Streacom FC8 EVO Review

👤by David Mitchelson Comments 📅28-07-14
Interior & Install


The compact interior of FC8 EVO


In order to obtain access to the internals of FC8 EVO, a single panel must be detached. After removing this we can appreciate just how compact this case really is.

Due to the dimensions, FC8 EVO can only accommodate the Mini-ITX form factor and will also have limitations for the CPU cooler and graphics card – if you choose to install one. These particular aspect we’ll be covering over the page.


Bundled cooling kit incompatible with our system


Due to the fact that the heatsink on our ZOTAC ZOTAC E350-ITX WiFi motherboard covers two chips, the optional cooling kit that Streacom provide is unfortunately surplus to requirements.

As you can see from the above picture, the mounting plates are unsuitable for our motherboard.


Installation complete


Once the motherboard is installed within FC8 EVO there is actually quite a comfortable amount of space around the board and therefore it’s easy to arrange the few cables that are found within the case.

Installing kit inside this chassis is simple and easy.


Bracket for HDD and optical drive installation



HDD bracket installed over system


To install a hard drive, there is a bracket provided which can house a 2.5” drive and the slime-line optical drive. Four screws just need to be attached on the underside and then the bracket can be placed over the system components.


Streacom NanoPSU is used to power the system


The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice there is no allocation for mounting a power supply and that’s because Streacom has designed FC8 EVO to use their NanoPSU or PicoPSU (NanoPSU is a rebranded PicoPSU). This power supply isn’t provided with FC8 EVO, which is somewhat of a unwise move because this is an obligatory piece of kit for this case.

Nevertheless, this power supply is a nifty unit which can deliver up to 150W and provide power for 24-pin ATX, EPS/CPU power, SATA, Molex. Furthermore, because of the nature of the AC adapter there are no cooling fans to cause unwanted noise – so if you install an SSD, passive CPU cooling with the use of integrated graphics the system will be absolutely silent.

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