Unofficial mini-ITX case thread - Page 18

Today I received the "Tendraw H125C" case I ordered from the UK via eBay:

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/vie...d=120894211991

Paid £89 plus shipping ($143)

Turned out to be near identical to the Origenae M10. Came with a display looking suspiciously like the nMedia Pro I ordered a few days ago. A real VFD, not the fan/temp variety.

Identical to your Iwill HT100 except it has no ports on the front and the power button is black.

Not sure if there is an IR receiver built into the display, the docs don't say. I will see if the nMedia display fits.
I will post some pics when I have started the build. Still waiting for some parts.

Quite a steal compared to the Origen especially if the display turns out to be useful.

The display was packed in the accessories box - haven't tried to mount it but I assume it will fit. The front plastic insert has a center section which is lightly tinted for the display. The surrounding part is very dark with no obvious place for an IR receiver so I am concerned it may not be IR transparent.

I have some internal eHome receivers and I was hoping to fit one.

What is the noise level of the fan that came with the HT100?

I had missed the little round window, found it. Unfortunately its location only leaves room for the IR sensor, not the little circuit board, so I had to do a little soldering to make the sensor wire mounted. Fiddly but it worked out.

The display is an LCD2USB model with white characters on a blue background. I would have preferred a dark background but considering the price of the case I'd have to say it is okay. I plugged it into my desktop just to test it (drivers are unsigned so there is a bit of work to get them to install on 64-bit Win 7) and it works fine with LCDsmartie and the MCE.dll plugin.

In case the nMedia display I have ordered does not fit the case I will use this one. Since it will sit behind smoked glass maybe the blue light will be less intrusive.

I think that's the one, that is where I got the drivers from.

The board has the www.tendraw.com URL printed on it though.

So the nMedia/VLsys display arrived in the mail today. And as it turns out is is physically the EXACT same size as the one that came with the Tendraw case. The board has the same dimensions, the VFD module is the same size, and the mounting hole pattern is the same.

The nMedia has a separate Molex power connector (wonder if it is necessary?) and the components are of course different, but physically it will fit perfectly. Stardog, when you said "a hair too tall" did you refer to the physical dimensions of the board or the size of the display matrix?

Looks like the Tendraw does have a different display openingcthan the Iwill after all...

Okay. I'll just have to test them both and see. The nMedia has bright text on a dark background which I like better.

But I understand the nMedia software is buggy and will not display recording information, so I may have to run LCDsmartie instead which makes the 2 displays functionally identical.

[/end hijack]

My Lian Li PC-Q05B came today. I already installed everything, including modifying the case to fit my Ceton cablecard tuner. Everything fit awesomely!

I cut out a piece of thermal pad that fits the portion of the tuner card that is over the heatsink. Tuner is running < 48°C which is pretty good. I removed the mounting bracket of the Ceton tuner, so the end of the tuner card is flush against the back of the case - it just fits this way between the case and heatsink. Had to expand one of the vent holes to fit the coax connector thing through.

How quite is the Intel HTS 1155LP ? Was looking at one for a future build.

At boot time it's goes to max RPM and is loud, but once it posts it slows down and you can't hear it at all pretty much.

Thanks....Oh an nice build BTW.

+1. I love these creative little mods to fit tuner cards.

Interesting cooler solution. Does it come with the motherboard?

OT: Not being familiar with U.S. cable TV, the tuner card looks interesting. Does not look like the decryption module (CableCARD?) has a slot for a smart card - are the subscription entitlements programmed directly into the module?

Also looks like a tiny coax connector, almost like the miniature ones used with WiFi antennas?

Nope, the cooler needs to be purchased separately from the motherboard. It's an Intel HTS 1155LP, and is meant for these thin_mini-itx motherboards. I bought mine for like $20 new on ebay.


There's no smartcard, just the cablecard itself (which is sticking out the back of the case). It's a PIA to get cable companies to set them up properly on their end - they usually don't have people that why what they are doing.


It's sorta like those, but nothing screws in - just snaps in place.

Clearing stock in preparation for FM2 perhaps?

I like Asus, but Gigabyte sure has it right with two things: the no blink S3 and allowing CPU fan control with 3-pin fans.

Why oh why can't Asus add a blink/no-blink option in the BIOS???

Anybody try out that new ASRock Z77 ITX board yet?

So I completed the system yesterday.

Surprisingly roomy for the size.

• Intel DH77DF mITX board
• Core i3-2125
• Intel 120GB SSD
• Toshiba 2.5" disk for TV buffer
• LiteOn slim BD-ROM
• Digital Devices Cine S2 twin DVB-S2 tuner
• Black Gold 3620 twin DVB-T2 tuner (mini PCI slot via extender)
• nMedia PC VFD display

The display works great with LCD Smartie and the MCEdll plugin.

Drilled a 10mm hole through the back wall for the -T2 antenna connector.

Visibility is okay. I can just about make out what it reads fom 10' away. Will take some pics and post. It is very bright; the smoked glass on my cabinet doors actually seem to improve contrast.

Yes it is the nMedia display. Fit great in the Tendraw. I just have it showing the 7MC information.

Using Intel cooler. There is room for maybe 3mm more on the height. Problem is most low profile coolers will block the PCIe slot.

The Intel cooler is not the quietest unfortunately...

Which cooler are you using? I can see it does not block your PCI slot. Asus board, right? Which model?

Newegg has several new Lian Li mini itx cases such as the one below, check them out

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811112361

... and they now all have USB3.0 on the front, FWIW. Certainly not inexpensive by any stretch though!

Hey all. I'm getting ready (and by getting ready, I mean any time between now and a year from now) to build another PC. While this isn't exactly an HTPC, it will be built just like one. My HTPC is in an Apex mi-008, which I am mostly fond of, and this will be a very similar build.

This new build is for my home office. It will be a SFF workstation to sit on my desk. I want to go as small as possible while still being quiet. It needs to house an optical drive, 3.5 inch hard drive and an SSD. I already have a spare HDD, and I have a slim dvd burner from a dead laptop, so slim is ok in this case. I plan to put either an i3 or i5 in it, and I won't need a video card. h67/77, 2x4 ram.

I was initially looking at a Lian Li Q11, but I stared thinking I could go even smaller.

The two cases I have my eye on right now are the InWin BP655 and the HEC ITX200B. I saw somewhere on the site that Assassin has used the InWin, and it looked like a fine build. Not too tight.

For folks who have used narrow cases like this, can they stay cool without making too much noise? I like that the heatsink fan would sit right next to a vent, and I assume the 60/80mm exhaust fan should be replaced with a higher quality fan. But am I living in a fantasy that it can be pretty quiet on a desk? It doesn't need to be silent, just reasonable.

I also have a question about optical drives. I'd probably mount either of these cases vertically. Am I correct in assuming a standard optical drive doesn't work vertically? As I mentioned, I have a laptop drive anyway, but I was curious. If I went with the InWin with a full sized bay, I would get something like this, which would also make another spot for an HDD.

I'd love to hear thoughts anyone has. Thanks.

How about a Silverstone SG05?