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!

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.

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.