Mini ITX HTPC Spec Advice

[Chris C]

Hi,

Im planning on replacing my old media PC with a new one and wanted to go down the Mini ITX route. My old one is in a full size silverstone ATX case and I wanted to build something neat and small.

Can you tell me if this woudl be up to the job ? I want to be able to play my BluRays and 1080p HD content, mostly .MKV. I currently use Win7 with XBMC.

Wesena Mini ITX 6 case
Wesena 120W PSU (one of the little external ones)
Sony Optiarc BC-564 Slot Loading BluRay Drive
ASUS E5M1-I-Deluxe Motherboard
8GB Corsair DDR3
64GB Crucial RealSSD SataIII HDD

and probably a Logitech DiNovo Mini keyboard.


I picked the mobo because of the passive cooling and HD acceleration, and it has built in WiFi and Bluetooth.

SSD route because I was going to put my HDDs in one of these
http://www.wesena.co.uk/product.php/11/3/ehdd (dont think this is a competitor) so I dont need any onboard storage apart from OS and some programs and I want it to be quiet.

I dont like NAS boxes, I've found them to be slow and annoying. I can put 10 HDDs in this box. I have no interest in backing up my media.

Also I know I dont need 8GB of RAM but its so cheap i figured why not.

Total price is about £550 with the DiNovo from various stores.

So questions.
Will that eSata HDD Case plug into the mobo ok ?
Is 120W enough power ?
Will the system play 1080p properly and BluRays ?
is the passive cooling going to be enough ? Assuming a case fan going.


Thanks in advance
Chris

 

[Brian8bit]

So questions.
Will that eSata HDD Case plug into the mobo ok ?
Is 120W enough power ?
Will the system play 1080p properly and BluRays ?
is the passive cooling going to be enough ? Assuming a case fan going.


Thanks in advance
Chris

1: The motherboard has one eSATA port on the back. The WeSena case however has TWO eSATA ports. From the pictures, it seems to be a case of there being two identical SATA controllers allowing 5 drives to be connected to each. If this is the case and it's working in two banks of five, you will probably need two eSATA ports on the back of your machine, one for each bank, which would be a case of investing in an expansion card to attach the second drive to.

But I don't know for certain, that's just going from what I can see in the pictures and going on the user manual. I would definitely contact them to make sure before going ahead and ordering.

2: It should be. At least I would be certain with 4GB of RAM. 8GB I'm not sure about. I've only ever run 4GB of RAM on my own Atom boxes with my Pico PSUs.

3: Yes, no problem. It's what it was designed for. Anandtech piece here you should definitely have a look at.

4: Passive is fine for these boards and chips. And the cooler Asus have slapped on the board is quite substantial. A case fan is a good idea just to get heat out. The only complaint I have with case fans is usually the smaller they get, the more obnoxiously whiny they sound. At least by my own experience with mini-itx cases.

 

[Chris C]

1: The motherboard has one eSATA port on the back. The WeSena case however has TWO eSATA ports. From the pictures, it seems to be a case of there being two identical SATA controllers allowing 5 drives to be connected to each. If this is the case and it's working in two banks of five, you will probably need two eSATA ports on the back of your machine, one for each bank, which would be a case of investing in an expansion card to attach the second drive to.

But I don't know for certain, that's just going from what I can see in the pictures and going on the user manual. I would definitely contact them to make sure before going ahead and ordering.

2: It should be. At least I would be certain with 4GB of RAM. 8GB I'm not sure about. I've only ever run 4GB of RAM on my own Atom boxes with my Pico PSUs.

3: Yes, no problem. It's what it was designed for. Anandtech piece here you should definitely have a look at.

4: Passive is fine for these boards and chips. And the cooler Asus have slapped on the board is quite substantial. A case fan is a good idea just to get heat out. The only complaint I have with case fans is usually the smaller they get, the more obnoxiously whiny they sound. At least by my own experience with mini-itx cases.

Awesome, thanks for the info and link to the Anandtech article I will do some investigating !