Aluminium mini-ITX case

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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Elendil
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Joined: Mon Mar 16, 2015 7:02 am

Aluminium mini-ITX case

Post by Elendil » Mon Mar 16, 2015 7:55 am

Hi,

So I'm thinking about replacing my 7 years old PC with a new mini-ITX build and I'm still not really sure about the case.
As for my requirements:

Right now I have a Lian Li PC-A09, and I really like the build quality and the brushed aluminium look of the case. So I'm looking for something with a similar finish. It doesn't have to be completely aluminium, a nice steel skeleton would be fine.
Since the PC is the center of my whole entertainment system, I need an optical drive. Unfortunately this rules out most of the nice compact mini-ITX cases.
I want to have the option of adding a midrange graphics card later on (probably a GTX960)
I will only be using one 2,5" HDD for data storage, so not many HDD-slots are needed (the system drive is gonna be a M.2 SSD)
And, of course, it should be able to cool the components even with the graphics card completely quiet (if I would have to power up the fans a bit during gaming that wouldn't be that bad, I'd be wearing headphones anyways).
The CPU will probably be an I5-4590.

Right now the Lian Li PC-Q08 is my favourite. I know the Q18 and Q28 are the newer models, but for me I don't really see many advantages. With the Q08 I can remove the complete HDD cage, it has ventilation for both the graphics card and the PSU and when using a SFX PSU (I'M thinking about the Silverstone SX500-LG) I should be able to install the Noctua NH-D9L tower cooler blowing upwards.
The Q28 also looks nice and has the features I need, but I'm a bit concerned about ventilation, since there are no holes for either the PSU or the graphics card.

Another option would be the Rosewill W1. The gaming build with this case on the site was really well done by the way. It has everything I need but is substantially bigger, and I don't know if that is really necessary.

So maybe you guys can make some suggestions for cases I missed or tell me that such a build is not possible in the Lian Lis.
I hope I didn't miss anything. Thanks a lot in advance for any remarks.

CA_Steve
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Re: Aluminium mini-ITX case

Post by CA_Steve » Mon Mar 16, 2015 8:34 am

Welcome to SPCR.

What's the gfx card? To figure out the case, we'll need to know the heat load...and the gfx card is a big part of this.

Elendil
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Joined: Mon Mar 16, 2015 7:02 am

Re: Aluminium mini-ITX case

Post by Elendil » Mon Mar 16, 2015 11:23 am

Probably a GTX960, since it is much more energy efficient than the current Radeon cards.
I mentioned it somewhere in the post, but maybe a bit hidden. Sorry about that.

edh
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Re: Aluminium mini-ITX case

Post by edh » Tue Mar 17, 2015 4:59 am

Ncase M1?

Elendil
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Re: Aluminium mini-ITX case

Post by Elendil » Tue Mar 17, 2015 1:29 pm

Yeah, the M1 is like the perfect case, but with shipping and taxes I'd pay close to 300€ just for the case. As much as I like that case, that's just way beyond my budget.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Aluminium mini-ITX case

Post by quest_for_silence » Tue Mar 17, 2015 1:44 pm

Elendil wrote:Another option would be the Rosewill W1. The gaming build with this case on the site was really well done by the way. It has everything I need but is substantially bigger, and I don't know if that is really necessary.

With the Lian Li you have to make some substantial trade offs (mainly about PSU and CPU cooler), while with the W1 you can use better and quieter parts, and that's why it's bigger.

Elendil
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Mar 16, 2015 7:02 am

Re: Aluminium mini-ITX case

Post by Elendil » Tue Mar 17, 2015 2:09 pm

I see these trade offs. But the Silverstone SX500-LG seems to be a decent PSU (I couldn't find any tests yet, since it's pretty new) and with a SFX PSU there should be enough space for a Noctua NH-D9L. I don't want to do any OC, and in the SPCR review it fared quite good, too. I'm just wondering if that shouldn't be enough for a quiet system.

quest_for_silence
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Location: ITALY

Re: Aluminium mini-ITX case

Post by quest_for_silence » Tue Mar 17, 2015 2:41 pm

Elendil wrote:I'm just wondering if that shouldn't be enough for a quiet system.
There are chances that PSU is as "loud" as its 600W sibling tested by SPCR: you can translate this short swedish review: http://www.sweclockers.com/recension/20 ... 6#pagehead
The Chieftec SFX-500GD-C might be a better bet (there's a german review at Hartware: http://www.hartware.de/review_1783_6.html ), but definitely both those units seem noticeably inferior to ATX counterparts, noise-wise.

Perhaps, whether you wanna go small, the Silverstone RVZ-01/ML-08 (and their close siblings) may be more favourable options (because, as far as I know, you can remove the PSU cage, so that you can mount an ATX PSU), but mine is just a guess (about the lower overall noise).

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