New Mini Build

JonathanBerry12

JonathanBerry12

JonathanBerry12

Associate
Joined
3 Jun 2010
Posts
75
Hi All,

My New build is a rather exiting one, well to me anyways.

My Current System:

  • Cooler Master CM Storm
  • Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
  • Foxconn G31 Motherboard 775
  • Corsair 450w PSU
  • MSI 6850 1GB
  • Samsung F3's x 3
  • Asus Xonar DG 5.1

My current system is quite old, around 5 or so years old, rather outdated and is struggling to play some modern games. So I decided to have a go at building a new computer system. I had plenty of options, plenty of decisions that needed to be made before i started the build.

I made the decision to go for a mini system, I do go to a few LAN party's with friends, and its getting rather annoying taking a large case (currently a CM Storm), which is rather heavy and cumbersome to move about.

After looking around on the web, I opted for a Mini system. One that would still do everything I needed to do on a computer, and play most modern games.

My New Project Build:

  • Bitfenix Prodigy Mini ITX - Arctic White
  • Gigabyte Z87N - WIFI (Socket 1150)
  • Intel Core i5 - 4670k (Haswell)
  • Corsair Hydro H90 140mm High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
  • Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB 1600MHz
  • Corsair Force GT 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive

Fans

  • Bitfenix Spectre Pro 230mm Fan - All White
  • Bitfenix Spectre Pro PWM 140mm Fan - All White

I also have some pretty interesting ideas for the old system as well, I would like to have a sort of NAS box setup.
 
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The case arrived today, I was quite surprised, I had seen one of these cases before, as a friend of mine has one, its quite small, a bit on the heavy side but it has a nice soft touch feel to the paintwork:





 
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Hi, Buckleheid, i do have a few more pictures, but i didnt want the entire page full of pictures, but i can upload them if you would to see them?.

Hi mhowarth, Its a really nice case, however all the cables are behind the bottom HDD cage, it is a bit of a squeeze to put the side pannel on, but i opted to install the SSD underneath the HDD cage, as it was just easier for me. But it is down to personal preference really, I would like to get 2 more SSD's and have a sort of RAID set-up with them , that would be cool and rather quick. At the minute it takes about 10 seconds to boot up from cold, straight into OS (Windows 8) its rather quick lol.

Any more questions, feel free to ask!
 
Home Server Build

Finally Got round to putting together a Home Server! Utilising my old system (Mentioned Above)

Hi All, So as I mentioned above I am looking at having a Home Server / File Server , basically I would like to store films and music well anything really on a separate system to free up space on my main system.

I already have a older system, which was my previous system still sat here in a case, I would like to use all of that system in my file server build.

The case i have chosen - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-238-LL&groupid=2362&catid=2278

Why did I choose this case over others?

Well, my older system use a MATX motherboard, so I didn't want to start again and be spending even more money on new gear, I wanted to use the old gear because its still a good system even though it is a old set-up.

This Lian Li case has 7 3.5" drive slots, because I wanted expansion to add additional drives to the home server when I want to or run out of space.

Also I would like to mount either a SSD or a 2.5" drive as a boot drive, haven't really decided, any thoughts on this would be appreciated. ??

The small form factor also got me interested in this case as well. as I already have a prodigy I would like the system to be a similar form factor really overall.

Also the main plan is to have a gigabit switch in between the two computers, using cat6 cabling to connect the two computers together and then of that switch into the main router, I would like to have a sort of fast transfer rate between the two computers if I can, should be faster than a USB connection between the two anyways, however i will test the two scenarios anyway.

I will post some pictures of the server build as i assemble it, should be arriving tomorrow with any luck.

Jon
 
Assembling Home Server/Installation

Assembling Home Server -



Out of the Box Next to my Prodigy -



The case is just smaller than the prodigy is, and slightly longer, but it is a Mirco-ATX case so I would expect this, so not an issue for me.

More Photos to come!

Jon
 
Finished Putting the rig together

The internals have a very clean layout,which is nice and I like that



I would have preferred there to be more places to put cables, as my old Corsair 450w is not modular, but I did find there was enough room, with cable management and cable tied most of the cables together to keep a clean and tidy inside of the case.

The Internal cables that come with the case are easily manageable to keep tidy -




PSU cabling as i don't need a GPU in this system as well there is no need, also less noise which is good for me as I hate loud fans.



After PSU installation -



A clean and tidy case internally, which should help with air flow, which is great.

I had to remove the top 140mm exhaust fan as the CPU heat-sink intruded onto the fan, so without removing it I wouldn't be able to install the motherboard.



I still wanted a exhaust fan as well there needs to be a exhaust fan so the hot air can be vented out of the system somewhere.

One problem I came across is, that the top fan is 140mm and the space on the back of the case to mount another fan is 120mm, was a head scratcher for me and quite annoying, but then I remembered that my bitfennix prodigy had a spare 120mm fan left in the box as I purchased the spectre pros at the time.

So after a quick look in the box found the fan i needed, i installed that one instead of the 140mm included with the case, and put the 120mm fan on the rear of the case and plugged the fan header into the built in fan controller included in this case, which by the way I am really happy that this is included and more cases should follow this approach.



And now I just need some hard drives to set-up the OS and decided whether or not I am going to RAID the drives.



I am unsure on RAID set-ups as I have never set-up a raid system before, so will be a challenge for me any-ways to figure out how you set one up. If anybody can offer any tips or videos to watch on how to set-up a RAID system that would be great.

Jon

Ps

I will post a few images of the final build once I have some hard drives installed to show the completed build.
 
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