Streacom F1C EVO build log. [Haswell upgrade - Build finished]

[FreyrGauti]

Well I've wanted to change my HTPC case for a while now and used my birthday as an excuse to go for it.

The case is a Streacom F1C EVO, Wesena makes them for Streacom and also sell them under their on name, or they used to.
What I ordered was the case, a 150w pico psu and remote set with the internar sensor.

Hardware is a Asus E35M1-I Deluxe motherboard with an onboard APU, 2x2GB Mushkin memory, 40GB Muskin Deluxe SSD and in the end a Corsair AF120 QE.

I really should have ordered a short sata cable and a 40mm fan also to move air through the case since after running it for an hour completely fanless temps where up to 70° on CPU and 80° on GPU, celcius.

The Corsair fan manages to keep temps within a resonable range while watching 1080p movies in XBMC but it isn't pulling in fresh air so temps remain a bit high.

I plan to upgrade to Haswell when it launches and probably use the Noctua NH-L9i cooler, I'll also buy a 40mm case fan after the weekend, hopefully temps will drop when I get airflow through the case.

 

Picture time...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All bags marked.

 

The rare problem when the screwdriver doesn't fit in your case...

 

 

So pretty!

 

 

Not so pretty anymore...

 

A litle bit of a size difference between this case and the Antec Fusion Remote that used to be there...

 

The case is amazingly well constructed, quite happy with the purchase.

I must say that this motherboard combo really doesn't work in such a small case, I will test it with only a 40mm case fan when I get one but I don't have high hopes.

I've seen threads where people are running i7's in this case with the noctua heatsink and a 40mm case fan and get quite acceptable temps.

The build is really messy right now but I'll be able to cleen it up alot when I move to Haswell, then I'll also be able to install a slim bluray drive.

 

So...what do you think?

[Homicidium]

Looks cool. I'm really keen on building a HTPC for me and my parents in the future. Decent job on the cable managment as well!

[Nicktrance]

That's an amazing case, very simple, elegant and small. You probably could build a PC which puts the next gen consoles to shame in that :lol:.

[FreyrGauti]

Yes I'm really happy with the case, such a high build quality!

I borrowed a 60mm fan from work and installed it, took out the 120mm fan. With the 60mm fan running at 1200-1500rpm, runs at 4500rpm at 12v, it's keeping the CPU and GPU at a resonable temp.

I should be getting my Scythe Mini Kaze tomorrow, 40mm, it's a much higher quality fan than the one I got from work so I should be able to run it at stock RPM without hearing it.

[TicTac]

i like is nice and small :P nice job looks awesome.

[FreyrGauti]

i like is nice and small :P nice job looks awesome.

 

Thx :)

 

Small update, got my Scythe Mini Kaze 40mm fan, amazing how quiet it is at 12v!

Now the build is a bit cleaner then with the Corsair fan in it...next update will be Haswell :D

 

[Carter]

Nice build. I like the case. Sadly I didn't get one though because I wanted a discrete graphics card. But looks great as a htpc.

[FreyrGauti]

So now it's finally time for the Haswell update, pics arn't that special since I used my HTC OneS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, specs are: Gigabyte GA-H87N-WIFI, Intel Core i5 4670T, 8GB Mushkin 1600Mhz Blackline, Mushkin Chronos 120GB SSD, Sony Optiarc BluRay Drive, Gelid Slim Silence i-plus CPU cooler and a Scythe Mini Kaze 40mm exhaust fan.

 

I've downclocked the CPU to 2Ghz and turned of turbo, temps are around 40° idle and 60° after watching HD material in XBMC for several hours.

 

I'm very happy with the upgrade, it's total overkill ofcourse but that's part of the fun. The old hardware was stuttering when running heavier skins in XBMC.

 

If I was to make any changes I would take the Streacom F7C Evo since it's a bit larger and has space for the Noctua NH-L7i and a 80mm exhaust fan, then the SSD wouldn't have to be almost touching the PSU and I could have not downclocked the CPU, since it was reaching around 80° before I downclocked.

 

This build is now finished, I might open the case again to take better pics and try to clean up the cables.

Any comments appriciated.

[Exotath]

Looks like a fun build, makes me want to do one even though I don't watch media that way. lol.

[FreyrGauti]

Neat mate, I'm assuming a nas for mass storage yeah?

 

Always love to see small htpc rigs like this :)

 

Not a nas but a "server" with 9,5 TB of storage.

 

Thank for the possitive comments, it's quite fun to build such a small machine. :)

[MakeMebad1978]

I really like these full aluminium htpc cases and am interested in building one soon. My question is about the pico power supply, if the case had room would you be able to have another ssd or maybe a 2.5" hdd or is there only enough connectors for 1 ssd and slim optical drive?

[FreyrGauti]

I really like these full aluminium htpc cases and am interested in building one soon. My question is about the pico power supply, if the case had room would you be able to have another ssd or maybe a 2.5" hdd or is there only enough connectors for 1 ssd and slim optical drive?

 

With the cooling I have I could acctually mount two 2.5" drives on the bottom of the optical drive cage, it would be very close to the cpu cooler but since it has open sides I don't think it would restrict the airflow to much.

 

Edit: Sorry, read your post to fast, yes I could power two hdd's/ssd's and a optical drive of it, mabey even three hdd's/ssd's if I got a splitter cable.

Most 2.5" drives today are designed to be low power so I think the 150w PSU should manage this.

[GoGreenElectrics]

I'm also building a new Mini ITX PC and am also considering the Streacom FC1 case with the optical drive. My big question is this...... is there enough room on the left of the case to fit a low profile PCIe SSD ?. In addition to this, is it possible to install 2 sata ssd's together with the optical drive.

 

If you could help me with this, ide be really grateful.

 

Thanks

Rob