Tech Review - Scythe EPIA Fanless Mini-ITX Case
Hello again. My name is Rodney Reynolds and welcome to another video review. Today I’m looking at the EPIA Fanless mini-ITX case. What is included in this package is the AC adapter, some cables, screws, thermal compound, installation guide and the case. This is a very small case. It’s a mini-ITX. Now what is mini-ITX? Well, mini-ITX is a motherboard form factor that was originally developed by VEP and of course there are other motherboard manufactured on the market today that make motherboards to fit in this size of a case and just to give you some idea how small this is. Well, I can almost expand it.
My hand is a handset here from a cord of telephone to give you some idea how tiny it actually is. At the front of the case right here is where you can install a mini-CD-ROM or CD-ROM burner etcetera but here’s the grills. We’ll let some ventilation in and at the bottom right there’s a power button. At the back left is the 60 watt power supply and right here is where the AC adaptor goes plug into. Now when you have the motherboard installed all the different connection is here for the monitor, USB etcetera would protrude in this are and there are three thumbscrews right here which makes removing the cover very easy. The cover also has ventilation hose to allow for heat to escape. The covers easily remove pull it back and up and it’s off.
Right here inside the case you have a metal plate which expands the distance of it. It can be remove very easily so you can gain access to the rest of the case but on this metal plate right here is where the CD-ROM drive will get installed and the hard drive will get install right there. Let’s take this off and have a closer look inside the case. Again, this is the power to the left. You have the power cables which would again go to the hard drive and CD-ROM drive and this is the main motherboard connection. Now you also have leads here at the very front. Remember I told that the grill here at the very front. Well, you also have a power LED and the hard drive LED right here and right here at the very bottom is a heat pipe.
This heat pipe actually goes installed onto the motherboard first and then gets place back and screwed into the case. First of all remove these two brackets that are holding the pipe into the case then take this pipe and I wish I had a motherboard here to demonstrate this plate. I will just use a piece of paper here. Let’s say this is the CPU that’s actually on the motherboard. Of course supplies some thermal compound to it then go ahead and slip it into place. So now you have this heat pipe which will conduct heat all the way around down and actually onto the bottom surface of the case and insert it like so. Now I'm going to show you here the bottom of this case and you can see that it’s one very large heatsink.
This is a product you can use as a stand alone PC but keep in mind the processors currently are only around 1 gigahertz so it’s pretty slow. Remember this is only the case, you got to have a CD-ROM, the hard drive and memory etcetera or you could use it as a part of your home theater, a home theater PC which you can play audio and video directly from. It’s very small so you can fit it in there and also it’s fanless is going to be quiet. Overall this is a kick-ass product.
Again my name is Rodney Reynolds and this has been another video review. Be sure to check back very soon. I will have a brand new one for you then. Also pop into my website at www.3Dgameman.com and while you’re there you can to the forums and register and remember registration is completely free. Also keep in mind that you can find out a lot more on this product in the forums and as a final note if you love watching these video reviews please help support 3gamenman.com. Until the next time, take care.
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