dragosmp

Well, there's a way this can be done far cheaper. The problem is in France they don't ship any Mini-ITX mobo worth mentioning (apart from ATOMs), so I had to look the other way.

There is one other way: laptops. I've found a Compaq Armada with a cracked screen which apparently works on external monitor. A lappy has the advantage it has everything you need (PSU, mobo, CPU, RAM) in a very small form factor, but the disadvanage of the lack of advanced connectivity options. For that, there are PCMCIA SATA cards with a max of 2 ports, but nowadays we can easily connect on them 2TB without braking the bank. There are also USB port replicators which could take care of the rest. Overall the lappy solution may amount to 100-150$ without the HDDs.

With the mini-itx mobos, there's the mobo (say 100), a CPU (min 40), a mini-itx PSU + charger (120$ for 80W), RAM (15$)... and you'd get a higher power consumption for what may be a better feature set. Since I don't have the Mini-ITX option, I kinda ditched this.

D.

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Mini-ITX Acrylic Pyramid
My guides:
How to: Silence any HDD with 1$
Driver modd: SB Live! and Audigy Value/SE/LE/24bit in X-fi Xtreme Audio
Driver modd: enable Crystalizer and X-Fi console on Audigy EMU cards

jamracing

As far as cooling, you might want to try pressurixing the case. Instead of using a 80mm intake and 120mm exhaust, reverse it. It will force air into all sorts of places, effectivly "pushing out" the bad hot air.
Just my 2 cents

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Duesco
I went from 7057 to 7077...

7057: Like a dream, fast and responsive, smooth and trouble-free.
7077: Crashes at the drop of a hat, freezes, throws up, pees on itself, throws things, chases my cat.

I don't get it.