Completed The MI-6 Microtower Case: Performance in 6.7L

ignsvn

By Toutatis!
SFFn Staff
Gold Supporter
Bronze Supporter
Apr 4, 2016
1,729
1,672
Palit does a 1660 Super single fan GPU. The 1660 Ti is such a minor step above the Super that I would always look at the Super first. If the price difference is <$20, then get the Ti still.

I would only get a 2060 if you can grab one at (or very close to) $300 US. If you are willing to look at used, there are often 2060 OEM models from Dell/HP that are single fan and should fit the MI 6.

Thanks for the info! I did a quick search, the diff is around 24 USD. Not bad.

2060 OEM models? Hmm let me do a search again.
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
Revenant Tech
SFFn Staff
Apr 21, 2017
1,733
2,806
Nvidia is doing an online event at end of March. hopefully news about 7nm. I want an MSI 3070 itx aero :)


Ampere should be 7nm. That means a massive performance gain to wattage. We might...MIGHT....be able to get a 3080 ITX Aero. Imagine 2080ti performance in a case the size of the MI6. Combine that with a 3900X (L12S can run it), and you have a mini-monster-pc.
 

ignsvn

By Toutatis!
SFFn Staff
Gold Supporter
Bronze Supporter
Apr 4, 2016
1,729
1,672
Ampere should be 7nm. That means a massive performance gain to wattage. We might...MIGHT....be able to get a 3080 ITX Aero. Imagine 2080ti performance in a case the size of the MI6. Combine that with a 3900X (L12S can run it), and you have a mini-monster-pc.

I don't know.. We've seen promises of better perf/watt with each smaller nodes but in reality it's not easy to find new 2060/2070 ITX-sized cards today.

I think although technology supports a new idea, it doesn't always translate the same in the market. Sigh.
 

rfarmer

Spatial Philosopher
Jul 7, 2017
2,668
2,792
I don't know.. We've seen promises of better perf/watt with each smaller nodes but in reality it's not easy to find new 2060/2070 ITX-sized cards today.

I think although technology supports a new idea, it doesn't always translate the same in the market. Sigh.
So true, if the MSI RTX 2070 Aero itx had actually ever made it on sale in the US I would probably still have my MI-6. I hope Nvidia has some high end 3000 series itx cards but only time will tell.
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
Revenant Tech
SFFn Staff
Apr 21, 2017
1,733
2,806
I don't know.. We've seen promises of better perf/watt with each smaller nodes but in reality it's not easy to find new 2060/2070 ITX-sized cards today.

I think although technology supports a new idea, it doesn't always translate the same in the market. Sigh.


Pascal was 14nm and Turning was 12nm....which might have literally been the same process with a different name. 7nm will like be a substantial jump, as seen by the performance per watt of the Zen 2 series. THAT said....

...you're not wrong. The cards are hard to find. I saw some RTX Gigabytes 2070s going for $500 the other day, but didn't both to buy it due to my 1070 being enough for my 60hz 1080P TV. At the very least, I would expect a 3060 to be released, and that will probably be on par with the 2070 if not more.


Link:
 
  • Like
Reactions: ignsvn

Prothea

Average Stuffer
Aug 26, 2018
72
61
I am hesitant to hope for any future ITX cards; I think the way the market is going, we're not going to see many options outside of overseas markets which will cost too much to import for the casual SFF enthusiast.

The trend right now is larger, thicker cards, using the advantages of node efficiency to just stuff a heavier cooler for even better performace. Maybe Ampere will be different, and maybe CDNA will actually show that 50% gain AMD is talking about.
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
Revenant Tech
SFFn Staff
Apr 21, 2017
1,733
2,806
I am hesitant to hope for any future ITX cards; I think the way the market is going, we're not going to see many options outside of overseas markets which will cost too much to import for the casual SFF enthusiast.

The trend right now is larger, thicker cards, using the advantages of node efficiency to just stuff a heavier cooler for even better performace. Maybe Ampere will be different, and maybe CDNA will actually show that 50% gain AMD is talking about.


I’m going to disagree. Last generation we saw every Nvidia card up to the $500 level get an ITX version. This generation, we saw the same thing. In both instances, toward the end of the generation, production rapidly stopped as demand had been filled.

I think we’ll see the same thing again when the next gen cards launch. A quick burst of cards that will taper off once demand is done.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ignsvn

ignsvn

By Toutatis!
SFFn Staff
Gold Supporter
Bronze Supporter
Apr 4, 2016
1,729
1,672
I am hesitant to hope for any future ITX cards; I think the way the market is going, we're not going to see many options outside of overseas markets which will cost too much to import for the casual SFF enthusiast.

The trend right now is larger, thicker cards, using the advantages of node efficiency to just stuff a heavier cooler for even better performace. Maybe Ampere will be different, and maybe CDNA will actually show that 50% gain AMD is talking about.

Wait these suddenly sound so grim haha.

I don't say there's none, but more like the market won't entice vendors to produce, say, 2080 in ITX form.

The rest is like what @Revenant mentioned.
 

leifeinar

Trash Compacter
Sep 18, 2019
41
22
2080 in itx form?? I'll bet we see that soon. AMD rumors that rdna2 beeing 50% more efficient, than rdna makes me positive :) upcoming Nvidia 7nm---> positive. the 12 gigafolops xbox ---> positive. Just need someone to make those cards.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Soul_Est and ignsvn

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
Revenant Tech
SFFn Staff
Apr 21, 2017
1,733
2,806
Amazon has the 2070 Gigabyte ITX in stock again, but at $550.

Just a heads up. I've been running my MI-6 rig (8700 at 95 watts (Noctua L12s) with MSI 1070 at 2GHZ) 24-7 now while doing Folding at Home. The system has been able to cope with the heat without issue. No additional cooling other than the lower 92x15 fan on the bottom. The case itself does get pretty warm to the touch, but the internals are fine. So if you have an MI-6, and some spare compute cycles, please donate them.
 
Last edited:

ignsvn

By Toutatis!
SFFn Staff
Gold Supporter
Bronze Supporter
Apr 4, 2016
1,729
1,672
Amazon has the 2070 Gigabyte ITX in stock again, but at $550.

Just a heads up. I've been running my MI-6 rig (8700 at 95 watts (Noctua L12s) with MSI 1070 at 2GHZ) 24-7 now while doing Folding at Home. The system has been able to cope with the heat without issue. No additional cooling other than the lower 92x15 fan on the bottom. The case itself does get pretty warm to the touch, but the internals are fine. So if you have an MI-6, and some spare compute cycles, please donate them.

This is impressive. I never thought such a small case can handle almost 100% at 24/7. I assume the fans are a bit loud tho? (well expected, actually).

What F@H are u working on? The corona virus thingy?

And mind to share screenshots of your temp?
 
Last edited:

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
Revenant Tech
SFFn Staff
Apr 21, 2017
1,733
2,806
This is impressive. I never thought such a small case can handle almost 100% at 24/7. I assume the fans are a bit loud tho? (well expected, actually).

What F@H are u working on? The corona virus thingy?

And mind to share screenshots of your temp?

I've actually tortured my MI-6 prior to it being moved to be an HTPC. I was running constant Adobe Encoding using the CPU, iGPU, and CUDA all the time. Worked flawlessly. I'll post a pic today, providing I can get both WUs working simultaneously. It's actually not really all that loud. I can hear it, but I can tune it out. The TV it's next covers the noise entirely.

I'm doing the Covid-19 workloads if I can get them to load. Right now their servers are slammed. My friends and I put together a team called Faulty Logic for it. Many of us are first responders so it's of special concern for us.

Believe it or not, I'm actually typing this post on my Zotac EN1070 which has been running loads 24-7 as well. I limited it to GPU only because the CPU in this thing is a potato.
 

ignsvn

By Toutatis!
SFFn Staff
Gold Supporter
Bronze Supporter
Apr 4, 2016
1,729
1,672
I've actually tortured my MI-6 prior to it being moved to be an HTPC. I was running constant Adobe Encoding using the CPU, iGPU, and CUDA all the time. Worked flawlessly. I'll post a pic today, providing I can get both WUs working simultaneously. It's actually not really all that loud. I can hear it, but I can tune it out. The TV it's next covers the noise entirely.

I'm doing the Covid-19 workloads if I can get them to load. Right now their servers are slammed. My friends and I put together a team called Faulty Logic for it. Many of us are first responders so it's of special concern for us.

Believe it or not, I'm actually typing this post on my Zotac EN1070 which has been running loads 24-7 as well. I limited it to GPU only because the CPU in this thing is a potato.

That's really great to hear. To my personal preference, my Zotac GTX950 is still rather loud (although partly it's because of me being OCD about heat, so I let the fan running wild - and not to mention the heatsink on that GPU is a flatened metal potato with fins). But yeah if it's next to TV or I put my earphone, the fan noise is more or less OK. Look forward to see your temp screenshots & ambient temp as well.

Unfortunately I may need to postpone my 2nd MI-6 built.. This whole corona virus situation is bad, and I just want to be a little bit prudent. Working in an industry related to tourism, my company is hit quite hard.
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
Revenant Tech
SFFn Staff
Apr 21, 2017
1,733
2,806
That's really great to hear. To my personal preference, my Zotac GTX950 is still rather loud (although partly it's because of me being OCD about heat, so I let the fan running wild - and not to mention the heatsink on that GPU is a flatened metal potato with fins). But yeah if it's next to TV or I put my earphone, the fan noise is more or less OK. Look forward to see your temp screenshots & ambient temp as well.

Unfortunately I may need to postpone my 2nd MI-6 built.. This whole corona virus situation is bad, and I just want to be a little bit prudent. Working in an industry related to tourism, my company is hit quite hard.

I'm sorry about what's happening to your job. I have a lot of other friends going through this too and they have similar stories. It's a scary thing right now. I'm blessed that my wife and I have jobs that are critical, albeit mine has risk of exposure. My cousin is on the front line in a NY hospital where she works as a doctor. She's sleeping in her basement to avoid passing it to her kids and husband.

The Zotac EN1070 is actually really quiet. I don't mind higher temps as long as their within spec though. If I loose a year of life off the system, so be it. It might get a little louder though because this week I'm swapping the 6400T for a 6700T. I'll post a video about it on my channel if I get the time.
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
Revenant Tech
SFFn Staff
Apr 21, 2017
1,733
2,806
Here are the pics of the temps for my MI-6 doing both GPU and CPU fulltime folding. I'm running an MSI 1070 overclocked to up to 2050mhz, and an Intel I7-8700 (non-k) set for 95 watts longterm TDP, with a .05 undervolt. Cooler is a Noctua L12S set for intake. Bottom fan is a Noctua 92x15mm set for 40% speed.









 

rfarmer

Spatial Philosopher
Jul 7, 2017
2,668
2,792
I have to say @Revenant your 1070 is runnning nice and cool during this, especially with an overclock. I was always really impressed with mine.
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
Revenant Tech
SFFn Staff
Apr 21, 2017
1,733
2,806
I have to say @Revenant your 1070 is runnning nice and cool during this, especially with an overclock. I was always really impressed with mine.


I love that video card. MSI did a top notch job with it. On top of all of that, it's really quiet. I'm hoping that they do the same thing with the Nvidia 3XXX series when it comes out. 3070 should be at least equal to the 2080 or 2080 Super.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rfarmer