Computer Case

It does not make sense to use a standard (mid-) tower case for a mini-ITX motherboard. Such cases have several significant disadvantages: they are big and heavy, hence not that easily transportable, and they have a built-in power supply (PS) with a cooling fan in, which is far from being silent. Moreover, the PSs in such cases are designed to be able to power high-end CPUs and motherboards, several extension cards including fast and power-hungry graphic cards and therefore are not very ergonomic.

In contrast to this, special mini-ITX cases are much smaller and lighter and have an external power adapter (like laptops), which in many cases is fan-less, so 100% silent. In my case the external power adapter is only 80W. Also, an external power brick does not contribute to the inner box temperature and helps to bring the PC case dimensions down.

Unfortunately, there are not that many choices for a mini-ITX case. Most cases require a laptop-style 2.5" hard disk drive (HDD) and a laptop slim design CD/DVD drive (CDD). Due to a small size some of the cases do not allow installation of an extension card or even block some ports on the motherboard, so it becomes underutilized. I wanted a case that would have a place for one extension card, front panel connections for USB and audio and could take a 3.5" HDD. Larger 3.5" HDD's are generally faster and less expensive than their 2.5" counterparts. On the other hand, they are in general noisier and dissipate more heat (in average 10W vs. about 2W). So you have to find a compromise, as usual. I resolved it by using a Seagate Barracuda 80Gb HDD. It is virtually silent when idle, I can hear it only while performing a seek operation because of the heads movement.

Furthermore, mini-ITX cases are not that popular in the US like the bigger ones. Most US online stores even do not offer this type of cases at all, I even do not mention the regular stores like Best Buy, CompUSA, or Circuit City. I did not want to buy one from abroad and Googled a lot before I found a suitable one on the Newegg.com website. It is placed there in a general ATX cases section, so it is not easy to find if you are hunting specifically for a mini-ITX one. I purchased the iStarUSA S3 case from the S Storm series. Here is how it looks like with the HDD and CDD mounting panel detached:

The case itself has three built-in devices. One small board in the top right corner is a power converter and the one in the top left corner is an interface to the front connectors. The box also has a built-in fan (the only one in my system), and it is very silent indeed.

Here is a closer look at the case front boards. The connectors of the power converter go to the motherboard and HDD/CDD. The other board features detachable cables for the case when the corresponding front connector is not in use. I removed the cable from the Firewire port (the right one), as it is not present on the motherboard. The left cable goes to the USB ports and the middle one is for the audio out and mike in. The case is equipped with a built-in buzzer (the small white box above the reset button) on the front panel on the right.

The case comes with an external fan-less 80W power adapter (the black box in the top left corner), a bunch of cables and screws, and with two small connector boards. One of them is the PCI extension board riser. The extension board can be placed only horizontally in this case, which is parallel to the motherboard, so one needs a way to attach it. The other small board provides an interface to a slim-design CDD. The external power adapter generates only one voltage (12V, 6.6A max), which makes it easy to run a PC in this box from a car battery.

The case dimensions perfectly match the mini-ITX motherboard. Here is how the motherboards embeds into the case. The case fan overlaps a little with the CPU heatsink and this is just enough to cool it down below the human body temperature. Actually, there is no need to cool down the CPU heatsink for the types of applications mentioned at the beginning of this article. I believe that the main purpose of the fan is to cool a 3.5" HDD and an extension card (if any).

To increase the efficiency of the cooling fan, one has to make sure that there is a good layout of cables in order to provide a decent airflow through the part of the motherboard outside of the heatsink. This is where the HDD and an extension card will reside, so this air channel should be kept possibly free of wires.

Use the supplied plastic strips and brackets to hold the wires in the area right above the case boards (and below the CDD).

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