Silent Mini-ITX PC Part One: Hardware Build 

Isn't it known as "the smoke test"? Or better, "the absence of smoke test".

It's one of the few channels I watch every week.

I smiled when I heard that. Because it is very true. It also made me think of the most recent 8-Bit Guy video, where he was inadvertently botched new looking IBM computers from the eighties...

@@parrotraiser6541 Smoke test: turn it on, see if it smokes. Remember, computers run on smoke. If it gets out, they stop working.

he had quite a few jazzy quips in this vid lol

And that right there is worthy of a thumbs up!

I smiled as well. I watch AdamantIT and Tech Yes City, both spend ages on cable management. Since I don’t play games, my GPU needs and power / heat needs are modest, so I don’t have to worry about poor cable management causing air flow problems. Cable management is therefore low on my priorities.

I remember him saying something similar in his Core i3 Mini-ITX build years ago lol

Perhaps they need the therapy sessions in Canada! :)

😂

ikr lol

So true.

Amazing that it did power on even if he put the power switch cables in an odd place ^_^ (must be the same grounding as the proper pin). I've worked with hundreds of mobo's and i've never encountered a single one that has the power pins vertically, it's always horizontally aligned with the power led pins.

I never put the side panel on until it's booted the first time, I'm convinced that jinxes it ;)

Thats why I only seat the CPUFan/Add some RAM, connect a VGA cable to a display, test to board naked outside the case. the SSD can wait.

Thanks! 😃

Chris was very considerately trying not to overexcite any cats who might be watching.

6:19 - I had hoped there might've been a unicorn here, but no, it was memory and an SSD.

Would you rather have a stuffed toy hamster?

@@SarkarMotion?

@@7249xxl I meant it for the host, he loves stuffed hamsters! Lol. Maybe one day he'll get a toy hamster ants mod it into an optical mouse!

As a cable technician whose job was to organize some crazy rat's nests into respectable MDFs and IDFs, I felt so attacked by that. 😂 His cable management was pretty good regardless. I don't think one could do all that much better given the components and space.

I have a growing list of ASMR channels. None of them dedicated ASMR. This is EC is one, Big Clive another.

I have opted out of the mid-roll ad thing, as I don't like content interupted by them. I do have ads set to play at the start and the end of the video, but the slots will not always be taken up.

Thanks for this. I too now watch RU-vid far more than regular TV.

Fair point.

I think he has clearly said Integrated Processor that preety makes it crystal clear

yes its integrated cpu, also i had Asrock Q1900M With Celeron J1900 4x 1.9Ghz it was integratated CPU too, with the same heatsink :D (GTA5 20FPS 720P LOW, Huge CPU Bottleneck) :D

It hardly matters anyway. This kind of device has very limited uses, with media playback or a storage server coming to mind. Without also having a way to add a dedicated gpu, there is very little reason to ever want to upgrade the CPU.

@Self Sickened :)

A new PC build from Chris gets me almost as excited as Oprah looking at pie.

That's because Chris will deliver the build, the entire initial RTX3090 production run went to reviewers - who don't pay for them.

Better than Viagra... 🤪

That comment is very... Ummm... Grounded.

Great to hear. :)

Yes! I love tiny computers :) I like these real life builds too, there's plenty of "high horsepower" builds out there, but more people just want a computer hooked up to their tv and this is a perfectly reasonable.

Thanks so much 😊

:)

Great to hear!

Or I can put my OCD to work on the cable management and feel good for less effort.

I have to say I was suprized by your comment about people who tidy up the cables in there PC (i.e. cable management) requiring psychiatric therapy. While the video was interesting and informative I wonder if you could give a reply to the following points. 1) Can we therefore assume that you have never ever used a cable tie in one of your PC builds to tidy the cables and if you did which therapy clinic did you attend afterwards. 2) It is possible even likely that your video was watched by people new to building a PC, if they follow your advice then they could well end up with cables over fans and poor access to components because cables are in the way. 3) You contradict yourself in the video regarding the Molex connector and wiring over the heatsink. You say in effect don't bother with cable management but then your text comment says turn the drive to reroute the wire, that is cable management! 3) Are PC case manufacturers all wrong, the vast majority of modern cases have cutouts and cable tie loops for neatly routing the cables (i.e. Cable management). 4) following from 3 if you were to build in a windowed case would you just have the wires dumped everywhere so it looked a mess when viewed through the glass side panel. A lot of these glass panel builds especially ones with complex water cooling loops are works of art, and tidy, unobtrusive cables is integral to that. 5) For me and others I suspect, buying the parts for a new build is not cheap. Therefore would you not want to do the best you could with the build including tidying the cables. I take pride in my builds and a neat and tidy case interior is part of that. 6) in this video would 5 or 6 cable ties and 10 minutes work be so wrong. Apparently so. Clearly I have taken the comment you made quite seriously, I suppose it was just an off the cuff but flippant remark. Could I suggest perhaps you could have made a more neutral comment like that the cables could be tidied if you want to. At the end of the day people can just throw there pc together in 5 minutes or spend days or weeks making one of the glass panel works of art with custom hand made components etc or somewhere in between. Long may that be the case. I will continue to watch some of your videos where the subject matter is of particular interest, but this comment and your rather slow, overemphasized commentary style (reminds me of some of the tedious corporate videos I have been obliged to watch) mitigate against me watching more.

@@ianwelford1949 Someone's triggered hmm. It was a joke.

:)

Yes, agreed!

Great to hear this! :)

Yes do it, if its 4 or 5 hrs that would be cool .

Pantherman1979 I’ll be looking forward to the next video also. I’ve wondered about this board for a Plex server with HDHomeRun to dvr and watch live tv. I really appreciate the form factor and low wattage of the system. Great video!!

@@keithp5568 I had to look up HDHomerun as I wasn't familiar with it, this is something that I'm going to look into for myself. My brother has plex at his house and is happy with it, though I believe he's running it through a ps4

@Pantherman1979 Plex is quite versatile. I use it mostly as a dvr for live “over the air” tv but others host all sorts of media/movies on theirs. I believe to dvr you need the Plex pass. I don’t want to hijack The EC channel here but Lon tv has a number of videos on Plex and the HDHomeRun that you may find useful. The build featured on this video is nice because the Plex runs 24/7 and the low power consumption is great and the Intel CPU’s with quick sync are great for transcoding a few streams simultaneously if needed.

@@keithp5568 Thanks, I'll look it up

@Boodysaspie Raspberries and peanuts (ref PCjr way back)

@Boodysaspie The problem is that the Pi 4 doesn't really cut it as a dedicated media device, at least in my experience, nor does the Rock Pi. My main problem is too many dropped frames on RU-vid, which I'm sure this build will have no problem with.

@@ollie-d I am using the youtube plugin with XBMC. Works pretty well. I however had to turn on vulkan acceleration on in raspbian.

@Boodysaspie the comparison would be valid from the standpoint of application of device we are after: a media center pc. Recently, i was considering rpi4 for media center pc, but since there was Intel Quad Core back from 2008 laying around + P5K Pro motherboard + its original 8 Gb ram, i only had to find an atx case (free, but bought some paint to give it unique look), bought a Pioneer 256Gb ssd and a 120mm fan oh yeah and 1 hdmi cable. Yes, this way it takes more space neat the TV stand, but the performance (both h.264 and h.265) is stellar! no frame drops, very fast boots etc. So it was both cheaper and better performance than rpi4, which still is ok as carry-media center for travel, but otherwise it works as a relays controller for various 220V projects.

@Boodysaspie correct (but as far as i recall its 95W TDP); however my point was: sbc credit card sized boards evolve in performance and mini-itx which is considerably smaller than atx but a tad larger than sbc may be the golden pea among them when creating a media center pc - and from user's perspective that is the ultimate goal. Also: some of use prefer quiet build, some say the smallest space ocupied is most important. Some would say: hey I want to watch movies and run a snes emulator/dosbox for vintage games on huge tv (and boy they look so nostalgicaly ugly)). So it is a good idea to mention all aspects: power draw, price, video decoding performance, dimensions of the rig, software capabilities. Because as pcs get older many of them live their second life as media boxes, backup servers, nas, firewalls etc. And rpi4 claims to be good at all of that too. So good comparison videos would be most useful for people planning their next build.

Smoke test. I will remember that. I've only had that happen to me twice. Once was a robot when a servo rapidly caught fire.

Wow, thanks!

IO shield... not motherboard.

They do indeed!

:)

It's what I do! :)

Sorted!

:)

17:20 , therapy sessions for cable management purists

@@stephenclark9917 Chris pointed out he need to turn the drive around

@@ffieditor could have ≠ need to :P

It is indeed! I'll cover its power consumption next week.

we definetly need power usage numbers etc.

Thanks. :)

Very good to know, thanks for sharing this info here.

Got it: Relaxciting! Yes, the episode was, as always, very relaxciting.

Wired. 🤭

It all depends on your use case. Most PCs are not used for gaming. :)

If you want gaming on ITX then the ROG Strix X570-I is what your after ;). But youl need a bigger case and fans / cooling which is outside of this video by quite a margin.

Can you give me a link or the exact Name of the board. Its a shame this one has no Slot for a gpu.

@@Teknikfrik Sure thing, it is the Asrock J4105B-ITX. That B is the only naming difference from the board used in the video so be careful when you order. Also remember that to get the x16 pcie slot you lose integrated wifi and bluetooth.

@@clochard4074 Thank you very much! Need something smaller for my Arcade cabinet.

@@Teknikfrik Sweet! Best of luck then!

Next week!

+1 for LibreELEC

lmao

If u can see in the case worry about cable management... If not screw cable management it has zero effect on airflow.

I will expect a formal complaint in three fold (two for the archives) at the registration office of Formal Complaints and Registry under the section Cable Management and Miscellaneous. Thank you.

Yes, that's what happened. Although I think the spring on the connector has seized -- the remainder was very hard to remove, even with plyers.

No worries, cats have persistent memory. They know the bird is still hiding behind static

"No, it is memory and storage." Brilliant!