Experience with m-ITX build: PC-Q18/Z87I-Deluxe/i7/Samuel 17
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2013 9:22 pm
Recently completed my first m-ITX build.
Major components:
Lian Li PC-Q18
Asus Z87I-Deluxe
i7 4770K
In general the case was very easy to setup and the quality is first rate. I was not happy that it's setup to only allow the power supply to have it's intake fan positioned above the heat sink. The prior case of this class let you turn around the power supply and use it either way. I had a metal shop mill a precision opening on the side panel and finished it off with a nice grill so I could intake power supply air from the outside. Also removed the hard disk backplane as it adds little value for me, and they made a odd choice for the power connection (old molex style). Since the power supply cables terminate with the new style power connections, the backplane just added unnecessary complexity.
Used the SilverStone ST55F-G modular power supply which has a length of 140mm. With the optional short cable kit, it works well. Don't really think you'd want to use a longer power supply. Having the option for short cables is wonderful.
One of my biggest issues was figuring out a good cooler choice given the 80mm distance from the CPU to the power supply (ideally it should be 70mm or less to provide air intake). The Z87I-Deluxe has a number of great features, but I couldn't convince myself that something like the Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev.B would clear several high standing motherboard parts. After much debate I decided to go with the Prolimatech Samuel 17 as it has an asymmetric design which allows several alternative placements to get around some of these issues. The Samuel 17 fits without a problem, and seems to provide good cooling performance. I paired it with a Noiseblocker NB-eLoop B12-2 fan. The overall rig is fairly quiet, but haven't dug into Asus fan expert in any detail yet to lower the noise level even further. My only issue so far is that the Asus software doesn't seem to be able to run the Noiseblocker at anything but full speed, but has determined that the 2 case fans can be controlled. Have to figure out why this is happening as I didn't think PWM fans were required (the case fans aren't PWM).
One last note on the OS - Windows Pro 8.1... I was reluctant to go with Windows 8 seeing how maligned it's been in the press. Without a doubt, forcing the Modern UI on non-tablet users was an extremely dumb move on their part. If you like it, great, but my entire software suite doesn't use it, so you end up switching to the traditional interface anyways. With one free software install called "Classic Shell" all was good. You end up with a better Windows 7, and for 99.9% of the time can completely avoid the Modern UI (you also have to set the default apps so when clicking on certain file types you don't get thrust into Modern UI apps). The performance of W8.1 is stellar. From power off to being able to click on a UI element and interact in about 15 seconds (not including the time it takes to type in your password). Going into sleep mode or power off are equally fast. Have installed over 100 apps without a single compatibility issue including some which aren't officially supported like Photoshop CS5. MS is doing a disservice to their users by not allowing this sort of setup out of the box.
Major components:
Lian Li PC-Q18
Asus Z87I-Deluxe
i7 4770K
In general the case was very easy to setup and the quality is first rate. I was not happy that it's setup to only allow the power supply to have it's intake fan positioned above the heat sink. The prior case of this class let you turn around the power supply and use it either way. I had a metal shop mill a precision opening on the side panel and finished it off with a nice grill so I could intake power supply air from the outside. Also removed the hard disk backplane as it adds little value for me, and they made a odd choice for the power connection (old molex style). Since the power supply cables terminate with the new style power connections, the backplane just added unnecessary complexity.
Used the SilverStone ST55F-G modular power supply which has a length of 140mm. With the optional short cable kit, it works well. Don't really think you'd want to use a longer power supply. Having the option for short cables is wonderful.
One of my biggest issues was figuring out a good cooler choice given the 80mm distance from the CPU to the power supply (ideally it should be 70mm or less to provide air intake). The Z87I-Deluxe has a number of great features, but I couldn't convince myself that something like the Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev.B would clear several high standing motherboard parts. After much debate I decided to go with the Prolimatech Samuel 17 as it has an asymmetric design which allows several alternative placements to get around some of these issues. The Samuel 17 fits without a problem, and seems to provide good cooling performance. I paired it with a Noiseblocker NB-eLoop B12-2 fan. The overall rig is fairly quiet, but haven't dug into Asus fan expert in any detail yet to lower the noise level even further. My only issue so far is that the Asus software doesn't seem to be able to run the Noiseblocker at anything but full speed, but has determined that the 2 case fans can be controlled. Have to figure out why this is happening as I didn't think PWM fans were required (the case fans aren't PWM).
One last note on the OS - Windows Pro 8.1... I was reluctant to go with Windows 8 seeing how maligned it's been in the press. Without a doubt, forcing the Modern UI on non-tablet users was an extremely dumb move on their part. If you like it, great, but my entire software suite doesn't use it, so you end up switching to the traditional interface anyways. With one free software install called "Classic Shell" all was good. You end up with a better Windows 7, and for 99.9% of the time can completely avoid the Modern UI (you also have to set the default apps so when clicking on certain file types you don't get thrust into Modern UI apps). The performance of W8.1 is stellar. From power off to being able to click on a UI element and interact in about 15 seconds (not including the time it takes to type in your password). Going into sleep mode or power off are equally fast. Have installed over 100 apps without a single compatibility issue including some which aren't officially supported like Photoshop CS5. MS is doing a disservice to their users by not allowing this sort of setup out of the box.