Small case

[Diablo]

I'm looking into building a tiny server/system for lanning. I was thinking of bulding it around a Zotac mini itx 9300 board, which can support a dual core. Does anyone know of a really small case that can fit a big gpu (think 9600-9800gt) and an ocz vendetta 2. I'm not that fussed for price (but prefer under £100).

Does anyone think that this is a stupid idea?

[Rastalovich]

Definitely not stupid.

Every1 has a computer need and it's great to try and mold ur idea into something physical.

Massive availability of products for the enthusiast, some more known than others (specialist sites for car-pcs, lan units and those that just look great)

I keep a keen eye on all these threads as I do have a goal of an outstanding system in as small a case versus power, and quad-boot+ the sucker. Very much able to travel all over the world with.

Vendetta2... I really don't know, but I'd be looking at that deciding the overall size of the case required. I studied the recent user review of the scythe mini ninja or something like that. Good air flow required.

[Diablo]

Yeah, the vendetta 2 is only because I have one sitting around, and I though I might try to cut the cost a little. The idea behind this (and its still very much an idea lol) is for a lanning society (yes I'm a geek) at uni. We've got a little bit of interest, and my behemoth would ordinarily be perfect for this thing, except we need something very small and with a decent amount of power in order to move it around and run small (24 ish people) games.

I'll definitely have alook at that scythe, cos that sounds promising.

[Mul.]

If I'm being honest, keeping the CPU cooler will make your choice of cases very small indeed. It's not really worth going Mini ITX unless you're going for a case that's short in depth and not too tall.

Silverstone Sugo SG05 gets my vote. I'm in the process of downsizing the spec in my sig into one of these cases but with a Core 2 Duo E8400 and the Mini ITX Zotac 9300 board you've mentioned in your original post. I'm impressed with both the motherboard and case so far and it comes with a very good 300W 80PLUS certified unit made by FSP Group (Certainly a trusted brand in my books).

The case will support anything up to 78mm in height so that's the Vendetta 2 out the window. It'll support plenty of good coolers though including the Silverstone NT06-E (run it without fan), Coolermaster GeminII (again without fan), GeminII S (with fan) or Scythe Shuriken with fan. I'm using the Scythe.

Should have a full build log on the go by tomorrow or tuesday and a full review of the Zotac ITX board by the end of the week if it's of any interest

[Diablo]

That's the exact spec I was thinking. Tell me if you think I could get a 9800gt in there (for folding and the like)

[Mul.]

I'll be putting an 8800GT in there. As the length of the 9800GT's PCB is the same as the 8800GT, it'll fit without any issues. Technically speaking, the Silverstone case will even support the slightly larger Mini DTX form factor so even though the ITX board's expansion slot always sits at the outermost edge, there's space adjacent to it for any graphics card with a dual slot occupying cooler. Essentially any 9" long graphics card will fit.

[Diablo]

Cheers, +reps for that. Looks like this could be quite the little folder with this set up. The only other thing is, I have a copy of server 08 (32 bit) for free (and legit woot!) so should that go on it, or just plain old xp pro? This will be hosting games (older games such as halo I and UT etc)

[Mul.]

Many thanks for the +rep.

I've only really had experience with Server 2003 but I've heard good things about Server 2008. So long as driver support is there and I'm sure it is given that it's meant to be Vista based (?) I think it's at least worth a shot. Otherwise you can't go wrong with XP

[Diablo]

Thanks for all the help. The university may need some convincing to pay for some of this (its educational, honest) as it has come out at the £750 end of things inc gpu and 16 way gigabit switch.

All I know is that a free copy of windows server 08 standard is begging for use. If not, I stick 2003 on it (again free, dreamspark programme I think its called). Or XP etc.

[Mul.]

Ah great, I wasn't aware of the Dreamspark program. I study at KCL and it seems to be on the list so I'll head over and verify myself once I can find my Athens login credentials! Not sure how I went nearly a whole year without being aware of this microsoft program.

It's not ideal but you could buy some second hand components to cut costs and you could also opt for a cheaper CPU like an E5200 and overclock. I'll get back to you on how well the board overclocks but review sites seem to have got it to around 380FSB with a Quad so it can't be so bad!