Shouldn't be much to this other than a few pics and some comments about Tiger Direct's Abysmal service here in Canada.....
The R/H pic shows the slotted mounting holes on the bottom which can be used to mount directly to the back of a monitor (NCIX has vesa mounting screws for this purpose), or via 4 screws the same way as you'd mount a router or switch.
Here's the new hardware I've received to date. AMD A8 6500 (Highest 65W A series proc I could find), Noctua NH-L9a low profile Cooler, Mini Box M350 mITX case, and I couldn't resist picking up a set of those 2133 ripjaws that CC had on for $85. I'm not sure how much of a difference the higher clock speeds will make, but logic would suggest that IGPs should get quite a boost from higher mem speeds.
Still to come is the Pico PSU from NCIX (was backordered, but is currently in transit) and the motherboard from Tiger Direct which has already done some travelling, but is currently sitting at their Naperville Il warehouse waiting to be shipped to me. (Rant to follow..... ).
My initial impressions of the case are better than I expected. The images I've seen led me to believe that it was mostly molded plastic construction, but instead it's a pretty solid metal construction except for the front panel. The only complaint I have so far is that the power switch feels flimsy, so much so that I initially thought it was broken until I had a chance to see how the internals work.
The top cover is secured with a slotted rail system on the main body and held in place with a single screw on the rear panel. The front panel is held in place with plastic tabs similar to the front panel on a typical tower case, and gives access to the unshielded hidden USB ports (for Wi-Fi and/or wireless input devices) as well as the mount for a single 40mm fan.
On the left is an image of the HDD mount which can be installed on either side of the case as required for clearance. Because of the way it's secured into slots on one end and then screws on the other it wouldn't be a simple thing to manufacture a second one so folks would probably be better off ordering a second one if they wanted to mount two drives. It's also interesting to note that there are mounts for two 40mm fans on this plate so if a person wanted to install a higher TDP processor (assuming they wanted to spend the big bucks on a 190W pico PSU), and weren't overly concerned about noise levels it offers a chance to improve internal airflow.
The R/H pic shows the slotted mounting holes on the bottom which can be used to mount directly to the back of a monitor (NCIX has vesa mounting screws for this purpose), or via 4 screws the same way as you'd mount a router or switch.
Not much to see here other than the fact that forum posts sell hardware.... One of our members posted a member review on these sticks along with a link to a decent price at CC so I took the plunge telling myself that 2133 mem would be much better than any old 1600 I might stick into this build.
Having never seen an A series chip I wasn't sure what heatsink they'd ship with thus wanting to ensure that I had clearance inside the M350 case I picked up this Noctua NH-L9a cooler based on it's 37mm height. This particular cooler is strictly AMD, but there are other versions out there. Certainly a quality package considering the PP price..... hell the metal noctua badge alone is worth the price of admission.
Pretty straightforward looking heatpipe design, but damn that's some high density fins going on there. This thing weighs in at 465g which is surprisingly heavy for the size considering that a Hyper 212 weighs 626g yet is more than 4 times taller.
Lastly here's a shot of the proc and a height comparison between the noctua and the stock AMD heatsink. Obviously my concerns about clearance were unfounded as the stock cooler is at least 1mm lower than the noctua. That said... I certainly expect that the noctua will provide better cooling at a much lower rpm/volume. Actually, now that I look at it again I was incorrect in my initial observation that the noctua is higher. If you look at the images you'll see that the AMD heatsink is sitting directly on the mating surface while the noctua has a built-in standoff that I didn't take into account. I'll have another look at the two once it comes time to start putting it together.
That's it for now... pico PSU is on it's way from the wet coast, and TD is due for another CS call from me trying to get the bloody motherboard headed my way. It's bad enough that TD Canada seems to ship most of its stuff from the US, but I'm especially unimpressed with the fact that an item listed as "in stock" on their website is actually dropshipped from a third party warehouse to them first and then sits around in their Naperville warehouse for more than a day (it arrived their on Monday and I'm still waiting) before being shipped to me.