Making a little steambox, need some advice

[UDCbey]

Hi there!
So after walking around my local computer mall today, I stumbled upon this little gem here. I have a few spare parts lying about, namely 8GB of RAM and a 7750, and I have been thinking about building a nice little steambox/ ridiculously compact LAN rig for a while now. I'm not aiming to spend a lot, and I actually don't think that I need to. The most intense game i'll be playing on this thing is TF2, which isn't going to tax the 7750 at all.

So here are my proposed specs:
Case: Cooler Master Elite 110
Mobo: AsRock B85M-ITX
CPU: Intel Core i3 4130
RAM: Corsair XMS 2x4GB 1600MHz (Pre-existing)
GPU: HIS 7750 1GB DDR5 (Pre-existing, single slot)
PSU: Corsair CX430M
HDD: Toshiba DT01ACA050 500GB
OS: SteamOS (Free)
ODD: Nope
Cooling: Stock
Extras: Nope

The Elite 110 comes with one 120mm front intake fan. What I want to know is if this is enough to keep the CPU running cool with the stock cooler, and just your general thoughts on this build.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Mindweaver]

Looks fine.

 

[rtwjunkie]

You know you can add two 80mm fans on the side, right? The Vantec Stealth is a fairly quiet 80mm with good airflow.

 

[Mindweaver]

I would try it with just the 120mm first, and watch temps while gaming. Will the case have enough air flow or sitting in a entertainment center with restrictive air flow?

EDIT: I forgot to add if you are worried about noise, but if you are not then add the 2x 80mm fans like rtwjunkie suggested.

 

[a_ump]

seeing as how it's a lan rig i'd say it'll be in a spot with airflow, dunno too many people that go to a buddies and setup by the big screen there Mindweaver lol. as the others said since its small and for lan where there may be many pc's, i'd get low noise high airflow, but two 80mm fans will def outdo a 120mm fan. get that and with the positive? air pressure it should help keep dust out as well. Looks like a fine setup for on the go gaming.

 

[Mindweaver]

seeing as how it's a lan rig i'd say it'll be in a spot with airflow, dunno too many people that go to a buddies and setup by the big screen there Mindweaver lol. as the others said since its small and for lan where there may be many pc's, i'd get low noise high airflow, but two 80mm fans will def outdo a 120mm fan. get that and with the positive? air pressure it should help keep dust out as well. Looks like a fine setup for on the go gaming.

WOW! I totally over looked "lan".. I've not been to a lan party in forever.. lol I still say before I'd spend anymore money I'd test the 120mm first and see how it performs.

 

[rtwjunkie]

WOW! I totally over looked "lan".. I've not been to a lan party in forever.. lol I still say before I'd spend anymore money I'd test the 120mm first and see how it performs.

I agree with you, seeing as how I overlooked the LAN part too. No sense in adding more noise until he knows if the airflow keeps it cool enough from just the 120mm in front!

 

[Vario]

I run a elite 120, the trick is to either downfire exhaust (remove the drive cages) or intake air through the front. Also recommend running side fans to intake or exhaust if possible (cut case)

 

[a_ump]

I agree with you, seeing as how I overlooked the LAN part too. No sense in adding more noise until he knows if the airflow keeps it cool enough from just the 120mm in front!

i guess i missed the front 120mm fan part haha, didn't realize he already had one in there. I thought you guys were recommending just buy one 120mm for the side, in that case OP just test it out and see what your temperatures turn out to be before investing.

 

[UDCbey]

Thank you all for the responses.
Im going to go buy the parts later on today. My friend says playing games on his pc, which is running ubuntu with a 7750 is ok. I'll see if I can find some sort of temperature monitor that works with Linux once it is setup.

 

[UDCbey]

So I got the parts, save for the PSU. I'll go back for that later, but for now, a 650W PSU I have lying around will do the trick (im paranoid that one of the cables will somehow touch the cpu cooler though) Right now the mess of cables sort of takes up the space where the removable HDD mounting bracket would be on top of the case.
There are two hard drive mounts- one on the right of the case (right next to the GPU), and one on the top of the case. Im going to move the HDD up to the top of the case instead of the side once I get the CX430M, as it currently blocks a bit of the GPU's airflow. For anybody using the Elite 110, i'm going to say that a modular PSU is an absolute must.
The CPU is awful close to the PSU, but it should be OK. Thanks for all the help! Will post pictures when the rig is finished.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Very good, I am looking forward to your build!!

 

[xrM]

Any updates?

 

[newtekie1]

One problem: SteamOS doesn't support AMD graphics cards.

Support is planned to be added later, but who knows when it will happen.

 

[UDCbey]

Hiya.
I finished the build, but I ran into a problem when I tried to install a Cooler Master GeminII M2 CPU cooler. I only realised after installation that it hung over my PCI-E slot, so I uninstalled it.
I somehow bricked my mobo in the process, so I was forced to compromise and get a lower-grade mobo (SATA 2 only...). I also forgot to mention earlier on that I went with an Ivy Bridge i3 as opposed to Haswell, and Socket 1155 M-ITX boards are far and few between nowadays. I guess thats my fault for going with an outdated socket.
Anyway, I had to order said mobo and wait a couple of days. So in the meantime, I grabbed another m-itx board that I had in another rig, and stuck it in there with the stock cooler. I also switched my GX650 for a Corsair CX430 (non modular), and I figured out how I would get around the cabling issues. Cable management is actually good in this case- There is basically nothing obstructing the space between the mobo and the fan. I even stuck an Air Penetrator AP121 inside!
When I was playing TF2/Source Games, I never went above 60 degrees. My average was about 55 Celsius. Very happy with these results.
Sadly for me, that new mobo doesn't do UEFI, so I need to use the non UEFI version of SteamOS.
Also, SteamOS does have support for AMD cards now.

(http://www.techspot.com/downloads/6351-steamos.html)
I'm going to try Ubuntu first actually. I've heard AMD has gotten their linux driver game up recently, so I'm going to give it a whirl.
With that being said, I tied my cables down pretty well in this case, so I can't exactly hook up an ODD and install Ubuntu from a disk (it would require a lot of time and effort than I can't afford to put in right now). Could I use a USB to SATA adapter, and use Virtual Machine on mac to install Ubuntu on that HDD? Could I then hook that HDD up to the actual rig and expect it to work fine?

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

A point worth noting. The non uefi way can be done via usb stick but you could have trouble with your sound driver I still have no sound on mine but have given up on it for now due to lack of games etc

 

[newtekie1]

Very cool, I hadn't realized they added AMD support since it still says nVidia only on the official SteamOS page.

 

[UDCbey]

A point worth noting. The non uefi way can be done via usb stick but you could have trouble with your sound driver I still have no sound on mine but have given up on it for now due to lack of games etc

Nah man, I don't think I can boot from a USB stick.
The mobo is the AsRock H61MV-ITX if anybody cares.
I was thinking that I could swap the Hard Drive with Windows 8 in my friend's mini-ITX rig (it happens to use the exact same mobo, but this one is hooked up to an ODD) with the current blank hard drive in my M-ITX build, and use that ODD and mobo set to install Ubuntu.
Would this screw up the original windows 8 HDD in any way?

 

[Vario]

If you still want a different cooler than the stock one, the AIO coolers work well with these Elite cases, you can run the radiator inline with the front fan.

 

[UDCbey]

If you still want a different cooler than the stock one, the AIO coolers work well with these Elite cases, you can run the radiator inline with the front fan.

I don't think its worth it at all to liquid cool an i3.

 

[Ahhzz]

to the tune of "I'm a little teapot"...

Making a little steambox, need some help
Here are my spare parts, these are my specs.
When I want to game-on, I don't play much.
Check it out, and give me your thoughts...




sorry, all that went thru my head from the title...

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Nah man, I don't think I can boot from a USB stick.
The mobo is the AsRock H61MV-ITX if anybody cares.
I was thinking that I could swap the Hard Drive with Windows 8 in my friend's mini-ITX rig (it happens to use the exact same mobo, but this one is hooked up to an ODD) with the current blank hard drive in my M-ITX build, and use that ODD and mobo set to install Ubuntu.
Would this screw up the original windows 8 HDD in any way?

I installed from usb .use Unetbootin to make a bootable install usb using a special non uefi steam image.
Your method should be fine too just be very careful and very sure that you image the right drive and don't reboot it in your friends pc .
Wait until it's in Your steambox to allow it to setup correctly.
Steam fixed my audio issue with a recent update ,, , happy days.