Another “small box” build!

[Montala]

A close friend has asked me to build him a small ‘general purpose’ PC, in as small a case as possible. We were originally looking at Intel NUC’s but have decided that are a bit too ‘proprietary’ as well as being quite limited in expansion options and component choices, so are now looking at a slightly larger case, (no more than 20cm x 20 cm) using an Intel powered mini ITX motherboard. He would also like an internal optical drive, and the operating system will be Linux (probably Mint 16 Cinnamon) rather than Windows!

I have currently come up with the following spec:

Case: Streacom ST-F1CS EVO Aluminium Case – Silver (preferred choice)
Motherboard: Asus 81I-PLUS – mini ITX
CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.40GHz OR Intel i3 4330T 3.0GHz 35W
CPU Cooler: Silverstone NT07-115X (low profile as only 34mm clearance available & I don’t like push pins!)
Memory: 8GB (2 x 4GB) Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600MHz or similar, such as Corsair Vengeance Low Profile
Hard drive: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD OR Crucial M500 SSD - 2.5” 240GB
Optical drive: LiteOn DL-8ATSH Slim SLOT Black 8x slim drive – or similar
Adapter cable: Serial ATA Power Adapter Cable (Single)
Power Supply: picoPSU 160w with AC/DC adapter block
Case Fan: Scythe Mini Kaze, (40mm x 10mm) – or similar quiet fan

Although I am sure that some folk will consider the choice of CPU (and possibly other components also) to be a bit excessive, this system will hopefully be in use for quite a few years, so we are looking for a bit of built in ‘future-proofing’ here. Hence the choices of the lower power Haswell range. Fortunately budget is not too much of an issue, although we don’t obviously want to go too much OTT!

All thoughts, opinions and comments are welcome, but I will again stress that this is not intended to be a gaming system, but more of a reliable, but compact ‘work-horse… and of course a quality product!

In conclusion I would add that I have also posted an almost identical post an another Forum, but I am sure that I will receive the best advice from you guys (and girls!) here on OcUK!

 

[Bane]

I've just got an Asus H81I-Plus board, but using it with a discrete graphics card. Doing a piecemeal upgrade.

For memory I went with Crucial BLT4G3D1608ET3LX0CEU, which is proper low profile with decent timings of 8-8-8-24 at 1.35V using XMP. Wanted Crucial because its proper low profile, decent colour match, decent timings and, as a bonus there was a voucher code making it more appealing.

Have an i5-4570S with passive CPU cooler (too big for your case) with PSU fan pulling air through fins. Also two case fans providing positive case pressure. If you thought you could get away with passively cooled CPU be aware system POST always report no CPU fan fitted, but you can disable user prompt needed to continue. Just messes up boot screen as moves from Asus picture to traditional POST screen to show error.

Edit: Haven't done long duration gaming to test temperatures of CPU once turbo mode kicks in and runs at 3.6GHz instead of 2.9GHz.

 

[Montala]

Thanks for your reply Bane.

I hadn't even thought about using low profile memory, which I wasn't really even aware of until now, to be honest!

However the specs of the Crucial Ballistix you mention do look quite attractive, and one of the cheapest options does seem to buy it directly from Crucial themselves.

With regard to the cpu cooling, I do plan to use a fan assisted cooler, as detailed above, despite the limited clearance available (just 34mm) which I think would be safer than just relying on passive cooling.