Streacom fc8 alpha review

Surely many times you have been tempted to assemble an HTPC equipment… because the Streacom FC8 Alpha is a chassis that is mainly aimed at that area of use by allowing the construction of a team with 100% passive cooling for completely silent operation and that you can enjoy like never before with your digital entertainment.

If what you are looking for is a compact device, with excellent performance and passive operation. Wanting more? Don't miss our review!

First of all, we thank Streacom for the trust placed in giving us the product for analysis:

Streacom FC8 Alpha: technical characteristics

Unboxing and description

The Streacom FC8 Alpha chassis comes to us in a cardboard box in which the manufacturer has included a handle for a much more comfortable grip and to facilitate its transport, all a detail for the user. As for the box, it has a very clean design in which we only find the brand logo and product model, no specifications or images.

We open the box and first of all we find the instruction manual and below this a compartment containing the accessory set.

We remove both and finally we find the chassis wrapped in a kind of fabric as protection to avoid any deterioration before reaching the hands of the end user. On the sides we find a padding to prevent it from moving during transport, all a detail of the care that the manufacturer puts in the presentation of the product.

We are already focusing on the Streacom FC8 Alpha and we see a box with a Mini ITX format and a high quality aluminum construction to offer a very elegant appearance and above all a superior durability, it also allows a much lighter weight than a steel construction.

About its design we can say that in general it is quite minimalist with a very clean appearance and a rounded finish. On the front is a control panel in which we appreciate the power button and lights, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, the bay for an optical drive and a reflective window to use an infrared control knob and its respective sensor.

In the back of the box we see the space for the installation of the plate that accompanies the motherboard and we also appreciate a PCI slot to install an expansion card, for example one of WiFi + Bluetooth if our motherboard does not include these connections. There's no shortage of space for power supply installation either, this chassis supports Nano PSUs (not included).

We have just seen the aesthetics of the chassis with the presence of four rubber coated aluminum legs to prevent slipping.

Streacom FC8 Alpha interior

Once the exterior is seen, it is time to look at the entrails of the Streacom FC8 Alpha, for which we only need to remove four small screws, two on the right side and the other two on the bottom. Once the four screws have been removed, it is as easy as removing the main cover that consists of the left side and the top.

The first thing we see is a tray in which we will install both the optical drive and the hard drives, a maximum of 2 x 2.5 ″ + 2 x 3.5 ″ or 5 x 2.5 ″ or 3 x 2.5 ″ + 1 x 3.5. The tray can be removed very easily since we only need to remove four screws located in its corners.

Once the tray is removed we can easily access the bottom of the box where we can install the motherboard and where we find the switch connectors, the power lights and the two USB 3.0 ports. The installation of the motherboard is very simple thanks to the four pre-installed threads to which we will fix it.

This chassis has totally passive cooling, which is why the entire surface has to be used for heat dissipation. For this purpose, we see 23 aluminum fins on the right side with the aim of increasing the heat exchange surface.

The CPU cooling system consists of four copper heatpipes, three pieces of aluminum that serve to join the heatpipes, another larger piece of aluminum that serves as the base and finally two more pieces that are the supports for Intel processors and AMD. The manufacturer provides us with two thermal paste syringes for the installation of the refrigeration system, the ideal will be to use it in the union of all the components that make it up to maximize heat transfer.

Experience and assembly with Nano160 FanLESS

The chosen power supply is the Streacom Nano160 Fanless 160W (maximum peak) with measurements of 54 x 26 x 18 mm. It incorporates an ATX cable, another 4-pin EPS, two SATA and one IDE power. It has a maximum length of 400 mm. Do I need to put in a Pico power supply? Yes, since we do not have space to install power supplies with ATX or SFX format.

Are there more powerful PICO power supplies? Steacom itself recently introduced a 240W external ( ZF240 Fanless 240 ZeroFlex ) that looks great on most of its cases.

In the upper tray (the black one) it allows us to install 2.5 ″ or SSD disks , two 3.5 ″ disks and a SLIM DVD burner. The truth is that it is great, that such a small box gives us so many storage options.

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As we have already mentioned, the refrigeration is passive and its installation is super simple. Contact the 4 copper heatpipes with the copper base with the processor. In our tests we have used an i5-6600K. Results? We will see them in the next section of the analysis. But we remind you that it does not incorporate fans and the chassis helps to cool the processor and its integrated graphics card (IGP).

We would have loved if it incorporated a double SLOT to install a low consumption graphics card, to fill that gap for gamers who are looking for the best aesthetics.

Temperatures

Regarding its performance we have seen that at rest we have obtained temperatures of 31 ºC and at full performance 62 ºC. Although they are quite good we do not recommend you to manually overclock, it is also true that we have used a high-end processor (i5 6600k). Regarding its consumption with a Streacom Nano160 Fanless 160W power supply, it has been 45 W at idle and 80 W at maximum performance (note that it does not have a dedicated graphics card.

Final words and conclusion about Streacom FC8 Alpha

The Streacom FC8 Alpha fulfills everything a high-end HTPC case can be asked for: design, exquisite construction materials, front connectivity, 100% passive cooling and the possibility of installing an SSD plus two 3.5 ″ hard drives.. It also allows us to connect a Blu-Ray SLIM unit in case we want to watch movies in this format.

We have installed an ITX Z170 motherboard, an i5-6600k processor, 16GB DDR4, and a 480GB SSD. The results have been more than satisfactory, taking into account that it is a 100% passive case and that it meets its objective: zero loudness.

It is not a cheap box for its great construction materials and its fabulous design, which has nothing to envy Apple. Currently we can find them in online stores for a price of approximately 170 euros.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ DESIGN.	- PRICE MAY BE SOMETHING HIGH, BUT THE QUALITY IS PAID.
+ CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS.	- TO MOUNT THE HEATSINK YOU MUST HAVE A LOT OF PATIENCE.
+ PASSIVE REFRIGERATION.
+ CAPABILITY TO INSTALL SSD, MECHANICAL HDD AND DVD SLIM DISCS.
+ WE CAN INSTALL A PSU PEAK SOURCE OR AN EXTERNAL POWER SUPPLY.