The Apex MI-008 is one of the few widely available mini-ITX cases on the market. It looks great but the low price tag may have you wondering… it couldn’t possibly be quiet, could it? Well if it isn’t, we do have a few tricks up our sleeve…
Jan. 17, 2008 by Lawrence Lee
| Product | Apex MI-008 Small Form Factor (Mini ITX) Case |
| Manufacturer | |
| Market Price | ~US$45 |
The mini-ITX platform was traditionally embraced by a small niche following
who weren’t afraid to dig deep into their pockets to indulge in their love of
petite, efficient systems. Interest in the platform is now exploding, thanks
in most part to Intel. By releasing the D201GLY/2,
Intel gave consumers a better performing, cheaper alternative to VIA’s Epia
line of integrated mini-ITX motherboards — breaking VIA’s virtual monopoly
at the time. Not to rest on their laurels, Intel followed up with the D945GCLF,
which showed off the efficiency of their Atom processor. For those hoping for
a little extra oomph, the D945GCLF2 debuted shortly after featuring a dual core
Atom chip. Today you can also buy motherboards based on the latest desktop chipsets
with excellent onboard graphics and support for the same powerful CPUs you find
in traditional towers.
While it is quite simple to build such a PC, finding a good enclosure for it
and keeping it quiet is a far more difficult task given the form factor and
its traditional obscurity. There are some options — today we’ll be looking
at one of the few widely available mini-ITX cases, the Apex MI-008. Apex also
makes the MI-100
which has a slightly different front bezel design (the interior is identical)
and comes in two versions — silver and black. Though the MI-008 is a low-end
case, it may be good enough to house and cool quietly a simple mini-ITX machine.
The prospect of an affordable, yet quiet SFF PC has wide appeal.
 The Intel D945GCLF2 and Apex MI-008 — a good match? |
 The MI-008 is a simple, Shuttle-like case, but shorter, a bit wider, and deeper. |
 Accessories: drive sleds, case feet, PC speaker, screws and power cord. |
Apex MI-008 Specifications | |
| Dimension | 8.7″x 5.1″x 11.8″ 220mm x 129mm x 300mm (W) x (H) x (D) *Measurement of depth is without front bezel. |
| Drive Bay | 1 – 5.25″ Exposed 1 – 3.5″ Exposed 1 – 3.5″ Hidden |
| Form Factor | Small form factor |
| Motherboard | Mini ITX |
| Expansion Bay | 1 full size expansion |
| PSU | ATX12V SFX 250W with 20+4 pin MB connector |
| Additional Fan | |
| Front Access Port | USB2.0 Port x 2 Audio Port x 2 (AC97 & HD Plug) |
THE EXTERIOR
The MI-008 looks like a slick, quality case from the outside,
but once you pick it up, the facade breaks: Its surprisingly low weight (2.68
kg including the power supply) is the hallmark of a cheap, generic case.
 The plastic front panel has a black glossy finish. The optical drive bay is stealthed and a small cover opens up for front USB and audio port access. The power button feels very solid — it won’t accidentally engage if you brush up against it. The case lacks a reset button.  Visible from the back is an SFX power supply without an on/off switch. There is some ventilation to the left, and on the right is a full-sized expansion slot. The case cover is held on by four screws.
|
THE INTERIOR
On the inside, the MI-008 looks very much like a Shuttle barebones
system, only shorter, and with the power supply hanging over the motherboard
tray. Most of the edges on the inside are only 1.2-1.3 mm thick.
 The drive cages at the front have no support beneath them so they feel somewhat flimsy — you can bend them easily by hand. The 5.25″ bay has plenty of holes, making it easy to set up a suspension system for a hard drive.  Surprisingly, most of the edges on the inside are rolled to prevent injury. This is particularly important inside the smaller space of a mini-ITX case. There are still a few places where you can cut yourself, so be careful, especially at the very top and bottom of the drive cages. The motherboard tray has risers built-in, so there is no need for brass standoffs.  The front bezel can be removed by pushing four plastic tabs on the |
SYSTEM ASSEMBLY
System assembly is fairly straightforward. Cable management may
be an issue depending on what components you choose to install.
|
|
SYSTEM ASSEMBLY (continued)
There are some enthusiasts who are eyeing the mini-ITX platform
for more intense applications and would like to utilize a more powerful mainboard
and CPU combination. For them, space, or the lack of it, is the MI-008’s main
drawback.
 There isn’t much clearance between the power supply and CPU/chipset heatsinks, so the power supply fan may be affected by the heat from them. Cables can be tucked over the expansion slot (if not occupied) or below the drive cage.
next to the side vent. As we plan on undervolting |
TESTING
System Components:
- Intel
D945GCLF2 motherboard – 945GC Express chipset, embedded Atom 330 processor (dual core 1.6Ghz) - Corsair
XMS2 memory – 1GB, DDR2-800, 128MB allocated to video memory - Seagate Momentus 5400.3 notebook hard drive – 160 GB, 5400RPM, SATA
- Allied AL-8250SFX SFX power supply
- Apex MI-008 mini-ITX case
- Yate Loon D12SL-12 120mm case fan – undervolted to 5V (1350 RPM at 12V)
- Microsoft
Windows XP Professional SP3 operating system - Intel
14.32 graphics driver
Measurement and Analysis Tools
- Prime95 processor stress software.
- ATITool artifact scanner to stress the integrated GPU.
- QuickTime
Alternative to decode Quicktime. - Cyberlink
PowerDVD to play H264/VC1 video. - SpeedFan to monitor temperature and fan speeds.
- Seasonic
Power Angel AC power meter, used to measure the power consumption
of the system. - Custom-built, four-channel variable DC power supply, used to regulate
the CPU fan speed.
Video Playback Test Suite
 720p | 25fps | ~6mbps | Dark Knight: Dark Knight Trailer 3 is a 720p clip encoded in H.264 inside an Apple Quicktime container. |
 1080p | 24fps | ~10mbps | Rush Hour: Rush Hour 3 Trailer 1 is a 1080p clip encoded in H.264 inside an Apple Quicktime container. |
TEST RESULTS
Power Consumption
| System Power Consumption | |||
| Test State | Allied AL-8250SFX | Seasonic SS-300SFD | picoPSU (HFX Micro) |
| Off | 2W | 2W | 2W |
| Standby | 3W | 3W | 3W |
| Idle | 35W | 29W | 25W |
| Dark Knight (H.264 720p) | 39W | 34W | 30W |
| Rush Hour (H.264 1080p) | 42W | 37W | 33W |
| CPU Load | 42W | 37W | 33W |
| CPU + GPU Load | 47W | 42W | 39W |
| Results obtained on an open test platform. | |||
Compared to the 80Plus Seasonic
SS-300SFD, the stock power unit consumes about 5W more at most loads. Compared
to the HFX Micro and its picoPSU, the gap widens to 8-10W. Nothing surprising
here: Stock power supplies are rarely that efficient, especially at the low
end of the spectrum. (For more test data regarding the Intel D945GCLF2, please
refer to our mCubed HFX Micro review.)
So is it worth it to change the power supply? Well if you have a more efficient one handy you might as well, but if you don’t, then you have to consider whether it’s worth your time and/or money. From a purely financial point of view, consider this: if this particular system was run with the stock power supply instead of a picoPSU and power brick 24-7, it would put a $5.16 CDN dent into SPCR lab’s electric bill after one year — it would take many years before we would re-coup the cost of a picoPSU. Electricity rates vary from region to region, so check your rate and do some quick math. Of course, if you’re seeking to be as green as possible with your IT gear, then the savings in electricity is probably more important than the money saved. However, the embedded energy in the stock PSU or recycling it complicates the environmental picture.
The Allied power supply was surprisingly quiet, more so than the
Seasonic SS-300SFD, our sample of which has a rickety fan. We anticipated in
advance that the stock unit would be too loud and planned on using the Seasonic
instead. As it turns out, not only is the Allied power supply quieter, the Seasonic
has a protruding fan that interferes with the metal guide that sits between
the power supply and the I/O panel. That made the decision to leave the power
supply be an easy one.
FAN CONTROL & NOISE
The stock chipset fan is a squirrelly one — very loud and
whiney at full speed. It does undervolt well; it becomes bearable at about 7V
though you can hear it tick from up close. The board has a fan control option
in the BIOS with a minimum 50% setting for the SYS_FAN header. When we plugged
the chipset fan into it, the fan only slowed down to the equivalent of 10V,
which was unacceptable. For D945GCLF2 users with Windows, SpeedFan can be used
instead, as the Speed01 option allows for full fan control right out of the
box. For some reason, the controls are backwards — setting it to 100% turns
the fan off, while 0% sets it to full blast. We set it 80% which resulted in
a speed equivalent to about 6V. With the fan undervolted and the board on an
open test platform both the chipset and CPU heatsink became very warm at full
load — between 45°C and 50°C according to our IR thermometer.
| System Noise Level | ||
| Chipset Fan Speed | SPL @ 1m | SPL @ 0.5m |
| Off | 12 dBA | 15 dBA |
| 6V | 13 dBA | 16 dBA |
| 6V + Yate Loon @ 5V | 13 dBA | 16 dBA |
| 12V | 21 dBA | 25 dBA |
The system, with the chipset fan turned off (not recommended — this was
done for reference only), the measured noise level at one meter was only 12
dBA. Our noise floor is only 11 dBA, so this is an excellent result. The stock
power supply unit is very quiet, even by our standards. The power supply fan
did not increase in speed when the system was stressed, so the idle noise level
was the same as during load.
13 dBA@1m was recorded with the chipset fan at 6V. Adding the Yate Loon 120mm
fan at 5V did not affect the measured SPL or our sound recordings. When the
chipset fan was cranked up to 12V, its default setting, the noise level increased
to 21 dBA@1m. This isn’t bad at one meter distance, but at half a meter it was
quite loud. For a small PC like this, we assume it is more likely to be placed
on a desktop rather than underneath it, so the half-meter measurements are done
in addition to the usual one-meter readings to better represent what it sounds
like in the real world.
Impressively, the recorded noise level of 13 dBA@1m and 16 [email protected] is only
1 dBA more than the recently reviewed mCubed
HFX Micro, which features a completely passive cooling system. The Micro
also happens to retail for 545 Euros (US$720). That’s a lot of green for a barely
noticeable difference in noise.
THERMALS
Thermal testing was done with the chipset fan undervolted to 6V
— the lowest we were willing to go given the how hot the chipset heatsink
got to the touch on an open testing platform. The temperature readings given
by SpeedFan are somewhat difficult to decipher as they do not have proper labels
and Intel does not provide a hardware monitoring utility for their Atom boards.
Core 0-3 we can assume refer to the processor (dual core with hyperthreading
= four logical cores) while “Ambient” most likely correlates to system
temperature. “Remote 1,” the remaining sensor with the largest differential
is probably the chipset temperature.
| Temperature Comparison | |||
| Test State | Idle | Load | Load with Case Fan @ 5V |
| Ambient | 32 | 37 | 30 |
| Remote 1 | 47 | 68 | 59 |
| Remote 2 | 42 | 52 | 45 |
| HDD | 30 | 35 | 29 |
| Core 0 / 2 | 2 | 33 | 19 |
| Core 1 / 3 | 8 | 32 | 14 |
| Chipset fan set to 6V (80% using SpeedFan), full CPU and GPU load applied (Prime95 + ATITool). | |||
If our assumptions are correct, system temperature did not vary
greatly, though it was coolest with the Yate Loon fan exhausting air out the
right side panel. Without the added fan, chipset temperature increased 20°C
when the system was stressed. The additional airflow from the 120mm fan effectively
cut this increase in half. CPU temperatures were similarly affected. Given the
dramatic difference, we highly recommend a side fan — you can reduce the
noise level significantly and improve thermal performance at the same time.
AUDIO RECORDINGS
These recordings were made with a high resolution, lab quality, digital recording
system inside SPCR’s own 11 dBA ambient anechoic chamber, then converted to
LAME 128kbps encoded MP3s. We’ve listened long and hard to ensure there is no
audible degradation from the original WAV files to these MP3s. They represent
a quick snapshot of what we heard during the review.
Each recording starts with ambient noise, then 10 second segments
of product at various states. For the most realistic results, set
the volume so that the starting ambient level is just barely audible, then don’t
change the volume setting again while comparing all the sound files.
- Apex MI-008 & Intel D945GCLF2, chipset fan off, at 6V and 12V from 1m distance (12, 13 and 21 dBA@1m SPL)
- Apex
MI-008 & Intel D945GCLF2, chipset fan off, at 6V and 12V from 0.5m distance
(15, 16 and 25 dBA@0.5m SPL)
Comparable System sound files:
- mCubed
HFX Micro S13 with hard drive idle, then seeking, from 1m distance (12 and 14 dBA@1m SPL) - mCubed
HFX Micro S13 with hard drive idle, then seeking, from 0.5m distance (15 and 18 dBA@1m SPL)
FINAL THOUGHTS
While not the fanciest, or sturdiest mini-ITX case, the Apex MI-008 represents
an excellent value. For $45 US you get a nice looking enclosure that can, with
a few modifications, house a very quiet low-end system. It is an attractive,
and cheap alternative to a Shuttle or a luxury product like the mCubed
HFX Micro. The machine we built runs only 1 dBA higher than the HFX Micro
and can be built for a little over $200 (not including the operating system).
As a bonus, everything inside is built from off-the-shelf parts — if you’ve
ever been in the position of needing to find a replacement for a proprietary
Shuttle motherboard, you’ll know that this is a good thing.
For those hoping to get a bit more computing power by using an AM2 or LGA775
board with a more capable CPU, the MI-008 still has some potential if the power
supply is replaced with something like a picoPSU
with an external power brick. This opens up a lot of space — enough to
house a moderately sized, quiet CPU cooler. You won’t be able to fit a monsterous
tower cooler inside, but a modest heatsink like the Arctic
Cooling Alpine 7 Pro or something similar should do well, especially if
you add a side fan.
All in all, if you’re willing to experiment just a bit, the Apex MI-008 is a surprisingly effective case for silent mini-ITX system.
| PROS * Very affordable | CONS * inefficient power supply |
Recommended by SPCR
* * *
Articles of Related Interest
Cases: Basics & Recommendations
Antec Fusion Remote Max HTPC case
Silverstone GD01 and LC17 HTPC Cases
mCubed HFX Micro S13 system: Atom 330, Silenced
Zotac GeForce 8200-ITX WiFi: A Compact AM2 Solution
Intel DG45FC: Loaded LGA775 Mini-ITX Board
Intel D945GCLF m-ITX: Atom For The Desktop
* * *
