Small Form Factor Buyers’ Guide
by Zach Throckmorton on May 25, 2011 10:30 AM ESTClosing Thoughts
Our last buyers’ guide focused on nettops with small footprints, low power consumption, and relatively impotent computing capabilities. This guide conveys a fuller range of SFF system abilities, from inexpensive general computers to high-powered, higher-priced gaming rigs. There really are a wealth of options for smaller computers if you’re willing to give them a shot.
I’ve been a long time SFF enthusiast, and the evolution of this niche market has been intriguing. When I started building computers a decade ago, the SFF system didn’t really even exist, aside from homebrewed rigs that required extensive user modification. There was an SFF fad in around 2004 where Shuttle and other companies started making proprietary designs with custom cases, motherboards, and power supplies, but reliability proved suspect (just ask Jarred about his SFF experiences). Today, system builders now have a large selection of SFF cases, mini-ITX motherboards, low-power CPUs, and 2.5” HDDs/SSDs that really open the door to anyone interested in a smaller system.
Of course, you don’t have to go that small if you don’t want to. The micro-ATX form factor is one step up from mini-ITX and offers quite a bit more in the way of expansion options. The cases and motherboards are larger, but with the added size come fewer restrictions on components and cooling, and mATX cases can be easier to work with if you’re willing to increase your system’s footprint.
If you’re interested in other ideas or help, be sure to check out our SFF sub-forum, where there’s plenty of discussion on mini-ITX components. If you have any questions or comments, our comments section is available as always. What experiences—good and bad—have you had with mini-ITX? Do you feel mini-ITX is preferable, or is the added flexibility of micro-ATX better? Perhaps you feel both are too limiting and that mid-towers are still the best overall choice for long-term reliability. Let us know what type of system size you prefer and why, and we’ll look to address those markets with future buyers’ guides.
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chaoticlusts - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
you could have a look on the freenas forums and such if your curious, I've built a freenas box though it's not small cause I wanted to be able to put a lot of HDD's in there (got 8 atm)requirements vary drastically depending on what your doing with it, if your running a RAID setup then there's bugger all requirements really...but if your going with FreeNAS you really should be running ZFS in which case you need a little bit of cpu power (though still a low budget celeron or similar is fine, just don't reuse and old single core that might be pushing it) actually in the end you can get bottom range components for basically everything the couple of bits you should *not* skimp on is PSU (never skimp on that) get a decent amount of RAM (4-8GB) doesn't need to be fast though just a decent quantity and obviously get the case your happy with..
FreeNAS can be a bit of a headache to find your way around if your not used to FreeBSD or similar but once you learn it's damn easy and saves you *tons* of money over a dedicated NAS box (not to mention ZFS is far superior to standard RAID) I think my box cost me about 300-400 total not including HDDs....a 8 drive dedicated NAS would probably cost a few grand normally without HDD's...
course this does all depend on how much storage you need..like people pointed out...if you only need a little a NAS might be overkill :)
2korda2 - Thursday, May 26, 2011 - link
+1 on that.Been looking at Synology 411 series, but not sure the J-series is enough. '+' costs a lot more.
JFish222 - Saturday, May 28, 2011 - link
I have to agree. I would love to see this discussed.While there are a number of inexpensive NAS appliances out there, there is only so much you can do at the lower price points(based around arm cores).
Having advnaced media streaming/transcoding, wan side access (even providing vpn support) etc are where custom boxes pay off.
Expecially if you want more than 2 HD's or want to push hardware RAID 5 (cheap adaptec cards on ebay "raid adaptec sata" < $20)
The only issues become time and effort. Would never knock an off the shelf system, but I'm far to interested in going beyond what an ARM core can offer at a price point I'm able to afford.
Though I'm still researching, projects like Amahi are attempting to make this even more of a "user friendly" process.
chrone - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
really love this SFF part, unfortunately there's very limit component choice sold here in indonesia. :(StanFL - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
I built a WHS box based on the Apex case used in the Budget SFF. Dual core Atom mini ITX board with four SATA ports. By foregoing an optical drive, I shoehorned three 3.5" hard drives in it. I can add a fourth hd if necessary with a Esata bracket occupying the lone expansion slot. It's a nice little low power box thats been running 24/7 for nearly a year now.EddyKilowatt - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
Same here, WHS on Atom mobo (from Intel) in the Apex case. 18 watts at idle. Just two 1 TB green drives for me though... so far they're about half full.I didn't expect full benchmarks on each build in this article, but a couple of basic numbers and an idle/loaded power reading from a Kill-A-Watt would've been nice. Great article anyway, though, keep 'em coming.
Shadowmaster625 - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
I have a sempron 140 running at 800 MHz @ 1.1V. The cheapo $20 motherboard I am using will not let me take the volts any lower... But anyway the point is this thing surfs the web and plays youtube videos just fine. It has no fan. I took the fan off the stock hsf. I ran rthdribl all day long and the core temp reads just 68. lol. The main cpu thermal sensor reads 52.dagamer34 - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
I recently built a SFF HTPC and this was my setup:Case: Thermaltake Element Q case w/ 220W PSU: $70 from Micro Center
CPU: Intel Core i3-2100: $99 from Micro Center
Motherboard: Gigabyte H67-USB3-B3: $110
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 6570 1GB DDR3: $70 from Amazon
Memory: 4GB Corsair DDR3 1333Mhz RAM (CMX4GX3M1A1333C9): $41 from Amazon
SSD: OCZ Vertex 2 60GB: $110 from Micro Center
HDD: old 120GB HD from Apple MacBook Pro
AMS Dual SATA Enclosure (DS-112SSBK): $20 from Newegg
Antec Veris Elite IR Receiver: $59 from Amazon
OS: TechNet Subscription
I got a separate video card because of all the post-processing that the card can do, as well as correctly outputting 23.976 fps video.
I'd also argue that any serious HTPC needs to have the cost of an IR dongle included. No one should be using a mouse and keyboard.
StormyParis - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
I really think the review would be a lot more informative if you did two things:1- differentiate by function: Netttop, NAS, HTPC, Gaming. You're kinda doing it now, but still not fully.
2- include ready-made PCs, and give more choices for components.
Case in point: I recently replaced my micro-ATX rig with 2 mini-itx ones:
- a NAS/ HTPC, in an ElementQ case with an aftermarket PSU. This allows 3x3.5" HDs, one can be a DVD/BR instead, in the size of a shoe box.
- a VESA-mounted Nettop in an M350 case. (T-3410 would have been much cheaper)
Both with the Asus passive E-350 motherboard, which is surprisingly adept in the nettop: it drives 2 screens, one can run full-screen SD video while I play Civ4 on the other.
I think you're going overboard with the CPU power, too, except for the gaming rig.
vnangia - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
Wouldn't something like the PC-Q08 be a better choice for a NAS? That plus either the Zotac H55/H67 or DTX D510 gives you the ability to put in six drives easily stock, and possibly eight with a cheap addon card and a 5.25-3.5 adapter.