Small form factor branded PC

[kasugatei]

Couldn't make any better title, but in general I am looking for small form factor tower, can be discontinued model which will have the following specs:

- Intel CPU, something like i3 is more than enough

- smaller == better

- tricky part, has 2 PCIe expansion slots where second one is at least 4X PCIe. Most models have 16x + 1X.

- as silent as possible

- cheap (<500$)

 

Take Dell OptiPlex 3080 Small Form Factor as an example which would be perfect if the second slot were PCIe 4x instead of 1x.

I would like to avoid any custom building so branded office PCs from HP, Dell, Lenovo etc. would be the best IMHO

[jaslion]

So sff pc's well your in tought luck here these systems are meant for office use and not for many addin cards. Why the need for at least a x4 slot?

[Radium_Angel]

4 minutes ago, Niksa said:

Couldn't make any better title, but in general I am looking for small form factor tower, can be discontinued model which will have the following specs:

- Intel CPU, something like i3 is more than enough

- smaller == better

- tricky part, has 2 PCIe expansion slots where second one is at least 4X PCIe. Most models have 16x + 1X.

- as silent as possible

- cheap (<500$)

 

Take Dell OptiPlex 3080 Small Form Factor as an example which would be perfect if the second slot were PCIe 4x instead of 1x.

I would like to avoid any custom building so branded office PCs from HP, Dell, Lenovo etc. would be the best IMHO

Shuttle XPC might fit your bill.

[kasugatei]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

Shuttle XPC might fit your bill.

Thanks for the suggestion, but they are bit bigger than I would like them to be. 

 

 

[Radium_Angel]

2 minutes ago, Niksa said:

Thanks for the suggestion, but they are bit bigger than I would like them to be. 

 

 

There comes a limit of physics on how small you can make a system and still have the specs you desire.

The vast majority of ITX boards have a single PCIe slot, with a very select few with an additional x1 slot if you are lucky

Now throw in branded SFF like you want, and you will really be out of luck. Shuttle will be the smallest you can get short of custom building it yourself.

[jaslion]

4 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

There comes a limit of physics on how small you can make a system and still have the specs you desire.

The vast majority of ITX boards have a single PCIe slot, with a very select few with an additional x1 slot if you are lucky

Now throw in branded SFF like you want, and you will really be out of luck. Shuttle will be the smallest you can get short of custom building it yourself.

That or a flat micro atx system.

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

That or a flat micro atx system.

The stopping point is the branded part. I would presume the OP needs those slots for a reason, and anything mounted in the slots, would increase case size. I am unaware of any branded systems that would allow for mounting the pcie devices in a different position....

 

...Well, that's not true either, the old Lenovo ThinkCentres had an adapter plate but even those were PCI slots IIRC. Perhaps the newer ones offer twin PICe slots in a horizontal position?

 

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

The stopping point is the branded part. I would presume the OP needs those slots for a reason, and anything mounted in the slots, would increase case size. I am unaware of any branded systems that would allow for mounting the pcie devices in a different position....

 

...Well, that's not true either, the old Lenovo ThinkCentres had an adapter plate but even those were PCI slots IIRC. Perhaps the newer ones offer twin PICe slots in a horizontal position?

 

Yeah I know the adapter plates you mean but part from servers I've not seen those used anymore.

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

Yeah I know the adapter plates you mean but part from servers I've not seen those used anymore.

That's what I was afraid of, just no call for them.

I suppose it might help if the OP tells us what he/she wants to populate those slots with...

[kasugatei]

Original idea was to use Supermicro SuperChassis E300 where I can select motherboard which will have SFP+ connectors so I can put other SDI video 4x card in the expansion slot. However, that would cost me at least 800$ + memory + storage. It is something for home lab so I prefer not to overspend.

 

Since I don't have space to spare in my room I want something small, quiet and not power hungry so PC like OptiPlex 3080 Small Form Factor if it had 4x instead of 1x slot would be perfect. Then in 16x I would put 2x SFP+ card which are usually 8x and put my other card in a 4x slot. 

 

 

 

 

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Laptops and Pre-Build Systems