Which one: Zotac H55-Itx or Zotac GF-9300?

Miki · Post by **Miki** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 4:14 am

Hello!

Alright. I have bought a case, Spire Cube (it's Apex MI-008 though, just a different name) and now I have been wondering for awhile which mobo I should buy?

I will use it mainly as webserver/HTPC/light gaming. I won't buy a graphics card for now but in the future it is an option.

Now the question is, should I buy a PicoPSU or can I do without it? What about the processor cooler? I've read Scythe will fit in GF-9300 but if I put something like that on H55, it will block the PCI-E slot?

Also, if anyone has a system like that, I'd be glad to hear about their experiences

Thanks!

ilovejedd · Post by **ilovejedd** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 5:41 am

Miki wrote:Now the question is, should I buy a PicoPSU or can I do without it? What about the processor cooler?

You won't be able to fit tall coolers in the case unless you replace the included power supply with a PicoPSU. If you use the included PSU, you'd actually want to replace the cooler with a shorter Silverstone NT07-775 or NT07-1156 because the stock cooler will be fighting for air with the PSU fan.

Miki wrote:I've read Scythe will fit in GF-9300 but if I put something like that on H55, it will block the PCI-E slot?

Depends on which Scythe you get. The Scythe Shuriken Rev B (SCSK-1100) is a maybe but the Big Shuriken is a definite yes on blocking the PCIe slot.

Miki · Post by **Miki** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 11:45 am

Thanks for the reply ilovejedd!

Using a picoPSU surely is my plan. I'd only need to buy Car TFT's 150W picoPSU (CarTFT picoPSU-150-XT 12V DC-DC, actually) since, correct me if I am wrong here, I already have a power brick of my broken laptop.

the games I play would be something like Company of Heroes (1280x1024, AA), Age of Empires 2, Heroes of Might and Magic etc...

what would you choose and why?

ilovejedd · Post by **ilovejedd** » Wed Jun 30, 2010 1:54 pm

Just make sure your laptop adapter is 12V. So far, all the laptop adapters I've had are 19V.

Not really much of a gamer unless you count PSX and PS2 emulation, and for those, CPU is king so a Core i-series is the obvious choice. For PC games, Nvidia's graphics drivers are much better than Intel. I'm just not sure if either would be enough for the games you want to play at the visual settings you want to play at.

Miki · Post by **Miki** » Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:34 am

What about replacing the default PSU to a smaller one, so I could fit a better cooler? Has anyone tried that out?

edit: eh, never mind. PicoPSU. Anyway, I've decided to pick H55. What kind of cooler would you recommend on this one? We don't seem to have 1156 version of that Silverstone cooler here in Finland.

flolypops · Post by **flolypops** » Thu Jul 01, 2010 7:16 am

After all my research, you need over 2.6 ghz to play 1080p and 2.9ghz to be on the safe side. The rest just comes down to connectors. If you have over 2.6ghz and can not play 1080p, make sure you turn speedstep/cool and quiet off. I am on my HTPC and run a cheap GF8200 chip motherboard and an AMD 5600+ with a bunch of tuners hanging out the back of it. Win7 and Windows Media Centre run sweet and I play gmes on it on a1080p Samsung TV.

Steep · Post by **Steep** » Thu Jul 01, 2010 7:46 am

Just to confirm what ilovejedd said...

I just finished building a system with a zotac h55 in a silverstone sg05 case and unwisely purchased a big shuriken which fits, but makes the pci-e slot unusable. I picked up a shuriken revB and it -barely- fits. There is 1mm, maybe 2mm between the heatsink and the back of the graphics card. In addition. When I first installed the shuriken, a corner of it was over the pci-e slot and I kind of had to twist it and push it to straighten out so that I could get a vid card in there. But... in the end it all fits in there and I like having the extra space on the far side of the motherboard for cable management.

Which one: Zotac H55-Itx or Zotac GF-9300?

Which one: Zotac H55-Itx or Zotac GF-9300?

Re: Which one: Zotac H55-Itx or Zotac GF-9300?