Tag Archives: MiniITX

Mini-ITX Gaming PC mkII

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I finally decided to upgrade my old gaming PC. About time, it has been almost 6 years since I bought the core components (mainboard, CPU, RAM and GPU). In this article, I will discuss the decision making process based on my requirements and present the result.

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Mini-ITX Gaming PC

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Mini-ITX is one of the smallest standard mainboard formats and thus perfect to build a compact computer.

I decided to give my – admittedly outdated – computer hardware a new home. Since I already had a mini-ITX mainboard, I was looking for a suitable computer chassis replacement. My requirements for the new case include:

  • flawless build quality, high-grade materials only (no plastic)
  • as compact as possible
  • must accomodate standard-sized components (including a dual-slot PCI-Express graphics gard and ATX PSU)
  • pleasant design (since it will sit on my desk)

There are many options to choose from, but only few could satisfy my demands. In the end I opted for the UMX1 from Jonsbo (Cooltek), which is a perfect compromize between flexibility and size. With a footprint of just 30 x 16cm, it doesn’t take too much space on my desk.

As already mentioned, I basically kept my old hardware and put it into the new case, except for the power supply. Due to the very limited space in the case, I decided to replace the old power supply (Cougar A450) by a fully modular PSU, the Coolermaster V550. It offers 550W of max. output power, is certified with the 80plus Gold award (92% effeciency) and only measures 14 x 15 x 8,6cm.

Unfortunately, my watercooling solution for the CPU didn’t really fit into the new case, so I replaced it by the M9I tower cooler from Cryorig.

Besides that, I also added an additional SSD to provide more disk space for games. The Samsung EVO 850 is currently a killer product: For just 80€, you get a high-performance solid state disk with 250 GB of memory!

Enough said, here are some pictures of my setup:

2-2 2095083_996 2095083_998 CRYORIG-M9i-and-M9a-Tower-Coolers-2  samsungevo850  IMG_20160301_191443b

IMG_20160301_191455b  IMG_20160301_195530b  IMG_20160301_200653b

IMG_20160301_200833b  IMG_20160301_200855b  IMG_20160301_220246b

IMG_20160304_203400b  IMG_20160304_203434b

Jonsbo UMX1 Plus Computer Case

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Jonsbo – a division of Cooltek – has a very good reputation when it comes to high quality computer chasis. The UMX1 Plus is one of those fine computer cases: It can accomodate a mini-ITX mainboard, a full-sized ATX power supply, graphics cards up to 27cm in length and even bulky CPU coolers up to 13cm height! Despite this flexibility, it is one of the smallest computer cases on the market, measuring just 35 x 16 x 30 cm! It is available in black and silver, with or without a window side panel.

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Jonsbo U2 Computer Case

This is a quick review of the Cooltek Jonsbo U2 computer case. It’s designed for mini-ITX mainboards.

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Despite the fact that it can accomodate a full-size ATX power supply and a dual-slot graphics card (up to 22cm), it’s one of the smallest cases out there. But what impresses me most is its build quality. In one word: Impeccable. No other case that I’ve ever seen comes close to this one. I’ve owned a couple of Lian Li cases in the past, they were very decent and also had a solid build, but they can’t compete with Jonsbo.

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