HG Osmi Build

[leonroy]

After missing out on the A4-SFX batch this February I did some case hunting and came across the stunning Osmi case. Despite the oft mentioned difficulty of working with it, I've been quite taken with its looks. It's the best looking ITX case out there IMO.

With that said I'm thinking of the following parts list:

• Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac
• PSU: Corsair SF450 SFX Power Supply
• GPU: Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1070 Mini ITX OC
• CPU: Intel Core i7-7700 3.6GHz Quad Core Processor

One thing I can't settle on is the cooler.

The Noctua NH-L9i is the recommended option and is 37mm tall but wondering if any of the following will fit instead:

• Cryorig C7 - 47mm tall
• Noctua NH-L9x65 - 65mm tall
• Silverstone SST-AR06 - 58mm tall
• Scythe Shuriken Big 2 - 58mm tall

According to the manufacturer the 140mm exhaust in the case is pretty good so worth trying first before fiddling with it, so will leave that be.

Tempted to also order custom length PSU cables but think I'll build the system before evaluating that.

One part which I'm taking with me from my old PC is a Crucial M500 960GB SSD. I understand the new crop of Z270 boards have M.2 SSD connectors on the back but since I need (want? a TB SSD I think I'll avoid the expense (£600 for a 1TB M.2) of additional storage for the time being.

Aiming to run Linux for work related stuff and Windows for gaming. Would also like the system to be inaudible at idle and with light use.

Will stick some pics here as the bits and pieces arrive but be great to get some feedback before hitting confirm on my order.

 

[leonroy]

Case ordered (expensive stuff!). Also purchase the PSU.

Been thinking about what I want from this system and reading up about ECC RAM and I don't think I can bring myself to go non-ECC with any future builds.

That said I'm going to revise my motherboard choice to the ASRock X99E-ITX/ac and the CPU choice to a Xeon E5-1650 v3 or similar.

AMD Ryzen is of course launching end of the month, and AMD are usually quite good at supporting ECC in their consumer offerings so probably worth me being patient. The 1800X looks great, but with a TDP of 95W wondering if it might be too hot for the OSMI?

 

[iFreilicht]

NH-L9x65

I'd be very interested how thermals would change if you used this with the PSUs fan generating all the airflow.

 

[leonroy]

Few pics below.

Never seen an SFX PSU before - so tiny!

Case comes with a be quiet! Pure Wings 2 fan:

Graphics card slot cover, seems a new addition:

Spent far too much time on this, but basically wanted to calculate the distance between CPU and PSU to get an idea of how big a cooler I can squeeze in there. Bottom line the distance is 76mm:

Good news is that the included fan is damn silent. Bad news is that it looks to be a bit of a pain to remove, requiring disassembly of the top of the case which is screwed into the middle and bottom rather than welded. Much prefer screws over welding to be honest.

Case is also made of very thick aluminium (6mm top, 4mm middle and 5mm base) but is also super light.

It's a very fiddly case to work with however and a lot of care has to be taken to not scratch it up removing the outer cover which has to be lifted upwards.

One major issue for newbies is that none of the included screws can hold the PSU in place. PSUs typically need 6-32 screws rather than machine screws (which the case only comes with). Thankfully I have a bajillion screws of every shape and size so wasn't a huge problem finding small flat countersunk 6-32 screws (most NAS boxes come with a bunch for mounting the drives to sleds).

 

[Phuncz]

Nice to see an Osmi build, those cases are very interesting. Fiddly cases are part of the SFF charm ! You should try fitting a board in an In Win Chopin, you have about 2mm of space to jimmy in the board and you need to fiddle cables in through that too

 

[leonroy]

You should try fitting a board in an In Win Chopin, you have about 2mm of space to jimmy in the board and you need to fiddle cables in through that too

Heheh, sounds like this hobby:

 

[Phuncz]

SFF is basically the modern day equivalent of ships in a bottle, indeed

 

[Echoic]

Where were you able to purchase the Osmi? I've been looking for quite some time. Build looks great!

 

[Vitamin Moto]

So I got this OSMI case in black. Looks and feels very solid & I'm starting to get components for it.
I had an question to OP - do you think GIGABYTE's GTX 1070 Mini will fit?

Judging by the photos on internet, GIGABYTE GTX 970 Mini fits fine, but 1070 Mini is 8 mm taller in height and it's really hard to say from photos of 970 if theres is 8 mm more room.

I see you got all these measurements figured and sketched, can you tell how much GPU height & width clearance OSMI has?

Thanks!

P.S. Lenghtwise GIGABYTE's GTX 1070 Mini should be fine, it's 169 mm.

 

[Vitamin Moto]

For anyone interested - I contacted HG Computers about this and they confirmed - GIGABYTE GTX 1070 Mini fits OSMI case.

 

[leonroy]

Where were you able to purchase the Osmi?

http://www.scan.co.uk

For anyone interested - I contacted HG Computers about this and they confirmed - GIGABYTE GTX 1070 Mini fits OSMI case.

Heheh, I asked them exactly that too. They also said they're working on a video to show how to fit everything into the Osmi. Unfortunately the video isn't ready yet but if anyone wants a rough cut they said just contact them.

Regarding the slight pause on this build, just waiting for the dust to settle on the Ryzen launch. Not a huge fan of Intel's shenanigans to kill their competition, so once AM4 ITX boards hit the shelves I'll be picking up a an AMD CPU, Noctua cooler and AM4 board.

Only Biostar seems to have a mITX board coming out this month - heard they're a pretty hit and miss brand though?

 

[Parge]

The Osmi is exactly the same cost as the S4 Mini for me (£220), and a lot better looking (though twice the size)

......Cannot decide.

EDIT:

Also, looking at the setup, the fan is set as an exhaust. Now, I suppose hot air naturally rises, but there is absolutely no active intake for the CPU cooler, and that PSU intake is right up against the case wall which would concern me.

My thoughts would be to flip that fan around to create an intake, flip the PSU so it can suck that in, and of course the CPU can also feed off that cool air.

I know heat rises, but as soon as you add fans etc, that goes out of the window.

 

[leonroy]

The Osmi is exactly the same cost as the S4 Mini for me (£220), and a lot better looking (though twice the size)

......Cannot decide.

EDIT:

Also, looking at the setup, the fan is set as an exhaust. Now, I suppose hot air naturally rises, but there is absolutely no active intake for the CPU cooler, and that PSU intake is right up against the case wall which would concern me.

My thoughts would be to flip that fan around to create an intake, flip the PSU so it can suck that in, and of course the CPU can also feed off that cool air.

I know heat rises, but as soon as you add fans etc, that goes out of the window.

I personally would take the S4 in a heartbeat - it seems a very, very well though out case whereas the Osmi seems like a case made for HG Computers which popular demand caused them to sell separately.

I've also got kids who love to yank the cables on my desk which makes the S4 in vertical aspect a no-no. Also my desk is a standing desk. Wasn't sure how wobbly the S4 would be but if I'm yanking the desk up and down all day I doubt that S4 would be very stable for my purposes.

You're bang on about the PSU - only 12mm from PSU fan intake to the chassis cover. Think reversing it would be a good idea but I'm not sure how two fans pulling air in and parallel to each other would cope. I'm actually thinking of using the biggest Noctua cooler I can find and running it in a slightly unorthodox fashion

We'll see...keep us posted on how your build goes, especially if you get an Osmi. Too few builds using this case considering how damn good it looks!

 

[blisscalintz]

Is there a place that ships these to the US?

 

[Parge]

I personally would take the S4 in a heartbeat - it seems a very, very well though out case whereas the Osmi seems like a case made for HG Computers which popular demand caused them to sell separately.

I've also got kids who love to yank the cables on my desk which makes the S4 in vertical aspect a no-no. Also my desk is a standing desk. Wasn't sure how wobbly the S4 would be but if I'm yanking the desk up and down all day I doubt that S4 would be very stable for my purposes.

You're bang on about the PSU - only 12mm from PSU fan intake to the chassis cover. Think reversing it would be a good idea but I'm not sure how two fans pulling air in and parallel to each other would cope. I'm actually thinking of using the biggest Noctua cooler I can find and running it in a slightly unorthodox fashion

We'll see...keep us posted on how your build goes, especially if you get an Osmi. Too few builds using this case considering how damn good it looks!

Oh the S4 is undoubtedly far better thought out/laid out. No question of that at all. Its also much smaller (even if you include the power brick which, in fairness, adds probably another 1 Litre).

I'm just a sucker for aesthetics, and that isn't to say I dislike the look of the S4 - far from it - lovely piece of kit (really enjoy Modzero's blue build at the moment). Its just the Osmi is.... well gorgeous.

In regards to the PSU - turning it inward to face the CPU cooler is the exact same setup as the FT03 Mini - where it works very well!

 

[Vitamin Moto]

S4 only makes sense, if you plan carrying it around. OSMI fits bigger Noctua coolers, slightly bigger GPU and overall has better thermals so whole system should be more quiet even at medium loads. This is why DAN's A4 and NFC's S4 put me off - it just too small (and potentially hot and noisy) for just sitting on my desk all day.

If you really want a truly portable powerhouse - S4 all the way.

 

[leonroy]

S4 only makes sense, if you plan carrying it around. OSMI fits bigger Noctua coolers, slightly bigger GPU and overall has better thermals so whole system should be more quiet even at medium loads. This is why DAN's A4 and NFC's S4 put me off - it just too small (and potentially hot and noisy) for just sitting on my desk all day.

That said, I'm trying to spec a workstation with ECC RAM in the ITX form factor and absolutely struggling. Only the ASRock X99e ITX board fits the bill and that requires narrow ILM coolers which means huge Noctuas or noisy Dynatrons

Think maybe I should compromise on this build and just ditch the ECC/workstation requirements...*sigh*

 

[Boil]

That said, I'm trying to spec a workstation with ECC RAM in the ITX form factor and absolutely struggling. Only the ASRock X99e ITX board fits the bill and that requires narrow ILM coolers which means huge Noctuas or noisy Dynatrons

Think maybe I should compromise on this build and just ditch the ECC/workstation requirements...*sigh*

Check the Dan SFX-A4 chassis thread & website, and look at the LinusTechTips video; they all cover placing a Dynatron T318 all copper vapor chamber heatsink on the ASRock X99 ITX MB & using a Noctua NF-A9x14 fan on same… Depending on your available space for the heat sink / fan combo, you might also be able to use the Noctua NF-A9 fan instead, with is 25mm thick as opposed to 14mm thick, so more cooling power…?

 

[EdZ]

That said, I'm trying to spec a workstation with ECC RAM in the ITX form factor and absolutely struggling. Only the ASRock X99e ITX board fits the bill and that requires narrow ILM coolers which means huge Noctuas or noisy Dynatrons

Think maybe I should compromise on this build and just ditch the ECC/workstation requirements...*sigh*

Ignoring AMD for the moment (lack of ITX boards), you probably want to look for C232 or C236 ITX boards, which will support E3 series Xeons and allow for ECC.

ASRockRack have the C236 WSI, E3C232D2I and E3C236D2I, Gigabyte have the MX11-PC0, iBASE have the MI991,and Commell have the LV-67S. Some of these lack m.2, some use SODIMMs rather than DIMMs.

While previous (Haswell and earlier) consumer chipsets allowed you to install and run with an E3 Xeon and ECC (non-registered only) DIMMs, IIRC the system will operate in non-ECC mode if you do so.

 

[leonroy]

Ignoring AMD for the moment (lack of ITX boards), you probably want to look for C232 or C236 ITX boards, which will support E3 series Xeons and allow for ECC.

Fantastic list of ITX boards, many thanks for this. Busy with work this week but looking forward to spec this out.

As an aside at the Reddit AMD Q&A they confirmed that Ryzen will indeed support ECC.

I remember buying my first dual processor workstation in 2003. Opteron had just come out but the chipsets were seriously lacking as were the mainboards. I ended up going for the Intel system instead. History repeats itself...