mini-itx 780G board

florinp3 · Post by **florinp3** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 2:18 am

El_Angelo wrote: Just wondering which cpu to get for it...
doubting between sempron LE1250 a single core 1640 or an x2's @ 45W (4450e?)
any suggestions? i'm aiming for low powerusage @ idle... what it uses when stressed is not much of a concern (as long as the PSU can pull it off)

It depends on what you'll use it for. For my mini-ITX build I went for a 4450e (and an nvidia 8200 board) - I use it as a file server, browsing, music, movies, seed box. I'm using CrystalCPUID to undervolt the CPU - it works well with 1 GHz @0.8V, 1.6 GHz @1V and 2.0 GHz @1.1V. Power consumption is very low (I removed the fan from the stock heatsink - it's cooled by a nearby case fan) and I can watch HD movies with no problems.

AuraAllan · Post by **AuraAllan** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 6:30 am

florinp3 wrote:Power consumption is very low

Well how low is it? Where are the numbers?

Spare Tire · Post by **Spare Tire** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 8:37 am

How much power do i need for a J&W minix + 2 sticks of ram + an old 3800+ x2 windsor core athlon + two HDD + radeon HD2400?
The most powerful mini-itx powersupplies i see are like 200W but they are for automotive, i just want one for wall socket with an adaptor.

florinp3 · Post by **florinp3** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 11:51 pm

AuraAllan wrote: Well how low is it? Where are the numbers?

Well, I don't know for sure, but I think it's well below 30W in idle and ~40-50W when is heavy use (more figures if you follow that link). Unfortunately I'm not sure about that power-meter and it's the only one I could found around here. That's why I was referring to the heat output, I think it should be kind of low if it runs (almost) fanless in such a small and cramped case (the case is smaller than a shoes box).

Matthijs · Post by **Matthijs** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 3:56 pm

gtquan wrote:I built a SFF computer with a Nexus Psile case and J&W mini ITX 780g. Thought I'd share the experience.

Parts:

Nexus Psile case - white/aluminum
J&W 780G mini itx
4 GB DDR2
WD green cavier 500GB SATA
picopsu 120 w/ 110 watt AC/DC brick
AMD Athlon X2 4850
Windows XP
Scythe ninja mini
92 mm fan

Using it as low power, quiet HTPC in a den, minimal gaming.

Most expensive part was the case which was about 1/2 the cost after importing from the US to Canada.

Not the easiest build. The case comes with IDE DVD drive w/ standard 80pin cable. Unfortunately the power connector is right next to IDE connector on the motherboard and the picopsu doesn't fit well with the IDE cable in place. I might have been able to jam it in. Instead I just bought a 20-24 ATX converter. The motherboard manaul says it would work w/ just a 20 pin connector. Also had to buy a P4 power cable. The power supply is just dangling on a plastic hook I mounted inside the case. Works fine. The case has mounts for a small board DC power supply if you can find one that fits.

The case comes with an 80mm fan. The rails to attach the fan are finicky so I just screwed in a larger 92 mm fan into the mounts on the case. Works fine and moves more air.

I replaced the stock AMD CPU with Scythe Ninja mini. It's justly slightly too tall so I removed the top caps which are held on by glue and had to dremmel a few mm off the top copper pieces and fits fine. The case fan acts like a CPU fan since it is so close.

Lots of cables though there is room (some) to tuck them away from the air flow but not as neat as I would like.

I tried the stock northbridge/southbridge fan but it was way too loud so am cooling it passively now. The bigger case fan is giving it some flow.
The whole case does get warm too touch. No video corruption issues which were reported in the bit-tech review.

Overall quite happy with the build. Extremely quiet. Runs fast enough for my needs. Would've preferred a DVD drive that was SATA for the smaller cables which also would've solved the power supply issue.

May try some gaming and see how warm it gets.

G

Hi gtquan,

I am also building a system with the same components. But Only with the AMD X2 5050e. Also I would very much like the idea of a Scyte Ninja Mini (And try to fit a Scythe KAZE JYU SLIM 100x100x12mm fan) I am measuring like crazy but cannot find the space for it. I am a cm short. Did you remove the foam? Or is the heatsink touching it?

At this moment I only have the case.

Can you please post pictures of your setup? (Dying for pictures )

Thanks.

PS I also bought the Nexus FSP150-AAA and Nexus PSB-1000 for the Psile case.

El_Angelo · Post by **El_Angelo** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:58 am

florinp3 wrote:
El_Angelo wrote: Just wondering which cpu to get for it...
doubting between sempron LE1250 a single core 1640 or an x2's @ 45W (4450e?)
any suggestions? i'm aiming for low powerusage @ idle... what it uses when stressed is not much of a concern (as long as the PSU can pull it off)
It depends on what you'll use it for. For my mini-ITX build I went for a 4450e (and an nvidia 8200 board) - I use it as a file server, browsing, music, movies, seed box. I'm using CrystalCPUID to undervolt the CPU - it works well with 1 GHz @0.8V, 1.6 GHz @1V and 2.0 GHz @1.1V. Power consumption is very low (I removed the fan from the stock heatsink - it's cooled by a nearby case fan) and I can watch HD movies with no problems.

i was thinking of getting a sempron actually... should do everything i want it to do as well... not sure which one though.. would there be any differences in the core? le1250 vs le1300 ?

gtquan · Post by **gtquan** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:09 am

I am also building a system with the same components. But Only with the AMD X2 5050e. Also I would very much like the idea of a Scyte Ninja Mini (And try to fit a Scythe KAZE JYU SLIM 100x100x12mm fan) I am measuring like crazy but cannot find the space for it. I am a cm short. Did you remove the foam? Or is the heatsink touching it?

At this moment I only have the case.

Can you please post pictures of your setup? (Dying for pictures ) Smile Thanks.

PS I also bought the Nexus FSP150-AAA and Nexus PSB-1000 for the Psile case.

Some Pics - hope this works

gtquan · Post by **gtquan** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:14 am

That didn't work.

Here's a link to shutterfly to see the pics:

http://gtquan.shutterfly.com/

Matthijs · Post by **Matthijs** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:15 pm

gtquan wrote:That didn't work.

Here's a link to shutterfly to see the pics:

http://gtquan.shutterfly.com/

Great pictures!! Thank you for uploading.

How are your temps now? Do you think 1 case fan and for example a Scythe SCSK-1000 Shuriken will have good temps and is just as silent? Because this mod is a bit extreme for me.

gtquan · Post by **gtquan** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 4:36 pm

Great pictures!! Thank you for uploading. Very Happy How are your temps now? Do you think 1 case fan and for example a Scythe SCSK-1000 Shuriken will have good temps and is just as silent? Because this mod is a bit extreme for me. Wink

The CPU is at 42C, System temp 37. Northbridge temp 55c. I don't have the northbridge fan installed - too loud. The case really does need a proper exhaust fan. I'm using a 60mm silenX fan and the fan from the AMD heat sink (?80mm) to exhaust air out the back. The single 60 mm fan wasn't enough - system temp was still hitting 50c. I stuck them to aluminum back using dome silicone caulking - whatever works.

G

jmk · Post by **jmk** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:41 am

Nice pictures, gtquan! I have a Psile with Jetway NC81-LF and Scythe SCSK-1000 Shuriken. Proper exhaust fans are certainly a must, without them temps (both CPU and system) reach almost 60C! Thus, Shuriken alone is not a good choice: warm air stays inside the case (as the air moves downward, not rearward).

gtquan · Post by **gtquan** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 8:59 am

Has anyone else had problems with their system 'crashing'?

Infrequently my screen goes black when I insert a disc, attach a USB device of bump the cover. I get the impression the OS is still active as I here things loading up when the disc or USD device starts - just the screen goes blank. Have to do a hard reset. I wonder if it's a video problem or grounding issue. It's not a heat issue as it can happen right after startup. I have the monitor hooked up through the DVI port. Updated to the most recent AMD/ATI drivers already.

Greg

Matthijs · Post by **Matthijs** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 3:10 pm

I found some extreme setup with the J&W Minix 780G-SP128MB.

Look and see, it's just crazy! 2 Scythe Orochi.....

And which fan is that mounted on top?

Spare Tire · Post by **Spare Tire** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:25 pm

Wicked. How did they mount it onto the GPU?

Quite useless to be plugging that powerful dual slot GPU to the 4x pcie.
Anyways, there are other boards out there with full 16x pcie slots, i don't see why not here.

pipperoni · Post by **pipperoni** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 5:37 am

Spare Tire wrote:Quite useless to be plugging that powerful dual slot GPU to the 4x pcie

While you pick on the PCIe slot, I think its more curious that the mega heatsink more or less negates the value of the tiny motherboard! I did think the heatsink in the goldfish bowl was really cute though.

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 8:29 am

I just noticed newegg is now selling the Jetway 780G mini-itx board for $165:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... k=jnc81-lf

It does not have the "new product" label, so I don't know how long they've been carrying it. Also, note the product name is JNC81-LF, not the more popularly known NC81-LF. I'm not sure if there's any difference between the two.

It comes with a HSF. But based on the fan's description (http://www.jetwaycomputer.com/spec/NC81-LF.pdf), at 4000rpm/36db, I think it's a throw-away item for the SPRC crowd.

I also noticed ncixus.com has started selling the board for $143:
http://www.ncixus.com/products/33313/NC ... 0Computer/

Spare Tire · Post by **Spare Tire** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 8:59 am

Would the board do hybrid crossfire with one of those rare PCI radeons? I remember they released a recent one lately.
Found that the HD2400 exists in PCI.

El_Angelo · Post by **El_Angelo** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:47 pm

my setup is running...
All seems to be running ok-ish... though the mainboard is acting up a bit... booting the bios 3 or 4 times before it actually boots the os, not booting from usb stick, heatsink on the north and southbridge is extremely hot... and i'm still not doing *ANY* graphical stuff, so i'm a bit concerned about that (and the case really has no place to install additional cooling) and the ACPI tables look fishy... get very weird linux kernel messages about rtc's and hpet's messing up... but that might be fixable...

El_Angelo · Post by **El_Angelo** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:49 pm

gtquan wrote:
Can i ask how tall is the chipset heatsink? I don't want to put that 40mm fan on, if it's just as tall as the 1U CPU heatsink, maybe i can make a contraption of some kind that a Scythe KAZE JYU SLIM 100x100x12mm fan that would stretch and cover both.
It's not very tall - I think about 2 cm. Maybe 2.5.

Greg

2cm, just measured

Spare Tire · Post by **Spare Tire** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 11:45 pm

Hum, i wonder if i could fit a 120x120x20mm slim yate loon in there.

Matthijs · Post by **Matthijs** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:16 am

Well I just found out that a Scythe Shuriken will not fit on the J&W Minix 780G-SP128MB if you use both two So-Dimm memory slots. Great.

Any suggestions on a alternative cpu cooler for this board i.c.m with a Psile case?

Matthijs · Post by **Matthijs** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:22 am

Spare Tire wrote:Would the board do hybrid crossfire with one of those rare PCI radeons? I remember they released a recent one lately.
Found that the HD2400 exists in PCI.

I don't know if this info will help out but I read on the ATI site that the 780G will do hybrid crossfire with ATI HD 3400 series cards. Source

El_Angelo · Post by **El_Angelo** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:23 am

but not on PCI... only PCI-e should be supported... bandwidth of PCI would kill crossfire...

Spare Tire · Post by **Spare Tire** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 6:42 am

Matthijs wrote:Well I just found out that a Scythe Shuriken will not fit on the J&W Minix 780G-SP128MB if you use both two So-Dimm memory slots. Great.

Any suggestions on a alternative cpu cooler for this board i.c.m with a Psile case?

I was gonna try the shuriken but then it was too tall for my mini-itx case anyways. I thought of getting this one:
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=17710AC8676
and then cutting a hole on the top of my case to mount the a thin 120mm fan. The heatsink is 23.5mm tall + 20mm for the fan. Not quite sure if it would really fit, if not i'll have to go for the slim scythe 100mm x 12.5mm.

gtquan · Post by **gtquan** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 5:48 pm

Well I just found out that a Scythe Shuriken will not fit on the J&W Minix 780G-SP128MB if you use both two So-Dimm memory slots. Great.

Any suggestions on a alternative cpu cooler for this board i.c.m with a Psile case?

Scythe ninja mini will fit the Psile case w/ some mods. You need to remove the top caps (held on by glue) and shave off about 2 mm from the tops. I used a dremel tool.

If you are using the single fan mounting as suggested by Nexus the case will heat up > 50 degrees. A smaller heat sink with the fan in front may allow some hot air to be exhaused out. I had to add 2 small 60 mm fans to the back of the case with the ninja mini to exhaust hot air.

Debating adding a 4350 or 4550 graphics card if these ever will support hybrid x-fire.

Greg

shaoyu · Post by **shaoyu** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 12:23 pm

Does any of these board (J&W Minix, Jetway NC81-LF) support 4GB sodimm modules (thus max 8GB memory)? I heard most GM965 laptops are compatible with the new 4GB DDR2 sodimms.

DrDooM · Post by **DrDooM** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:41 am

jmk wrote:Nice pictures, gtquan! I have a Psile with Jetway NC81-LF and Scythe SCSK-1000 Shuriken. Proper exhaust fans are certainly a must, without them temps (both CPU and system) reach almost 60C! Thus, Shuriken alone is not a good choice: warm air stays inside the case (as the air moves downward, not rearward).

I thought getting the same configuration. Could you, please, post pictures of you configuration?
Thanks

jmk · Post by **jmk** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:39 am

DrDooM, I placed the components (Jetway NC81-LF / Scythe SCSK-1000 Shuriken / Athlon 4850e / 4GB) temporarily inside Antec NSK1480. I was not too pleased with the temps (and the noise!) in Psile, not even with two 60mm rear exhaust fans. Now (with NSK1480) the temps are CPU 53C, System 58C at load (Prime95, 20 min), which are almost same as what the idle temps were with Psile.

I will modify my Psile later on. I even consider making proper holes for the fans in the rear of the case. So, I am afraid there will be no pictures for a while

Spare Tire · Post by **Spare Tire** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 10:00 am

Did anyone try to remove the heatsink on the chipset and power regulation thing on the J&W minix? My 90nm athlon x2 3800+ is running at 38C without undervolt, very reasonable and the heatsink is warm to the touch. On the other hand, the chipset is at 55C and it's barely warm, so there's a serious problem of heat transfer there. I wanted to change the thermal paste but can't get the pushpins off. How do you do it?

Spare Tire · Post by **Spare Tire** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 6:19 pm

Okay, i took the heatsinks off. Turns out they were using thermal tape. No wonder the temps were crappy. Just that now, i don't think i can replace it with arctic silver 5 because the pushpins wont hold it strong enough. Perhaps replace it with bolt-through? Would have to go get bolts and screws and washers at the hardware store.

mini-itx 780G board

4GB sodimm modules?