Build Advice Super-SFF

**NaturalViolence** · 08-12-2013, 04:47 PM **#11**

sazyario Wrote:Small Form Factor CPU Cooler (Haven't decided, it needs to be less than 35mm)

35mm!?! Are you sure?

Almost nothing is that small. And certainly nothing that would be better than stock.

Both the coolers that admin linked at too tall. The noctua is 37mm and the gemin II M4 is 59mm tall.

I'm not even sure if stock cooling is that small.

sazyario Wrote:That and I'm trying to make 0 cuts to the outside of the case.

Impossible. How are you going to have usb ports, the rear I/O panel, fans intake/outake, or power input without cutting holes in the case?

sazyario Wrote:Can I really rely on the 4600 not being a bottleneck?
If so I can use a laptop AC adpater with a PICO psu.
But if I need a GFX card then I need a Flex ATX PSU

At native resolution it won't bottleneck but at 1080p it will.

sazyario Wrote:I could overclock.
Its just ambient air temps may be a problem.

Ambient temperatures are going to be a problem even at stock.

admin89 Wrote:It's quite expensive but it's very effective ( 63 degree Celsius with i7 2600k @ 4.3GHz - full load)

In a well ventilated case. Which his isn't.

sazyario Wrote:If I were to do that I'd just buy a regular SSD.
I want an mSATA due to power and space.

Msata is a pain in the ass with desktops but if you need it you need it.

sazyario · (This post was last modified: 08-13-2013, 04:04 AM by sazyario.)

(08-12-2013, 03:22 PM)admin89 Wrote:
Quote:Can I really rely on the 4600 not being a bottleneck?
It can handle up to 2.5x Internal Resolution (1600x1320)
Higher Res (3x or 4xIR) = slowdown but you can overclock CPU to squeeze more FPS
Super Mario Galaxy is out of the question since it's the most GPU intensive game

Quote:If so I can use a laptop AC adapter with a PICO psu.
But if I need a GFX card then I need a Flex ATX PSU.
You will need a graphic card for PC games . If PC games don't matter to you then ...

This box is only for the emulation of
NES, SNES, N64, Wii, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Boy, Pokemon Mini, Play Choice 10 and Famicom Disk System.
Using hyperspin.

(08-12-2013, 04:47 PM)NaturalViolence Wrote:
sazyario Wrote:Small Form Factor CPU Cooler (Haven't decided, it needs to be less than 35mm)

35mm!?! Are you sure?

Almost nothing is that small. And certainly nothing that would be better than stock.

Both the coolers that admin linked at too tall. The noctua is 37mm and the gemin II M4 is 59mm tall.

I'm not even sure if stock cooling is that small.

sazyario Wrote:That and I'm trying to make 0 cuts to the outside of the case.

Impossible. How are you going to have usb ports, the rear I/O panel, fans intake/outake, or power input without cutting holes in the case?

sazyario Wrote:Can I really rely on the 4600 not being a bottleneck?
If so I can use a laptop AC adpater with a PICO psu.
But if I need a GFX card then I need a Flex ATX PSU

At native resolution it won't bottleneck but at 1080p it will.

sazyario Wrote:I could overclock.
Its just ambient air temps may be a problem.

Ambient temperatures are going to be a problem even at stock.

admin89 Wrote:It's quite expensive but it's very effective ( 63 degree Celsius with i7 2600k @ 4.3GHz - full load)

In a well ventilated case. Which his isn't.

sazyario Wrote:If I were to do that I'd just buy a regular SSD.
I want an mSATA due to power and space.

Msata is a pain in the ass with desktops but if you need it you need it.

Well I was looking at the low profile noctua. It will cool sufficiently.
As far as minimal cuts, it can be done. I'm confident I can make enough "stealth" cuts to let the console vent that I won't ruin the aesthics of the console.
mSATA will be fine. I'm not worried about the PC parts, I'm worried about the enclosure.

**NaturalViolence** · 08-13-2013, 07:31 AM **#13**

If your clearance really is only 35mm (did you double check?) then the noctua won't fit.

sazyario · (This post was last modified: 08-14-2013, 09:46 AM by sazyario.)

(08-13-2013, 07:31 AM)NaturalViolence Wrote: If your clearance really is only 35mm (did you double check?) then the noctua won't fit.

[color=#222222]In all reality I will have as much height for a CPU cooler as my low profile graphic's card allows. I plan on taking the bracket off the card entirely because we'll I'm not using it in a case. Newegg lists the LP HD7750 I'm looking at 4.8". I don't know of that is the card itself or the height of the card including the bracket. I'm allowing 3.0" or about 65-70mm of height for my cooler now.[/color]

[color=#222222]The nes itself is 85mm tall. Minus 3mm for the thickness of the plastic (top&bottom) also minus another 10mm for the fact I'm planning on not cutting the plastic on the bottom half that juts up from the bottom. (Structural integrity and strength being the reason why.) leaves about 72mm of height to play with.[/color]

[color=#222222]I can possibly fit a nice performing 60mm 2U solution into the nes PC.[/color]
[color=#222222]I'm looking at frostytech's recommendation of the Zalman CNPS8900 Extreme if it will mount to the haswell socket. But that's if the stock Intel HSF underperforms in the (very) small enclosure.[/color]

[color=#222222]In all honesty if i could find a quality flex atx psu I could run a GTX 650 Ti Boost. But Seasonic's 500w ATX Flex PSU is too long. I may monkey around with what I think is called SFX form factor psu. It's essentially an ATX form factor cut in half. I'm planning on using Seasonic's 350w 80+ Gold Flex ATX PSU because even with a 4670k OC'd and the 7750 I still have more than 50w of tolerance. Which is more than enough for my HDD and USB devices.[/color]

[color=#222222]I'm going to have to make a Few cuts in the case. But i want to hide them well.[/color]

EDIT***
Checked into Low Profile PCI-E x16 height. It seems HIS/NewEgg are listing the card's height that I'm looking at as a full height/profile. In reality LP GFX cards are about 2.8"-3.0" like I suspected.
So, it will be a tight fit, but it will work as long as I have the mechanical skills. Which I'm confident that if I take my time and use "Measure Twice Cut Once" mentatlity I will be a-ok.

I hope people here will be interested in the project and its progress. I plan on starting it in a month or so... Kinda holding out to see if the Iris Pro Haswell CPUs will hit the market anytime for consumers.
If they do then this project becomes super easy.

EDIT2***
Seems Samsung discontinued their Ultra Low Profile RAM... crap... I was relying on that since there isn't a z87/h87/h81 board that uses laptop ram..... Hmm..... Overpay for discontinued ram on ebay or not? What to do?

**NaturalViolence** · 08-14-2013, 12:22 PM **#15**

Why did you reduce the font size of your post? That makes it harder for people to read. Especially those with poor eyesight.

sazyario Wrote:In all reality I will have as much height for a CPU cooler as my low profile graphic's card allows.

That doesn't make any sense. Why would the height of the graphics card have any effect on how tall your CPU cooler can be?

sazyario Wrote:Kinda holding out to see if the Iris Pro Haswell CPUs will hit the market anytime for consumers.

Iris Pro will be limited to embedded cpus only.

sazyario Wrote:In all honesty if i could find a quality flex atx psu I could run a GTX 650 Ti Boost. But Seasonic's 500w ATX Flex PSU is too long. I may monkey around with what I think is called SFX form factor psu. It's essentially an ATX form factor cut in half. I'm planning on using Seasonic's 350w 80+ Gold Flex ATX PSU because even with a 4670k OC'd and the 7750 I still have more than 50w of tolerance. Which is more than enough for my HDD and USB devices.

I take it you did the measurements with a proper power calculator?

Get whatever fits. Do the measurements first then determine how small the PSU needs to be. An SFX PSU would probably be ideal.