My Sam's tiny new case!

The original case I bought last year for my non-flex Sam440 was a Morex Venus 669, which measures 20cm x 22.5cm x 33cm (HxWxD). Maybe small by PC standards (and about the same size as my Shuttle PC), but it was still mostly fresh air inside after I fitted everything!

I've been on the look-out for a nice but small mini-ITX case, with the added restriction that my Sam440 is an older one where ACube stupidly made the power socket horizontal (thus breaking the mini-ITX standard as soon as you plug power in). I finally decided to risk getting the Jetway JC203, which measures just 6.5cm x 21cm x 26cm!

I'll post more about it later, but for the moment here are some photos:
Jetway vs Morex
Jetway on Morex
Sam440 inside Jetway

@ChrisH

That was a really small case. The morex looks like a blue whale :P
I like the morex case as i have one myself. But not in use as the power supply broke,and it was cheaper to get a new midi tower with psu and trying to get hold of a new one for the morex. Sadly. But thats life.

@ChrisH

now that's a tight fit !..it's nice to have it small & save space but I'm a bit paranoid about air flow in my systems...don't care what anyone says..the better heat dissipation = longer lifespan of MB & CPU

@ChrisH
Hi,

On the photo, it's a Sam440EP and not a flex .. The flex have 3 PCI ports .... it will not fit the case ... it only have 2 Ports backcase available ...
Are you sure it's for a flex one ?

Regards,
Fred

@freddix


He does say it not a flex in the first line of his post!
(easy to miss I had to read it again)

Chris,Nice little case make sure you don't lose it down the back of the sofa

@328gts
The Jetway case comes with 2 fans on the side (and ventillation holes on both sides), so in theory it can be well ventillated... But the Sam comes with no sockets to power the fans, so currently they don't run.

The Jetway is the best solution for the SAM 440ep i think...

This is my SAM

OK, as promised, here's a bit more info about the Jetway JC203 case & how I adapted it to my Sam440.

I had to buy a 2.5" (laptop) SATA HD, as a 3.5" (desktop) HD is not supported by the case. I temporarily connected this to my "old Sam", duplicated the partitions using Media Toolbox (mainly by saving/reloading the RDB), and then used Workbench to copy the contents of each partition across. Workbench seemed the best solution, as it copies everything, including the soft (?) links used by the latest OS4 SDK. I used a tiny utility I wrote awhile ago (BinDif) to compare the copy against the original, to confirm the copy was identical.

I also had to buy a slimline (laptop) CD/DVD drive, as again a normal (desktop) drive is not supported by the case. I managed to find someone with stock of an old IDE (not SATA) LiteOn DVD-RW drive. LiteOn drives can usually be easily modified (using a Windows PC) to be region-free DVD drives, some research suggested that was the case with this one, and I am happy to report that it was.

The reason I went for an IDE not SATA drive is that they still seem to a have support for analogue CD audio (as used by Payback, Quake 1, etc), and with an appropriate Slimline Optical to SATA Adapter should work fine with the Sam. And I am happy to report that it does work exactly as expected. The tiny screws are a little fiddly though!


The actual case itself came with just about all the parts (inc. screws) I needed to fit everything. It took awhile to work out how to fit everything perfectly. One flaw is that the CD/DVD slot is covered by a metal plate, and removing this was VERY difficult - I could have easily damaged the case trying to remove it. A tip I will give is to flex the middle of the metal plate in & out repeatedly, until the 4 metal solder points break (and do NOT try to brute-force push the plate out of the case). Another flaw is that the case's power switch comes with an incredibly short cable, which will not reach the Sam's power switch connector, so I had to solder-on a longer cable (IIRC I had a similar problem with the power LED cable on my old Morex case), which is wierd since the HD LED came with a very long cable.

The case has no reset switch (which is not a problem as you still have a power switch), but slightly more annoyingly it has no power light (although not a big loss). It does have a HD light though. Oh, the case's PSU also has no SATA power connectors, so I needed a Molex-to-SATA power adapter (I happened to have a really short one which was ideal).

Nearly forgot, the biggest "gotcha" about the Jetway is that it's DC-DC PSU board is in the way of my Sam's horizontal PSU connector. However, it is only held in by two screws, and I was able to put it on the other side of the case - only held in by one screw, but it is supported in the middle by another (unused) screw-hole post (which I covered with insulation tape to avoid any possibility of a short-circuit).

Oh, and the CD/DVD drive most definitely needs a right-angled SATA connector, since there is not much space between it & the HD. The HD itself connected fine using a straight SATA connector.


I think that covers all the vaguely difficult stuff. I used the shortest cables I could find, since there isn't much spare space in the case, and it already comes with some long cables. The lack of fans (and other moving parts) means I didn't need to worry about tying the cables down, although I will do so once I am sure I won't be modifying it any further. With a bit of care I was able to make the DVD drive's front facia flush with the front of the case.

Oh, and while the 2 front USB sockets work fine, because OS4.1 does not not support the Sam's J17 connector, the CF slot doesn't (yet) work. When it (hopefully) does work, I plan to use a CF adaptor for SD & MMC cards (which also supports SDHC!).

@root
You provide a nice picture of how the Sam fits inside the case, after moving the PSU board, but before the HD/CD drives cover it:
http://www.a1k.org/forum/attachment.p ... hmentid=9424&d=1226602784

In fact, I had been unable to find such a picture, so buying the Jetway was a bit risky for me!

@ChrisH

I had to laugh when I saw the Pot Noddles in the photo - you and your pot noddles!

Nice looking case.

Cheers,
Bean.

@bean
thanks :)

@ChrisH

My Sam is a plastic jiffy box, 26x19x8.5 cm. That box contains the 600 MHz Sam (non-flex), power supplies, space for two 2.5" drives (only one fitted) and an "external" USB CD/DVD drive. All it needs is an external plugpack (any voltage from 8 to 30 V) + the HIDs like mouse, keyboard, monitor.

I'll post some pics as soon as I finish the wide-range PSU. My CRO has died, so development has stopped.