Streacom FC8 EVO Series Fanless Home Theatre Aluminium Chassis

The Streacom FC8 EVO is an updated model of the FC8. It now offers USB3.0, direct touch heatpipes and improved compatibility.

With its stylish understated looks, the STREACOM FC8 EVO is a case that would complement the audio visual experience in any home. Thanks to its unique, specially designed fanless CPU cooling system, the STREACOM FC8 EVO offers silent fanless cooling. The finely sandblasted aluminium cabinet is beautifully finished and will look at home in any audio visual system or home theatre.

The chassis is supplied with a fanless CPU cooler that is designed to passively cool CPU’s that have a Thermal Design Power (TDP) of 95W or lower. The chassis can do this with the use of heatpipes that attach to the CPU cooler and then onto either side of the chassis which features large aluminium heatsinks that naturally dissipate the heat - providing silent cooling of the CPU!

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 FC8 EVO is only compatible with 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.

In our Sentinel Fanless PC (which is based on this case) we use the Gigabyte GA-H97N-WIFI LGA1150 Motherboard. However, because of the close proximity of the CPU socket to the side of the motherboard, we also have use the Streacom ST-MH1 Short Heatpipes as those supplied with the case are too long. The FC8 case is supplied with ST-SH2 Standard Length Heatpipes by default.

If there are any partial obstructions in the path of the heatpipes then it is possible to use only two heatpipes for 65w (or lower) processors.

Note: Although the overall cooling ability of the case allows the use of 95W processors we would strongly advise using a processor with a TDP of 65W or lower to avoid using more power than a nano / pico PSU can provide. This means that the Intel i5/i7 CPU with either a S (65W) or a T (45W) suffix would be ideal for a socket 1155 motherboard.

Power Supply - We recommend using a fanless nanoPSU which can provide up to 150W of power. This is more than enough to power a CPU that has a TDP of around 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.

Optical Drive - The FC8 EVO 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, whether you require a Blu-Ray or a DVD player.

Remote Control - If you are looking to take control of the PC with the use of a remote control, then look no further than Streacom’s solution. It is supplied with a PCB that fits neatly behind a small circular window in the FC8. This means there are no unsightly boxes or wires running out from ports and it is fully compatible with Windows Media Center.

Thermal Paste - These cases are supplied with thermal paste.

FC8 Image Gallery