Editorial – Page 2 – SFF.Network

Rant: DVI – Old, or Still Relevant?

This is one of a series of mini-rants by your faithful correspondent, John Morrison. These are part of a series focusing on issues in the SFF niche. All content is entirely opinion of John, not of SmallFormFactor.net, and should not be taken as fact. Rumours of DVI’s death have been greatly exaggerated. While the analogue backwards compatibility portion of the DVI standard has pretty much been relegated to the low end cards (understandable given the low end cards are usually rebrands of older units), the chunky, old-school DVI plug still stubbornly remains on our GPUs and motherboards. Whyyyy? Well, from …

Editorial

Rant: Internal or External?

This is one of a series of mini-rants by your faithful correspondent, John Morrison. These are part of a series focusing on issues in the SFF niche. All content is entirely opinion of John, not of SmallFormFactor.net, and should not be taken as fact. Ahh, the age old SFF conundrum. Do I fit all of the power supply inside the case, or split the perceived volume up and have a power brick under my desk? Is that cheating? Do I include the brick in the final volume of my case? If I do, do I include the volume of my …

Editorial

LowVolu.me Episode 23 – Get Social With Us

Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/sffnetwork/ AM4 Brackets for all! https://smallformfactor.net/news/noctua-presents-new-products-three-am4-edition-coolers Free mounts are available from: Phanteks, Enermax, BeQuiet, Cryorig, Corsair, Noctua, DeepCool, Alphacool, SilentiumPC, Thermalright, Cooler Master Zotac GTX1080 in stock: https://smallformfactor.net/news/zotac-gtx-1080-mini-now-stock Intel Xeon Gold: https://smallformfactor.net/news/intel-reportedly-readying-xeon-gold-processor-line Eurocom 780w: https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/eurocom-780w-external-power-supply.1431/ Favourite Forum Fread: NCase Project Sidearm: https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/ncase-project-sidearm.1525/ [mks_separator style=”blank” height=”2″] Thoughts? Discuss them in the forum.

Editorial

Should We Pick One Standard?

This is one of a series of mini-rants by your faithful correspondent, John Morrison. These are part of a series focusing on issues in the SFF niche. All content is entirely opinion of John, not of SmallFormFactor.net, and should not be taken as fact. There has been musings in our community of this form factor or that form factor being better than the others in all situations. M-ITX being preferable over M-STX. SFX is superior to TFX or Flex-ATX power supplies. DisplayPort being better to HDMI. With so much variety on our markets, should we work towards simplifying the SFF …

Editorial

12V Please, Simplify!

This is one of a series of mini-rants by your faithful correspondent, John Morrison. These are a regular series focusing on issues in the SFF niche. All content is entirely opinion of John, not of SmallFormFactor.net, and should not be taken as fact. As the ATX specification evolved, and as component manufacturers changed designs and other components, we have slowly edged towards a 12v dominant world. The two heavy hitters in your system, the CPU and GPU, both utilise 12V inputs. There’s a good reason for this – they require higher amperage than the rest of your system. [mks_separator style=”blank” height=”2″] …

Editorial

RGB – An Epiphany

This is one of a series of mini-rants by your faithful correspondent, John Morrison. These are part of a series focusing on issues in the SFF niche. All content is entirely opinion of John, not of SmallFormFactor.net, and should not be taken as fact. Everybody likes to be unique. This desire manifests itself everywhere – clothing, cars, and even our computers. People mod their systems, making them more to their own personal tastes. Lighting forms a large part of this. From illuminating your components, to providing a visual representation of system status, to flashing to the beat of your favourite …

Editorial

CES, My View

This is one of a series of mini-rants by your faithful correspondent, John Morrison. These are part of a series focusing on issues in the SFF niche. All content is entirely opinion of John, not of SmallFormFactor.net, and should not be taken as fact. So, CES has passed, and as usual, there was a myriad of new products, new products, new ideas. We have seen the usual; the ATX plague, the RGB disease, and the random stuff that, maybe, just maybe, should have stayed on the drawing board. While everyone has their own opinions, these are mine! [mks_separator style=”blank” height=”2″] …

Editorial

Opinion – M-DTX, The Ultimate SFF Motherboard

Quite a few years ago, AMD launched the DTX (and by extension, the M-DTX) standard, aiming to reduce costs in motherboard manufacturing by more efficiently optimising the use of a standard sheet of PCB material. In doing so, they inadvertently created what I consider the ideal SFF board form factor – M-DTX. This form factor offers the best of the M-ATX and M-ITX formats, in a balanced design. M-DTX offers us the best of the expandable SFF world – not too big, but not too small. Leaving M-ATX in the dust, M-DTX would offer us the world in a little …