Hello, Great forums - lots of fantastic information. I have been looking for a replacement for my laptop for a while, I travel occasionally but no longer want/need a laptop - I have seen the M350 Universal case and would like to see what is possible to put inside it. I looked at the ZOTAC 9300 with a E8400 before - but I saw the new H55 board and was fascinated with that! I live in Greece and it can get quite hot here in summer - so I constantly worry about heat dissipation and like the idea of a semi-open case. I use my PC for upto 18hrs a day and run 2 screens (trading financial markets) so I definately want as silent as possible - no more days of endless swapping to HDD with my measly 1GB RAM or loud fan when CPU (T2400 Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop) gets to 80 centigrade which it often does. I don't game at all but occasionally do a bit of HD video editing and edit photographs. I would have a hardwired LAN internet connection as opposed to wifi though I have a wifi router. Does anyone think the following build could/would work? (I am aware that this H55 board is not released officially yet - so understand the lack of practical advice - theory is fine!)
[b]Case:[/b] M350 Universal case (Euro 42)
[b]Motherboard:[/b] ZOTAC H55-ITX (Euro 100)
[b]Processor:[/b] Core i5-750 (Euro 150)
[b]Memory:[/b] 4GB DDR2 800 (Euro 80)
[b]HDD:[/b] I was thinking of using a 64GB SSD instead of a HDD due to less heat / power draw / smaller size and then getting a large externally powered e-sata drive? I saw the following external e-sata HDD
SEAGATE ST310005BWD1E2-RK BLACKARMOR WS 110 1TB (Euro 116)
[b]SDD:[/b] Corsair CMFSSD-64GBG2D 64GB 2.5''P64 220/120 MB/s (Euro 159)
[b]PSU:[/b] This is one problem - the largest PicoPSU is 150W - which i think would be too small as the processor alone is 95W. Are there any alternatives which would fit in the M350? (Euro 60?)
[b]Graphics:[/b] use the onboard chipset (would it be powerful enough to drive 23 inch monitors at 1920x1080? Or would there be a low profile and low temp solution for PCI-e (half height and would that fit m350?)
[b]Cooling:[/b] a low profile aftermarket cooler? I know silverstone did one that fitted in the m350 case with the ZOTAC 9300 m/board. But that was scoket 775. (EURO 20)
OK so this would total about 700 Euro or so without a graphics card - which is ridiculously high I know - but I would be willing to order the parts from abroad (ie not Greece) to get a decent price (i'd say around 700 dollars).
Otherwise I would go with a ZOTAC 9300 with E8400 which would be much cheaper and would probably do me as well....but i would love quad -core if i could get it. Its my first post so apols if I break any etiquette rules and thanks in advance for any help with this.
Kindest regards.
Zotac H55-ITX Help Newbie/first post
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
So, if I have not missunderstanded you are looking for:
- mini-ITX solution, the less space, the better
- silent PC, quiet as possible
- can handle up to 2 monitors
- maybe as cheap as possible?
Take in mind that i7s, i5s 750, 750s haven't integrated graphics (IGP) on it, so if you buy these i7s and i5 750/750s, you have to buy a graphics card unless it is integrated with the motherboard.
Also if space is not crucial for you, then you could easily go for a micro-ATX solution. micro-ATX motherboards are cheaper than mini-ITX, and the have a wide bunch of products unlike mini-ITX.
If you are looking something as cheap as possible, then you should go for AMD with a Gigabyte motherboard (sorry but little know about AMD). Also if you choose AMD, probably you should do some underclock and undervolt in order that they consume less (so less heat to evacuate). Also, consider when you are doing UC/UV it's the opposite case as doing Overclockin/Overvolting (OC/OV).
So, after giving you some advice I and probably the rest of users may know your main purposes:
- Quiet as possible without caring of money? Or give a try to best value money/quiet?
- Are you worried so much about space? Do you want the Pc as small as possible? Maybe a midtower fits you? Maybe a micro-ATX case form factor could suit you?
- Why are you willing to have a top i5? As sayed, if you pick i5s 7xx you haven't IGP on it, so you might pick up i5s 6xx if you are looking for top performance + IGP on the CPU, are you?
- As less power consumption as it is able? Well balanced power/quiet/money?
- How wide is your budget for the Pc?
etc. So please, try to ask you these questions and also give us more details of what you are going to need (maybe an i5 might be overkill or just too small?, I don't know)
Hope to have been helpfull
- mini-ITX solution, the less space, the better
- silent PC, quiet as possible
- can handle up to 2 monitors
- maybe as cheap as possible?
Take in mind that i7s, i5s 750, 750s haven't integrated graphics (IGP) on it, so if you buy these i7s and i5 750/750s, you have to buy a graphics card unless it is integrated with the motherboard.
Also if space is not crucial for you, then you could easily go for a micro-ATX solution. micro-ATX motherboards are cheaper than mini-ITX, and the have a wide bunch of products unlike mini-ITX.
If you are looking something as cheap as possible, then you should go for AMD with a Gigabyte motherboard (sorry but little know about AMD). Also if you choose AMD, probably you should do some underclock and undervolt in order that they consume less (so less heat to evacuate). Also, consider when you are doing UC/UV it's the opposite case as doing Overclockin/Overvolting (OC/OV).
So, after giving you some advice I and probably the rest of users may know your main purposes:
- Quiet as possible without caring of money? Or give a try to best value money/quiet?
- Are you worried so much about space? Do you want the Pc as small as possible? Maybe a midtower fits you? Maybe a micro-ATX case form factor could suit you?
- Why are you willing to have a top i5? As sayed, if you pick i5s 7xx you haven't IGP on it, so you might pick up i5s 6xx if you are looking for top performance + IGP on the CPU, are you?
- As less power consumption as it is able? Well balanced power/quiet/money?
- How wide is your budget for the Pc?
etc. So please, try to ask you these questions and also give us more details of what you are going to need (maybe an i5 might be overkill or just too small?, I don't know)
Hope to have been helpfull
As has been mentioned, the H55 motherboard, by itself, does not have onboard graphics. You'd need to get a dual-core Core i3 or i5 processor to get video. A discrete video card isn't going to fit inside that case.
I'm not really sure what type of prices you have over there but in the US, a Core i3-530 is less expensive than a Core 2 Duo E8400 while having more or less the same performance.
I'm not really sure what type of prices you have over there but in the US, a Core i3-530 is less expensive than a Core 2 Duo E8400 while having more or less the same performance.