Akasa Euler Instance: Await Ma' No Fans!

The first ingredient and perhaps ane of the well-nigh of import for achieving a completely silent Thin Mini-ITX PC is the chassis choice. Nosotros picked the very meaty Akasa Euler, which measures 228mm wide ten 187mm long and just 61.5mm tall.

Despite the small footprint, the Euler tips the scales at 2.2kg, which is surprisingly heavy for a 100% aluminium blueprint. This is ameliorate explained when y'all larn that the Euler acts as one big passively cooled heatsink. In fact it looks very much like one. Rather than featuring a flat outer trounce the Euler is ribbed, featuring a series of 15mm tall fins.

But before we get within the Euler let'south only accept a quick look at its external design. Although the front end plate is flat it is still constructed from aluminium which has been anodized black. The Akasa logo is featured in the bottom correct hand corner, while a round silver ability button tin be found to the left along with a blue power LED and ruddy activeness LED.

The meridian of the instance features 28 fins which measure 3mm wide and 183mm long. The left and right sides feature another 5 fins along with an open gap backside them to allow air to circulate through the case. Around the back we have a slot for the Thin Mini-ITX I/O shield which measures 25mm high and 159mm long.

Underneath, there's a VESA mounting organisation which allows the Akasa to be hung on the back of supporting monitors.

Iv screws demand to exist removed in order to go inside the Akasa Euler, ii from each side and the lesser console volition pop out. The just object inside the case is a mounting plate for the CPU socket which transfers estrus from the heat spreader to the instance'south surface.

Because all Thin Mini-ITX motherboards have the CPU socket in exactly the same position information technology is possible for case manufacturers to implement these fixed libation designs.

Traditionally when building a PC we'd install the motherboard beginning, merely this is actually the very terminal step before replacing the case cover with the Euler.

Thus we installed the 2.v" drive first, in this particular case the OCZ Agility 4 256GB using two mounting plates. With the SSD installed we plant it easiest to stand the Euler case on its side and lay the motherboard apartment side by side to it. This made connecting the front end console connectors and SATA data/power cables much easier, earlier turning the motherboard upside down and aligning information technology with the I/O panel and CPU mounting brackets.

With the motherboard in identify we secured the dorsum cover of the case. From the front end it was impossible to tell if at that place was anything in in that location at all. From the back we had a view of the I/O console which showed off all the available connections, and on that note let'due south move on to see what the Asrock Z77TM-ITX has to offering.