Thin ITX spec

krooton · 20 Mar 2014 at 12:23

So whilst umming and aahing over the i5 Haswell NUC (£290), I tried to see if I could spec a thin-itx build of comparable power for less money.

So far:

Asus H81T mobo
Pentium G3420 54w
Silverstone SST-PT13B case
Akasa low profile cooler
4GB 1.35v RAM

So that takes me to the £200 region without a DC Adaptor.

I don't think HD5000 and 40w lower TDP is worth £100 personally

krooton · 20 Mar 2014 at 16:16

Looks like a universal 90w adaptor can be had around £25, making this £85 cheaper than the NUC (forgot to factor in the RAM), purely at the cost of the HD5000.

Decisions, decisions!

krooton · 2 Apr 2014 at 10:14

OK, DJ Box 2.0 will be born!

i3-4330
Zalman CNPS2X
GA-H81TN
Silverstone Petite PT13B
4GB DDR3 1600 SO-DIMM
60GB Sandisk SSD
PowerCool PC-ACU120-S 120W AC Adaptor

Total spend: £265

Wattage is higher than the 4250U NUC, but performance will be greater, and the HD 4600 trumps the HD 5000.

krooton · 2 Apr 2014 at 22:08

FFS!

Case cooler limit: 30mm
Zalman height: 27mm

Does it fit? Yes
Can the fan spin? Nope, not with the case touching it.

ARG!

RJC · 2 Apr 2014 at 22:16

Thats a pain, it seems the fan hub is slightly raised above the copper fins looking at the pics.

Is it the case (no pun intended) that you need to use the Silverstone heatsink.

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=418&area=en

krooton · 2 Apr 2014 at 23:49

Yeah, need to exchange for an AR04, wonder if I am liable for return postage, given it isn't my fault the specs are wrong.

Tavalin · 4 Apr 2014 at 10:11

I recently built a Thin ITX (XBMC/OpenELEC) build:

Case: Silverstone PT13B (£40)
Mobo: Asus H81T (£52)
CPU: Celeron G1820 (£32)
Cooler: Akasa low profile cooler AK-CC7129BP01 (21mm one) (£10)
2GB Ballistix SODIMM I had lying around
PSU: 90W power brick (£10)

All in all came to about £140-150 quid and I run it off a USB3.0 stick.

As you've got the same case and I'd recommend the AK-CC7129BP01 cooler as it will definitely fit.

krooton · 4 Apr 2014 at 16:07

Cheers, based on reviews I think the AR04 will be the best performing that fits.

Annoyed that the Asus H81T is now down to £55, coulda have saved myself £15, lol

krooton · 11 Apr 2014 at 08:40

God I HATE push-pin coolers, took me like 30 minutes to fit the damn thing, haha!

Still, didn't have to reinstall Windows which is good, just removed all things AMD, did a sysprep, and installed the new mobo drivers and everything is good as gold.

Idle temps are low 30s with a quiet fan, and mid-60s running prime with the fan running at full tilt. Prime-level load isn't actually going to ever happen on this, so all in all it is a great little machine.