SilverStone SG05-LITE: Building A Low-Cost, Linux, Mini-ITX System

[phoronix]

Phoronix: SilverStone SG05-LITE: Building A Low-Cost, Linux, Mini-ITX System

The Sugo SG05-LITE is a decent Mini-ITX/DTX enclosure from SilverStone that is very low-cost yet decent build quality and design. Here's a look at the SilverStone Sugo SG05-LITE and some other Linux-friendly system components for those thinking about doing a low-cost Linux-based mini-ITX system.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=19869

[madjr]

the case kinda looks like a microwave.

I mean that's not a bad thing as I can brag I run linux on a "converted" microwave oven

Anyway $70 for a power supply ... hmm.

Am into building a mini-itx, but the smaller NUC / Steamboxes form factors look quite cool too:

http://www.newegg.com/GIGABYTE-Mini-Booksize-Barebone-PCs/BrandSubCat/ID-1314-309

[madjr]

Ok, here's a more complete NUC list:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000309&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=BESTMATCH&PageSize=50&Page=1

Anyway I didn't see the total price in the article.

[Calinou]

has active PFC

Any non-crap PSU has that today, no need to mention it. These days, it's mentioned for marketing purposes only.

[caligula]

The biggest problem with that case is the PSU cables. Just look at the mess. There's hardly room for all the stuff you can connect to it and the wires are way too long. But that's nothing you can do about. ITX/SFX power supply standard suck a$$. If you want a smaller NUC case, the PSU situation is worse for high performance CPUs. Good luck installing Z87 mobo, 4770K CPU and NUC case.

[schmidtbag]

I feel like for a case and heatsink like this, the CPU fan should be reversed. You might get better results.

[caligula]

I feel like for a case and heatsink like this, the CPU fan should be reversed. You might get better results.

This is how I installed stuff on my HTPC. Silverstone 80+ Gold PSU, 140mm CPU fan, liquid cooling, Asrock z77 mobo, Intel 3770k @ 4.3 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 2800, and low profile NVIDIA GPU (currently broken).

http://oi57.tinypic.com/2j2ta1g.jpg

[Nobu]

The biggest problem with that case is the PSU cables. Just look at the mess. There's hardly room for all the stuff you can connect to it and the wires are way too long. But that's nothing you can do about. ITX/SFX power supply standard suck a$$. If you want a smaller NUC case, the PSU situation is worse for high performance CPUs. Good luck installing Z87 mobo, 4770K CPU and NUC case.

Yeah, modular cabling is pretty much a must-have with that case--I've managed to squeese the cables between the PSU and HDD cage, opening up the bottom half of the case, but it still constricts airflow, and I've had to hide the excess cables inside the unused portion of the HDD cage.

The inflexibility of the cables on the SilverStone PSU that came with my case (I didn't get the LITE version) makes it pretty difficult to do any kind of effective cable routing, but there are reviews on newegg saying that it's not so bad with the modular PSU that they make. I think it'd be much better if the cables came out the side of the PSU instead, at least in this case, but oh well. :/

Btw, I put a CoolerMaster Vortex Plus in mine, which is 84mm high (or 58.5 without the fan), and it just barely fits. With the bulky PSU cables above, it's impossible to install with the fan on it, but you can barely attach the fan after mounting the heatsink to the motherboard. I plan to replace the fan with a low-profile one eventually. Without the fan, it seems to still cool decently with the front case fan blowing air over the fins, but I'm not sure I'd trust it that way under full load.

[caligula]

Yeah, modular cabling is pretty much a must-have with that case--I've managed to squeese the cables between the PSU and HDD cage, opening up the bottom half of the case, but it still constricts airflow, and I've had to hide the excess cables inside the unused portion of the HDD cage.

The inflexibility of the cables on the SilverStone PSU that came with my case (I didn't get the LITE version) makes it pretty difficult to do any kind of effective cable routing, but there are reviews on newegg saying that it's not so bad with the modular PSU that they make. I think it'd be much better if the cables came out the side of the PSU instead, at least in this case, but oh well. :/

Btw, I put a CoolerMaster Vortex Plus in mine, which is 84mm high (or 58.5 without the fan), and it just barely fits. With the bulky PSU cables above, it's impossible to install with the fan on it, but you can barely attach the fan after mounting the heatsink to the motherboard. I plan to replace the fan with a low-profile one eventually. Without the fan, it seems to still cool decently with the front case fan blowing air over the fins, but I'm not sure I'd trust it that way under full load.

I have the SilverStone Gold PSU in that pic I posted. It has modular cabling, but won't help a lot because the cables are too long and you need to plug them all except 3xMOLEX in if you want external GPU. Without external GPU you only save two cable (2xPCI Express power and 3xMOLEX). You need 24 and 8 pin ATX cables, and 3xSATA power cable nevertheless.

I have the 140mm CPU fan in front pushing air out. Not very good but you can't do much better. This makes it impossible to have the hard drive bay or optical drive.

[caligula]

Yeah, modular cabling is pretty much a must-have with that case--I've managed to squeese the cables between the PSU and HDD cage, opening up the bottom half of the case, but it still constricts airflow, and I've had to hide the excess cables inside the unused portion of the HDD cage.

The inflexibility of the cables on the SilverStone PSU that came with my case (I didn't get the LITE version) makes it pretty difficult to do any kind of effective cable routing, but there are reviews on newegg saying that it's not so bad with the modular PSU that they make. I think it'd be much better if the cables came out the side of the PSU instead, at least in this case, but oh well. :/

Btw, I put a CoolerMaster Vortex Plus in mine, which is 84mm high (or 58.5 without the fan), and it just barely fits. With the bulky PSU cables above, it's impossible to install with the fan on it, but you can barely attach the fan after mounting the heatsink to the motherboard. I plan to replace the fan with a low-profile one eventually. Without the fan, it seems to still cool decently with the front case fan blowing air over the fins, but I'm not sure I'd trust it that way under full load.

I think a better option is to redesign the cabling for SFX. You shouldn't need 24+8 pins of power for motherboard. These systems rarely draw much power. One PCI express can draw at most 75W. A CPU 130W max. One hard drive and 2 memory sticks around 15W. Mobo chipset nowadays 10W. 4xUSB3 = 18W. So at most 240W. It's not realistic they all use this much. I'd prefer simpler setups with at most 25W GPU, 60W max CPU, SSD and 2xUSB3 max. Would be max 105W. Still need 24+8 pins ATX? Note that notebook PSU has two pins and 100W max @ 15V.'

Another note: If you want to push so much power to USB3 in front, why not make a power connector for front panel and also why not have whole intel hda in front panel and the USB hub? Why is it better to circulate this all via motherboard?