So after some thought i decided on building a secondary system. I wanted something small but with enough power and headroom to upgrade if i want to use it for more than movies, browsing the web, and skype/teamspeak.

As it stands the specs are

i5-4440, b85 gaming 3 mobo, 8gb 1600 ram, 60gb ssd, 500gb secondary HDD, wifi/bluetooth combo, enough room for a full size video card using a flexible cable but the card would stick out of the rear an inch and at last a 550 watts full psu. I'm currently using the internal graphics of the mobo but if it starts lacking i'll go dedicated.

Overall sizes are. 4 1/8 " wide, 9 3/16 high, 13.25 long.

Pics of the build

Drawing it up in tinkercad.


The entire case was made from a single sheet of 24x18" Acrylic.

Cutting and gluing the case.



Of course i didnt want a huge plug on the PSU so i soldered the wires directly



Mounted.


HDD and SSD in.




Mobo came in. Sooo tiny.


Unmounted run.


Putting in the mounts.


And mounted and running.


Installing windows. Forgot my USB DVD drive at work sooo SATA it is.


Running like a champ.


Thats a 12" scale




And fully complete.



Thanks for reading.
Tripzter

 

Interesting build

 

This is the only useful commentary I have which concerns a machine that will be used for video storage:

8 TB hard drives are getting downright cheap. Seagate Archive HDD v2 ST8000AS0002 8TB 5900 RPM 128MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive - Newegg.com

 

No concerns about lack of airflow around the HDDs?

 

I am under the impression that this device may be networked, requiring little storage.

I'm interested in the cost. How would this compare to something like a ZBOX or BRIX?
Also wondering why an SSD and a big chunky physical drive? Other than cost, why not just one single 500gb SSD?

 

I was assuming leftover parts. 60GB SSD's are barely cheaper than 120GB's at this point. 500GB platter drives aren't any cheaper than 1TB drives, unless you're taking a risk on a refurb/return pull.

 

Excellent point.

This would ensure a cheap build for sure! I usually just give away my old unused parts, i may have to save some sometime.

 

Correct, these are parts i had at home from my old build.

The ssd was a left over from my computer from 2 years ago. The HDD same thing. The HDD will never be used. I'll be remoting into my primary and streaming stuff directly from there. The HDD on this one is basically to save a backup and maybe a handful of programs that require more room. Thats why i'm not really worried about heat. Plus you think that this will get hotter vs an HDD in a sealed plastic external case? It's no different.

The cpu was 150. The mobo was 53. The plexiglass 9 bucks. Ram was from old build but would be 35 bucks currently. SSD now would be maybe 40 bucks. The PSU can be had for 20-30 bucks. I had mine from an older build. If i decide to hook up a dedicated video card i'll need a riser cable that is about 10-15 bucks and then i can mount the video card sideways across the cover panel. I'll also need to cut a hole or 2 for the fans of the video card. I have a 460ti that i'm not using that i can mount but i wanted to keep it simple and quiet.

Basically my cost to build this thing was 53 bucks for the mobo and 9 bucks for the plexiglass. The rest i had.

All and all i'm very satisfied. I wanted to build this sytem for movies, skype, team speak, and facebook and so far the system is perfect.