Looking to up grade my case
#1
I currently have an APEX DM-387 case that I got as a hand me down just over a year ago. I am considering to upgrade my case I have found a Silverstone MLO3B that looks really sharp and a SeaSonic psu to go with it. I'm interested in hearing any input on either of these products.
HTPC: Apex MI-008 | Foxconn H67S | Celeron G530 | G.SKILL 4GB | Crucial 64 SSD| Arctic Cooling | PicoPSU-160-XT
Reply
#2
I just put together my HTPC using that case a few weeks ago. The case is well built and has decent ventilation. If you can give me an idea of what you are going to put in this case I'll give you my opinion if it'll work or not based upon my personal experiences.
Reply
#3
Thanks for the reply. What I currently have is a: micro-ATX Zotac board with a Cooler Master CPU fan/heatsink, a 2.5 SSD and a BD/DVD/CD combo drive. And of coarse I'll have to get a PSU. My biggest area of concern would be between the combo drive and the PSU.
HTPC: Apex MI-008 | Foxconn H67S | Celeron G530 | G.SKILL 4GB | Crucial 64 SSD| Arctic Cooling | PicoPSU-160-XT
Reply
#4
Let me say that I was also concerned with the clearance between the PSU and my DVD drive. The manual for the case says 140mm max depth for PSU and 170mm max depth for ODD. I was able to successfully install a modular 150mm PSU (Corsair CMPSU-620HX) and a 170mm DVD drive in there but it was pretty tight. I chose my Corsair PSU because it was modular and there is not a lot of room in there for all the extra cables when using a standard PSU. However I had a two 3.5" HDDs installed in the case as well (along with a pcie tuner card) so there was not a lot of extra room in there for the unused cables. I have since swapped out my ATX PSU for a 150W picoPSU+102W adapter kit. It worked wonderfully. Now I have TONS of extra room in my case since the ATX PSU is gone. I'm using a 45w CPU (AMD Sempron 140). Not sure what CPU you are using but most likely you'd be able to use a picoPSU as well. Since you are needing to buy a PSU I'd recommend the picoPSU because it's smaller and you'll find that it is more efficient.

As far as the clearance for your CPU cooler I can't say for sure. I currently have the standard AMD cooler on my CPU. There is certainly room in there for a larger cooler. I eventually plan on putting in a Scythe Big Shuriken to replace the factory cooler. A review for the Scythe on Newegg indicates that the cooler was installed in this case. If that Scythe will fit in there I'd think that yours will as well.
Reply
#5
Wsume99 thanks again and for the recommendation. I have also came accross this SILVERSTONE ST45SF.
HTPC: Apex MI-008 | Foxconn H67S | Celeron G530 | G.SKILL 4GB | Crucial 64 SSD| Arctic Cooling | PicoPSU-160-XT
Reply
#6
Hmm, that PSU looks like it was basically designed for this exact situation. It's 50mm shorter than the PSU that I used. With that extra space you'd have somewhere to place the extra cables that are not used. It's $10 more than the picoPSU but for that extra $10 you'll get a lot more headroom power wise. The benefit of the picoPSU is that it's smaller and it is more efficient, especially if you're going to be running below 90w (20% load) on the Silverstone. One thing to keep in mind is that since that PSU is smaller it only has an 80mm fan so it may be louder than a full sized ATX which usually has a 120mm cooling fan. Other than that the Silversonte looks like a very solid PSU.

Without knowing what your power draw is it's hard to say which one I'd pick. If you knew that the picoPSU would handle the power draw of your system I'd go with it. But if you think that you might need more power in the future (like you might add a video card) then you might want to go with a more stout PSU and I'd personally go with the Silverstone over the Seasonic beacuse the case would be less crowded. I checked the power draw of my system with my kill-a-watt meter to make sure that I wouldn't overload it before ordering mine. Check out this post from SilentPCReview, you might find it helpful in trying to judge if a picoPSU can suit your needs.
Reply

Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
Looking to up grade my case0