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I'm just halfway through building a small thin-mini itx system as a htpc. I bought a few parts because they were cheap, kind of coming to the conclusion that a NUC would have been more sensible. I guess this computer will be better in the end. I have a Silverstone Pt13 with an AR04 cpu cooler, an Asus H81t motherboard, an i3 4130, 4GB ram. Still to arrive are the msata SSD which I accidentally ordered from Hong Kong, the wireless card which is an Intel AC pci-e one, and some internal laptop wifi antennas. Total spend is £260 Previously I built a PC in a Fractal Design Node 304 for gaming and as a main computer and it's been great. Very straightforward. This new one has been a bit more annoying. I guess it's smaller and the parts are a bit out of date. The cooler is about the only one that will fit, seems to work ok but the heat pipes cover the USB headers so they're not going to work. I'm using an old laptop hdd for the time being - it's running ok but the Asus website doesn't appear to have any drivers. I've cobbled them together. Think it will be a great system once it's finished. I had forgotten how poo poo hard disks are. It's the only part that makes any noticeable noise. Also I bought my girlfriend a compute stick, it is absolutely hopeless. Way slower than the same system in a windows tablet. I think it's the wireless networking. Useless.
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May 21, 2016 16:03
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Eletriarnation posted:A NUC would probably have been easier, but you can take some solace in the fact that what you have is faster and more upgradeable. The compute stick is a Lenovo Ideacentre Stick 300, it's Bay Trail. I've used a Bay Trail tablet and whole it doesn't set any records it's more or less ok for Web browsing and watching video, I assumed it would be the same on the stick but that didn't work out. Also it came with Windows 8.1 and immediately asks you to upgrade to 10. I did that and it basically bricks itself as Lenovo don't provide any drivers, so you can't use it and it also won't downgrade. I understand the wifi and Bluetooth share an antenna which is why neither works, so you have to use the sole USB for a wireless keyboard / mouse and then can't use it for a wifi adapter. I gave up at that point.
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May 22, 2016 13:17
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Eletriarnation posted:It looks like there are drivers for Windows 10 on their website, but 32-bit only which makes me suspect that the device is EFI-locked to 32-bit despite having a 64-bit processor. Not that it really matters, no one will ever run a program that needs it on an Atom with 2GB of memory. You'd probably want to use the USB port for mouse/KB and add the drivers on a microSD card, or use a hub so that you can plug a flash drive (or another wireless adapter with drivers built in) and mouse/KB in together. Aha. I guess they have released the drivers. When it got to the point of needing a hub and buying an extra wifi adapter I kind of gave up. It's a nice idea but that implementation wasn't up to scratch. Thus the thin itx build I'm doing now. The build has been working OK but kept shutting down when I closed the case lid. Really confusing and I looked for ages to find what was going wrong. Eventually spotted that the power button on the Silverstone case has exposed terminals which were shorting on the heat sink. I had high hopes for the Silverstone but I don't think it's as well made as the fractal designs case I have.
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May 22, 2016 18:14
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wipeout posted:You can get a cheap windows 7 key, and use that to activate windows 10, just in case anyone wants a cheap os. I'm planning on this for my thin-ITX build, do you know if a Windows 7 Pro gives a Windows 10 Pro activation? VulgarandStupid posted:The Dan Case A4-SFX will start its crowdfunding in 5 days. I'm not 100% sure if I'm going to back it, but it is an awesome looking case and probably the smallest we're going to see that fits a full sized video card. The total volume is 7.25 liters. It's really nice looking. Any idea whether a PCI riser like that screws up how the graphics card works?
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May 24, 2016 19:44
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Zero VGS posted:Good question, this guy is going to find out the hard way apparently: https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/nfc-systems-s4-mini.96/page-76#post-29920 I really like this case. What PSU and graphics card are you going to stick in? Just watched a few videos and it looks like you need a massive power brick if you want ~200W.
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Jan 29, 2017 14:40
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Coldforge posted:drat, hopefully the 480s have gotten better, I picked one up on the way home and just saw this Having been putting up with noisy AMDs for years I got a 1060 recently and this thing is totally silent. I guess a 480 is probably a fair amount cooler than a 280X but I am super happy with my choice. (sorry)
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Feb 9, 2017 01:19
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Yeep posted:I finally got around to buying the insides for the Dan A4 v3 that I pre-ordered back in February and everything looks like it fits fine except when I try to put the side panels on the RAM is about 2mm too tall for the AIO pipes to fit over and the PSU cables stick out about 1mm too far from the bottom of the PSU for the fan to spin and I've managed to snap off two pins from the USB3 header on the motherboard trying to squeeze everything in and I can't decide if I should buy an ITX GPU, ditch the AIO for air cooling, ditch the case for an NCase or invent a time machine so I can go back in time 8 months and repeatedly kick myself in the dick every time I look at the Dan website. Did you get the Corsair psu? I have one of these cases on order, just deciding on the insides. One of the builds I saw has all the psu cables separated into individual strands to help fit between the psu and the noctua on the AIO. Think or looked like a Silverstone logo maybe...
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Sep 11, 2018 07:13
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I have a media PC that's attached to my TV that's in a thin ITX case (Silverstone PT13) and very small cooler to match (AR04). It's running a i3-4330 at the moment but I am going to have a i5-3570 spare as I finally bought parts for my Dan-A4. The thin-ITX computer works perfectly well at the moment but would it be a crappy idea to swap it for the ivy bridge i5? I just figure having 4 cores can't hurt but don't want it to cook itself. Max power on the cooler is 65W vs the 77W CPU but I can just select a different target power in the BIOS and/or undervolt it a bit? https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=419 https://silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=418 The motherboard is an ASUS H81T. https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H81T/
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Dec 8, 2018 16:55
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Oh poo poo I thought it was. Well that solves that then! For the Dan-A4 build is the Asetek AIO cooler much better than a Cryorig C7? I have gone for a non-K processor to save a few watts, is that a crap idea? Here is the setup: PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor (€356.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) CPU Cooler: CRYORIG - C7 40.5 CFM CPU Cooler (€29.90 @ Caseking) Motherboard: ASRock - Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (€174.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) Memory: Kingston - HyperX Fury 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3466 Memory (€191.57 @ Amazon Deutschland) Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (€258.40 @ Amazon Deutschland) Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB Video Card (€489.90 @ Alza) Case: DAN Cases - A4-SFX V3-B Mini ITX Desktop Case Power Supply: Corsair - SF 600 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply (€125.90 @ Corsair DE) Monitor: Dell - AW3418DW 34.1" 3440x1440 120 Hz Monitor Total: €1627.65 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-08 17:11 CET+0100
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Dec 8, 2018 17:21
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 Got to say the Dan-A4 is a really nice case. It's very well designed and constructed, and easy to build in. A couple of things I thought I'd mention about the parts I bought: the Corsair SF600 platinum comes with individually sleeved cables which I guess are the premium cable kit. They are still a bit long for this case so I am planning to do some shortening. I'd read that the SF power supplies were noisy but this thing hasn't even spun its fan up that I've noticed. The second thing is the Cryorig C7 which was pretty annoying initially. The fan is right up next to the side of the case and makes an unpleasant buzzy noise due to turbulence at higher fan speeds, so even after a couple of days I was thinking about how to unfuck it. When I looked at the fan settings in the bios the cpu fan curve was pretty aggressive, after a bit of an adjustment the noise is no longer a problem. I also undervolted the cpu a bit and it sits in the 40s at idle and high 60s under load. The 1070ti is happy at a slight OC (2000) / undervolt as well. I have one of the slim Noctuas running as a case exhaust fan on the bottom, it was intended for the Asetek AIO but they don't seem to exist any more and the current setup seems fine in any case. I'm not sure it this is doing all that much but I figured it couldn't hurt. Final config: Dan-A4 v3 Corsair SF600 platinum i5-8700 non-K with a -0.80V offset (I have some questions about some extra settings I'll take to the Intel thread) Cryorig C7 standard version 16GB DDR4-3466 Samsung 970 EVO 1tb nvme + 860 EVO 500gb sata MSI gaming 1070ti 8gb with the voltage curve set to hit 2000mhz max starting at 0.975V Alienware AW3418DW e: oh yeah MB is Asrock Z370 Gaming-ITX/ac knox_harrington fucked around with this message at 11:52 on Dec 16, 2018 |
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Dec 16, 2018 10:57
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Phone posted:Good stuff, good stuff. You definitely can have a quiet SFF setup, though it depends on what you are planning to do with it, obviously if you are planning on overclocking that 9900k it's going to get hot. I haven't used it but I would be a little concerned about the PSU in the Nano S messing with the airflow to the GPU, even with a smaller PSU it looks like it will get in the way a bit. It looks like a hybrid GPU cooler might work well.  https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=400-HY-1184-B1 My Dan-A4 is quieter than my previous Node 304, I can't say I am an expert after just 3 ITX builds but getting the airflow right makes a huge difference to the end result. If not the Nano S you could look at a Phanteks Enthoo ITX which is a similar size and doesn't block the GPU with the power supply.
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Dec 17, 2018 11:04
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I like the idea of an eGPU to plug a laptop into but checking them out they seem to be the same size as an ITX system at the moment? They're a lot bigger than I was expecting. https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/gpu-nvidia/external-graphics-card-enclosures
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Dec 22, 2018 00:37
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I've built in a Node 304 and in a Dan-A4 and used non-blower cards in both. I think inherently a blower is going to be louder, it just depends on the case's airflow whether you can get away with having the gpu heat go through the case vs expelling it straight away. Particularly with the Dan case this hasn't been a problem. Sounds like you're probably OK, depending on how mufan noise is being created. I also delidded the CPU, even with a fairly weak cooler it doesn't get hot.
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Mar 28, 2019 17:25
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slidebite posted:How good are the little prebuilt mini systems with a J5005 processor for general web browsing, point and click games, maybe 10+ year old other titles? Not quite what you asked, but I got a Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny for £258 a couple of months ago so it could be worth looking at them. I ordered it from the lenovo website directly. It's an i3-8145 with 4GB and had a HDD that I swapped out for a SSD I had hanging around. Perfect grandma pc (I have it as a HTPC though I need to get a DP -> HDMI cable so it will output 4k at 60Hz). I've played Hollow Knight on it and it works well. knox_harrington fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Feb 26, 2020 |
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Feb 26, 2020 21:51
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Scientist Al Gore posted:I don't seem to have an option to AVX or MCE in the BIOS for my ASRock Z730M-ITX. I have pretty much the same setup as you and zero issues with noise. Dan A4, i7-8700, Asrock Z370, MSI 1070ti. Corsair SF600 platinum PSU. I have the cryorig cpu cooler and a Noctua set up as an exhaust fan. After I built the computer I was getting quite a lot of fan noise. The solution was altering the fan curve for I think both the cpu and the case fan in the Asrock motherboard setup. The curve it sets automatically kicks in really early and ramps up rapidly, I just adjusted it to come in a bit later. I also delidded the cpu, replaced the standard stuff with liquid metal, and undervolted in XTU.
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Apr 27, 2020 20:12
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VulgarandStupid posted:Apparently the Ventus is perfect for deshroud. I learned the word "deshroud" from this post and was bored during meetings this afternoon so attacked my PC with some spare parts. The GPU is now wearing a couple of mismatched colour Noctua 92s and the noise it makes is way better. Thanks! Going to need to revise what I've done as one of the fans was intended for the CPU cooler and I don't want one brown and one black fan on the GPU. I see all sorts of opinions out there, but any idea what's the best practice for doing this? 92mm fans blowing into the cooler? 120mm? or exhaust? The setup is a DAN-A4 with a MSI 1070ti and an i7-8770. Currently 2x Noctua 92x14s on intake to the 1070, a Cryorig C7, and a Noctua 92x25 exhaust on the bottom. The CPU fan is not horrendous but is for sure the loudest part of the computer at the moment. Playing games the GPU is sitting at 71 deg C and seems pretty happy. I read that the 92mm fans can be better than the 120s as they have higher static pressure and are better at pushing air through a restriction like the GPU heat sink. Currently thinking to go with 3x 92mm on the GPU, one 92 on the CPU instead of the noisy original fan, and keep the 92x25 as an exhaust on the bottom. Any ideas?
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May 18, 2021 19:57
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VulgarandStupid posted:Best set up is both fans blowing down, and hopefully 120mm instead of 92mm. Thanks. Yeah I saw that one, it's nicely presented. I did also see this video which recommends to match the fan size to the heat sink size https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtVOGLOqB6o Hard to tell what's best. I suppose if you go for the 120s the additional airflow isn't going to go to waste. Reality posted:No idea about 3x92mm vs 2x120mm but I would watch your youtube video about it. I run 2x120mm as intake on my 5700XT and temps are fine. 2x120mm cover more surface area but 3x92mm would probably cool the heatpipes better since you could get 36mm longer coverage, depending on your GPU’s heatsink. I have no idea how to math the pressure differential. Maybe get like 18x40mm and test that too? Are you using a Dan-A4 as well? I think I could fit more of these ones https://www.scan.co.uk/products/xclio-atrcoovga01-vga-general-heatsink-cooler-with-35mm-fan-quiet-with-2-pin-power-connector
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May 18, 2021 22:21
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I decided to go with 3 of the 92mm fans. Despite the cable ties  I think it looks a load cleaner than the stock fans.  While I was in there I repasted the heat sink, between that and the new fans the GPU temp is 10°C down since yesterday's 2 fan version and 15° from stock. Next steps, I ordered some custom PSU cables to try and reduce the amount of spaghetti in there but the UPS delivery is being extremely leisurely and has taken several weeks so far. The main noise is from the CPU still and I have a spare 92mm for that as well. I was going to cable tie it on but may order a 3D printed clip.
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May 20, 2021 15:34
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I had a Node 304 which will take an ATX power supply. To be honest I would just get a new SFX PSU and just swerve that issue. The 304 was OK but I didn't love it, the Dan-A4 I'm using now is smaller, cooler and quieter. It's also a bit over $200 but there are other similar options.
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May 26, 2021 17:58
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VulgarandStupid posted:Deshrouded my Alienware 3080 and tossed it into my M1. Complete with pencil eraser to eliminate sag. I think you should rejig that so the fans are in contact with the heatsink fins, otherwise you're losing a lot of airflow through the cooler. You may need to bend those tabs back a bit. What are the temps like ?
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May 28, 2021 09:29
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I got a 3d printed clip to attach a noctua fan to the cryorig c7 cpu cooler. Like with the fans on the gpu it's a load quieter than stock. My short cables finally turned up as well so I think that's the end of this round of messing with it. I'm pleased with all the things I've changed. 
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Jun 2, 2021 23:12
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The web page for the L9a says it's suitable for 65W TDP processors, is there another metric that gives a lower wattage it can cope with? Anyway doesn't sound like you're getting quite enough cooling, maybe you could try something like this https://www.alpenfoehn.de/en/products/cpu-cooler/black-ridge-en From your photo I can't see if it will fit. With that cooler you often need to use VLP RAM.
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Aug 16, 2021 15:42
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Yuppie same, also totally silent. I have the SF600 platinum. I ended up getting pslate custom cables though as the standard ones are a bit too bulky for my case.
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Aug 24, 2021 03:40
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Z the IVth posted:It's a shame that Sliger's in the US and there isn't a UK retailer. Their stuff looks amazing though. The NUC will definitely be worse than assembling it yourself. It's also not remotely difficult, just needs about a 3/10 level of effort in planning.
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Aug 24, 2021 23:19
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The Velka 7 looks nice but has zero place to put in an intake or exhaust fan as far as I can see. There is quite a lot of information on r/sffpc especially with more niche cases. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AddRvGWJ_f4B6UC7_IftDiVudVc8CJ8sxLUqlxVsCz4/htmlview
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Aug 25, 2021 13:07
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Is there a way to bodge the AIO radiator onto a GPU block? It seems much more valuable to use the more elaborate cooling tech on the 300W component than the 95W one.
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Sep 3, 2021 10:30
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I have a Dan-A4, it's good. The main limitation is depth of gpu cooler, it can only take a 2.2 slot card. What do you want to know? The cpu cooler to get is probably the Alpenfohn Black Ridge. I'd recommend buying or making custom PSU cables.
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Sep 4, 2021 09:30
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TheMadMilkman posted:I’m planning on eventually getting a reference 3070, so depth shouldn’t be an issue. My current 1060 (curse you GPU shortage) will fit easily. I’ve watched some build videos and will definitely look into custom cables. I have a Cryorig C7 with an adapter to take a noctua fan. It works well, though I only have a 65W CPU. Not sure I'd recommend it over the black ridge or noctua coolers. I use a 92x25 case fan on exhaust. The founders edition graphics cards aren’t good for sandwich cases because the air needs to flow through the backplane.
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Sep 5, 2021 00:24
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Neat. Did you manage to get a slim fan under the motherboard? I can't quite tell what's in there.
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Sep 18, 2021 06:52
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Yeah the Node 304 is some way behind the current gen of SFF cases but what it can do is carry 6 full size hard drives. That will gently caress up the airflow a bit. I have a LSI SAS card if anyone wants it for postage from Europe btw. What you want may be better served by a NAS though.
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Sep 26, 2021 19:07
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teagone posted:Looking up the system requirements for Stepmania: I have a more recent one of these with an Intel 6 series cpu, it's been fine and I'd recommend it. Think the cost new was a bit over £200. The general model is a Thinkcentre Tiny.
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Sep 27, 2021 23:50
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The Corsair SF power supplies are completely silent and pretty great.
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Sep 29, 2021 17:18
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I had one of the compute sticks a few years back - think it was a lenovo one. It was pretty much unusable out of the box, from memory it was because it really needed external wifi and Bluetooth due to the internal ones sucking, and only has one USB port. Anyway sorry for super vagueness but I'd be super careful about getting one, mine was a waste of money. I ended up making a thin-ITX computer from parts on ebay for pretty cheap. One option would be a Lenovo Thinkcentre Tiny off ebay as well, they're super cheap second hand.
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Mar 30, 2022 09:57
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They used to be insanely cheap, less so now but the Lenovo Thinkcentre Tiny models are still cheaper than a NUC and fine for a general computer. A couple of years ago I got one off the Lenovo website for £258 shipped. Mac Minis are also pretty good value for the base model.
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Jun 7, 2022 08:04
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If you think an Intel HD GPU will be powerful enough the Lenovo Thinkcentre Tiny in a recentish version should work. They have had displayport outputs since forever. https://www.ebay.de/itm/363859993021 https://www.ebay.de/itm/175304135640 You can get one new from Lenovo locally for not very many zlotys https://www.lenovo.com/se/sv/desktops-and-all-in-ones/thinkcentre/m-series-tiny/ThinkCentre-M75q-Gen-2/p/11TC1MTM7G2 Tbh at that price I'd look at a mac mini and work out something like a USB-C to displayport adapter or cable. No experience there though.
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Jun 21, 2022 15:53
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Idk about the meshilicious but getting some custom cables made everything fit super nicely in my Dan-a4, I'll definitely do that for future builds. Maybe DIY.
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Jul 2, 2022 08:47
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movax posted:Not custom (and might have been posted back in June) but the P360 Ultra looks like a pretty slick platform... not as tiny as the P360 Micro and kinda sad it only has one 2.5" bay slot, but.. can support a full length x16 + another x4 slot AND two NICs out of the box. Would make a pretty sick little homelab box. The predecessor P350 tiny is £420 for people in the UK https://www.theitbay.com/lenovo-thinkstation-p350-tiny-core-i5-11500-2-7-ghz-vpro-8-gb-ssd-256-gb-uk
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Jul 8, 2022 09:06
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orcane posted:He probably wants to avoid the situation of the Dan A4 and RTX 3080 cards, where the compatibility list included FE cards and EVGA XC3 models (which they never really made/sold) and nothing else. The founders edition cards don't really work in sandwich design cases because the airflow can't pass through the card. Maybe there are workarounds but with my A4 it would be a no-go. I have a 3070 XC3 which just about fits.
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Dec 17, 2022 13:59
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