First Mini-ITX build

Ducky Spud · 30 Dec 2009 at 22:50

Ordered these yesterday, they shipped this morning and say they should be delivered tomorrow... but wouldnt be suprised if its a few days because of new year and such.

Asus AT3N7A-I board
2GB DDR2 PC2-6400
500GB Samsung Spinpoint F1
Sharkoon System Fan Series 70x70x15
Compucase 8K01
Slim DVD drive

And then to control it I also got:

Keysonic ACK-540RF

Its basically going to be a small media PC for the front room. No room for a proper HTPC case so just wanted a small one that I can fit in easily. Was also looking at the Zotac boards, but the Asus one (which is basically the same spec, only a few minor differences) was working out around £40-50 cheaper and the only real problem I saw in reviews was the tiny fan on the heatsink, hence why I bought the (hopefully quieter) sharkoon fan.

Im also buying a wireless router off a forum member and he's sending a USB adapter too so I can get this connected to the internet/stream videos when its downstairs in the front room.

Never built a SFF system before, so hoping his goes well. Im used to having some space to work in but seeing how small this case is in peoples photos makes me realise this is going to be more of a tight squeeze haha.

Anyway, I will get photos up when it all arrives and being built... hopefully tomorrow!

Raikiri · 31 Dec 2009 at 19:10

Good luck, got the first few bits for my first m-ITX build today as well

.

Have to ask though, why not get an AM2/775 m-itx board with a basic dual core CPU? Would be a lot quicker.

Ducky Spud · 31 Dec 2009 at 23:02

Got the system built up and sounding like its booting, but no display

Fans work, HDD spins up but just no display at all. Will try it using HDMI later to see if its just the VGA output thats not working, but its just confusing me :confused:

Tried uplugging everything apart from the power cables and same result. Not a good start to my SFF adventures haha.

Also dont have one of the wierd power adapters for the slim DVD drive, I assumed one would come with the drive or mobo but no luck there so need to get one of those too whenever I can!

And to answer your question Raikiri, I basically just wanted a low power, quiet system. Was looking into an AM2 setup but just ended up going Atom/ION in the end anyway lol. The fact it can be run passive or with a very slow, quiet fan was the main deciding factor

But yea, a couple of photos. Battery in my camera went after the first few photos so put it on charge and then got more when I'd finished lol

Then all of a sudden it was built up!

Cables are well hard to sort out in such a small area, theyre all just sort of crammed together in that little space for now.

Anyway, anyone any ideas on what the problem could be? I thought maybe because Im only using a 20pin ATX cable but others are doing so and report no problems. Would be helpful if there was a little speaker in there for the error beeps but nowhere to plug one in I dont think

BM007 · 31 Dec 2009 at 23:13

I just bought exactly those bits today, well case and motherboard anyway. I too have run into problems with the psu. Once I put it all together I found that when I press the power button, the fan spins for a second then stops. The power light on the motherboard comes on and stays on.

I have pulled an old PSU out of a Dell machine and hooked it up and it boots and loads correctly so I know the board is ok.

The manual mentions needing 5A from the 12v rail so maybe there is a new batch of PSUs that arent up to powering this board.

BM007 · 31 Dec 2009 at 23:16

Forgot to mention, I tried booting the board with nothing connected and even with no ram but it wont POST at all with the compucase 8k PSU

Ducky Spud · 1 Jan 2010 at 01:01

ahhh, cheers for the info! was looking at maybe getting a fanless replacement or a pico psu, just something to try and silence that tiny fan haha. Bit unusual that the psu spins everything up but it fails to POST. Will try with one of my proper ATX ones tomorrow and see if it works alright

Ducky Spud · 1 Jan 2010 at 18:03

Just tested out an old 350W PSU I had lying round and same result, everything sounds like its working but no output. That was also a 20pin ATX cable so decided to try the PSU from my main rig which I know has a 24pin cable. Same result though, so im guessing its something else causing the problem

May post in the general hardware section, gets more attention then in here haha, but if any of you can think of anything please let me know

Ducky Spud · 3 Jan 2010 at 22:30

Just ordered some new Corsair XMS2 RAM. After much hunting Ive found a few other people that have had similar problems with this board and its because of a compatability issue with the RAM. Seen the Corsair stuff in a build thats worked, so hopefully it will fix mine.... We'll see in a few days I guess!

Fingers crossed

Guardsmon · 4 Jan 2010 at 18:48

Ducky, do you normally wear a hard helmet while building computers? Ref: image 1

Ducky Spud · 4 Jan 2010 at 22:43

Haha, its an essential part of my rig building outfit!

Went out in fancy dress as builders about a year ago and and it just happens to be dumped in that corner along with all sorts of other odd bits (see RC cars, BB guns, old airfix models, school tech projects etc)

Ducky Spud · 12 Jan 2010 at 19:59

Well I finally got the Corsair RAM today, delivery was delayed a week with the weather! But all is now well, took the old cheap stuff out, Corsair stuff in and its now working a treat and installing windows 7

Bit wierd as the old RAM is the same speed and everything as the Corsair, just different timings :confused:

oh well, running now anyway

Still need to get a wireless router though otherwise I cant get this downstairs and thats the whole point of this build lol

chippy08 · 12 Jan 2010 at 21:40

Ducky Spud said:
Well I finally got the Corsair RAM today, delivery was delayed a week with the weather! But all is now well, took the old cheap stuff out, Corsair stuff in and its now working a treat and installing windows 7 Bit wierd as the old RAM is the same speed and everything as the Corsair, just different timings oh well, running now anyway

Still need to get a wireless router though otherwise I cant get this downstairs and thats the whole point of this build lol

Whats it like watching Hd movies ?

Ducky Spud · 13 Jan 2010 at 09:39

Only tried a 720 H264 clip I had on my memory stick but it ran perfectly. Will try a full HD video tonight hopefully. Very pleased so far though, windows 7 is running fine and seems quite nippy. Only problem is the PSU fan is pretty noisy, not too bad but you'd notice it during quiet parts of a film.

chippy08 · 13 Jan 2010 at 09:49

Ducky Spud said:
Only tried a 720 H264 clip I had on my memory stick but it ran perfectly. Will try a full HD video tonight hopefully. Very pleased so far though, windows 7 is running fine and seems quite nippy. Only problem is the PSU fan is pretty noisy, not too bad but you'd notice it during quiet parts of a film.

Thanks keep me posted as im looking for motherboard my self.

Ducky Spud · 13 Jan 2010 at 15:56

Just installed flash 10.1 Beta and its played Top Gear in HD on BBC iPlayer just fine' in fact the only problem is my internet connection haha' leave it to buffer for a while and its fine

Still need to test playing from a file yet, still need to sort out all my codecs and things first

Ducky Spud · 14 Jan 2010 at 16:16

Tested Black Hawk Down in 1080p this morning and was a bit jerky, but a quick driver update later and its running perfectly smooth now

Just waiting on my wireless router now then its finished

At the moment Im just limited to what few songs/films Ive put on there for testing, but its main purpose is iPlayer/4oD/Spotify etc

chippy08 · 14 Jan 2010 at 17:08

Ducky Spud said:
Tested Black Hawk Down in 1080p this morning and was a bit jerky, but a quick driver update later and its running perfectly smooth now

Just waiting on my wireless router now then its finished At the moment Im just limited to what few songs/films Ive put on there for testing, but its main purpose is iPlayer/4oD/Spotify etc

Thanks for letting us know how it performs i cant decide if to go 775 micro itx or ion 330.

-Mike- · 20 Jan 2010 at 16:05

I'm suffering the same dillema! Just how acceptable is the dual core atom for general windows tasks?

chippy08 · 20 Jan 2010 at 16:42

-Mike- said:
I'm suffering the same dillema! Just how acceptable is the dual core atom for general windows tasks?

I have decided to go 775 with qaud 8200 just to make sure i have plenty of power. so just waitng for my brand new zotac 9300 to arrive a new revision board @ £109.

-Mike- · 20 Jan 2010 at 21:01

Did you need any special adapters for the writer drive mate? If so what did you use and which model writer is it?