M-ITX upgrade newbie

[Doosh]

Before you all laugh and throw stones at me, I don't need an uber spec gaming PC and I also don't have much room, so...

I use an m-itx based SFF as my main PC, it's main use is web browsing, music and films. Currently I'm struggling along with an 230 Atom based board that, in all honesty, is barely fit for purpose.

I ordered one of the MSI AMD Fusion boards from OC yesterday with the view to a decent upgrade, the plan is to get it as quiet as possible as I sit about 18 inches away, so I've decided on a SSD for the OS as all my music and stuff is on external drives already.

I'm after some advice on the other bits I'll need like RAM and PSU? I am planning on using the case I already have as I like it, but I'm not sure whether to keep the 150w FSP PSU and change it's fan for a quieter one (40mm) or stretch the budget to a PicoPSU, which when you factor in the correct AC adapter isn't that cheap.

I suppose in the short term I could put the SSD on hold and go for a quiet 5400rpm notebook drive and put the money to the Pico, are these the drives that they fit in external USB units? as I have a Toshiba external that is silent (as far as I can tell)

Sorry for the long post!

 

[Tute]

Well there's plenty of places out there that sell some decent looking mini ITX cases. I know as i've been speccing up an AMD Fusion system myself.

Thing is, linking you would be against the rules as OcUK sell mini ITX cases themselves, but all I can recommend is that you go off and have a google.

One place in particular specialises in mini ITX and sells a range of cases right down to about 3L in volume. I'm guessing that's the kinda thing you're looking for.

 

[Doosh]

Thanks, but I like the case I have so I think I'll keep it.

I'm a bit confused with the multiple varieties of RAM, what is compatible with this board? it says on the MSI site DDR3 DIMM 800/1066/1333* (OC), am I right in thinking there is no DDR3 1066 listed on OC?

 

[Tute]

Those are just the standard speeds. Just make sure you get non ECC RAM and NOT SO-DIMMS and you'll be fine.

 

[Myocardial Inf]

I ordered one of the MSI AMD Fusion boards from OC yesterday with the view to a decent upgrade, the plan is to get it as quiet as possible as I sit about 18 inches away, so I've decided on a SSD for the OS as all my music and stuff is on external drives already.

If you don't need much space I'd say a 40Gb SSD may be sufficient, but only you can tell this by how much you use now. Alternatively if cash is tight a 160Gb Samsung spinpoint would do, just not as nippy and still has moving parts.

I'm after some advice on the other bits I'll need like RAM and PSU? I am planning on using the case I already have as I like it, but I'm not sure whether to keep the 150w FSP PSU and change it's fan for a quieter one (40mm) or stretch the budget to a PicoPSU, which when you factor in the correct AC adapter isn't that cheap.

Personally I would keep the FSP PSU and not bother to change the fan, just save up and purchase a pico down the line with the money you've saved, could also flog the server PSU on here when you have enough posts and recoup a little of the cost (same goes with the Atom 230 board).

Ram I'd just go for cheapest dual channel kit in the quantity you want, so for 4Gb total: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit

I suppose in the short term I could put the SSD on hold and go for a quiet 5400rpm notebook drive and put the money to the Pico, are these the drives that they fit in external USB units? as I have a Toshiba external that is silent (as far as I can tell)

2.5" notebook drives are usually used in the pocket sized external drives. If you have a 40mm fan it's likely to be louder than the drive. In my TV machine I have 2.5" drives and because I sit a few feet away I don't notice any noises of the drives and fan noise is drowned out by the TV, but if you are sitting much closer or sleeping near it then the clicks and low down hum from vibration can become tiresome. One way to combat this is to decouple the drive from the case so vibration is not transmitted and you can buy 2.5" drive enclosures to reduce drive noise. Obviously this increases the cost of the 2.5" drive so if you want silent may just be worth grabbing a small SSD.

 

[Doosh]

Thanks for the detailed reply, exactly the sort of advice I was hoping for.

RE: the external drives, I have two pocket sized one as you mention, the Seagate one is quite clearly audible, but the Toshiba must be of better quality because I can't hear it even when using it elsewhere liked plugged into the WD TV Live box.

Will the 1333mhz RAM be ok in this board? it's just that next to the 1333mhz figure on the spec sheet it has 'OC', does this mean it will only run this RAM with some tweaking or am I misunderstanding it?

As for the SSD, I was hoping to utilize the SATA 3/6Gbps capability, are all SSDs 6gbs?

Thanks again, I think I'm gradually getting there!

 

[Myocardial Inf]

RE: the external drives, I have two pocket sized one as you mention, the Seagate one is quite clearly audible, but the Toshiba must be of better quality because I can't hear it even when using it elsewhere liked plugged into the WD TV Live box.

Some are certainly a lot better than others. If you're interested in noise then a good place to look is on SPCR

Will the 1333mhz RAM be ok in this board? it's just that next to the 1333mhz figure on the spec sheet it has 'OC', does this mean it will only run this RAM with some tweaking or am I misunderstanding it?

I'm not particularly up on DDR3 speeds or AMD chips, but it's likely that default speed of ram is lower than 1333Mhz and in order to get it to run at the rams capable speed you may have to increase ram speed in the bios, five seconds of fiddling at most.

As for the SSD, I was hoping to utilize the SATA 3/6Gbps capability, are all SSDs 6gbs?

No, older models are only 3Gbps interface, although I'm not certain on what impact this would have on data transfer using only a 3Gbps drive.