Minitowers

[time]

Firstly, which of these cases would you prefer, and why?

 

[Mercutio]

I really dislike the Coolermaster tower. First, it's not terribly well finished on the inside, or at least the six I bought weren't. So I sliced up my hands working on the damned things. And that was a callback to the end of the 90s, which is the last time I put up with that shit.

Second, it's not very solid. A couple of the ones I bought had deformed in the course of shipping, making it very difficult to get the side panels off. Again, not something I'd put up with given any other option.

Third, the huge ass logo that doesn't come off. I'm glad CoolerMaster is proud enough of their pieces of shit that they're willing to claim them, but that doesn't mean I want my customers associating my machines with their asstastic low-quality product.

In short, these cases were bad enough to make me reconsider using CoolerMaster anything.

I have no experience with the Silverstone product but it can't possibly be worse.

 

[time]

Secondly, Antec 3480 seems to be disappearing from several vendor pricelists around here. It's pretty ugly, but it's the only conventional MicroATX minitower that Antec make (ignoring the low-profile one with a TFX PSU and the assorted Mini-ITX models).

What does that leave that isn't a 10-year old design yet is affordable? Why would anyone want a second or even a third 5 1/4" drive bay? Why should you have to mount 2.5" drives in a bulky, fixed drive cage? Where's my USB 3.0?

I've looked at info for more than a hundred cases over the last couple of days, and the whole industry appears to be moribund. Is this one of the reasons that desktops are in decline and most people want laptops?

 

[Mercutio]

I love the NSK3400-series cases and its bigger brother. I use them whenever budget allows me to do so.

My budget case of choice is a HEC 6K28BB8F, though I usually buy them with the HEC power supply.

 

[time]

The Coolermaster 341 is less than 2/3 the weight of the 0.7mm steel HEC 6K, which tends to confirm that the former is only 0.5mm steel.

Looks like the HEC 6K is no longer available in Oz, although there may still be one of the lighter (0.7mm) 6T variants. Do you still find the power supplies reliable?

 

[Mercutio]

HEC power supplies have always been decent for low-cost PSUs. Some vendors (Newegg, actually) don't provide HEC PSUs with HEC cases.

 

[Mercutio]

I'm always tempted to look at SFF and desktop designs when I build, just because I'd rather have a machine that's up on a desk than underneath, but as unappealing as minitowers are, I can find even less to recommend either of those.

 

[ddrueding]

I haven't used either, but I prefer the look and cooling design of the Silverstone.

 

[Bozo]

Actually, I use the Antec Minuete for all my small case needs.

 

[Mercutio]

The objection I have to the Minuet is the nonstandard power supply. They did that on the NSK3400, too and as a result I have to track down a particular Silverstone PSU every time one of my classroom systems craps out.

 

[Bozo]

I agree Merc. But it is the only micro atx case I've used that takes an odd power supply. I just keep a couple of spare MT352's PS on hand.

 

[CougTek]

The objection I have to the Minuet is the nonstandard power supply. They did that on the NSK3400, too and as a result I have to track down a particular Silverstone PSU every time one of my classroom systems craps out.

I thought I told you about a Seasonic SFX 300W PSU for that enclosure a while ago. I know Silverstone makes a decent one too.

 

[CougTek]

In fact, Silverstone only sells it. IIRC, FSP makes it.

 

[Mercutio]

I don't remember. I haven't had one die in a while.

 

[time]

Some of those SFX ("Small") and TFX ("thin"?) power supplies are now surprisingly good. Specifically, the 80Plus ones branded Seasonic, Silverstone or InWin Powerman. I've read a couple of reviews where they've been thoroughly tested and disassembled to check design and quality, and they've been well above average.

I share the same reservation as Mercutio and keep a spare SFX on hand just in case. Although my beloved InWin BK623/628 cases are remarkably easy to work on for their size, the exception is the power supply. Although I haven't had any actual PSU failures, I did replace one that developed a noisy fan after a couple of weeks. Once the PC is fully assembled, all the connectors are covered with other parts, so you have to pretty much completely disassemble the PC to replace the PSU. I don't mind so much, but I wouldn't like to rely on someone who'd never seen one (I always expect the worst these days).

 

[Mercutio]

It's hard for me to say that the ML03 is worth $60 without a PSU. At that point, it's really no different from an Antec case in terms of price, and I'm not getting an Antec PSU for ~$30.

This is why I generally say screw it and buy an Antec case when I have $80+ in the budget for a case.

 

[ddrueding]

Just built the following:

Antec ISK300-150
Intel DH57JG
Intel i3-550 (Dual 3.2Ghz, 73W)
Intel 40GB SSD
4GB RAM
Win7 Home Premium

Very nice machine. Incredibly small and very quiet. I'm sure the power consumption is low as well.

One major problem: The "Power" cable from the front of the chassis is too short to reach the header on the motherboard (back where the PS2 plugs would be) by several inches. Really stupid design IMHO. I currently have the BIOS set to power on in case of power interruption, so you can fire it back up by unplugging it.

Windows Performance:

Processor: 7.0
Memory: 5.9
Graphics: 4.8
Gaming: 5.2
Hard Disk: 7.4

Quite affordable for what I would consider a premium machine.

 

[Mercutio]

mITX scares me more than a little bit. Decent PSUs wind up costing as much as a motherboard and Atom CPU, and then there's heat to consider for non-Atom systems. I wish I could take SFF stuff more seriously but it's still a lot easier to get good, cheap desktop parts.

 

[ddrueding]

The only specialty bit in there is the PSU, and at least it is an Antec. I have had very good luck working with them directly on spare parts in the past.

 

[CougTek]

mITX scares me more than a little bit.

I have the following system that's been running the folding@home client non-stop (except power outages), for the past 7 or 8 months :

• Core i7 860
• Prolimatech Samuel 17 heatsink
• GigaByte H55N-USB3 motherboard
• Kingston 2x2GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM (OC'ed to ~14500MHz for the past two or three months)
• PowerColor Radeon HD 5670 512MB graphic card
• WD Caviar Black 1TB hard drive
• Lite-On slim SATA DVD-RW
• Silverstone SG05B enclosure with the included 300W SFX 80Plus-certified PSU

All eight virtual cores are busy 100%. It is running Windows 7 64 bits. It's noisy under load, but very acceptable when at idle (basicly, the few seconds after reboots before I start up the FAH client). The machine is normally rebooted once every month after the installation of Windows updates.

 

[BingBangBop]

I really want to do mITX but the inability to put a big honk'n heatsink and OC a modern high performance CPU has stymied my urges.

 

[time]

The trouble with MiniITX other than Zotac is the lack of WiFi and the lack of expansion slots to rectify this (yes, I know you could use a dongle). Also, I read somewhere that the Gigabyte solution is not as low-power as you might expect - an issue when coupled with a low-power CPU such as the i3 2100T.

But my main problem with that Antec is the single source for the power supply. Parts may be readily available in the US, but not in other countries.

The InWin BP671 is only slightly larger (8.2 vs 7 liters) but uses a standard 200W TFX PSU. It comes with a stand so the footprint is smaller. It's 43mm wider (taller) and 18mm less deep. The manufacturer's info includes temperature testing with a 2.33GHz Core 2 at 35C ambient.

 

[ddrueding]

The Antec also comes with a stand, but I wouldn't use it as it doesn't decouple the case from whatever it is on. I will go to great lengths to avoid linking an HTPC via WiFi...streaming media doesn't like wireless.

 

[Mercutio]

I built a dozen or so mITX boxes that actually do use a standard ATX power supply. I have no ideal who made them; I bought them from my local distributor the receipt just says "Generic."

They're effectively the same size as a Shuttle SFF shoebox.

 

[ddrueding]

I built a dozen or so mITX boxes that actually do use a standard ATX power supply. I have no ideal who made them; I bought them from my local distributor the receipt just says "Generic."

They're effectively the same size as a Shuttle SFF shoebox.

So the PSU fills 40% of the chassis?

 

[Mercutio]

So the PSU fills 40% of the chassis?

Yup!