Modularity and minimalism - an unusual approach

[AkumaX]

So you're going to go with mITX instead of thin-ITX?

 

[2timer]

So you're going to go with mITX instead of thin-ITX?

Ya. I like thin-ITX better as a potential platform, but it just hasn't matured enough yet to really jump on it. I didn't see any thin-ITX boards with an x16 PCI-E slot or any relevant x4 PCI-E graphics cards. That right there means by choosing thin-ITX, I'm basically locking in to Intel's IGP. And that goes right back to the problem that we started with.

On the other hand, if there were some sort of cost-effective Thunderbolt GPU, then thin-ITX would be a *very* appealing option. But there isn't. Not right now, anyways.

 

[Zap]

I wish AMD offered a mini 7750 like the 650 TI. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130839 The TI is the perfect size for an mITX build, it's just too expensive! I guess budget mITX graphic cards are still "too far" in the future.

Low profile 7750 is pretty small. With a low profile card you do not have to use a 90° riser because the CPU cooler and I/O shield will be almost as tall.

I didn't see any thin-ITX boards with an x16 PCI-E slot or any relevant x4 PCI-E graphics cards.

The point of thin ITX is... having a thin case. A graphics card would render the "thin" part moot.

 

[AkumaX]

Low profile 7750 is pretty small. With a low profile card you do not have to use a 90° riser because the CPU cooler and I/O shield will be almost as tall.



The point of thin ITX is... having a thin case. A graphics card would render the "thin" part moot.

it's too bad, though - why not get a riser card for it anyway?

have you see the 'official' HSF for thin-itx? i wonder if you could 'riser' over it haha

http://brycv.com/blog/2012/the-case-for-thin-mini-itx-and-intel-dq77kb/

^although, now i kind of see why there's no pci-e 16x slot...

 

[wirednuts]

did someone mention the smallest x86 computers on the market?

http://www.mp3car.com/blogs/146471_more-on-ces-square-your-car-pc-away-with-xi3.html :whiste:

 

[TheStu]

did someone mention the smallest x86 computers on the market?

http://www.mp3car.com/blogs/146471_more-on-ces-square-your-car-pc-away-with-xi3.html :whiste:

Nope

 

[Zap]

have you see the 'official' HSF for thin-itx? i wonder if you could 'riser' over it haha

http://brycv.com/blog/2012/the-case-for-thin-mini-itx-and-intel-dq77kb/

Something I wonder about. People always want to fiddle with form factors, when sometimes (not always) you end up with the same volume, just arranged differently.

Me? I'd much, much rather have the PSU inside the PC than an external power brick, assuming PC+brick added up has the same volume as PC+internal. And unless you need to have that thinness, the thin ITX case in the link doesn't look to be any smaller in volume than, say, an M350 that takes normal ITX. Back when "cube" style cases were popular (Ultra MicroFly, Aspire X-Qpack, various Lian Li/Silverstone/Thermaltake/etc.) a lot of people LOVED those cases with the reason that they were so small and took up so little room... except that some of them were larger in volume than typical mATX mini towers, and they took up more desk space as well.

Example:
Thermaltake Armor A30 2174in³
Rosewill LINE-M 1649in³

 

[wirednuts]

Nope

mines smaller

 

[taisingera]

Something I wonder about. People always want to fiddle with form factors, when sometimes (not always) you end up with the same volume, just arranged differently.

Me? I'd much, much rather have the PSU inside the PC than an external power brick, assuming PC+brick added up has the same volume as PC+internal. And unless you need to have that thinness, the thin ITX case in the link doesn't look to be any smaller in volume than, say, an M350 that takes normal ITX. Back when "cube" style cases were popular (Ultra MicroFly, Aspire X-Qpack, various Lian Li/Silverstone/Thermaltake/etc.) a lot of people LOVED those cases with the reason that they were so small and took up so little room... except that some of them were larger in volume than typical mATX mini towers, and they took up more desk space as well.

Example:
Thermaltake Armor A30 2174in³
Rosewill LINE-M 1649in³

I had one of the Microfly and sure they were smaller than the big cases I had. But compared to the microATX case I have now, a In-Win BK623, it seemed really big. I would go mini-ITX, but all the good cases are cube style and are almost as big as my current microATX case. The only way to get small mini-itx would be to get those m350 or slim In-win cases.

 

[2timer]

Low profile 7750 is pretty small. With a low profile card you do not have to use a 90° riser because the CPU cooler and I/O shield will be almost as tall.



The point of thin ITX is... having a thin case. A graphics card would render the "thin" part moot.

I know. The point of thin ITX IS to have a thin case. But there's another reason I like it. You know why? Because thin-ITX is also minimal not only in size, but in design. I've always wondered why I could only buy motherboards with 6-8 USB ports and 6 A/V ports on the back, when I only use one or two ports.

Thin-ITX doesn't have a clutter of I/O ports I don't use. I would buy it for that reason and still stick it in a regular mITX case, just for looks alone. Only problem is, the lack of x16 PCI-E.

 

[AkumaX]

Something I wonder about. People always want to fiddle with form factors, when sometimes (not always) you end up with the same volume, just arranged differently.

Me? I'd much, much rather have the PSU inside the PC than an external power brick, assuming PC+brick added up has the same volume as PC+internal. And unless you need to have that thinness, the thin ITX case in the link doesn't look to be any smaller in volume than, say, an M350 that takes normal ITX. Back when "cube" style cases were popular (Ultra MicroFly, Aspire X-Qpack, various Lian Li/Silverstone/Thermaltake/etc.) a lot of people LOVED those cases with the reason that they were so small and took up so little room... except that some of them were larger in volume than typical mATX mini towers, and they took up more desk space as well.

Example:
Thermaltake Armor A30 2174in³
Rosewill LINE-M 1649in³

Personally I didn't like those cube cases, either. I wanted it to be slim and minimalistic! Well, I guess they would work if I had an ITX cube that was (minimalistically) fitted around a Hyper212+ in a push/pull configuration

P.S. hey OP, i totally forgot that if you're willing to mutilate your card, you could cut a pci-e 16x video card down to pci-e 1x
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=97313
http://allthemods.com/userinfo.php?userid=238&id=6246

or, i suppose, get an adapter? this + riser card = yes? http://www.rakuten.com/prod/startec...nsion-adapter-for-1u/q/loc/101/219412773.html

 

[2timer]

Personally I didn't like those cube cases, either. I wanted it to be slim and minimalistic! Well, I guess they would work if I had an ITX cube that was (minimalistically) fitted around a Hyper212+ in a push/pull configuration

P.S. hey OP, i totally forgot that if you're willing to mutilate your card, you could cut a pci-e 16x video card down to pci-e 1x
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=97313
http://allthemods.com/userinfo.php?userid=238&id=6246

or, i suppose, get an adapter? this + riser card = yes? http://www.rakuten.com/prod/startec...nsion-adapter-for-1u/q/loc/101/219412773.html

That's an interesting idea, fitting an x16 card in an x1/4 slot. I suppose they are technically compatible, so it could actually work. The only issue I see is that some x16 cards have a bigger power draw, up to 75w. I'm not so sure if an x1/4 slot could supply the same amount of power for a hungrier card. I'm sure a passively cooled card would work!

 

[Zap]

The point of thin ITX IS to have a thin case.

So, you're willing to give up desk space for thinness? What if you can get a computer that is a mere 1cm thick... if the other dimensions were 120x80cm?

I actually would rather have a case take up less desk space, than to be shorter.

Unless you were turning those thin ITX cases on edge.

Thin-ITX doesn't have a clutter of I/O ports I don't use. I would buy it for that reason and still stick it in a regular mITX case, just for looks alone.

For every one person complaining about too many ports there are probably as many complaining about not having enough.

Looks? How often do you stare at the back of your computer? :hmm:

 

[2timer]

So, you're willing to give up desk space for thinness?

Well, yes - to a point. I would like a thin computer but I don't need it to be paper thin, know what I mean? I am looking for cases under 3" high. Anything taller starts to feel bulky. Personally, I don't mind giving up extra c.i. in desk space if the height is reduced.

Some people just want to reduce overall cubic inches, so they go with the "cube" case. And those are nice too, but I like more of a "console" look. I like having a case I can easily grasp in my hand, and that sits flush to the surface of my desk or table or floor. It's just personal preference, that's all.

For every one person complaining about too many ports there are probably as many complaining about not having enough.

This is true. I just don't think that unused ports are useful or necessary. They add to the overall clutter of a motherboard. And having less unused ports means a simpler product that has less potential for parts to fail and generally easier to make repairs when they do.

Looks? How often do you stare at the back of your computer? :hmm:

Lol! Not much. I guess I'm just picky.

 

[AkumaX]

get a pci-e 16x card that's low power consumption to cut to 4x

 

[2timer]

Awesome. Posted in your mITX thread!

Yeah, if you wanted to move that comment to your thread, that would be great.

 

[piasabird]

There may be some things that show up using Thunderbolt. They use this on some apple products. Thunderbolt is both fast and flexible. It can carry 2 video streams or both Video and Data. I think I recall seeing an external video Grapics Unit somewhere on the Internet. This may be a little on the cost prohibitive side. I know the cables are a little expensive.

 

[firewolfsm]

A low profile GPU (less than two inches tall), mSATA port + 1 2.5" drive bay, all powered by a 190W picoPSU is going to be much smaller and simpler than any option with a riser card. Sure it's not modular, but the size sacrifice incurred by the low profile card is essentially zero considering the required thickness of the cpu cooler. One could essentially have a 7.5"x7"x2.5" box, (2.2L), with the hard drive against one side, the mSATA port on the motherboard (for an SSD + HDD setup) and the card against a perpendicular side. A 7750, i7 quad core (65W s version), 8GB of ram, and 512GB + 1TB hard drive could easily fit in this setup.

The only case where there would be a sacrifice in thickness would be if you were using a laptop style HSF such as this
http://images.anandtech.com/doci/4394/DSC_3507.jpg

 

[piasabird]

I saw a case online on youtube where they used rectangular steel for the sides top and bottom and used some kind of aluminum angle brackets. There is some way to design the shape and draw out the cuts and holes and order to come pre-drilled. I think they use those laser metal fabricating machines to machine it.

Thin Mini-ITX was not designed for systems with video cards mosty the standard does not have X16 pcie Slots. However there is a wide variety of Mini-ITX with the video card slots.