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Realan E-I5/E-I7 mini ITX case builds - Page 2

post #31 of 118
11/9/12 at 2:17pm
Cool looking little case
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post #32 of 118
11/18/12 at 4:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by StardogChampion View Post

I've built two E-i7s with the GA-H77N-WIFI and they turned out really nice. I have an E-i7 for my office PC and I haven't had any issues with scratches. The slot has a beveled edge and the bezel on the optical drive protects it. The optical drive tray slides back and forth so it's easy to adjust the optical drive to where you want once you screw it into the tray. There is no button on the outside of the case so you'd have to drill a small emergency eject hole yourself to access the manual eject button on your optical drive. I haven't done that but I've been told it's pretty easy by those who have..

Hi StardogChampion,

Sorry for my late reply (was off a couple of days).

Thank you very much for all the information. Will start soon building my htpc.

Thanks and regards
Lankou
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post #33 of 118
11/20/12 at 4:06pm
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Can't believe it took me this long just to post pictures. If you noticed the noctua fans are installed for positive preasure, but they cool much better flipped around, exhaust, which is my curent setup. If you want to install an optical drive, you'll need a cpu cooler 40mm high or less, this will also give you clearance to hang a 2.5 HDD off the bottom of the optical bay. I'm running an older ECS H55H-I motherboard, I3-550, 4GB's memory, and a PNY GT430. Case gets a little warm, but I'm also running the fans at their lowest settings, 800 RPM I believe using the Low noise filters that came with the fans. right now, the CPU fan is just audiable over the hard drive, the noctua fans, completely silent.

Notice, the picture of the case, you see a dimm glowing blue light, the PC is a sleep, but that light, on the internal power board, is on 24X7 if the PC is on or not, the power on light is not to bright, and the HDD activity light seems to have a dimmer, meaning that the live TV buffer is just enough for a very faint red flashing more of a glow than a flash, not too distracting when watching TV, but durning boot, windows updates, and other HDD intensive uses, the HDD activity light is very red, but again, not to bright.

So far I love the case, I finally can fit a decent powered PC in my entertainment center, I've taken the doors off the cabinet until I get around to adding an exhaust fan to the rear of the cabinet, i'm going to power the fan with the rear molex connector on the case.
Edited by dbailey75 - 11/30/12 at 5:32pm
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post #34 of 118
11/21/12 at 12:14am
I'm really liking this case and the price on ecosmartpc.com is solid. I do have a couple questions about the slot loading ODD, though. Does anyone here have a recommendation for a Blu-ray drive? I'm not able to find much of a selection out there and few of them have any reviews. Also, how are you getting around the lack of a physical eject button? Are people generally drilling this out as was mentioned earlier..?
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post #35 of 118
11/21/12 at 6:32am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by snapwing View Post

I'm really liking this case and the price on ecosmartpc.com is solid. I do have a couple questions about the slot loading ODD, though. Does anyone here have a recommendation for a Blu-ray drive? I'm not able to find much of a selection out there and few of them have any reviews. Also, how are you getting around the lack of a physical eject button? Are people generally drilling this out as was mentioned earlier..?

I created shortcut to a little freeware utility called 'nircmd' that will eject the disk. That shortcut can then be assigned to a key-combo (e.g. Ctrl-Atl-E). You could then have a remote emit that keystroke depending on your remote. You can also right click on the drive in Windows Explorer and select 'eject'.

I haven't tried the drilling a hole mod yet but it should be very easy. I also have a case of brand new Toshiba slot-load blu-ray drives that are working great in the E-i7. They have a right-side eject so I'd drill to fit those.
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post #36 of 118
11/21/12 at 6:40am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbailey75 View Post

Can't believe it took me this long just to post pictures. If you noticed the noctua fans are installed for positive preasure, but they cool much better flipped around, exhaust, which is my curent setup. If you want to install an optical drive, you'll need a cpu cooler 40mm high or less, this will also give you clearance to hang a 2.5 HDD off the bottom of the optical bay. I'm running an older ECS H55H-I motherboard, I3-550, 4GB's memory, and a PNY GT430. Case gets a little warm, but I'm also running the fans at their lowest settings, 800 RPM I believe using the Low noise filters that came with the fans. right now, the CPU fan is just audiable over the hard drive, the noctua fans, completely silent.
Notice, the picture of the case, you see a dimm glowing blue light, the PC is a sleep, but that light, on the internal power board, is on 24X7 if the PC is on or not, the power on light is not to bright, and the HDD activity light seems to have a dimmer, meaning that the live TV buffer is just enough for a very faint red flashing more of a glow than a flash, not too distracting when watching TV, but durning boot, windows updates, and other HDD intensive uses, the HDD activity light is very red, but again, not to bright.
So far I love the case, I finally can fit a decent powered PC in my intertainment center, I've taken the doors off the cabinet until I get around to adding an exhaust fan to the rear of the cabinet, i'm going to power the fan with the rear molex connector on the case.

The pictures look great. I like the Noctua fans. I too found that exhaust was the best route. Even one fan makes a huge difference in temperatures. In my office E-i7 I have a Antec Tri-cool set to low and it's running cool and quiet.

The light on the DC powerboard is kind of a funny thing. It seems to be the fashion or something. My picoPSU 120-WI-25 has a red light. I have other brands of power boards that either have a blue or red LED. Even the IR receiver in the HT-80/HT-100 case has a red LED. My bedroom HTPC is an E-i5 which has one of these power boards and I happy to say that while you can see a faint light in the dark it's not annoying at least.

Thanks for posting your results. I am glad you like the E-i7. The silver looks amazing in person IMHO.
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post #37 of 118
11/21/12 at 10:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by StardogChampion View Post

I created shortcut to a little freeware utility called 'nircmd' that will eject the disk. That shortcut can then be assigned to a key-combo (e.g. Ctrl-Atl-E). You could then have a remote emit that keystroke depending on your remote. You can also right click on the drive in Windows Explorer and select 'eject'.
I haven't tried the drilling a hole mod yet but it should be very easy. I also have a case of brand new Toshiba slot-load blu-ray drives that are working great in the E-i7. They have a right-side eject so I'd drill to fit those.

Thanks for the Blu-ray suggestion! I have a harmony remote, so should be able to handle the key stroke combo okay. I'm planning an HTPC build so mouse/keyboard won't meet the WAF! When you talk about drilling a hole-- would you just do a small one for a paper clip... or a larger one to somehow reach the eject button on the drive? I'm having trouble picturing that approach.

I love the look of this case, but maybe you have another model that might work for me as well? I want to use an i3-3225 with a Blu-ray ODD, SSD, and 2.5 HDD.
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post #38 of 118
11/21/12 at 8:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by StardogChampion View Post

I also have a case of brand new Toshiba slot-load blu-ray drives that are working great in the E-i7. They have a right-side eject so I'd drill to fit those.
Will you be selling those drives on your website?
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post #39 of 118
11/24/12 at 10:01am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by snapwing View Post

Thanks for the Blu-ray suggestion! I have a harmony remote, so should be able to handle the key stroke combo okay. I'm planning an HTPC build so mouse/keyboard won't meet the WAF! When you talk about drilling a hole-- would you just do a small one for a paper clip... or a larger one to somehow reach the eject button on the drive? I'm having trouble picturing that approach.
I love the look of this case, but maybe you have another model that might work for me as well? I want to use an i3-3225 with a Blu-ray ODD, SSD, and 2.5 HDD.

I was thinking just for an emergency eject. My ultimate HTPC would be the E-i7 with IR window and eject button but those aren't available yet. I am working on it smile.gif. For all the components you list there, the E-i7 is our best option with some minor mods.
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post #40 of 118
11/24/12 at 10:02am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by WylieKylie View Post

Will you be selling those drives on your website?

Yes, I am finishing testing and will have them up this weekend as an available option on the cases and barebones PCs.
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post #41 of 118
11/24/12 at 8:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by StardogChampion View Post

I was thinking just for an emergency eject. My ultimate HTPC would be the E-i7 with IR window and eject button but those aren't available yet. I am working on it smile.gif. For all the components you list there, the E-i7 is our best option with some minor mods.

Got it-- that makes sense to create an emergency eject. Does the E-I7's 84w power supply sound sufficient for what I'm trying to do? Or are folks generally using a picoPSU of some flavor?

I appreciate your feedback!
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post #42 of 118
11/25/12 at 9:52am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by snapwing View Post

Got it-- that makes sense to create an emergency eject. Does the E-I7's 84w power supply sound sufficient for what I'm trying to do? Or are folks generally using a picoPSU of some flavor?
I appreciate your feedback!

Yes, the 84W AC adapter is plenty. You're welcome.
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post #43 of 118
1/5/13 at 7:21am
i have the following build: e-i7, HL ODD, MSI FM2 mobo, a6-5400k cpu, 8gb Samsung low profile, noctua low profile heatsink, Samsung 840 120gb SSD, three exhaust fans. I found the red hdd light to be a bit annoying myself. There was an easy solution, unplug the HDD light connector from the mobo; no more red light only blue light when the machine is awake. I am curious about about idle temp experience. I have been using speccy to monitor temps. I finished my build one week ago; initially i was getting idle temps around 43C and load temps around 53C; one week later idle temps are nearer 50C. I also get periodic spikes (if Speccy is accurate) up to 60-64C. I only use this for surfing and streaming video. I am not sure what changed, if anything. Anyone with any ideas or similar issues?

By the way, i tried the Noctua and Scythe Kozuti. They both performed similarly. Benefit of Noctua is 37mm versus 40mm, better build quality. Kozuti is excellent though and is cheaper ($15 less), and aligns better with the side fan location (kozuti heatsink fans are perpendicular to side, whereas Noctua is parallel to side).

One other response with regards to ODD eject, i programmed keyboard (Logitech k400) with hotkey to eject disk. Works like a champ. Obviously would not help if a CD got stuck in drive and would have to open the case to eject disk.
Edited by derwin424 - 1/5/13 at 7:28am
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post #44 of 118
1/5/13 at 8:37am
Thread Starter 
I've found the A6-5400K temps to be all over the place while the A10-5700 seems to actually run cooler. I don't know why that is and it doesn't make sense to me. The A10-5700 system I put together in the E-i7 with 150W power supply, ODD, MSI motherboard, 8GB and one 80mm fan runs cooler than the A6-5400K one. I haven't figured out these FM2 motherboards/APUs yet. They are a bit quirky.
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post #45 of 118
1/6/13 at 5:57pm
Thank you. Are you running the Noctua PWM fan? What are you using to measure the temperatures? And, what temps are you experiencing at idle and when surfing and/or watching streaming hd video?
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post #46 of 118
1/7/13 at 6:04am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by derwin424 View Post

Thank you. Are you running the Noctua PWM fan? What are you using to measure the temperatures? And, what temps are you experiencing at idle and when surfing and/or watching streaming hd video?

My test system used a Gelid Silent 8 PWM fan. Temperatures were measured using Speedfan and power consumption using a Kill-a-Watt meter. With the MSI board and the A10-5700 (stock cooler) in the E-i7 with the items listed it was around 35C at idle and up to 50C watching videos. Prime95 can take it up around 70C but it'll reach that prettu quickly sitting in open air too.
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post #47 of 118
1/7/13 at 3:06pm
I will download speed fan to see what my comps are. Just to be clear, you had an ODD installed and an SSD below, and the single fan? I am using the the 120W power adapter. Again, i am using three simple cooler master exhaust fans with the Noctua NH-L9a. I downloaded HWMonitor, it shows the system running 43 at idle, 53-56 when I am watching video and i get occasional significant (10 degree) temperature and wattage increases. Do you make any bios adjustments to the motherboard? Do you have any experience with the a8-5500?

Thank you for your responses.
Edited by derwin424 - 1/7/13 at 3:23pm
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post #48 of 118
1/8/13 at 6:25am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by derwin424 View Post

I will download speed fan to see what my comps are. Just to be clear, you had an ODD installed and an SSD below, and the single fan? I am using the the 120W power adapter. Again, i am using three simple cooler master exhaust fans with the Noctua NH-L9a. I downloaded HWMonitor, it shows the system running 43 at idle, 53-56 when I am watching video and i get occasional significant (10 degree) temperature and wattage increases. Do you make any bios adjustments to the motherboard? Do you have any experience with the a8-5500?
Thank you for your responses.

Yes, the test was for everything installed and closed up with components in the standard positions. Toshiba blu-ray, SSD underneath, stock cooler, A10-5700, MSI mini-ITX, 80mm Gelid Silent 8 PWM fan, standard DC power board and 120W AC adapter, top closed but not screwed down. I did not make any BIOS adjustments related to clock/voltage. IIRC, the A6-5400K tests showed much higher temps which again doesn't make sense to me.
Edited by StardogChampion - 1/10/13 at 8:56am
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post #49 of 118
1/8/13 at 6:25am
Thread Starter 
Something we're working on... know what that is?



smile.gif
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post #50 of 118
1/8/13 at 10:57am
Internal IR via CIR or internal USB?
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post #51 of 118
1/8/13 at 1:26pm
Thank you.
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post #52 of 118
1/8/13 at 5:34pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by WylieKylie View Post

Internal IR via CIR or internal USB?

It's just the window (well, that's just a hole there I am getting the actual windows this week) so it could be either -- whatever you want to install.
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post #53 of 118
1/9/13 at 9:02pm
For anyone out there considering the E-i7 case for your next project, I can recommend it highly. I knew I wanted a mini-ITX build but hadn't done one before. I was obsessing over which case to get since I was planning on the build lasting me a couple years-- so that meant a case that was going to be relatively easy to work with (yet genuinely small), fit all my planned devices, and be super nice to look at. This case met my criteria with no troubles. I had no trouble putting an ODD, SSD, and 2.5" HDD in there along with a case fan with room to spare! The case shipped quickly and arrived well-packaged with all the small parts I needed. I'm very pleased with the fit and finish of the case overall and everything went together surprisingly quickly. The thing takes up less than a1/4 of my previous Silverstone ATX case-- it's awesome!

I was stuck for quite a while between this case and the Wesena ITX-7 from PHT. Both are nice cases and would fit what I wanted to throw in them, but in the end I went with the E-i7 from ecosmartpc.com. A significant factor was gauging the quality of feedback provided by each reseller on these forums-- they are both active on this and other HT sites. I was really impressed with how much the ecosmartpc.com owner contributes to the community and in the end made the easy decision to go with him. ...And I am totally glad I did! I recieved an outstanding level of support which exceeded my expectations. I can recommend purchasing from that site without hesitation. And no, I'm not affiliated with him or the site in any way-- just a very impressed customer!

One of my concerns prior to building were the lack of an ODD eject, but I used 'nircmd' to create a shortcut to do it, as suggested above. I then used Media Center Studio to add an entry point for it in Media Center. So far it works great and I haven't bothered to map a keyboard shortcut to my Harmony yet-- though I'll do that eventually.

Here's my build in case it helps anyone:

mobo: ASRock H77m-ITX
cpu: Intel i3-3225
hdd 0: Samsung 830 128gb SSD (OS volume, mounted vertically along one side of the case)
hdd 1: Samsung HM321HI 320GB HDD (recorded tv, commercial scanning)
odd: Toshiba TS-TB23L BDROM (purchased with case)
ram: Crucial something from the parts bin...
cpu fan: Gelid Silence I-plus
case fan: Noctua NF-R8 (set to exhaust)
power supply: 150W picoPSU type

I took a lot of advice from previous posts in this thread-- big thanks to all of you who shared your experiences!
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post #54 of 118
1/10/13 at 7:47am
Hey guys first post here. I really really like the look of this line of cases and have used it as inspiration to put together a parts list for a new htpc.

Here's a permalink to my parts list so far. Could anyone offer insight as to what psu would provide enough power for my component list? The max wattage for my component list comes in at 139W, so I'm assuming that I'd need a psu to cover at least that. Also any advice on compatible component changes that could reduce the power draw would be most helpful.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wQS8

FYI I do not game on PC, so my primary uses would be light server duty, streaming hd video, and ota dvr with wmc.

Thanks so much in advance for your input!
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post #55 of 118
1/10/13 at 8:48am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by thefunnyman View Post

Hey guys first post here. I really really like the look of this line of cases and have used it as inspiration to put together a parts list for a new htpc.

Here's a permalink to my parts list so far. Could anyone offer insight as to what psu would provide enough power for my component list? The max wattage for my component list comes in at 139W, so I'm assuming that I'd need a psu to cover at least that. Also any advice on compatible component changes that could reduce the power draw would be most helpful.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wQS8

FYI I do not game on PC, so my primary uses would be light server duty, streaming hd video, and ota dvr with wmc.

Thanks so much in advance for your input!

Welcome!

That set of parts will use around 40W for watching 1080p videos and max out around 90W. So, a 120W power supply would be all you need. This is from my own experience building and testing these small PCs.

If you're looking to get one of the e-mini cases, the CPU cooler you've chosen won't fit. For the E-i5 or E-i7 you want something 37mm or less and for the E-i3 28mm (1U) is the only choice. My favorite Intel low-profile cooler for these cases is the Dynatron T459 or Gelid Slim Silence i-Plus. There are a lot of choices though all depending on your budget.
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post #56 of 118
1/10/13 at 8:54am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by snapwing View Post

For anyone out there considering the E-i7 case for your next project, I can recommend it highly. I knew I wanted a mini-ITX build but hadn't done one before. I was obsessing over which case to get since I was planning on the build lasting me a couple years-- so that meant a case that was going to be relatively easy to work with (yet genuinely small), fit all my planned devices, and be super nice to look at. This case met my criteria with no troubles. I had no trouble putting an ODD, SSD, and 2.5" HDD in there along with a case fan with room to spare! The case shipped quickly and arrived well-packaged with all the small parts I needed. I'm very pleased with the fit and finish of the case overall and everything went together surprisingly quickly. The thing takes up less than a1/4 of my previous Silverstone ATX case-- it's awesome!

I was stuck for quite a while between this case and the Wesena ITX-7 from PHT. Both are nice cases and would fit what I wanted to throw in them, but in the end I went with the E-i7 from ecosmartpc.com. A significant factor was gauging the quality of feedback provided by each reseller on these forums-- they are both active on this and other HT sites. I was really impressed with how much the ecosmartpc.com owner contributes to the community and in the end made the easy decision to go with him. ...And I am totally glad I did! I recieved an outstanding level of support which exceeded my expectations. I can recommend purchasing from that site without hesitation. And no, I'm not affiliated with him or the site in any way-- just a very impressed customer!

One of my concerns prior to building were the lack of an ODD eject, but I used 'nircmd' to create a shortcut to do it, as suggested above. I then used Media Center Studio to add an entry point for it in Media Center. So far it works great and I haven't bothered to map a keyboard shortcut to my Harmony yet-- though I'll do that eventually.

Here's my build in case it helps anyone:

mobo: ASRock H77m-ITX
cpu: Intel i3-3225
hdd 0: Samsung 830 128gb SSD (OS volume, mounted vertically along one side of the case)
hdd 1: Samsung HM321HI 320GB HDD (recorded tv, commercial scanning)
odd: Toshiba TS-TB23L BDROM (purchased with case)
ram: Crucial something from the parts bin...
cpu fan: Gelid Silence I-plus
case fan: Noctua NF-R8 (set to exhaust)
power supply: 150W picoPSU type

I took a lot of advice from previous posts in this thread-- big thanks to all of you who shared your experiences!

Thanks for the feedback. It's very much appreciated. The best part about this is hearing that you are enjoying your new HTPC! That's what it's all about and for me that's what makes it fun.
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post #57 of 118
1/10/13 at 8:59am
@StardogChampion,

Thanks for the direction on the cpu fan! I'm probably going to get the e-i5 case as I have no use for a cd/dvd/blu ray drive. I will check out those cpu fans. Currently I have a laptop serving htpc duty and it's been overheating a lot and generally showing signs of age, so it's time to replace it. One complaint i have with my current setup is that the fan noise is almost unbearable...if the machine spins up in the middle of the night to record something, it will actually wake my wife up. So, quiet operation is imperative to this build. With that in mind, could you also recommend good quality case fans that are easily controllable and relatively quiet?

Thanks again so much for your thoughts on this!
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post #58 of 118
1/10/13 at 9:05am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by thefunnyman View Post

@StardogChampion,

Thanks for the direction on the cpu fan! I'm probably going to get the e-i5 case as I have no use for a cd/dvd/blu ray drive. I will check out those cpu fans. Currently I have a laptop serving htpc duty and it's been overheating a lot and generally showing signs of age, so it's time to replace it. One complaint i have with my current setup is that the fan noise is almost unbearable...if the machine spins up in the middle of the night to record something, it will actually wake my wife up. So, quiet operation is imperative to this build. With that in mind, could you also recommend good quality case fans that are easily controllable and relatively quiet?

Thanks again so much for your thoughts on this!

You're welcome. The E-i5 only takes 40mm fans so there aren't a ton of great choices. The best one I've found is the Scythe Mini-Kaze 40mm. It is pretty quiet but the compromise is lower airflow. A couple of these set to exhaust will help. Getting a quality CPU cooler like the Dynatron will help too. If you can splurge for some short SATA cables that will help airflow as well. With two SATA devices you'll also need a molex-to-SATA power adapter. The power supply has 1 x SATA, 1 x molex and 1 x Berg plus the 4-pin connector for the CPU.

I had an E-i5 for my bedroom HTPC and now an E-K3. I have a G620, SSD and a Gelid Slim Silence iPlus and you cannot hear it from more than 3-4 feet away and certainly not 10-12' away at the bed. It sits on top of my dresser. The HDD will add some heat to the equation and block some of the airflow so those 40mm fans will be a good idea.

I'd go with the 120W AC adapter too.
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post #59 of 118
1/17/13 at 1:36pm
I just ordered this case for a a6-5400k build to replace my current gaming and htpc ft03 tower (this won't be doing any gaming though obviously).

I have an ehome rc6 remote and usb receiver already, but I was looking at the streacom st-irpb receiver. It looks like I should be able to wire it onto the power button and plug it onto a usb header, and I was wondering if anyone had an idea about whether or not it would be hard to drill a hole to fit the iris led. Instead of a hole covered with ir transparent plastic (which would need to be cut perfectly to size, and any message up would be obvious), I was going to drill the hole just at the size of the led, and let it pop out. That means the sides of the led will be covered with the aluminum. I was wondering if that could potentially cause issues with ir reception
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post #60 of 118
1/17/13 at 1:43pm
Thread Starter 
Which case did you get? E-i5 or E-i7?

For your A6-5400K build, which motherboard are you planning to use? The ASRock FM2A75M-ITX causes big issues for the power supplies in these cases. The MSI and Zotac work fine.
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