motherboard , which reduces clearance at the power input end. I ended up taking the PSU very carefully off its bracket and plugging the extension cable in to the PSU before mounting it on its bracket. In the end, I took it apart and just dropped the extension cord right out of the PSU without attaching it to the frame  Here's the vaguely finished product. You can see the downside of this design - it looks super cool but as soon as you start plugging cables in to it, you kill the aesthetic. As a result, I'm investing in some additional right angle cables to help cable management by dropping all the cables through the center "chimney" between the sides of the butterfly.  A bit more finished - I've hidden more wires and put the side bracket that covers the "chimney" in places, plus I replaced the shark fin antenna with two little stubby antennae. The only issue right now is the USB cable that goes to all my peripherals through a hub, but I have some custom flat cabling on the way to take care of that. Oh yeah, they included a little "not a mousepad" for it to sit on, nice touch. Pros:
Cons:
I seem to have provided more cons than pros in the end but I don't think the cons are all that significant, or they are mitigatable, provided you are tolerant of open PC life. (We'll see on that for me!) For the case to make sense, you really have to be after the build experience. I've built relatively normal PCs before, but never SFF or something of this nature. I also have some experience with mech keyboards and a lot of car repair so I would say that I am above average in mechanical inclination and skills. I personally found it to be really fun and just the right amount of difficult and stressful! tl;dr High quality case with a good and challenging building experience and an original design. The building process is most of the fun. If people want more pictures I am glad to provide. I'll probably fuss with cabling to get as clean a look as possible and then look at replacement cooling options (likely a low profile Shadow Rock or a low profile Noctua) so I'll probably post more pictures anyway.
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Jul 14, 2021 03:35
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Crosby B. Alfred posted:Is the case actually slightly bending with the weight of CPU Heatsink or is it just me? How's the wobble? It's not bending. The CPU heatsink isn't very heavy overall and it's solidly mounted. It probably looks bent because the PSU is not straight due to the PSU bracket bending slightly, or alternately because I took a very non level picture. Overall, it's very stable and sits quietly on its pad - it's not light. I put it directly on the hardwood desk and it also seemed stable that way too. nitsuga posted:And what stubby antennae did you find? I’ve got that same motherboard, and I haven’t had any luck finding a low-profile alternative. I got these little antennae which seem to be just as effective as the shark fin and fit over the closely-set antenna connectors. They look decent to me; the SFF hardos make a nicer looking version of same but they are $20 instead of $8. NihilCredo posted:I was looking at the XProto cases in fact, so thank you so much for your report! (Currently undecided between an open case and a DIY wall mount following this guide) I think actually the non-L also supports AIO and custom loop cooling if you order the right brackets. The AIO sits 90 degrees to the "chimney" of the case so I don't think it would be very difficult to attach (famous last words) However, there isn't a 120mm bracket. edit: they publish a guide for the AIO specifically here: https://www.xtia.com.cn/portfolio/items/aio-bracket-installation-guide KYOON GRIFFEY JR fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Jul 14, 2021 |
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Jul 14, 2021 19:30
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Better suited for the PC building thread, but: You can spend a very small amount (10 quid) more to get an ASRock B550 motherboard or about 50 quid more to get a very good Gigabyte B550 Aorus. The B550 is preferred chipset in current gen for a variety of reasons. You should get 3600 CL16 RAM. That RAM is slow and bad. A 450W PSU isn't going to drive any decent video card in the future with any headroom, a Corsair SF600 will certainly cover any need though. SSD is overkill, the Samsung stuff is overpriced. A WD SN550 1TB will save you money and deliver just as good performance.
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Aug 25, 2021 20:19
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Note that I know nothing about cooling, seeing as how I'm living that open case life, but figured the rest of this thread would have some opinions about cooling a NR200. The Arctic fans are a placeholder in case smarter people think Z needs more fans.
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Aug 30, 2021 21:35
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Z the IVth posted:Just popping in to thank everyone (especially Kyoon Griffey) for the advice. I've assembled my almost completely new SFFpc. In the end I had to throw out the old ATX PSU as I couldn't find any way of cramming it in. hey, you're welcome! glad it's going good. post pics.
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Sep 13, 2021 00:41
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Gay Retard posted:I'm leaning toward the NZXT H1 hope you like supporting a company that makes things catch on fire and then tries to cover it up
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Nov 2, 2021 16:31
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loving about with my xproto open case setup. i'm currently running a 2600x with a big fat 212 tower cooler that came out of my old build. temps are nice and frosty, no issues at all but the cooler is huge and sticks out and detracts from my overall coolness factor. i am trying to move to a lower profile cooler. Something like the NH-L9 seems very reasonable. I'm not overclocking or anything and TDP of the 2600X is 95 watts. I should be fine, right? Anyone got any experience with the cooler and want to chime in? Also open to alternatives for similarly good low profile coolers.
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Dec 23, 2021 17:18
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thanks all, i like the aesthetic of the black ridge more than the nh-L12s and so will probably go in that direction
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Dec 23, 2021 18:01
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having a hard time finding good dimensions for RAM. I don't need the crazy server low profile sticks, but I would like to get to under 35mm including heat spreader etc, and a bit lower would be better to slide in under a Alpenfohn Black Ridge. Looks like Corsair LPX and Team T-Force Vulcan T will work; any other thoughts or suggestions? Those both don't seem to be readily available in 3600/16 - can find 3600/18 easily, but not faster timings. I'm going to chop the heat spreader off my junk oloy ram (36 mm, just a bit too tall!) just to see if it works but if I break it I need a backup.
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Jan 29, 2022 16:11
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TwoDeer posted:I briefly toyed with the idea of buying naked RAM and adding my own aftermarket low profile heat spreader but it was really hard to find what I felt were reliable reviews as to how they performed. That led to a rabbit hole on whether the heat spreaders were even necessary … but then I chickened out and got some LPX. Thank you for hearing my tale of cowardice. I see you, and support you. GutBomb posted:If the RAM doesn’t come with a heat spreader it doesn’t need one. And most (all?) RAM that does come with one doesn’t need it either. this is generally what I suspect, and it's an open case with good ventilation and will get airflow from the CPU fan so I highly doubt it needs the spreader. I'll go naked and report back 
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Jan 31, 2022 15:23
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Considering replacing a laptop that my wife owns with a SFF of some kind. She doesn't game and is mostly cranking out a thousand tabs in Chrome and using typical office apps, so I will likely use something like a 12400 or a 5600G. Since she doesn't game, I feel like I could go real small and do something like an Inwin Chopin. Anyone got other ideas, experience, or recommendations? I could do a NUC or whatever but that's no fun, this is more about the entertainment factor than anything.
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Apr 25, 2022 13:26
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Romes128 posted:*laughs in XTIA xproto* 
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Jun 3, 2022 16:49
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There’s no real point to a Z motherboard without a K processor to go with it. Otherwise that build looks solid.
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Aug 24, 2022 13:56
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Arzachel posted:What functionality would you be missing with a mITX board that mATX provides? If anything, the latter usually end up worse equipped because consumers view mATX more as a cost saving measure than a form factor. the use case I can see is a) you really like 3.5" drives so having a bigger-than mITX box is necessary, and or b) you need more than one PCI-E slot
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Aug 24, 2022 18:25
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For the most part once you are in SFF you are deliberately pursuing not-price-optimal outcomes.
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Aug 25, 2022 21:53
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Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:Oh, so it's just an all-mesh NR200? So it appears
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Aug 29, 2022 14:09
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do these people not have lawyers review their contracts or what
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Aug 29, 2022 21:57
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I think you could get it in a Silverstone Milo 10 which is 3.7L. Eighty bucks. Requires an external PSU.
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Nov 16, 2022 17:28
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He should probably build a separate sneaker bot PC tbh.
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Nov 19, 2022 14:54
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Who cares what that dudes doin
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Nov 19, 2022 23:01
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I like SFF and built SFF but you pay a premium for "might travel with it" to get to things like a Black Ridge in a tiny portable case in terms of cost, noise, and pain-in-the-assness. Are they really gonna travel with it?
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Dec 19, 2022 20:51
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ughhhh posted:At least once for sure. They have a work trip coming up next year and will be gone for a month or so. I have a couple of pelican case knockoffs from harbor freight that i could easily fit something like a dan a4 laying around. This is veering well away from the scope of this thread but as a road warrior I've never really felt the need to have my PC gaming with me on the road. If it's super important to them, go for it! It's a nice thing to do. If they're traveling station-to-station (eg somewhere for a month without moving around), SFF could make sense. I think if I were to cart around a PC I'd prefer something like Node 202 console style format versus a relatively square sandwich format. The Node 202 should fit a 2070 super, and if you pair that with like a decently low power AM4 setup (5600?) you could get the included 450W SFF PSU for even easier building. If they're doing 100+ segments a year or M/R weekly to client sites and want to game that is the domain of the dreaded ~gaming laptop~
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Dec 19, 2022 21:29
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I mean if the priority is aesthetics you pick what you like the look of and you build in that. Most modern SFF cases are pretty decent quality and there are so many of them, so if you find something you like the look of go start poking around SFF boards to make sure there aren't any serious flaws.
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Dec 20, 2022 02:35
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Rakeris posted:If anyone is interested, got my xproto build done, probably the most difficult PC build I have ever completed. Was fun but challenging, mostly due to tight spaces and everything having to be installed/connected in a rather specific order. Had a few occasions where I had to disassemble a good amount of the build to move a wire or change a small thing. Has a different gfx card in it now as the gigabyte one was defective and have an asus one now, but pretty minor. very nice! the white is striking and your cable management is a lot better than mine. i still love mine.
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Jun 1, 2023 01:36
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I think mobo companies were betting on the demise of SFF due to the size of graphics cards and the power draw (and therefore heat output) of modern stuff.
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Jun 12, 2023 16:29
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It would be a good idea to find 3600 CL 16 RAM, which will be a bit faster. RAM speed is probably even more important if you plan on heavy integrated GPU use.
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Sep 7, 2023 23:48
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i love mine OP
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Feb 14, 2024 22:38
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