My S4 Build

Michael

Average Stuffer
Original poster
Jan 3, 2016
76
34
I thought I would make my inaugural post with the case I bought from NFC! I am waiting for the 285 ITX to be delivered tomorrow but I thought I'd post some pictures in the meantime!

CPU Intel 4790t
GPU Sapphire 285 ITX (will be here tomorrow)
RAM Patriot 8GB 1600MHz
MOBO Asrock H97m ITX
HDD PNY CS1100 240GB SSD
HSF Zalman CNPS2X
PSU HDPLEX 250w + Dell 330w Power Brick
CASE NFC S4 Mini

Lian Li casters added!



Custom Sleeving finished:



Hard drive bracket mod complete:



All closed up:



Entertainment unit shot:

 

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King of Cable Management
Sep 26, 2015
775
759
Nice! Looks to be essentially the same size as your XBONE, but it should be plenty more powerful.
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
Silver Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
4,969
4,780
Those feet really go well with the front brushed panel, very classy!
 

Michael

Average Stuffer
Original poster
Jan 3, 2016
76
34
Those feet really go well with the front brushed panel, very classy!

Thanks! I am happy it fits perfectly a top the xbox one. They are identical in size width wise.

I tried sleeving for the first time - damn is that a long arduous process. I also bought the wrong heatshrink so I couldn't have the heatshrink fit inside the connectors. Also learning how to properly crimp a molex connector was a PITA.
 
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QinX

Master of Cramming
kees
Mar 2, 2015
541
374
Welcome to the forum Michael, glad to see you have come over from [ H ] ;)
I'm also looking forward to the temperatures and how the 285 ITX performs for you.
 
Last edited:

Josh | NFC

Not From Concentrate
NFC Systems
Jun 12, 2015
1,869
4,466
www.nfc-systems.com
Nice! Looks to be essentially the same size as your XBONE, but it should be plenty more powerful.


HEY NOW

I don't compare your girl-friend's size to an XBONE!

Just kidding...XD

For anyone interested here is a side view of the two compared:



Thank you SO MUCH Michael for your support! I love the feet idea and I have linked several people your pictures so far!
 

mitxlove

Average Stuffer
Jan 7, 2016
62
40
Entertainment unit shot:


This looks great! htpc's are so cool to me because they create such a wow factor for guests when they turn on the TV and they see a windows 10 desktop as opposed to regular tv stuff. What kind of peripherals do you use for the htpc? Wireless keyboard I assume? Which model?
 

jØrd

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sudocide.dev
SFFn Staff
Gold Supporter
LOSIAS
Jul 19, 2015
818
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they create such a wow factor for guests when they turn on the TV and they see a windows 10 desktop

Tbth i think having a HTPC boot straight to a TV optimized UI (Kodi & its umpteen themes being my current preference) is more impressive. Seeing a HTPC boot to a windows desktop and then watching someone fumble around trying to make it do its magic always seemed more like a kludge than a tight, integrated solution / experience that makes it worth while. I guess it depends on weather your aiming for a "set-top-box experience" or not
 

mitxlove

Average Stuffer
Jan 7, 2016
62
40
Tbth i think having a HTPC boot straight to a TV optimized UI (Kodi & its umpteen themes being my current preference) is more impressive. Seeing a HTPC boot to a windows desktop and then watching someone fumble around trying to make it do its magic always seemed more like a kludge than a tight, integrated solution / experience that makes it worth while. I guess it depends on weather your aiming for a "set-top-box experience" or not

Well I don't disagree I hear Kodi is pretty nice. However I think if you set the desktop up well it can be just as nice, for example on my HTPC my desktop icons (Netflix, Crackle, Hulu, Chrome) are huge and aligned horizontally in the center of the desktop, similar to the size of the icons on another ui, I auto- hide the taskbar, and make sure I have a very impressive desktop background. So the wow factor comes from my guests thinking its some sort of media player (like a smart blu ray player) only to realize that it's a PC desktop! Does that make sense?

Also I think the navigation tool plays a big factor as well, I got a cool looking little wireless keyboard with trackpad that makes it easy to navigate through the apps and browser and search for whatever, Another wow factor.. (It's called the Rii k12 keyboard for anyone who's interested, only $25 on Amazon, I recommend it! )

On somewhat of a sidenote, one thing I like about a Windows htpc over a different ui is that I can hop on chrome and easily navigate through YouTube, twitch, Vimeo, Amazon prime video, and even websites like putlocker and megafile (to watch old 90s movies and such). I find that difficult or probably impossible to do on something like Kodi, but then again I don't know much about it, can you do that on Kodi?
 

jØrd

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sudocide.dev
SFFn Staff
Gold Supporter
LOSIAS
Jul 19, 2015
818
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try Kodi, you can get it for windows, its fairly easy to get to grips with. Ultimately there is a part of me that sees any desktop on a TV and just goes "oh, you plugged a pc into your tv". The user experience is garbage. weather you care for Kodi or not its free & can be had as a windows standalone app, its a good intro to what else can be done to improve the experience drastically. Anyway, bulk off topic, my bad