The Silverstone Thin mITX SST-PT13B Case

Incoming... at just 1.4 litre small!

The Intel Thin mITX Platform, Briefly

Introduced at Computex 2011, this is Intel's effort to empower endusers to DIY super compact All-In-One PCs with off the shelf components. The end results are small enough to be attached to the back of your TVs or LCD monitors yet powerful enough to run today's modern software like the latest versions of x64 Windows. Well, some mobos do end up being stuffed into flat casings together with LCD itself, all too reminiscent of the iM@c.



The Archetypal Intel DH61AG Thin Mini-ITX Motherboard
hosted by missingremote.com

Above is what a typical Thin mITX motherboard may look like, in fact this is one of the very first Thin mITX models. The placement of components on these Thin mITX motherboards is standardised and tightly controlled with regards to the CPU socket (standard LGA) and RAM (SODIMMs only).

This results in interesting spin-offs such as really tiny heatsinks much flatter than the Intel stock HSF or even Thin mITX casings which are totally fanless, acting as a giant heatsink itself.

Intel continually updates its info base with an annual Thin mITX catalog, available here
Intel Catalog

Silverstone

SilverStoneTek Home


With the SST-PT13B Case, Silverstone have introduced a really compact and beautiful 1.4 litre Thin mITX case which magically seems hardly any larger than the motherboards themselves.

Official Specs
Silverstonetek>Petit Series>PT13

Accompanying the case on its journey to completion will be the obligatory Silverstone AR04 Ultra Slim HSF, FSP power brick and the Asrock H8TM-ITX motherboard as depicted below.

Fast forward to a sneak preview to the end results, with the Ol' Blue Eyes CD and celebratory can of Tiger providing size comparisons.

Unboxing

more on the bottom big white box later...

The Case Itself

Ah, it flips open on a front hinge... ooh, that Silverstone sheen!

The Other White Box
contains the 19V FSP power brick, this external AC-DC adapter is a non-bundled necessary component

The Silverstone AR04  Ultra Slim HSF

incredibly slim stuff with 2 direct contact heatpipes... probably at around half the height of the stock Intel HSF

The Asrock H81TM-ITX Motherboard

Note the extra T (as in Thin, 19V DC model)  in the model name, the other H81M-ITX without the T is a normal (Fat?) mITX model


Official Specs
ASRock > H81TM-ITX

Note the lack of the main 20/24 pin power connector, the 19V DC in plug location is circled in Red  in the next photo

Installation

Adding in the Kingston SODIMMs, Pentium G3258, AR04 HSF and also checking for heatsink clearance around caps, chokes and RAM... looks really just right and tight...

Finishing Up

adding the SSD with screws all the way... then the cabling

Running In The Dark

For those comtemplating using this as a HTPC and concerned with the brightness of the stock LEDs (Pwr - White, HDD - Red). This night shot is an attempt to illustrate just that, greens are from my DeathAdder mouse LEDs.

Testing, Testing

It's looking all good this far...

Idle

HyperPi 32M

Final Product

Using the bundled stand

All in, this is simply super small, so beautiful and whisper quiet too!