It was that time again, when games no longer ran smoothly on ultra settings, OS needed to be reinstalled and Ivy Bridge seemed like it's just too old. I'm talking, of course, about my old system, which was encased in huge Fractal's Define R5.
It was time, to try something new.
After digging around in the interwebs, ITX seemed like the form factor to go with. Small, powerfull, silent... yes please.
It started with the case. I wanted something fresh, something special. I landed on three final options, S4 Mini, DAN's A4 and HG Computers OSMI.
Because I wanted as silent system as possible, S4 Mini & DAN's A4 got turned down, just because of cooler limitation. They fit only smaller fan Noctuas and that is potentially extra noise that I don't want. HDPlex seemed like interesting option, but in the end, decided to with standard SFX PSU.
Also, in Latvia (where I'm from) HG Computers had their official partners, so OSMI turned out just the right fit. I also talked to Peter, SEO of HG Computers as I understand, and he seemed like a really nice guy. I got the sense, that this case is really well though out, nothing is done by accident and all fits together with millimeter-precision.
I believe rev. 1 OSMI cases had some problems, but we'll gloss over that
So here we go. The job was to fit most powerful hardware the OSMI could take, considering thermal limitations. So I ended up with this.
First thing was to change included BeQuiet fan for a Noctua. I wanted a PWM fan so I can regulate fan speeds. This was not so easy as I expected. Noctua needed to be cut down in corners, to fit flush with the case. Nothing extra difficult, but still fiddly. Patience is the name of the game here
BeQuiet is out, Noctua is waiting.
Here you can see cut plastic corners. Of course, rubber mounts is not an option here, if you want a flush fit.
Noctua in. Finally. It took about 2 hours just to get it fit properly and get to the small screws inside the case. You have to have proper tools to do this. I recommend thin (maybe even flexible) screwdrivers and hexagon ball-tips, just so you can get to the screws at an angle.
It starts to go faster from this point on. Test fitting the motherboard.
RAM and CPU get installed.
And finally Big Shuriken goes on top. With the Noctua fan it gives about 4-5mm clearance between PSU. It's tight, but I think it works well enough.
Haven't never worked with M2 SSD's, this is just awesome stuff. No extra cables, no extra fuss. Super compact and fast.
Next came the GPU and boy it was a challenge. OSMI has holes in the case through which you supposed to slide GPU in, but not with 1070. It's just too tall to fit through the holes so it's case dismantling time. Here ball-tip hexagon screwdriver really comes in handy, because you can get to the case screws only from inside the case sides.
It's finally in and what an relief! For a minute there I though it will not fit.
So in the end it looks like this.
All things considered, I'm happy with the build. After some tweaking in BIOS and Windows 10 power settings, CPU fan runs at 350 RPM in simple desktop tasks, and stays below 40 C at idle, and mid to high 40 C doing some basic work stuff, Photoshop, web browsing etc. Case fan runs at 500 RPM in desktop mode, and both are virtually silent at an arms length. 1070 stays at 0 RPM in desktop mode hovering in 40-50 C range.
While gaming, it's get quite a bit louder, but that's no really a big deal, if you game with headphones. CPU gets to about mid 60 C in games and GPU stays 60 to 70 C.
I have not tested it in prime95 or Furmark, but I bet it would get warmer for sure.
One more thing left to do is to change PSU from Corsair SF600 to SF450.
SF600 fan doesn't want to spin down after a gaming session and gets quite warm even in desktop mode. After reading some forum feedback, SF450 seems like a better choice in the end, as it is more quiet overall.
That's it. Hope you like it.
It was time, to try something new.
After digging around in the interwebs, ITX seemed like the form factor to go with. Small, powerfull, silent... yes please.
It started with the case. I wanted something fresh, something special. I landed on three final options, S4 Mini, DAN's A4 and HG Computers OSMI.
Because I wanted as silent system as possible, S4 Mini & DAN's A4 got turned down, just because of cooler limitation. They fit only smaller fan Noctuas and that is potentially extra noise that I don't want. HDPlex seemed like interesting option, but in the end, decided to with standard SFX PSU.
Also, in Latvia (where I'm from) HG Computers had their official partners, so OSMI turned out just the right fit. I also talked to Peter, SEO of HG Computers as I understand, and he seemed like a really nice guy. I got the sense, that this case is really well though out, nothing is done by accident and all fits together with millimeter-precision.
I believe rev. 1 OSMI cases had some problems, but we'll gloss over that
So here we go. The job was to fit most powerful hardware the OSMI could take, considering thermal limitations. So I ended up with this.
- Intel Core i7 7700
- Asrock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac
- 16 GB Corsair Vengeance
- Samsung 960 Evo 500 GB NVMe SSD
- GIGABYTE GTX 1070 Mini OC
- Corsair SF600 PSU
- Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev. B with a Noctua 120mm fan strapped to it
First thing was to change included BeQuiet fan for a Noctua. I wanted a PWM fan so I can regulate fan speeds. This was not so easy as I expected. Noctua needed to be cut down in corners, to fit flush with the case. Nothing extra difficult, but still fiddly. Patience is the name of the game here
BeQuiet is out, Noctua is waiting.
Here you can see cut plastic corners. Of course, rubber mounts is not an option here, if you want a flush fit.
Noctua in. Finally. It took about 2 hours just to get it fit properly and get to the small screws inside the case. You have to have proper tools to do this. I recommend thin (maybe even flexible) screwdrivers and hexagon ball-tips, just so you can get to the screws at an angle.
It starts to go faster from this point on. Test fitting the motherboard.
RAM and CPU get installed.
And finally Big Shuriken goes on top. With the Noctua fan it gives about 4-5mm clearance between PSU. It's tight, but I think it works well enough.
Haven't never worked with M2 SSD's, this is just awesome stuff. No extra cables, no extra fuss. Super compact and fast.
Next came the GPU and boy it was a challenge. OSMI has holes in the case through which you supposed to slide GPU in, but not with 1070. It's just too tall to fit through the holes so it's case dismantling time. Here ball-tip hexagon screwdriver really comes in handy, because you can get to the case screws only from inside the case sides.
It's finally in and what an relief! For a minute there I though it will not fit.
So in the end it looks like this.
All things considered, I'm happy with the build. After some tweaking in BIOS and Windows 10 power settings, CPU fan runs at 350 RPM in simple desktop tasks, and stays below 40 C at idle, and mid to high 40 C doing some basic work stuff, Photoshop, web browsing etc. Case fan runs at 500 RPM in desktop mode, and both are virtually silent at an arms length. 1070 stays at 0 RPM in desktop mode hovering in 40-50 C range.
While gaming, it's get quite a bit louder, but that's no really a big deal, if you game with headphones. CPU gets to about mid 60 C in games and GPU stays 60 to 70 C.
I have not tested it in prime95 or Furmark, but I bet it would get warmer for sure.
One more thing left to do is to change PSU from Corsair SF600 to SF450.
SF600 fan doesn't want to spin down after a gaming session and gets quite warm even in desktop mode. After reading some forum feedback, SF450 seems like a better choice in the end, as it is more quiet overall.
That's it. Hope you like it.