This article was published in the March 2015 issue of Maximum PC. For more trusted reviews and feature stories, subscribe here.
We discover that balancing size and power is a delicate process when building a specialist content creator rig
Length of Time 1–2 Hours | Difficulty: Low
The Mission
Sometimes we build systems in this section to test out the latest hardware, or to experiment with different ideas. This time around, we're constructing a purpose-built machine. With Youtube, Twitch, and other video sites becoming increasingly integrated into our daily lives, it's a good time to think about what we use to create this content, rather than what we use to watch it. And if you want to start your own Youtube channel or get involved with video creation, you don't need a super computer.
As long as you have a CPU with four or more cores, a few hard drive trays, and a decent videocard, you can get along just fine. These bullet points are reasonable enough that we can fit them into a pretty low-profile PC that you can truck around without throwing your back out. With the type of case that we chose, you can also fit a full-sized power supply, high-performance CPU cooler, and full-length videocard. This case is even designed to stack with multiple units of the same base model.
An Eye for ITX
We've built with "shoebox" PC cases before, and they taught us that things can be a pain, due to their sheer compactness. Silverstone even ships some cases with power supplies pre-installed, along with custom shortened cables. They've a minimal footprint on your desktop and look cool, but woe betide you if you need to troubleshoot anything—you'll need to unpack entire chunks of PC guts to get at the problem, usually. So we wanted a shoebox that was reasonably easy to build into and out of. Especially with video encoding, where you want the ability to swap hard drives in and out. The Cooler Master HAF Stacker cases make those drives easy to access. You can also choose a case with the PSU mount on the front or on the back. We went with the front mount to keep the weight of the case balanced.
Inside this case we've used an Asus ROG Maximus VII Impact mobo, which employs the Intel Z97 chipset and offers up a selection of its own handy features, too. We've kept costs down by putting an Intel Core i5-4670K CPU at the build's heart, and we've the ever-popular Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo for some moderate overclocking. Our videocard is the Sapphire Radeon R9 285 Compact, which is roughly equivalent to a GeForce GTX 760. Our storage is a Samsung 850 EVO SSD and two 3TB hard drives from Seagate.
1. Cart Before the Horsepower
If you're using an aftermarket CPU cooler like we are on this occasion, you'll need to install its backplate on the motherboard before thinking about getting the board into the case. These ITX cases generally don't have cut-outs that enable you to access the motherboard tray from the other side. Thankfully, this is an easy task with the 212 Evo cooler.
For our LGA 1150 board, you choose the middle of the backplate's three screw positions, then put the mounting screws in, and fasten the screws on the other side of the board with the nuts that should be provided. Our board also has a tall riser card, so we needed to shift the CPU fan vertically a few notches to make sure that everything fit. Low-profile RAM is also something highly recommended.
2. Ain't the Size of the Boat
This Sapphire Compact videocard is short enough for us to install this three-tray drive cage right in front of it. Without that, we're limited to the drive mount on the 5.25-inch bay (which is removable), the one below this drive cage, and the one on a reinforcement plate (which we removed for this build). This cage also has enough room behind it that we don't require right-angle SATA cables.
This case doesn't actually come with a 3.5-inch drive cage; you need to order the HAF Stacker 935 Storage Kit from Cooler Master to get it. The SATA cables that come with our motherboard aren't long, so we slapped them in, too. It doesn't matter which port you use on the motherboard end—they can all do SATA III speeds.
3. Backward and Forward
Here we have the front of the case with the bezel taken off. This right-angle power cable gets juice to the power supply while lying flat enough to fit behind the bezel. The PSU's power switch ends up on the inside of the case, which is a bit awkward. But the bezel pops off pretty easily, giving you access to the switch in a pinch. (We should also add that this is a pre-production version of the HAF Stacker, because we're hardware hipsters. Some cosmetic stuff is different from the retail version.) The case has an intake fan below the PSU mount, and its heat is exhausted through the front of the case. Sometimes ITX cases make their PSUs expel heat into the case, which may cause overheating or lower your overclock ceiling. For our needs, this 550-watt unit is plenty. If you put in a 290 or 290X, though, we'd recommend bumping it up to 600 watts.
4. A Lover, Not a Wi-Fighter
These two gold-plated coaxial connectors are for the motherboard's integrated Wi-Fi. You definitely want some of that in an ITX system, since it will have only one PCI Express card slot on the motherboard, and you want to use that for your videocard. Since our system is designed for mobility, we don't want to have to rely on Ethernet for network access. These coax connectors each have a nut and a washer that you need to remove before putting the connectors through the back of the I/O shield here. You re-attach them on the other side, and your coax is secure. This Asus motherboard comes with an antenna on a cable about two feet long, from which we were able to get a strong connection. Windows 8.1 recognized the adapter right out of the box, which made our initial setup much easier.
5. Getting High
This is what the inside of the HAF Stacker's side panel looks like. It has "captured" thumbscrews, which means they stay attached even when fully unscrewed. It's basically one big grill with a bunch of fan mounts. You can mount two 140mm fans or up to three 120mm fans. In practice, you can't use all of these, because internal components get in the way. The top of the case has no fan mounts, but it's also one giant grill. In case you were wondering, HAF stands for "High Air Flow." Cooler Master aren't kidding.
The other side panel is identical, so you can squeeze more fans in. We kept it simple and stuck with the 120mm stock exhaust fan. This ITX mobo has only two fan headers anyway, so we'd have to plug extra fans directly into the power supply, which can be noisy. On the other hand, you could use that 5.25-inch bay to install a fan controller, if you don't mind sacrificing the bay's drive mount.
6. Tangles and Dangles
The underside reveals a couple of interesting things. Besides the drive mount, there's a set of rails and a rubber grommet. The rails give clearance for the power supply's intake. But you can also remove them and connect a second HAF Stacker. That's how the case gets its name. The grommet is for feeding data and power cables between the two cases, so they can share storage devices and a power supply. Three of these 915 cases stacked on top of each other will be roughly the height of a full ATX tower. Cooler Master also sells a "935" SKU, which combines this 915 with a 925 mid-tower that they don't sell separately. The 935 has Stacker attachment mounts both on top and on bottom, so you could build something pretty colossal.
1.) You could actually squeeze a second CPU fan on the other side of the cooler, and the 212 Evo comes with an extra set of clips for that. 2.) This Radeon R9 285 boasts just one fan, but doesn't generate much heat anyway. Even so, it performs better than the Radeon 280. 3.) We put a twist tie here to secure the thick US B 3.0 cable coming from the front panel. You can also lift the case by this crossbar. 4.) The PSU is 5.5-inches/140mm long. As you can see from the photo, you could go another half inch without meeting too much trouble.
It's a Quiet Riot
We made sure only one drive was connected when we installed Windows, otherwise it puts a "system" partition on a drive other than the SSD. We wanted to be able to swap out the other drives, and putting the system partition on one of them makes Windows unbootable if that drive is disconnected. While we were installing Windows, we noticed it didn't recognize the mobo's integrated Ethernet adapter, which uses an Intel I,218V chip, even though it recognized the integrated Wi-Fi. We're used to the opposite being the case.
We used the Wi-Fi connection to download the Ethernet drivers, along with the latest versions of AI Suite (for managing fan speeds, monitoring temperatures, and doing some tweaking), and HomeCloud. We needed HomeCloud to enable Wifi GO, a feature that allows you to use this motherboard as a wireless hotspot, a nice extra. If your system boots without Ethernet or wireless connectivity, you can pull older drivers off of a DVD bundled with the board, or you can download the drivers to a mobile device and transfer them via a USB cable.
With just one 120mm fan in the case and another on the CPU cooler, this was a pretty quiet build. In fact, we actually removed a side panel to check the fans were spinning. Of course, the CPU fan cranks up a bit when the chip is firing on all cylinders, but it shouldn't be distracting. We took this opportunity to update the BIOS, since the newest one said it improved stability, and the one before claimed to improve performance. It's unfortunate mobo vendors are so vague about what their BIOS updates do. Either way, we couldn't resolve an issue where the PC wouldn't boot when we had a USB thumb drive plugged in.
Since we're not testing new hardware, there aren't any benchmarks to run. This build was more about concept and execution. The results will vary a lot according to what kind of video footage you're dealing with and what programs you use to edit and encode. But the Radeon R9 285 is on Adobe's "approved" list for hardware-accelerated encoding via OpenCL, and four Haswell CPU cores pack plenty of performance poke, too.
By default, this Asus motherboard will set all cores on the i5-4670K to 3.8GHz, when a load is applied. That's the CPU's official maximum "Turbo" setting, which happens when you put a load on the chip. Without this motherboard setting, one core will run at 3.8GHz when only one core is being used. When all four are in action, they'll run at 3.5GHz each. When three are being used, they'll run at 3.6GHz each; for two, they'll run at 3.7GHz. The motherboard's "Sync All Cores" setting streamlines this business and gives you a performance edge for video encoding, which typically uses all the cores and threads that you can throw at it.
If you have some downtime, this system doubles as a respectable gaming rig. We averaged 79fps in the Tomb Raider benchmark, using the "Ultimate" setting at 1920x1200 with TressFX disabled. The Hitman: Absolution benchmark averaged 48fps on "Ultra" with 4xMSAA. This compact 285 retails at a higher price than average, so it's not the best bang for your buck, but it's the best value after you've factored in size. Nvidia's partners have started coming out with mini versions of the GeForce GTX 970, but those are about $100 more.
Overall, we're happy with how this system turned out, though we might have opted for a less expensive motherboard, since the Maximus VII Impact is designed to take advantage of more exotic CPU cooling than a Hyper 212 Evo.
