Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
enough to give you clearance to plug in a cable or drive in a screw. But some-
times a particular component just can't be made to work in a particular case,
which is why it's important to do your homework.
Before you actually order any component, check the website for detailed
specifications—things like component height or mounting hole positions.
Study a high-resolution image of the motherboard and match it up against
the case you intend to use. You may find that an essential motherboard con-
nector is blocked by the bottom of the power supply or that some of the com-
ponents near the edge of the motherboard are too tall to fit under the edge of
an intruding part of the case frame.
In short, you have to take much more care in choosing components for a Mini-
ITX system than you do with larger systems. (We actually built our appliance
system using the components we recommend, but we didn't build systems
around our suggested alternatives, so you'll need to check carefully for yourself.)
Even if you're careful to choose only components that fit the case, you may
find that building the system is more involved than you expected. With larger
systems, you can usually install components in nearly any order that makes
sense to you. With a Mini-ITX system, you may have to install components in
one particular order, because installing one component may block the access
you need to install another component.
If you use components other than those we actually used to build the system
illustrated here, don't be surprised if you have one or two false starts. That hap-
pens to us more often than not when we build a tiny system with components
that we haven't used before.
Worst case, you may get the whole system assembled before you realize that
you forgot to install a cable whose motherboard connector is no longer acces-
sible. So you remove the drives and bays, disconnect everything until you have
access to the hidden connector, connect that cable in the proper sequence,
and rebuild the rest of the system. You may spend an extra half-hour building
the system and curse yourself for not getting it right in the first place, but that's
just part of building tiny systems.
With those cautions kept firmly in mind, here are the components we chose
for our own appliance system.
CaseandPowerSupply
Antec ISK 300 Mini-ITX case
(
http://www.antec.com
)
When we wrote the preceding edition, Mini-ITX products were available but
had not yet become mainstream. In particular, the selection of suitable Mini-
ITX cases was extremely limited. But Mini-ITX “arrived” in 2009, and a wide se-
lection of Mini-ITX motherboards and cases is now readily available.
Mini-ITX cases range in volume from about 1.8 liters (a smidgen larger than a
Mac mini) to 15 liters (a bit smaller than a basketball). Most mainstream Mini-
ITX cases are either flat (“book-style”) or cubic, but models are also available
for rack-mounting or installing in vehicles.
