mITX PC

[mitze90]

Just spec'd up my new media PC for the living room (main PC with all the storage will be connected via network cable), how does it look...

Case: Antec ISK 300-65 mITX Case - Black (with PSU)
Motherboard: Zotac Ion Intel Atom N330 Mini-ITX DDR2 Motherboard (IONITX-A-B)
Memory: OcUK 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel
Hard Drive: Kingston SSDNow V Series 64GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (SNV125-S2/64GB)
Optical Drive: Sony NEC Optiarc BC-5500S Blu Ray Reader & DVD±RW SATA Notebook Drive (Black) - OEM

...is there anything ive missed? Any foreseeable problems?

 

[Guardsmon]

You'll need a miniSATA converter for that blu ray drive.

 

[mitze90]

Well i've ordered now

Made a few changes tho...

Asus AT3N7A-I Ion Intel Atom N330 Mini ITX DDR2 Motherboard instead of a Zotac Ion Intel Atom N330 Mini-ITX DDR2 Motherboard (IONITX-A-B)

The reasons for changing where

• The Asus has bluetooth instead of wireless, seeing as i plan on plugging it in via ethernet it makes wireless pretty pointless.
• The Asus is also a lot cheaper for what to my eyes is the same board as the Zotac.

I also swapped the memory from OcUK 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel to Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel, hmmm i thought the original choice was 2gig not 4gig, oh well lol.

After reading a few reviews about the noise levels of the case fan and cpu fan, i decided to get a Noctua NF-R8 80mm Silent Case Fan and a Scythe Mini Kaze 40mm x 10mm Quiet Cooling Fan.

As my current PC is going to be evicted from the living room to a upstairs room for media storage decided to give it some new stuff. Adding two Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache HDD, might RAID them with my music so atleast its all backed up if one fails. Im ditching the Zalman reserator/extra pump/resivior watercooling it currently uses, so i had to get a new graphics card (Asus GeForce 9400 GT 1024MB DDR2 PCI-Express Graphics Card) and a Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 CPU Cooler will now be cooling my aging FX-55.

 

[mitze90]

You'll need a miniSATA converter for that blu ray drive.

I knew there would be something i'd forget just waiting on V12 to ok the finance, and i'll order one, couldnt point me to one on the OC website, cant seem to find it lol shows what i know dont it, i thought i'd be able to plug the SATA blu ray into one of the SATA ports :S

 

[Guardsmon]

Don't think OCuk stock them any more for some really really strange reason. As they are creating a m-itx section, you'd have thought that they'd have all the right parts. Might want to give them a ring and ask.

 

[mitze90]

Don't think OCuk stock them any more for some really really strange reason. As they are creating a m-itx section, you'd have thought that they'd have all the right parts. Might want to give them a ring and ask.

So i need a mSATA to SATA converter? One of these Akasa Slimline Optical SATA Cable?

Damn V12 Finance, send me an email 18:02 asking me to phone them... and the office closes at 18:00 :S Im to impatient, think i'll just pay for it.

 

[Guardsmon]

Waaaey OCuk do do them. Yeh thats the one.

 

[mitze90]

This is what i bought in the end, all arriving tomorrow...

Motherboard: Asus AT3N7A-I Ion Intel Atom N330 Mini ITX DDR2 Motherboard
Replacement CPU Fan: Scythe Mini Kaze 40mm x 10mm Quiet Cooling Fan
Memory: Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel
Hard Drive: Corsair Extreme X32 32GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive
Optical Drive: Sony AD-5590-A01 8x DVD±R, 6x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, IDE for Notebooks
Case: A+ CS-Cupid-2 miniITX Case

And ive just realised im an idiot as ive ordered a IDE optical drive d'oh how on earth am i going to install Vista, any ideas? lol

 

[Guardsmon]

search: "Laptop Slimline CD / DVD to IDE Adaptor" in a well known auction site.
I paid £15 to get one shipped from italy 2 yrs ago, 2 months later they were everywhere on ebay! Bloomin joke.

 

[mitze90]

In the end i booted Vista from a USB flash drive i bought Was actually quite quick and simple to do. As for getting the wrong DVD drive, the girlfriend has just ordered a Samsung NC10 Netbook, so im gonna see if i can get an external USB enclosure so we can both use it when need be.

 

[JSW]

I have a slim laptop to ide convertor which came with my Zotac 9300 mobo which I have no need for.
Your welcome to it if you want it FOC

 

[mitze90]

I have a slim laptop to ide convertor which came with my Zotac 9300 mobo which I have no need for.
Your welcome to it if you want it FOC

Thanks for the offer but my mobo cant take IDE

 

[JSW]

hehe ok no prob

 

[mitze90]

The first thing i did was put the rubber feet on the case as ive heard that the finish on the case can mangle wood!

 

[mitze90]

The replacement quiter fan, it makes a lot of difference!

 

[mitze90]

The great thing about these atoms, once the memory is in its ready to go in the case!

 

[mitze90]

hard drive and the optical are the first thing you have to do inside the case as things will get very tight once the mobo goes in, unfortunatly i didnt take a picture once it was all inside. Theres actually a lot of room left on the right once it was in, on the left of the hard drive you can see where the edge of the board screws in.

 

[mitze90]

And finaly the PC in its new home in the living room...

 

[Biffa]

Nice! whats it like for playing Blu-rays?

 

[booyaka]

Oh my lord - please resize the images!!

nice set up by the way!