Picking a Mini-ITX case

[BenDTU]

Hi all,

I'm looking at building a new PC with the Mini-ITX form factor. I'm ultimately looking at going as small as possible while going for something reasonably aesthetically pleasing, though I'm a bit concerned about the nuances of going too small.

So far I'm looking at the Lian-Li PC-Q08 and the Silverstone SG05.

The SG05's size seems really appealing, but I'm a little concerned about having limited space. Atm I've got an 8800 GTS 512 which I've seen will fit, though I'm a little worried I could be going too small and as such limiting what I can upgrade to in the future. I've also heard a few negative comments about build quality.

Ultimately I'm looking to build something along the lines of a Sandy Bridge i5 w/ 8GB of ram - It should get some gaming use but nothing *too* heavy.

Is anyone able to give any recommendations for or against either of these cases? Is there anything else similar I should be checking out?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Skott]

The only real bad thing quality wise that is bad about the SG05 is if you get the 450w psu version. That psu has had reported problems when pulling over 300w. You can get a 560Ti nVidia card in it. Most people usually put a GTX460 or smaller card in it. That would be fine for a medium level gaming rig.

The Q08 is a popular case as well and allows for a larger GPU than the SG05. There is a handled version due out later this year that looks quite rugged.

Another popular mITX case is the SG07. It has a 600w psu and can take up to a 6950 size card. Its a little larger than the SG05.

There is also the Shuttle brand mATX boxes that are fairly small. You may want to look into them. There are quite a few more choices of mATX cases than the mITX ones but the mITX field is growing larger and becoming more popular each month. Right now the sweet spot in SFF gaming is with mATX rigs. Silverstone makes a few mATX cubes such as the SG01, and SG02 versions. They also make some tower like cases such as the SG03 and SG04.

 

[joetekubi]

I just built a system for my SO with an i3 Sandy Bridge, Gigabyte H67 mITX, and the SG05 (with the 300W PS). No complaints about the quality, tight room inside, but easy enough build, considering it was my first mini system. I found the stock Intel cpu chiller to be effective and really not too noisy. In an effort to get cooler and quieter I installed a Zalman 8700 chiller, and that blocks the video card slot.

Consider carefully your power requirements now and near-term. Many times smaller power supplies will run quiter and cooler. The Sandy Bridge mITX rigs don't pull much power at all.

 

[jjmIII]

My only complaints on my SG05: power button is cheap IMO, and you MUST get a slot load DVD drive, a tray load gets stuck when ejecting...

That Lian Li looks nice.

 

[BenDTU]

Thanks for your replies.

I was looking at the 450W SG05 - though if it has known issues I'll stay away. How much power would a Sandy Bridge i5 and a 8800 512 GTS need? I've got a 550W PSU currently if I end up going with the Q08.

I think I'm divided between the SG07 and the Q08 right now - While I really like the form factor of the SG07 I'd push costs up considerably. Reeeeeally not a fan of that faceplate either...

On the other hand, the Q08 may be a touch larger than what I'd ideally want. I love the look though.

Ideally I'd be wanting something which will scale well in the future if I ever wanted to upgrade things. How much room does the SG07 give if I wanted to, say, get a new video card compared to the Q08? I saw one comment that the SG07 could fit a larger one.

 

[s1175290]

I have a Q08 and overall it's an excellent case. The build quality is exactly what you would expect from Lian Li and the case is pretty darn versatile. I'm not too famililar with the SG07, but I can certainly speak to the Q08.

I built a WHS system in my Q08. I was drawn to it because of the ability to fit 6 3.5" drives in a relatively small case. One feature that you in particular may be interested in is that the bottom drive cage is removable. You would lose 2 of the 6 drive bays, but with the bottom cage removed, you can fit a decent sized video card. Lian Li's website indicates you can fit up to a 300mm video card, or cards up to about 11.75".

The only minor issue I have is that the ventilation in the case isn't great if you have all 6 drive bays filled (like I do). The drives in conjunction with a full sized PSU just doesn't leave much room for air flow. I would blame that more on my lack of planning than anything else. If you are only going to have a couple of drives in there, you can space them out and I would anticipate that you would have much better airflow that what I've observed.

Good luck in your search.

 

[akahoovy]

I just built a new pc using the SG05 with the 450 watt psu with an Intel Core i5 2500k, 8gb of RAM, and loaded it with the Maximum Graphics edition GTX 560Ti card. I have had no problems from the psu.

My experience from building it was that I came away with the thought that if Silverstone is the manufacturer of the case and the psu, I wish the power cables had been *much* shorter, in fact I had a lot of trouble getting the hdd cage back into the case and having the wires fit. I would say to make this fit easier, just use a ssd (I plan on adding a ssd to it and keep the hdd), and put the graphics card in LAST so you have the wiggle room for the cables. I had to attach the front end power cables to the graphics card first to get it into the case and seat it on the motherboard.

Another thought instead of putting a dvd or blu-ray drive in the case is to just buy an external one. I'm considering this.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Here's one idea, OP. Note my note at the end of the post about Silverstone's more powerful SFX PSU.

 

[BenDTU]

Oh boy, this is getting hard to choose.

Ultimately I think the SG-07 would push the price a bit higher than I'd be willing to pay. There'd easily be an extra $100 over the SG05, which in itself works out at about $30 over the Q08 due to needing to get a slim optical drive.

If going for the SG-05, would I really need a 450W PSU for this setup? Would I easily be able to go to the 450W PSU in the future if needed (I'm assuming the SFX PSU is the same as the one which comes in the 450W model?)