Front Page: Soltek Qubic EQ3401M Review

[GTaudiophile]

Starts Here!

I really like this Small Form Factor stuff, but can you build you own? Where can I get a SFF mobo? Or where can I get JUST a SFF case like the one MSI uses for the MEGA? Why don't such nice cases exist for the microATX boards? (I can't find them.) Where are the big PSUs for these things? They seem to be limited to 200W! That can't be enough to run a i865 mobo, P4 3.0+Ghz, ATi AIW 9800 PRO! I want to build one from scratch without all these limitations. I don't want onboard sound and video!

Can anyone answer any of these questions?

 

[DaveSimmons]

> Why don't such nice cases exist for the microATX boards?

Cooler Master has some nice mATX cases like the 620 desktop for home theater PCs, and Antec has a couple of nice mATX desktops (one is on the front page of silentpcreview.com). But mATX is just too big to make a cube from.

Shuttle has sold some of their cube mobos separately from the cases, usually starting a few months after they start using them in the cubes. And I've seen some mini-ITX cube cases sold at places like cyberguys.com.

If you really want to DIY, check out AT's small-form-factor forum -and- the granddaddy of tiny, sudhian.com

PS - MSI also makes some nice "booksize" barebones, search "hermes" at newegg.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I just love how CoolerMaster's ATCS-600 series of cases is not listed on their web site.

 

[Hamilton]

http://www.coolermaster.de/

It is in german, but they have the 600-series cases.

 

[KDOG]

I would LOVE to get to get a K8T800 or nForce3 Socket 742 SFF mobo to build a PC with, as long as it has good onboard sound...

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
I just love how CoolerMaster's ATCS-600 series of cases is not listed on their web site.

newegg.com usually has 3-5 photos of each case plus specs for fans, bays, size.

 

[GTaudiophile]

But what about my PSU question? I just don't see how these 150-200W SFF/microATX PSUs can dish out what it takes.

 

[DaveSimmons]

A good 200w supply can power a beefy P4 system.

A lot of the belief that 400w supplies are needed came from lousy generic 300w supplies, cheap motherboards with second-rate power regulation, and high-voltage overclockers, some running an extra 4 case fans.

I was running my Cel 1.3a, 512MB, gf2mx, optical, and 4 hard drive server on a 230w PSU.

read in the sudhian forums to see who is using AIW cards in their i865 cubes.

(ed) FYI the Cooler Master mATX cases take full-size PSUs.

 

[Ne0]

I bought one of these 2 weeks ago on newegg, image of my Qbic I bought it in conjunction with a Pentium 4 2.4C and Geil 512 MB PC3200 Ram. It's really simple to install in this small form factor, and I loved it even more because I didn't have to install the motherboard. I bought this because it had a 250 watt power supply instead of 200 watt on most other systems and 2 expansion bays instead of just 1 on most systems. I love it, I overclocked the P4 to 3.0 ghz with stock cooling (default voltage & I get about 51c - 52c in temperature. Pretty good airflow for small area, Icyq technology.) I currently have a Geforce 4 Ti4200 in there but it worked great with my brothers Radeon 9800 Pro. I also have a DVD drive & CD-rw in it, fortissimo 7.1 card (although the onboard sound is pretty decent to save the one pci slot), and western digital 8 mb cache drive (con: can only fit one harddrive) with no power issues. Comes with a great carrying case and the front usb/sound ports come in handy. It's a beauty to boot, highly recommend.

 

[Lyfer]

Can that thing support a Thermalright SLK800/900 heatsink? (since it already supports stock)