[There's a reason that Yoda is the unofficial mascot of SBS. Size indeed matters not.] Building a tiny desktop - THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA
Mon, Jun 18 2012 23:59 bradley

Building a tiny desktop

I'm building a tiny Desktop PC to replace a laptop on a docking station that never goes anywhere (since Sis has an iPad)

Here's the parts:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106371 -LITE-ON 8X Slim Internal DVD Burner 8X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 6X DVD+R DL 8X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 8X DVD-ROM 24X CD-R 24X CD-RW 24X CD-ROM SATA Model DS-8A8SH - OEM

G.SKILL Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model F3-2400C10D-16GTX:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231589

Newegg.com - ASUS P8H77-I LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131841

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147164

Newegg.com - SYBA Model CL-CAB40042 37" SATA to Mini SATA Cable with Molex Power Adapter - SATA / eSATA Cables:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812186155

Newegg.com - Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501

Silverstone SST-SG06B (Black) Mini-ITX SUGO Case w/ 300W:
http://www.aerocooler.com/shop.cart?action=ITEM&prod_id=CASS06B  (more on the case here: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=353&Itemid=61)

Put it together tonight... will be booting it up to the bios settings/motherboard tomorrow.

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# re: Building a tiny desktop

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 8:17 AM by Gabe

Curious.  Was it enough power?  I'm by no means a hardware guru and I've never gone through with building a system but over the years I've seen enough builds that 300W stood out to me as questionable.  Let us know how it went.  Thanks for posting all the links.  It makes my mouth water to think about getting all that stuff...that's the hardware geek in me trying to break out.  :-P

# re: Building a tiny desktop

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 9:00 AM by bradley

All of the stuff are low powered and 300 watts is indeed enough juice to power it.

# Hmm....

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 10:03 AM by Joe Raby

Why use such a big case if you're only putting in a 2.5" drive and no video card?

If you went with a lower-end CPU, you could probably use an Antec ISK110 VESA if you didn't need the ODD, or else the ISK310-150 if you did.

I'm building a system with a Gigabyte A75N-USB3 motherboard with an A4-3400 dual-core (I got it free at AMD's Tech Tour which is hitting cities around the US and Canada this month), which has the equivalent video of a Radeon 6450 card (far better than the Intel HD 4000), but I can also add in a low-profile version of that card to get double the performance out of the video too, and it all fits into an ISK310-150.  I can even put 2x 2.5" hard drives in there.  I'm thinking about using a larger hard drive (500-750GB 7200RPM) along with an SSD caching drive to save on cost.  The power usage for the A4-3400 + a Radeon HD 6450 tops out at 55W, so there's plenty to spare out of the 150W total for the other components.

Also, you should consider buying from a real distributor, not just a wholesaler like NewEgg.  For instance, NewEgg's price on this:  www.newegg.com/.../Product.aspx

is really out-to-lunch.  I can get the same thing (in Canada) from a real disty for $30.  ASI Canada is a decent one, and they sell all the same stuff that NewEgg.ca does.  ASI is available in the US too.  There are probably far more in the US than there are here though.  D&H is another one that has a decent catalog.  I buy IT-related stuff from Ingram Micro from time to time, but they don't carry a lot in the way of consumer computer components.

# re: Building a tiny desktop

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 12:13 PM by bradley

Because I'm stealing another hard drive I already have and putting it in as an additional storage.

# re: Building a tiny desktop

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 7:40 PM by Philip Elder

Our config would go like this:

Intel DQ77KB

Intel Core i7-3770S (3.1GHz low power)

8GB Kingston (2x 4GB or to 16GB 2x 8GB)

300GB Intel 320 Series SSD

Antec Mini-Skeleton or the ISK 300-150

Blu-ray optical

Some additional really neat alternatives:

download.intel.com/.../thinminiitxcomponentcatalog.pdf

Thin Mini-ITX provides a really kewl platform with some really funky configurations coming down the pipe.

Philip