Hey all, just a quick Easter update!
Please read until the end, I need your opinions on something
I’m still working out the costs of the DIY kit, still figuring out ways to reduce costs.
In the mean time I received the anodised cases back and I transplanted the entire system over to it.
Here are some quick snapshots
Photo of the Front
Photo of the back
Photo of my attempt at a closeup to show the finish.
I personally really love the finish I’ve gone for, it’s not quite the silver finish that you find on most cases it has a little more grey mixed it.
Now as for progress on the DIY kit.
I’ve mentioned before that I am considering to support the Gigabyte GA-H81-TN over the original ASUS Q87T I used in my build. My reasoning is that besides the lack of 1 Ethernet port, who needs 2 anyway? And 2 of the 4 USB ports being 2.0 there is not a whole lot of difference between the boards.
Did I mention it costs almost half of the Q87T?
They both have
mSATA
Half-length mini-PCIe
PCIe 3.0 4x
4790K support
16GB SODIMM support
2 Fan header
You could even argue the GA-H81-TN has better thermals because the heatsink on the PCH is bigger.
Here is a side-by-side
Photo of Top of Motherboards
Photo of Motherboard I/O
Would you guys be okay with the GA-H81-TN?
Next is the thing I am very eager to hear you opinions about.
So right now I am running on a 20V 350W Gigantic external brick. I think it is bulky and you all should feel the same .
Recently ASUS has released the ASUS ROG G20 and it has 2 external bricks. Why? Most likely 2 smaller bricks are cheaper than 1 big brick. They made a bracket to hold them.
I want to switch to a 2 brick design for 2 reasons.
Reason 1: Costs, by going for 2 seperate bricks I can reduce the costs of these bricks
Supply and demand is the cause of this. More manufacturers and consumers buy lower power AC adapters so more manufacturers make them and prices go down because of that.
Reason 2: Space/Cost I can probably cut the HD-Plex 250W DC-DC board by going this route. I can use a power brick that supplies 12V to the GPU, thus giving me the option to make the system more versatile, maybe I can squeeze in a 2,5” or at least a 1,8” drive mount, allowing some form of HDD storage besides the mSATA drive. Also the DC board is expensive for what is does in this system, it is a glorified 20V to 12V adapter, so why not go from 230/115VAC to 12VDC directly?
PS: I will make sure I have a nice bracket to discretly mount the 2 power bricks.
Please let me know what you guys think about this.
I’ve made a strawpoll, but if you feel the need to voice your opinion please do.
http://strawpoll.me/4032713
That is all for now have a nice Easter if you celebrate!
Please read until the end, I need your opinions on something
I’m still working out the costs of the DIY kit, still figuring out ways to reduce costs.
In the mean time I received the anodised cases back and I transplanted the entire system over to it.
Here are some quick snapshots
Photo of the Front
Photo of the back
Photo of my attempt at a closeup to show the finish.
I personally really love the finish I’ve gone for, it’s not quite the silver finish that you find on most cases it has a little more grey mixed it.
Now as for progress on the DIY kit.
I’ve mentioned before that I am considering to support the Gigabyte GA-H81-TN over the original ASUS Q87T I used in my build. My reasoning is that besides the lack of 1 Ethernet port, who needs 2 anyway? And 2 of the 4 USB ports being 2.0 there is not a whole lot of difference between the boards.
Did I mention it costs almost half of the Q87T?
They both have
mSATA
Half-length mini-PCIe
PCIe 3.0 4x
4790K support
16GB SODIMM support
2 Fan header
You could even argue the GA-H81-TN has better thermals because the heatsink on the PCH is bigger.
Here is a side-by-side
Photo of Top of Motherboards
Photo of Motherboard I/O
Would you guys be okay with the GA-H81-TN?
Next is the thing I am very eager to hear you opinions about.
So right now I am running on a 20V 350W Gigantic external brick. I think it is bulky and you all should feel the same .
Recently ASUS has released the ASUS ROG G20 and it has 2 external bricks. Why? Most likely 2 smaller bricks are cheaper than 1 big brick. They made a bracket to hold them.
I want to switch to a 2 brick design for 2 reasons.
Reason 1: Costs, by going for 2 seperate bricks I can reduce the costs of these bricks
Supply and demand is the cause of this. More manufacturers and consumers buy lower power AC adapters so more manufacturers make them and prices go down because of that.
Reason 2: Space/Cost I can probably cut the HD-Plex 250W DC-DC board by going this route. I can use a power brick that supplies 12V to the GPU, thus giving me the option to make the system more versatile, maybe I can squeeze in a 2,5” or at least a 1,8” drive mount, allowing some form of HDD storage besides the mSATA drive. Also the DC board is expensive for what is does in this system, it is a glorified 20V to 12V adapter, so why not go from 230/115VAC to 12VDC directly?
PS: I will make sure I have a nice bracket to discretly mount the 2 power bricks.
Please let me know what you guys think about this.
I’ve made a strawpoll, but if you feel the need to voice your opinion please do.
http://strawpoll.me/4032713
That is all for now have a nice Easter if you celebrate!
Last edited: