Installation and Performance

When I started the build in the 901 I knew it wouldn’t be a quick build, building Mini-ITX builds are always a challenge. Even so In Windid their best to make the installation easy with the easy to use thumbscrews on the drive bays as well as the fan tray.

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I started by installing our MSI ITX Gaming motherboard, because the 901 only supports Mini-ITX motherboards I didn’t have to worry at all about the standoffs. I did however run into an issue when trying to install the rear I/O panel. The way the case is designed doesn’t allow for the I/O panel to be installed at all. This was a little odd and I really wish there was a note about it in the instructions. After looking at a few builds online I was able to confirm that this was an issue and move on though.

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Surprisingly our GTX 780 didn’t have any clearance issues due to its length. In fact, there was a little more room left should I need it. This amount of space isn’t normally found in Mini-ITX builds.

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Installing the power supply wasn’t too bad of an installation with it being a modular power supply. Routing all of the cables however did take up most of my time. Not only did I want the build to match the overall clean look that In Win worked so hard on. However, having to worry about people seeing your wiring from both the front and the back means you can’t just shove wires behind the motherboard tray without giving it some thought. Plugging in the modular cables was really tight, a little help from my wife with her smaller hands made a big difference in getting them hooked up. As for routing the cables, there is just one single hole on the back that you can route cables up and through, getting the 24 pin through this hole would have been impossible had I done it last. Even running the 8 pin CPU power near being finished was a challenge with the cable split into two four pin connections.

The hard drive and SSD installed in their trays easily but pushing them into the hot swap connection required a little more force than I expected. The only other issue I ran into with the hard drive bays was the backplane wiring. The left bay’s wires, when directly to the right like they want too, ended up being too thick with the side panel on. I had to work with the wiring a little to get them to route around without putting too much strain on the connection. 

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In the end all of the work wiring everything was well worth it. The 901 looks amazing when booted up, especially with the GTX Geforce logo glowing through the tinted window. Even with an i7-4770K and a GTX 780 installed the single 120mm Noctua fan that I installed was more than enough to keep things running cool enough. Don’t get me wrong, a larger build would run cooler but for a Mini-ITX build this ran well. Part of that is due to the clean wiring job that I put together. I can’t stress enough how important clean wiring is on any build, especially a small form factor build. To put the build to the test I took it out to a weekend LAN and gamed all weekend without any performance issues.

I did have a few comments on the case after the LAN though. First, I used the top hole on the back of the case as a way to carry it around. The 4mm aluminum design going all the way around the case gave this hole great support for carrying the rig. With that though the edge of the metal was a little sharp when holding it for an extended period of time, especially with the weight of the fully built rig. That is my second complaint, the tempered glass side panels do add to the overall weight of the 901. When you include a hard drive, large video card, and power supply that weight jumps up considerably. The last issue I ran into was with the thumb screws holding on the glass side panels. When you get close to tightening them down the back side of the thumb screws scrap on the glass side panel. I wish the thumb screws had a rubber or felt backing to prevent this. I seriously considered putting liquid electrical tape on the back of mine to avoid the issue in the future.

 

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #34656 21 Apr 2014 11:30
Some of you might have seen it out at FortLAN. Here is my review of the In Win 901. Hope you all had a good weekend
Arxon's Avatar
Arxon replied the topic: #34657 21 Apr 2014 23:51
I might pick one up to replace the storm trooper.

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