011 mini on it's side and silent for HTPC, is it possible???

[8181]

Hi All

I'm looking to finally ditch my 9yr old iGPU based HTPC and looking to build another but with at least a 3060 if the prices ever come down

I was looking to stay with streacom as i love my FC5 and their style is classy and fits so well with the rest of my AV setup but my plan of using the F12C wont work as it's no longer being made and although there is hope of a new revision next year it's only in the planning phase according to streacom.

As an alternate i was thinking of getting an 011 mini and turning it on it's side but i have a couple of questions

• Are the feet removable without damging the base?
• What would be the best way to keep it cool but as silent as possible for example with an AMD 3600/x with a 3060 maybe Ti but nothing above that, it's unlikely i'll ever do any gaming on it, on it's side there would be 30mm clearance either side and 60mm above with about 100mm at the back.

I seen a few youtubers say noctua is the best but would stepping up to watercooling improve things?

Also open to any suggestions on an alternative, i have looked at the silverstone HTPC case and wasn't a fan and considered some ITX systems like the SSUPD and FormD T1 etc but they would offer no 3.5" bays and again i would be concerned about the noise, also looked at other midi towers but most are too tall to fit in my TV bench or too plastic looking.

Likewise if anyone from OCUK notices a forgotten F12c collecting dust in the warehouse i would be happy to take it off your hands

 

[Pocket10s]

You don't necessarily need to go watercooling for ITX. O11 Mini and the F12C are quite big cases. I'd suggest you have a look at:

- Dan Case A4: really small and looks great, for the 3.5mm drive bay I would get an external one. It really opens up your options
- Silverstone Sugo
- Fractal Node 202

Depending on the case you pick, it won't be hard to keep a 3600 quiet and cool. Considering a 3600 and 3060 don't pump out a lot of heat, I wouldn't bother with watercooling.

What about a NZXT H1? Really small, comes with everything you need and when I configured my old one with a Artic P14 PWM fan, it was silent.

 

[McPhee]

O11 Mini would be an odd choice. It's huge and most of the space inside the case will be unused. Might need to add feet to the side panel too, as the PSU intakes air through that side.

Fractal Design and Silverstone do a couple of HTPC cases with a load of HDD space. For example, the Node 304. How many HDDs do you need space for? If it's only one or two then that opens up a lot more options.

 

[8181]

I can consolidate down to 2 x 3.5" if need be or even put them in a USB enclosure and hide them but my main aim is to keep the HTPC AV unit look and my thinking is i'm not going to get a quiet system with a slim case which is also why i ruled out the fractal 202 or other ITX cases, i forgot to mention that i would be putting a brushed aluminium panel on the front of the 011 mini as opposed to glass and RGB isn't my thing.

I did like the Fractal 605 but like the F12c it's not available anymore, it seems the whole HTPC must be a thing of the past with all the streaming tech available.

 

[McPhee]

I can consolidate down to 2 x 3.5" if need be or even put them in a USB enclosure and hide them but my main aim is to keep the HTPC AV unit look and my thinking is i'm not going to get a quiet system with a slim case which is also why i ruled out the fractal 202 or other ITX cases, i forgot to mention that i would be putting a brushed aluminium panel on the front of the 011 mini as opposed to glass and RGB isn't my thing.

I did like the Fractal 605 but like the F12c it's not available anymore, it seems the whole HTPC must be a thing of the past with all the streaming tech available.

Yeah, HTPC cases are basically dead. Most are very old designs now and so have varying levels of success with modern, hot GPUs.

A few ideas you may not have considered:
Fractal Design Core 500
Raijintek Pan Slim
Thermaltake G3
Sliger Console/Conswole
SFFTime P-ATX/N-ATX