Streacom FC5 EVO Full Aluminium Low Profile Fanless Chassis

The shot-blasted FC5-EVO makes its presence known in the HTPC market with its low profile look, fanless cooling and 100% aluminium construction! Looking for a new HTPC case? You just might have found it!

PLEASE NOTE: The only difference between the FC5OD and the FC5WS chassis is that the FC5OD has a slot for a slot-loading optical drive, where the FC5WS does not.

Introducing Streacom’s updated version of the FC5, the new and improved FC5 EVO! It boasts 100% fanless cooling of CPUs with a TDP of up to 65 watts and is constructed solely of aluminium. It has a super low profile look with a slot-loading optical drive bay slot and is able to accommodate a range of different hard drives.

Streacom FC5WS Silver

Many home theatre chassis are finished with the brushed aluminium effect, but the FC5 is not like other home theatre chassis. Streacom have finished the FC5 in a very fine shot-blasted finish which gives an elegant pitted look to the aluminium rather than a lined look which brushing produces. It is all down to personal preference as to which looks better but one advantage that a shot blasted finish has over a brushed finish is that it does not leave visible fingerprints behind as brushed aluminium finishes often does.

Recommended Components

Streacom have a comprehensive build guide that provides general tips and suggestions on what should be considered when building in a Streacom case and how to achieve the best results.

Motherboard and CPU - The FC5 EVO is compatible with Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards. Depending which motherboard you opt for will determine which CPU to use. The case is capable of cooling virtually all CPUs that have a TDP of 95W or lower.

One important point to note when selecting a motherboard is that the board must not have the 24-pin ATX connector (shown in red in the image below or any tall heatsinks) located under the heatpipes otherwise the nano / pico PSU adapter will obstruct the them and it will prevent the CPU block from being fitted.

Note: Although it is stated that the overall cooling ability of the case is 95w we strongly advise using a processor with a TDP of 65W or lower to avoid using too much power than the Nano-PSU can provide. We have a selection of Intel LGA1155 CPUs available that produce 65W or lower which can be found here.

Power Supply - We recommend using a fanless Nano PSU which can provide up to 150W of power. This is more than enough to power a CPU that has a TDP of 65W along with suitable peripherals. It is recommended not to overload the number of peripherals; two HDDs (or one SSD and one HDD), one optical drive, a TV tuner and obviously a motherboard should not be a problem for this miniature PSU.

Alternatively, Streacom now has available a 240W Internal fanless PSU, the ST-ZF240. That extra 90W (compared to the Nano-PSU) will allow for even more drives to be connected to the system or you may want to opt for a CPU that has a maximum TDP of 95W for greater performance. The ZF240 works best when installed into the FC5 chassis.

Optical Drive - The FC5 uses a new universal eject mechanism so it will work with any slot loading laptop drive regardless of where the eject button is located on the front of the drive. Streacom have already sourced the perfect drives for these cases, take a look at the available drives here. Obviously the FC5WS does not support an optical drive.

Remote Control - If you wish to take control of the PC with the use of a remote control, then look no further than the Streacom Flirc IR receiver. It is designed to fit all Streacom chassis and will work with virtually any remote control. If you don’t have a remote then you may want to consider this.

Thermal Paste - These cases are supplied with thermal paste.

SSD/Hard Disk Drives - The FC5 EVO cases can house up to five drives depending on which size motherboard is fitted and whether 2.5 drives (shown below in pink), 3.5 drives (shown in blue) or a combination of the two sizes are being used. Overlapping areas in the diagram below indicate that either a 3.5 or 2.5 drive can be installed but not both at the same time. Drives marked ITX ONLY can only be used when a Mini-ITX board is fitted rather than a Micro-ATX motherboard, (which is larger). See the specifications table at the bottom of the page for summarised details.

FC5 Image Gallery

FC5OD EVO - Internal View

FC5 EVO - Rear View

FC5 EVO - Side View