Introducing: Chieftec is the home of the Mini-ITX

I’ve done it several times before flying back in time to my old HTPC experiences with psalm glazes. I’ll skip this exceptionally now, or if I don’t, I will shorten it well.

I can’t miss it completely, as it’s a few words worth mentioning about Mini-ITX as a format. 17 × 17-centimeter motherboards have not recently appeared on store shelves, but for a long time they were only bought by the most determined HTPC builders, or specifically those who wanted a motherboard of this size because of the construction of a target hardware.

In the case of the latter, there was no objection, as size in many cases determines what foundations we can build on. In the former case, however, it took some determination, or rather insanity, because although we may have owned showy machines, they could not show much virtue outside of showiness.

The reason for this was that the CPUs were not strong enough to even be used for multimedia purposes. Okay, who now comes with the fact that they were, and as the pictures show, there are Mini-ITX boards that can put a desktop processor in it, then they’re right, there really are, there were some, but cooling was an almost insurmountable task for them. No, that's not accurate, we could choose between the two options, which is silent, but the processor shuts down, or we don't bake a CPU, but we don't hear the movie or music we're playing.

So for a long time, the Mini-ITX was just a good game, we've only really been able to rediscover it recently, since we've found CPUs with adequate performance at both Intel and AMD, but with almost no cooling. You’ve already seen motherboards that accept these low-power processors on our site, so it’s time to look for a cottage that we’re not ashamed to expose to the living room next to the plasma!

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So here are the right motherboards, with the right central unit on which you can already build a machine. More precisely, not only can it be worth it!

These tiny machines are usually bought for two purposes. Either it becomes a machine used for work, or we will play multimedia content with their help. What the two contingencies have in common is that it doesn’t matter what the house looks like.

In the first case, we can assume that whoever buys or builds such a small but powerful machine will not use it hidden under the table, but in many cases will lie on his desk. In this case, the usual, average, dirty white house is forgettable. We need a much more showy piece that doesn’t hurt our eyes.

The situation is similar in the second case. If you build or buy a machine for home multimedia playback, that machine will usually work in the living room instead of the study. In addition to an LCD or plasma TV, an ugly and loud computer can be especially harmful.

The point, then, is that whoever designs and sells such houses must take these considerations into account. Fortunately, Chieftec's engineers and designers are paying attention to this, so the two cottages that will now be presented are also eye-catching and have a pleasing design.

We can only negotiate the two units together if we are talking about the interior, as the frame and the foundation of the houses are the same. In both, we find a small Chieftec labeled power supply capable of delivering “just” 200 watts of power. It follows that we will not build a power plant in them, as today's top video cards would sweat the tiny power supply by themselves.

The small frame doesn't allow us to crowd too much hardware and storage into the machine, but let's face it, it wouldn't make much sense. The capacity of a full-size hard drive for desktop computers today can be enough for almost anything. Terraced units are affordable, so you can store lots of movies, music or pictures on our tiny machine.

So the small size doesn’t allow us to build a RAID system, as the amount of storage space that can be built in is not enough. The optical drive also fell victim to the lack of space. More precisely, this can be put into machines, the space is designed, but the cheaper 5,25-inch drives built into desktops don’t fit. Because of this, you need to buy a notebook optical unit, which is a little maybe more expensive, but usually quieter with something. In terms of capabilities, this will not be a disadvantage, as the drives built into mobile devices, like their desktop counterparts, already thrive in all formats from CD to Blu-ray.

So the structure of the houses is the same, we can’t even say they are the same. The difference found also determined the type of use for us. Of course, this is not mandatory, the user needs are not the same, so opinions may differ from us.

So let’s see where they would use the houses, and then quickly evaluate them as well!

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The FI-01B hut is a bit simpler than its counterpart. We mentioned on the previous page that the frame is the same, but the exterior is not. The FI-01B is a little simpler. There is a power button, a sound output and an input, and two USB ports on the front panel, next to the optical drive door and the operation light, of course. The design is subdued, the power button has a shiny, metallic effect. A matte strip of metal-effect plastic runs along the center of the glossy black front panel. For the sake of simplicity, we could rather imagine this house as an office machine. The house is glossy and black, the chrome and metal imitation plastics don’t make it overly striking, just enough to catch the eye of the visitor to us for a moment and the owner can book it with a good feeling that their car has been spotted.

Bro is a bit more serious. The piece marked FI-02BC has metal imitation plastics not only in the middle of the front panel, but also on its bezel. These not only function as decorations, they also raise the front of the machine a little from the table. We do get stick-on legs, but this slight distortion is perhaps better than the tiny legs. Another difference between the two housings is that with the FI-02BC we can use not only optical and USB data carriers, but also memory cards. In the upper tract of the house (if we look at the house when it is standing up), we can find a built-in "sok" that is also a card reader. Its cover fits nicely into the house and does not give the appearance of a retrofitted unit. When viewing photos, it can be useful not to have to copy the images to the computer. We take it out of the camera, put it in the machine and you can watch family pictures on the LCD TV!

Due to the FI-02BC’s slightly more striking exterior and card reader, we could imagine this house more in the living room next to the TV. Of course, this can also go as an office machine, but if we had to choose between the two cottages, which one we would like to see in the living room, it would be for sure.

Sum it!

As you can see, the Chieftec nooks will not take away the award for the most innovative computer case, not least because of its small size making it impossible to crowd many ideas. These houses know exactly what we need. A suitable exterior, a terribly simple interior, which is perfectly acceptable for a fully integrated Mini-ITX board.

Externally, both houses are adequate, less is more in this case. A house like this should be nice, but not too nice or too chic, even if it’s on a desk, even if it has a place next to the TV. We leave the flashing plexiglass to our Korean friends. The FI-01B and FI-02BC now presented meet these requirements. The exterior is adequate, the frame is rigid and easy to install. What else do you need? A good ITX format motherboard with a low power consumption central unit as well as a hard drive, an optical drive with some memory. If you have these, you can start the party, you can move into the Chieftec houses!

Chieftec houses for the show a Kelly-Tech Ltd., provided by the domestic distributor of the brand. Thanks for!