The best Small form factor HTPC case

[Thor.]

Hello i am in a middle of ugrading my old 2008 rig which today still stands up to today's standards when it comes to being a full fledged HTPC rig. It was truly a wonder for its time.

 

Old specs

 

Windows 7 pro 64bit

AMD phenom 4x black edition 965 i think

8gb of ddr2 at 1100mhz

Motherboard msi m5 last digits can't remember, supports ram up to 1100mhz, though for the time was pretty high end.

Antec 800 watt modular psu.

upgraded to a Momentus 500gb hybrid HD not to long ago

gt 9800 512mb vram, one of the first to come with purevideoHD

 

More then capable of playing any video format, to this very day still working like new.

 

I am giving it new life though with a new case and motherboard, might go micro atx this time for it.

 

 

Any help would be appreciated :thumbsup:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Werne]

For a motherboard, this one, it's the best mATX board there is around for AMD processors and it ain't expensive either. It's even good if you're thinking of overclocking, just don't expect going into the extreme range.

 

As for the case, I'm guessing the CPU uses a stock cooler or at least a similarly-sized one and if that's the case, this one seems pretty good. Should have pretty decent airflow judging by the looks of it, but it's kinda pricy.

[Thor.]

I'm thinking of going much smaller, any decent small cases, its something i'm not to familiar with, treading on new ground. That Haf xb case was as small i ever went.

 

Hey does that mobo by any chance support ddr2??

 

a found the model of the cpu, it was a phenom 940 4x quad black edition

 

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103471

It has to be a socket am2+ mobo. At the time was one of the first quads to come out. It certainly is one of those cpu's that will last a life time. :thumbsup:

Edited March 24, 2014 by Thor.

[Werne]

AMD boards have backwards compatibility, Phenom II can fit into AM2+, AM3 and AM3+ and it's integrated memory controller supports both DDR2 and DDR3 SDRAM. If you want a mATX board with DDR2 then you're looking at this one or this one, but that board I linked in the post before is much better both feature-wise and quality-wise than either of these two.

Edited March 25, 2014 by Werne

[Thor.]

Thanks, i did some research, and i forgot that amd sockets is backwards compatible :huh: . Its been to long sense socket am2+.

Anyways that makes it a lot easier lol.

[Rennn]

You'd be better off replacing the RAM and going with the mobo Werne suggested. 4GB of RAM isn't hard to replace, and going to DDR3 will net a significant speed increase.

[Thor.]

True, but this is a budget build, though it may be considered. Sense its not 100% required, the original specs are far more then capable. But i will consider it.

 

found some cheap.

 

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226287

 

Now for the hard part the case ????

Edited March 26, 2014 by Thor.

[Werne]

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226287

DDR3-1600 11-11-11-28? I didn't even know those sticks exist, I thought CL10 is as high as it goes on 1600MHz, and it isn't even that cheap. :blink: Well, I guess you might be able to drop the latency down a bit on stock 1.5V, not sure.

 

Also, I wouldn't put a 1600 stick on Phenom II, integrated memory controller on PII tends to destabilize with memory over 1333MHz so you'd need to push more voltage through CPU-NB. You can get this 4GB DDR3-1333 9-9-9-24 stick for $6 less and you'd be in the clear. Not to mention mATX AMD boards rarely support memory over 1333 anyway, the one I linked works with DDR3-1066/1333 so a 1600MHz stick would be worthless in it unless you overclock, it would run at the same speed as the memory I just linked but would cost you more.

Edited March 26, 2014 by Werne

[Thor.]

DDR3 at that latency and timing is hard to find these days. I think i will stay with ddr2 at 1100mhz, if you look up high speed ddr2. Which is a odd thing to say lol.

 

I bought that ram when ddr3 was a year away, and they where pushing the latency boundaries to pretty high levels. You can't buy that ram anymore.

 

Something similar to this but i have 8gb worth of that stuff lol. If you look up gaming ddr2, you know what i mean.

http://www.memoryc.com/computermemory/ddr2ram/4gbsgkillpc28800ttserieskit.htm

 

I don't think i will give up that ram, its so rare these days, its a gem on its own. :laugh:

Edited March 26, 2014 by Thor.

[Werne]

Yeah, old DDR2 had pretty low latencies, I had old non-sinked DDR2-800 CL4 RAM in my old machine which ran at 1066MHz 3-4-3-11 and 2.26V for more than a year. Damn, old DDR2 was awesome back in the day, those things could overclock like crazy and the voltages were as crazy too. I still recall some DDR3 which ran at 1.9V stock but I can't remember which, wish newer sticks could take more volts.

 

But regardless, the only two mATX boards that support DDR2 and AM2+ processors have a 4+1 power phase without VRM heatsinks, the best one of those two is the 960GC but I wouldn't even put a 125W processor next to it, much less install it onto the board.