Smallest case for Intel i5 2500

[irse]

Thinking about making a small computer for work. Want something about 4" think. I will stand it up and place it between a wall and filing cabinet. Maybe mini ITX. But most of them have a PSU that is about 150W and the power calculators that I used state that I need about 250 W. Only found a Inwin one on Newegg that has a 300W PSU. Anyone know of any other one that is powerful enough to run a i5 2500?

 

[fuzzymath10]

They're not mini-itx, but I have built micro-atx machines in Minuet 300/350 and NSK-1480 (350w) cases from Antec. I like both cases, and they're about 4" thick.

I have run a variety of quad-core CPUs (Q6600, Q8200, i5 2400) with a slim Radeon HD 5750 in them. I recall reading somewhere that Antec sources the proprietary PSUs in them from Seasonic which might be why I've had luck stuffing them with fairly power-hungry components.

 

[Phil L]

150 W should be sufficient to run an i5 2500, provided you don't overload you system with tons of peripherals. You can also opt for 200 W unit with your mini-itx tower. Newegg shows some In Win cases that have 200 W psu. Alternatively, you can also get a mini-itx tower without psu and add separate psu (check form factor of course), but that could end up costing more.

By googling "i5 2500 power consumption" you can see various reviewers reporting full system usage of an i5 2500/2500k system at approx. 100W~13x W depending on setup. As a reference, Anandtech's own number is 133 W (Anandtech bench, full system power consumption x264 1st pass, using IGP). I am not sure, however, if the reported wattage is at outlet or with PSU efficiency factored in (if former then the actual system usage is lower).

Bear in mind with PSU quality and aging (if you plan to use this constantly for a few years), then maybe a 200 W is a better choice. However, it depends on your usage model and how heavy you think you are gonna stress the system.

Just some thoughts,

 

[fuzzymath10]

Phil is right. You only need more PSU room if you need a better video card or a ton of hard drives, etc.

Since you will not likely overclock, reducing the voltage to the CPU makes a big difference too, so 150w will probably be fine. Lots of SB systems can stay below 100w

 

[irse]

They're not mini-itx, but I have built micro-atx machines in Minuet 300/350 and NSK-1480 (350w) cases from Antec. I like both cases, and they're about 4" thick.

I have run a variety of quad-core CPUs (Q6600, Q8200, i5 2400) with a slim Radeon HD 5750 in them. I recall reading somewhere that Antec sources the proprietary PSUs in them from Seasonic which might be why I've had luck stuffing them with fairly power-hungry components.

I have been using a Minuet 300 but now want something a little thinner.