Question Are there any right-angle adapters for motherboard headers ?

[bit_user]

I have a Thin mini-ITX case. I had been eyeing it for years and finally bought after never seeing any other mini-ITX case as small.

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https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/computer-chassis/PT13/

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The problem I have is that I decided to mount a fan in it, above the CPU. The case isn't designed to have a fan there, but I tied a 92x92x15 mm fan to the vent holes. Everything almost fits, except that I had to unplug the chassis front panel switches and LEDs in order to close the case, since those wires protruded directly into space now occupied by the edge of the fan.

So, what I need is some kind of right-angle extender or right-angle connectors I can use to connect the front panel power button and hopefully also a couple of the LEDs.

I do have a soldering iron, though I still want a connector of some sort, rather than soldering anything directly to the motherboard. If anyone could suggest what I should order or even the measurements and types of parts I can even search for, that would definitely help.

 

[Lutfij]

The height of the connector is what you'll run into an issue. You could grab this;
https://www.moddiy.com/products/Mot...er-Dupont-10-Pin-2.54mm-Angled-Connector.html
and then maybe have them hooked up before you plug them onto the motherboard? We don't know the make and model of your motherboard though.

 

[bit_user]

The height of the connector is what you'll run into an issue. You could grab this;
https://www.moddiy.com/products/Mot...er-Dupont-10-Pin-2.54mm-Angled-Connector.html

Thanks! Looks like it should do the trick!

We don't know the make and model of your motherboard though.

I sorta figured it was standard. I've never seen case front panel connectors not exactly fit the front panel connector block on a motherboard, but in case it helps, the motherboard is this one:

JMTX-ADN1

Mini-ITX SBC, N97, Alder Lake-N, 1 DDR5, 2 HDMI, 1 DP, 1 LVDS/eDP, 1 SATA, 1 M2M, 1 M2E, 1 M2B, 2.5 GbE, 8 USB, 6 COM, 1 GPIO, 1 PS/2

jetwayipc.com

The stock heatsink/fan is junk, which is pretty sad for the $230 it cost me (because it's an "industrial" product, even though it doesn't support ECC). I removed the tiny fan from the center of it and now have this 92x92x15 mm fan blowing on it. Definitely an improvement.

 

[baboma]

>I have a Thin mini-ITX case. I had been eyeing it for years and finally bought after never seeing any other mini-ITX case as small.

The "tiny" mITX case revolution came and went. It never caught on, at least among consumers. Here are some old models (they all support 2.5" drives), although I see a InWin Chopin variant still on Amazon.

https://in-win.com/en/gaming-chassis/Chopin

https://ebay.com/itm/186420926316

https://mitxpc.com/collections/cases-enclosures/compact-mini-itx#collection-page


>The stock heatsink/fan is junk, which is pretty sad for the $230 it cost me.

Nowadays, the tiny-PC route is miniPC. A variety of Shenzhen vendors cater to this niche, best known of which is Minisforum.

For N100,

https://amazon.com/s?k=n100+mini+pc

 

[bit_user]

Hello! It's been a while since we've crossed posts, I think.

>I have a Thin mini-ITX case. I had been eyeing it for years and finally bought after never seeing any other mini-ITX case as small.

The "tiny" mITX case revolution came and went. It never caught on, at least among consumers. Here are some old models (they all support 2.5" drives), although I see a InWin Chopin variant still on Amazon.

https://in-win.com/en/gaming-chassis/Chopin

https://ebay.com/itm/186420926316

https://mitxpc.com/collections/cases-enclosures/compact-mini-itx#collection-page

As opposed to "tiny", Thin mini-ITX actually seems to be a standard. As the name implies, it dictates a 30 mm height restriction, but otherwise seems identical to mini-ITX. The I/O shield height is reduced, as well.

Also, I've seen some smaller mini-ITX cases than those you linked, but I think no one can really build one smaller than that Silverstone case I have. There's virtually no extra room it it, at all!

>The stock heatsink/fan is junk, which is pretty sad for the $230 it cost me.

Nowadays, the tiny-PC route is miniPC. A variety of Shenzhen vendors cater to this niche, best known of which is Minisforum.

I've seen a lot of mini-PCs. I'm not really interested in buying something constructed entirely by someone else. I want something I can customize. Pre-built stuff tends to have pretty garbage components. Even the higher-priced models don't guarantee that everything is top-shelf or that the cooling system is fully-optimized, very quiet, and it won't throttle.

About 8 years ago, Intel introduced a mini-STX form factor I hoped would become common enough that there would be cases and motherboards on the open market. Sadly, it pretty much fizzled - at least, in the DIY market. If it had succeeded, then we could all build custom mini-PCs!

It's also too bad just about every ARM SBC has either copied Raspberry Pi or made their own form factor. If mini-STX had taken off, my hope was that we could basically use it to build our own ARM-based NUC-like mini-PCs!

For N100,

https://amazon.com/s?k=n100+mini+pc

The N97 has a higher frequency limit, higher TDP, and is rated for commercial use. So, for me, the choice boils down to that or the N305. Interestingly, HardKernel just launched the ODROID H4-series. From everything I've read, theirs is probably better than most mini-PCs out there. I don't love their cases, but they have a (regular) mini-ITX adapter kit, if there's a mini-ITX case you'd prefer.

ODROID

www.hardkernel.com

 

[beyondlogic]

Hello! It's been a while since we've crossed posts, I think.


As opposed to "tiny", Thin mini-ITX actually seems to be a standard. As the name implies, it dictates a 30 mm height restriction, but otherwise seems identical to mini-ITX. The I/O shield height is reduced, as well.

Also, I've seen some smaller mini-ITX cases than those you linked, but I think no one can really build one smaller than that Silverstone case I have. There's virtually no extra room it it, at all!


I've seen a lot of mini-PCs. I'm not really interested in buying something constructed entirely by someone else. I want something I can customize. Pre-built stuff tends to have pretty garbage components. Even the higher-priced models don't guarantee that everything is top-shelf or that the cooling system is fully-optimized, very quiet, and it won't throttle.

About 8 years ago, Intel introduced a mini-STX form factor I hoped would become common enough that there would be cases and motherboards on the open market. Sadly, it pretty much fizzled - at least, in the DIY market. If it had succeeded, then we could all build custom mini-PCs!

It's also too bad just about every ARM SBC has either copied Raspberry Pi or made their own form factor. If mini-STX had taken off, my hope was that we could basically use it to build our own ARM-based NUC-like mini-PCs!


The N97 has a higher frequency limit, higher TDP, and is rated for commercial use. So, for me, the choice boils down to that or the N305. Interestingly, HardKernel just launched the ODROID H4-series. From everything I've read, theirs is probably better than most mini-PCs out there. I don't love their cases, but they have a (regular) mini-ITX adapter kit, if there's a mini-ITX case you'd prefer.

​

ODROID

www.hardkernel.com

​

If your ever looking for a more powerful thin itx there are 3 of top of my head

ASUS PRO H610T D4-CSM LGA1700 Thin Mini ITX Motherboard

Amd am4
ECS A300AM4-TI5
X300TM-ITX

 

[bit_user]

If your ever looking for a more powerful thin itx there are 3 of top of my head

ASUS PRO H610T D4-CSM LGA1700 Thin Mini ITX Motherboard

Amd am4
ECS A300AM4-TI5
X300TM-ITX

Thanks for the tip! It's great to know the Thin mini-ITX form factor lives on!
: D

 

[beyondlogic]

Thanks for the tip! It's great to know the Thin mini-ITX form factor lives on!
: D

It tends to be Asus/gigabyte/ECS/asrock these days but I feel gigabyte isn't as interested.

Asus does a new intel one like whenever there's a new intel chipset.

Though harder to come by am4 boards you can usually find them on AliExpress or eBay a320 thin itx is most common.

There are other tinker projects like latte panda mu which uses the n100 with single ddr5 and a pci gen 3x4 for. GPU

I have a looper all in one monitor so I do a good deep dive to see if there's anything new lol

 

[bit_user]

There are other tinker projects like latte panda mu which uses the n100 with single ddr5 and a pci gen 3x4 for. GPU

There was recently an article on here about the LattePanda Mu. The downsides are that its RAM is 8 GB of soldered LPDDR5 and its CPU is limited to the N100, which is a little slower than the N97. I currently have a 32 GB DIMM in my board!

On the plus side, the LattePanda Mu supports in-band ECC. However, it turns out that Jetway has a custom BIOS for my board, with in-band ECC, that you can get if you ask nicely. I wonder why they don't just include it as an option in the default BIOS, like some boards seem to do.

It's actually not common to see a board that supports both regular DDR5 and in-band ECC. So far, the only ones I know of are my Jetway board and HardKernel's H4-series. The consumer-oriented Alder Lake-N boards all seem to use DDR4, because I guess they figure it's likely to be used in low-end desktops and DDR4 is still cheaper than DDR5. By the same token, they don't include in-band ECC support, probably because most consumers don't know or care about it.

 

[beyondlogic]

There was recently an article on here about the LattePanda Mu. The downsides are that its RAM is 8 GB of soldered LPDDR5 and its CPU is limited to the N100, which is a little slower than the N97. I currently have a 32 GB DIMM in my board!

On the plus side, the LattePanda Mu supports in-band ECC. However, it turns out that Jetway has a custom BIOS for my board, with in-band ECC, that you can get if you ask nicely. I wonder why they don't just include it as an option in the default BIOS, like some boards seem to do.

It's actually not common to see a board that supports both regular DDR5 and in-band ECC. So far, the only ones I know of are my Jetway board and HardKernel's H4-series. The consumer-oriented Alder Lake-N boards all seem to use DDR4, because I guess they figure it's likely to be used in low-end desktops and DDR4 is still cheaper than DDR5. By the same token, they don't include in-band ECC support, probably because most consumers don't know or care about it.

Yeah the pros with mu is it's low power and functions well as a mini on the go gaming ordering one to tinker.


There's also this company with there edge unit

https://www.seeedstudio.com/ODYSSEY...-11th-Gen-Intelr-Coretm-i3-1115G4-p-5116.html

 

[bit_user]

There's also this company with there edge unit

https://www.seeedstudio.com/ODYSSEY...-11th-Gen-Intelr-Coretm-i3-1115G4-p-5116.html

Tiger Lake should definitely be a step up from Alder Lake-N, but not as energy-efficient and probably no ECC.

Speaking of in-band ECC, UpBoard is another one with soldered-down LPDDR5 and in-band ECC. They're also fairly expensive and I'm annoyed at how they reserved the 16 GB of RAM for their N305 boards and don't even offer it on the Atom-x version.

https://up-shop.org/ups-pro-7000-series.html
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I was seriously considering it, until I saw it was LPDDR5. Also, like my Jetway board, its M.2 SSD slot is only PCIe 3.0 x2 lane. I think ODROID-H4 and LattePanda Mu are I think the only ones I've seen that offer x4 connectivity. Some boards even do just x1, which is pretty sad.

 

[bit_user]

The height of the connector is what you'll run into an issue. You could grab this;
https://www.moddiy.com/products/Mot...er-Dupont-10-Pin-2.54mm-Angled-Connector.html

So, after 2 weeks my order finally arrived from Hong Kong and I'm sad to say there's a fatal flaw and another issue that's also disappointing. The fatal flaw is that even the adapter is too high and runs into the fan frame. It's still at least a couple millimeters too much. I should reiterate that the case was not designed to have a fan where I put it, so that's the root of the problem.

The secondary issue is that the pins coming out of the adapter are too thin for the front panel cables to grab them securely. If this were the only problem, I'm thinking maybe I could take pliers and put a few bends in each one, so that it creates more friction in the barrel of the connectors.

As for solutions, I tried filing down the adapter, but that didn't make it sit any lower, because it was only as tall as it needed to be for the length of the motherboard pins. If it held the motherboard connectors a bit better, I'd be tempted to trim the pins of the motherboard header so the adapter could actually sit lower.

Instead, what I'm thinking is I'll probably remove the case connector barrels from their plastic housing, put shrink tubing around each one, and then I can bend each right at the top of the motherboard pin. A non-destructive way to do this would be to use motherboard extension cables, but I'm at the point where I don't really mind modding the case a bit more, since if I ever use it with any other motherboard, there's a reasonable chance I'll encounter similar issues.

As for ModDIY, I padded out my order with a few other odds and ends. Hopefully, some of those will turn out to be worthwhile. Magnetic fan filters, PSU gaskets, and case feet are a few that come to mind. Sadly, the fan filters also don't work as hoped, since the top of the case (where I attached the fan) is aluminum.

 

[Calab]

Have you considered using a thinner fan? 92x92x10mm Fan Link

...or possibly finding a frameless fan?

 

[bit_user]

Have you considered using a thinner fan? 92x92x10mm Fan Link

...or possibly finding a frameless fan?

Thank you, so much, for the suggestions! I probably wouldn't like a thinner fan, simply due to my struggles with cooling this board. The current heatsink is performing very poorly and I wouldn't like to sacrifice any airflow. Meanwhile, I'm also trying to balance noise.

The frameless fan idea sounds intriguing, though I'm not sure how I'd mount it to this case (current fan is tied to the vent holes in the lid). Obviously, one should take care to secure all wiring, to ensure the fan doesn't eat it (how many of us have found stripped wires in a case, having been chewed up by a PC fan? I have!).

Here's what I ended up doing. Excuse the amateur workmanship. As I don't have a heat gun, I just used my stove (eek!). Also, I find these fancy 2-ply heatshrink tubes I bought, which have a little blob of glue that oozes out to seal the end just don't look as nice as the old stuff I'm used to.

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I should also note that 1/32 inch diameter tubing was used. It was not easy to work over the connector barrels, which I pre-bent to be sure the bends all happened where I wanted and not in the barrel section or creating a sharp kink that could stress the metal too much.