Jump to content

Searching: Light but durable SFF case.

Matt K
By Matt K
in Cases and Mods
 Share
Posted

I am going to be building my sister a mini-itx build so that she could take it on the road fairly easily; I would like to keep the case as light as possible while also being durable enough to handle small dings here and there.  A lot of cases seem to fit the bill but they are pretty heavy, such as the lian li tu150 without the window.  Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated.  Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

i have a silverstone ML08B-H coming monday. it comes with a handle. 

 

i travel for a living, so i'm moving away from my corsair cube case. 

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

i've got a blower style GPU coming for it. i wouldn't suggest an open fan GPU.

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

@VioDuskar roger that, any other things to watch out for?  This is my first attempt at a SFF build, however I have watched endless content on building them in cases similar to that silverstone.  Modular power supply is often necessary correct?  also this computer will be doing no gaming, just internet and light photoshop work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
5 minutes ago, Matt K said:

@VioDuskar roger that, any other things to watch out for?  This is my first attempt at a SFF build, however I have watched endless content on building them in cases similar to that silverstone.  Modular power supply is often necessary correct?  also this computer will be doing no gaming, just internet and light photoshop work.

that case cannot accept an ATX powersupply. you must get an SFX form factor supply. 

i will not EVER buy a PSU if it isn't modular. Modular is a MUST. 

also, hope you have small hands and nimble fingers. 

 

always pack more RAM that you think you'll need. 

 

Road tips:

get an IR blaster for your phone so you can get into the menus of hotel TVs that you might use for displays. they normally overscan.

get a motherboard with WiFi/bluetooth support, as some hotels don't always have ethernet jacks, and bluetooth headphones might be all you can carry.

don't spend too much on a fancy keyboard and mouse that's too bulky. get something practical and light/small.

 

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

@VioDuskar i luckily do have skinny fingers 😅 what is your cooling setup like?  did you go with a small aio or a low profile air cooler?  also what is the case fan setup if you are able to tell me

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
13 minutes ago, Matt K said:

@VioDuskar i luckily do have skinny fingers 😅 what is your cooling setup like?  did you go with a small aio or a low profile air cooler?  also what is the case fan setup if you are able to tell me

i'm still waiting for my parts to come in, but in that case you have no options for case fans. hence the blower GPU. 

my CPU will being going from a 120x2 AIO to a low profile noctua l9i chromax black. it's a tiny tiny fan that's only rated for 65W TDP. i'm about to slap it on a 91W intel 7700k. 

 

find me later this week and i'll let you know how it goes. i expect to undervolt/downclock my CPU a bit. 

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

also, @Matt K don't forget to give it a cool name.

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
7 minutes ago, SteadfastWhiplash said:

Here's an excel document with a list of many SFF cases available to help you sort through some options. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dzRY3LLsXcDX5Qt5PvQOrAJhw0EK9Cy7UtQPdyRp6PY/edit#gid=0

neat sheet. i'm moving from the corsair 250D to the silverstone ML08B-H because even though the corsair is small it doesn't work well for travel. 
the notes that you have on that sheet are great too. 

We can't Benchmark like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to shove more GPUs in your computer. Like the time I needed to NV-Link, because I needed a higher HeavenBench score, so I did an SLI, which is what they called NV-Link back in the day. So, I decided to put two GPUs in my computer, which was the style at the time. Now, to add another GPU to your computer, costs a new PSU. Now in those days PSUs said OCZ on them, "Gimme 750W OCZs for an SLI" you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was that I had two GPUs in my rig, which was the style at the time! They didn't have RGB PSUs at the time, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big green ones. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author
On 5/1/2020 at 11:01 PM, VioDuskar said:

i'm still waiting for my parts to come in, but in that case you have no options for case fans. hence the blower GPU. 

my CPU will being going from a 120x2 AIO to a low profile noctua l9i chromax black. it's a tiny tiny fan that's only rated for 65W TDP. i'm about to slap it on a 91W intel 7700k. 

 

find me later this week and i'll let you know how it goes. i expect to undervolt/downclock my CPU a bit. 

thanks for all the feedback.  i have been doing some searching around, and for the processor i believe i want to use the ryzen 5 3400g, pair it with 16gb ram, and the rest all follows of course.  Do you think this is a good route? (again this pc is just for internet work and powerpoints etc, but i want it to be good at that for years).  However, I am having some issues finding an am4 motherboard that is mini-itx and has wifi.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing Cases and Mods

×