Antec ISK300-150 Build

[Gepetto]

SWMBO's PC is getting a little long in the tooth and I've had a hankering after SFF for a little while now.

Her PC is currently in a V351B which is not exactly huge but I was curious about, first of all, a Sugo SG05, and then the ISK popped up on the MM and I thought I'd give it a try. I'm going to shovel my i5 1156 setup into the Sugo now, but that will be another story.

First up is the basis of the build - A Gigabyte H67N-USB3-B3

An Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor

An Asus ENGT220 1GB DDR3 Low Profile Graphics Card

An Intel X-25M 80GB SSD with a Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB 5400rpm as backup

And I had to buy a slimline DVD-RW to go into it, although how much use it will get is yet to be seen, and also, I hadn't envisaged that the connector would be different to a standard SATA. More on that later.

I will be using 4GB of Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800C9 Ram, which I forgot to photgraph, and (horror of horrors on an overclocking forum) the standard heatsink!

SWMBO's PC is basically an internet browser and office machine so huge power is not required and I'm keen to try it without the GT220 to see if the onboard graphics pack enough punch for her requirements.

That's all for now. Case pics tomorrow!

 

[Gepetto]

First pics of the case, and would you believe it, I forgot to take a photo before taking the cover off!

Side view, showing the PSU fan at the front and the Antec Tri-Cool case fan at the rear. The plastic cover between the two provides space for another 80mm fan, and was the source of a little frustration further down the line.

Other side, and you can now see the reinforcing plate running along the top. This provides the mounting brackets for the slimline DVD-RW and two 2.5" HDD mounts.

Power Supply cables, comprising 24 pin and 4 pin Mother board cables, USB, Audio, eSata, two Sata pwer connectors, and a Molex for the fans.

And.......TahDah (this was a pleasant surprise) a slimline Sata power connector for the DVD-RW. I hadn't expected that, especially as Silverstone do not include one on their SG05 PSU which can only take a slimline drive! I've needed to buy an adaptor for that case, and I bought two, figuring I'd need one for the Antec. So, hat's off to Antec, and Silverstone, take note.

HDD tray

And with the HDD tray removed, showing the extension cable taking the power from the rear to the PSU.

More later.

 

[Gepetto]

The PSU is secured by a couple of screws and once they are undone, simply slides out.

The only reason I had to remove the PSU was to get at the fan housing, and the reason I needed to get at the fan housing is shown in the two pics below.

On a trial fit of the MB the tab on the plastic cover butted up against the 24 pin connector block and prevented the MB from lining up properly.

This, in itself was not much of an issue as I was toying with the idea of putting in a second fan anyway. But, I had expected the plastic cover to simply pop off, and the blasted thing wasn't 'aving it!!

Now that the PSU was out the fan housing slides out from the tabs.

And then we had an empty case.

Time for the extra fan to go in, and it turned out that I simply wasn't brutal enough with the plastic cover as it did simply pop off as I had originally expected! Doh!!

So, new Akasa 80mm fan.

And, in situ.

The fans are oriented to exhaust the warm air out of the case, although I did consider using them to blow cool air into and over the MB. We'll see what the temps are like once it's up and running, although changing their orientation now will require a complete strip down.

Fan housing and PSU now slotted easily back into the case and the little Antec fan controller has its own clip on the rear of the case. The clip has a position for two of the fan controllers so if you bought a second Tri-Cool it would fit very neatly.

Back soon.

 

[Gepetto]

Motherboard with CPU and RAM installed.

And motherboard fitted.

Tray re-fitted with the HDD tray out to enable the slimline DVD-RW fitment.

And HDD tray in situ with both hard drives in place. I'm going to replace the Akasa Sata cables with short round cables to improve the airflow and take up a little less space.

The little GT220 with its low profile bracket fitted.

And the locking mechanism for the card, which works really well.

And finally all in place. I'm going to connect it up now and make sure it all works before putting the case back together and taking a couple of final pics.

 

[Gepetto]

That is a really neat looking build. Funky looking PSU.

Is the case designed for a Slimline and 2x2.5" HDDs then? I always assumed it was for one 5.25" Optical drive from looking at the front.

Cheers, I really like it and getting rid of the over-long Sata cables will tidy it up a bit more. And yes, I was quite surprised at the shape of the PSU, it looks odd after all the ATX ones I'm used to.

The panel at the front does give the impression of a 5.25" bay, but it is a hinged cover over a slimline DVD slot. The silver fronted 310-150 has a slightly differing design where the slimline slot is more defined. I prefer the all black 300-150 though.

And yes, two 2.5" drives only, along with the slimline DVD drive.

 

[Gepetto]

Thats looking great, I would be interested in how much power it draws, maybe it will run with a Pico PSU. I have the same mobo and a 2100T, but I cant decide what SFF case to put them in...Does the 220 give much better performance than the Intel 2000 ?

Thanks. I put the components into a wattage calculator that somebody posted on here (I'll try and find it) and it came out at about 130W with the GT220 and 96W without. Having spoken to another owner on here before I took the plunge I was confident that the PSU would handle it, although most reviews on the case say that the effiiency of the PSU is not very good at around only 75%.

There is another version of the case, an ISK300-65 which runs a Pico PSU (I think) but I would regard that as only worthwhile for an integrated chip type of board and not a Sandybridge setup. I might be wrong though.

I'm not sure yet of any appreciable difference between the onboard graphics and the GT220, simply because I haven't yet tried both. I would expect the GT220 to be better due to its GB of DDR3 Ram, but until I actually try the onboard I can't confirm that. Reading up on it suggests that, for what SWMBO does with it, the onboard should be fine. We'll see.

 

[Gepetto]

So tempted to build one of these for myself but an extreme lack of funds is holding me back.

Whats the sound levels of the case like? Also what are the speeds like on that SSD?

Very tidy build, love it.

Cheers Bowser. I haven't run a test on the speeds yet as I bought it due to the fact it will generate less heat than a mechanical hard drive. I haven't yet got any temps to give out, but should have in a couple of days, and I'll try and see if there is a big difference when backing up to the WD Scorpio.

It's quiet, in my opinion, whisper quiet. The two case fans are low speed and I've not yet heard the CPU fan spin up to high speed. The noisiest thing about it is the GPU but that is because the fan on it is very small and spins very fast. If I could get an aftermarket cooler on the GPU it would be very quiet indeed. If the onboard graphics are good enough to dispense with the GT220, it will be quiet enough that you don't hear it at all, from say 3 feet away.

 

[Gepetto]

Gepetto, glad you are getting good use out of the case. That's such a tidy build, really liking it. I totally agree about the slimline cables being included, Antec are very good for doing that. I use the short Akasa sata cables OcUK sell - worth it for this build IMO.

Thanks Wakinglimb, I really like the case, and enjoyed the build.

I still can't quite believe how heavy the thing is! Solid is the operative word!

When you say the short Akasa cables do you mean the red 15cm ones? I'd thought they would be too short, and I was going to order the black 30cm round ones off the interweb (as OCUK doesn't have any at the moment). I want to route them round the cooler and straight into the back of the drives, as I think that will be the neatest option.

I'm also trying to think of a way to neaten the rest of the cabling, as due to the fact that most of the cables follow the same diagonal path, I could possibly sheath them in some way. Perhaps braid, or even heatshrink. What do you think?

 

[Gepetto]

Lovely little system. How are temps?

Thanks Shadow.

As a little update, I've pulled the GT220, and I'm running it solely on the onboard graphics at the moment. It is handling the internet browsing/MS office/pictures tasks with no issues at all, and happily plays DVD's and online video. SWMBO doesn't game at all with the most strenuous thing being Chess Titans. That is not completely smooth (when it comes to the movement of the pieces across the board), but it wasn't 100% smooth with the GT220 either so there is no appreciable difference there.

Temps are about 39-40 degrees whilst in general (internet/Office) use, and rise to no more than 50 degrees when playing video/Chess. The CPU fan has not seen fit to go to full speed in any of this, usually operating at around 35-50%.

The GT220 got to 65 degrees doing the same things, and given that there are no problems with the onboard graphics running what SWMBO wants, the GT220 will not be going back in, as it is simply translating power into heat.

I'm certain that the GT220 (or similar) would render light gaming possible, and I've seen that the PSU can at least handle it, although I didn't run any stress tests on the GPU which might have shown up issues.

I hope that gives some people an idea of the capabilities of the unit, as I had no idea before I started, and I'm quite impressed with it. It's tiny, uses very little power, and does all that is required of it. Runs very cool too.

I'll try and get some final pics up soon. Cheers, Andy.