Antec isk 300-150 alternative?

[86waterpumper]

is there anyone that makes a case as small or smaller than the 300-150? Obviously you would have to use a external pico type power supply but that's fine, I am just looking for the smallest thing possible but something like the antec that actually fits components and is not cheesy etc.
I have used the 300-150 before in a build and I like it, but it's still larger than I wanted really...

 

[Lonyo]

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=3

It arranges cases by internal volume, so it's a useful size guide.
You will have to check availability from another site probably in the US.

You can see the 300-150 is about 7liters in volume, and the smallest case listed is only 2.5, so you can go quite a bit smaller.

Do you need an mITX system though? The Intel NUC is very small and not that expensive, if you just need a system which can run "stuff". It has very limited expansion/etc capability though.

(The linked website may ship internationally, but I have never used them before. The link is only provided as a reference to small cases, so feel free to purchase from there or somewhere else, I don't have an experience of using the site)

 

[86waterpumper]

Thanks for the link. I should have stated, I'd like the ability to have at least a laptop sized optical drive. This is a plus of the antec, and hinders me from accepting the NUC as a choice. I do agree the price and size of it is hard to beat though! Also alot of those cases in that link seem to not be available in the u.s.?

 

[Zap]

IN WIN BQS656.DD120BL

I have an older version of this case that sits unused because of three reasons.
1) Loud PSU fan (it didn't use an external brick).
2) No clearance for even stock heatsink.
3) Almost no airflow.

They seemed to have fixed all problems with this version, using an external brick to fix #1 and having a vented bulge on top to fix #2 and #3.

It can be used as a micro tower, desktop or VESA mounted. It can take one slim optical and one 2.5" drive. It does not have any expansion slot whatsoever.

 

[john3850]

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=3

Cool and useful link

 

[86waterpumper]

That inwin case looks like a good candidate! Thanks. I'm sure it's hard to get alot smaller without ditching the drives...

 

[piasabird]

http://www.mini-box.com/site/index.html
http://www.logicsupply.com/
http://www.mitxpc.com/
http://www.idotpc.com/TheStore/pc/home.asp

Might try looking around some of these websites.

 

[Zap]

I'm sure it's hard to get alot smaller without ditching the drives...

Yeah, anything smaller will lose the optical drive. That said, external USB optical drives are around the same cost as a slim notebook optical - basically the same thing, just in an enclosure and with cable. If you go that route you open up the options for smaller cases such as the Antec ISK 110 VESA or the Mini-Box M350 (Pico PSU sold separately). The M350 is so small that you have to use a lower wattage CPU that comes with an even lower profile fan to fit a HDD/SSD in it, unless you go with a board that supports (and you use) mSATA.

Then of course are the non-ITX proprietary nettop sized systems such as the Intel NUC which you are already aware of, available starting at $180 (requires mSATA and SODIMM), or even this Acer Veriton which I just found out about. $255 shipped gets you a complete computer with a 1.5GHz dual core mobile Sandy Bridge CPU, 2GB RAM (upgradable to 8GB) and a 320GB HDD (meaning normal 2.5" drives). I believe it comes with some flavor of Linux preinstalled.

 

[86waterpumper]

I wish that you could get these faster celerons built on the motherboards and not just on the prefab systems!

 

[Zap]

I wish that you could get these faster celerons built on the motherboards and not just on the prefab systems!

You mean a 1.5GHz Celeron instead of a 1.1GHz Celeron? ^_^

The alternative is to go the desktop route with these dual core Ivy Bridge Celerons for $50 coupled with a $50 motherboard.

 

[86waterpumper]

hmmm you are right that's a option, and you would end up with alot more cpu speed but ends up being alot higher doesn't it? Are there really any nice 1155 itx motherboards with usb 3.0 and hdmi out for 49 bucks?

 

[Zap]

ends up being alot higher doesn't it?

What do you mean by that?

No there aren't $49 motherboards like that, let alone ITX.

 

[86waterpumper]

I meant it will be more expensive setup (if) you want to have usb 3.0 and hdmi out (which I do). For under 90 dollars, I can get the asus C8HM70-I/HDMI which has celeron 847, 6gb/s sata, usb 3.0, as well as hdmi out! Now if I go with a cheaper itx motherboard I could have lots faster celeron 2.4 to 2.6 ghz cpu, but would be leaving alot on the table in terms of motherboard features. Anyone I would think nowdays would want usb 3.0 as well as sata 6. You can come close to the price if you want a bigger form factor...like the
ecs B75H2-M3 board, amazon has it for 55 bucks shipped. So...this is even a matx, so we are getting closer but it looks like we will have to wait a bit longer before there are more reasonably priced itx boards with these same features. I guess still in the grand scheme of things it's not a big deal to spend 30 bucks or so more to have the features you want with a desktop cpu, it's just that when trying to really squeeze it down to the smallest possible itx cases, sometimes a bigger heatsink/ fan on the desktop chips makes things tough.

 

[AkumaX]

Consider the new thinITX standard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128588

Things to note:
- uses sodimms
- some have mSATA onboard
- SATA power adapters are cables connected to the board itself (!)
- has a built-in 19v barrel connector (no need for 24-pin picoPSU!) up to 150w(?)