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Livin
Posting Freak
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I'm looking at building a new system and this case might fit the bill.
Main goals... silent and small.
Other goals... cheap
I will likely be using a mid to higher level AMD APU with 8GB RAM, SSD.
one concern I have is the case only holds 40mm fans... a d rule of thumb says smaller fans are often louder than large ones.
If you have experience with this case please comment on it where you can.
thank you.
I'm not an expert but I play one at work.
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I have one of these cases, I had an E350 build in it (which was fine) recently replaced by an i3. It will take larger fans but you have to be creative - I Dremeled the fan off the stock i3 heatsink, then glued an 80mm fan to the top of the case above the now fanless stock heatsink. This works fine, temperatures stay where I want them.
Putting a 65W or more TDP processor in there? Really, honestly, this is not something I would try personally, at least not without thoroughly convincing myself that AMD TDPs are very conservative over-estimates.
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I have this enclosure for my Zotac E350 board and like it just fine. I have two 40mm fans in my case, just loose but they cool just fine and the noise doesn't bother me. Especially when I'm watching something, I couldn't hear it over my speakers if I tried.
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MTPPC
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[CPU] Intel Celeron E3400 Dual-Core 2.6GHz LGA-775 65W ($43 + $0) eBay
[MOBO+iGPU] ZOTAC GF9300-K-E LGA-775 WiFi Mini-ITX ($105 + $0) Amazon
[USB] CORSAIR CMFVY3S-8GB R 8GB USB Flash ($17 + $0) Newegg
[RAM] CORSAIR 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 DDR3 1333 ($15 + $0) Amazon
This is the combination I use. You can sometimes hear the fan on the cpu, but I do not use any other cooling. This CPU overclocks great, but the best feature is how cool it runs.
The case is nice. I especially like how the remote fob and USB boot pendrive fit under the front cover. Even so, the tabs holding the front cover on are fragile and don't fit real snugly.
I use mine with xbmc-live and I map directories on a backend server running Ubuntu server. I find the unit is very quiet, but still not silent. I imagine it would work great with an SSD, but I would try to avoid those 40mm fans by running cooler components.
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Livin
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I'm considering the A8-3800 since it has the higher-end GPU (6550D) and runs at 65 watts. I wonder if it would run cool & silent in this case? You guys think there is enough venting/airflow for this?
If not, do you think the case would be easy to mod to put in a larger aftermarket CPU HSF ... something that can hold a 120mm silent fan?
I'm not an expert but I play one at work.
