Posted November 10, 2013 This is my first post, so I might as well jump right in to the deep end. I've always wanted one of these cubes, and luckily managed to pick this up on eBay for only £50. It's in really good condition and the sliding mechanism for the core works perfectly too so it will work completely like stock. This build will be for my media center which will connect to my TV in the lounge, and I can use it to browse the web, watch TV shows and movies from my server, as well as stream stuff like iPlayer and Sky Go. The spec will be as follows: Motherboard: Asus Z87I-PRO or Gigabyte GA-H87N-WIFI. I haven't decided on this one yet, but I want the one that's most power efficient really. Need to find some reviews for these. CPU: Intel Core i3 4330T. Decided on this one because it has a 35W TDP and the higher end (if you can call it that) onboard GPU, the HD 4600. CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i. I've always been a big fan of Noctua due to the product quality and implementation, and this one should keep the Haswell nice and cool. RAM: 4GB DDR1600. Got plenty lying around and this isn't a crazy gaming machine so it'll be more than enough. PSU: Seasonic SS-250SU 250W. Really nice small form factor PSU, will fit snugly inside the cube's core and made by a very reputable brand. Here are some pictures of the Cube itself and the internals after all the original stuff was stripped away. The black heatsink in the center has to remain to some extent, as it's integrated with the slider mechanism and I definitely want to keep that functionality. I'll probably cut most of it away and just leave 1cm at the top joining the 2 sides to preserve some rigidity. Looking forward to getting this build underway, but it'll be a couple of weeks till I update this again as I'm 2 weeks away from moving house so I'm very busy as you can imagine. I'll leave you with some really poor quality iPhone 4 pictures of the Cube. It looks yellow due to the awful lighting in this room, but in person it looks silver and great quality. It's going to take quite a bit of modding to get this all fit in as a Mini-ITX board is too wide by about 1 or 2mm, as well as removing the old IO holes and replacing that section with aluminium mesh. I'll also have to cut out a new rectangle on the other side for the IO shield for the new motherboard. Can't wait to get cracking on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted November 10, 2013 It usually takes quite a bit of modding to make these Apple case build works, but they're almost always worth it. Their cases are all bloody beautiful (especially the G5 tower). Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted November 10, 2013 The power requirement is so low you can get away without a psu, and just power it with a laptop power brick and a 24pin adaptor . My Rigs (past and present) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted November 10, 2013 Author The power requirement is so low you can get away without a psu, and just power it with a laptop power brick and a 24pin adaptor . Yeah, but I wanted to avoid a power brick. It's going to be in my living room so want as little wires as possible. A kettle plug is less intrusive to me than a power brick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted November 10, 2013 Yeah, but I wanted to avoid a power brick. It's going to be in my living room so want as little wires as possible. A kettle plug is less intrusive to me than a power brick. Bricks can get annoying. I hide them all in back of TV! :lol: (neatly of course ) You might have to do something about the psu fan. The power brick method would have less noise. I was looking at this one http://www.quietpc.com/picopsu-160-xt-acdc when I was building my system. Could probably stuff into case too, but less wires. My Rigs (past and present) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted November 10, 2013 Looks cool! I would suggest the GIGABYTE ITX board for this. unless you will be needing six SATA ports... The first step to insanity is believing in your sanity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted November 10, 2013 Author @stevv: I saw that, but it looks like a cheap no-name brand and the #1 rule is to get a well known brand of PSU as I don't want it to go tits up and take the rest of my system with it. The one I picked, while overkill, is made by Seasonic and I very much trust their expertise in the PSU market. @hiyayhi: Yeah, I definitely don't need that many SATA ports as all my storage is on my server. The Gigabyte should be good enough, although I'm still waiting to see reviews to see power consumption comparisons between this and the Asus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted November 10, 2013 i feel like i have seen one of these before http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=227181 Keyboard build log Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted November 10, 2013 Author Nice, although not sure why he did what he did with the case though... might as well have not bothered with the cube. He has a bit more resources than I do and I'm not sure I can live up to that standard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted November 10, 2013 I understand why it did that because it is a rather dated look that his mod updated and still has an obvious connection to its origins. There is no standard to live up to i just thought it would give you some ideas for your own build. good luck Keyboard build log Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted November 11, 2013 @stevv: I saw that, but it looks like a cheap no-name brand and the #1 rule is to get a well known brand of PSU as I don't want it to go tits up and take the rest of my system with it. The one I picked, while overkill, is made by Seasonic and I very much trust their expertise in the PSU market. Yeah, there's only a couple of builds out there with it. I checked the specs, and Seasonic one is actually smaller (if you exclude the extra cables), nice find. My Rigs (past and present) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
.thumb.jpg.e4dafad042de9d17285599f16e47b236.jpg)
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 accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now