What are some good small cases?

[ImBleu]

I would go M-ITX with a Fractal Design Core 500. It'll support an Optical Bay, 2 HDDS + 3SSDs, a 240mm Watercooler, a 12in GPU and an MITX board with enough space for cablemanagement. You also get onboard WIFI/Bluetooth on most M-ITX motherboards, a slot for a single GPU and an M.2 SSD slot as well.

 

 

[Bleedingyamato]

12 hours ago, ThomasD said:

http://www.amazon.com/Fractal-Design-FD-CA-ARC-MINI-R2-BL-W-MicroATX-Computer/dp/B00NEVKBDI?ie=UTF8&keywords=fractal%20design%20arc%20mini%20r2&qid=1464112731&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

 

But I'd look elsewhere for a better price.

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/fractal-design-case-fdcaarcminir2blw

It looks like Newegg has it sold directly by them so I could get it there if I decided on it.  

[Bleedingyamato]

6 hours ago, legacy99 said:

Generally you cant go wrong with any Corsair cases. When I was building my wife's computer I knew I was going for mATX so I looked for a good case with good options for cable management as well as support for full length graphics cards. This case can also support dual 240mm radiators with 1 top mounted and 1 front case mounted. For an mATX this is a pretty sweet case for the features you get and can do with it. Also, I have a Hyper 212 evo in it so plenty of space for larger heatsinks Here is a view of the inside of her finished case minus graphics card since the GTX 560ti I was putting in is dead now. I did put my GTX 760 in there without any issues which is 9.5" in length to test it to make sure it wasn't the PCI slot that was bad. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130932

 

There certainly looks like there's plenty of room inside.  I'm curious is there enough room in front of the PSU?  It doesn't look like there's much room between the PSU and the HDD cage.  

 

 

[Skiiwee29]

Plenty of room. You also have about a 4 or 5" gap behind the HDD cage to hit that cable management bay. I will try and get some pictures of it tomorrow with a ruler if I have one to give you an idea. 

[Bleedingyamato]

6 hours ago, ThatCoolBlueKidd said:

I would go M-ITX with a Fractal Design Core 500. It'll support an Optical Bay, 2 HDDS + 3SSDs, a 240mm Watercooler, a 12in GPU and an MITX board with enough space for cablemanagement. You also get onboard WIFI/Bluetooth on most M-ITX motherboards, a slot for a single GPU and an M.2 SSD slot as well.

 

 

I think mini itx might be smaller than I want to use for this build but I'll definitely keep that case in mind.  I would like to do an itx build eventually and I think I might like to use a more cube shaped case like that Core 500.  

[WoodenMarker]

On 5/24/2016 at 0:34 AM, Bleedingyamato said:

I like my Phantom 240 but I suspect it's too big for my friend's taste

Just ask?

[Bleedingyamato]

9 hours ago, legacy99 said:

Plenty of room. You also have about a 4 or 5" gap behind the HDD cage to hit that cable management bay. I will try and get some pictures of it tomorrow with a ruler if I have one to give you an idea. 

Sounds good.  Thank you for the pictures.  It's very helpful to be able to see how it looks with parts inside instead of an empty case like you'd see on an Amazon item page.  

[Bleedingyamato]

1 hour ago, WoodenMarker said:

Just ask?

Sorry.  I should've phrased my previous post better.  I meant to say I've talked to my friend about my Phantom 240 and they said it was larger than they'd prefer currently.  From my explaining the performance and price benefits of gaming on a desktop my friend understands that a desktop is preferable in those ways vs. a laptop.  Though they don't want the desktop to be larger than it has to be since there's their size preference and space concerns to worry about.

 

Eventually I'd like to move them up to a full ATX mid tower build but for now a smaller case is a better choice.  

[WoodenMarker]

7 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Sorry.  I should've phrased my previous post better.  I meant to say I've talked to my friend about my Phantom 240 and they said it was larger than they'd prefer currently.  From my explaining the performance and price benefits of gaming on a desktop my friend understands that a desktop is preferable in those ways vs. a laptop.  Though they don't want the desktop to be larger than it has to be since there's their size preference and space concerns to worry about.

 

Eventually I'd like to move them up to a full ATX mid tower build but for now a smaller case is a better choice.  

Have you asked your friend for a more specific preferred size?

[Bleedingyamato]

2 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

Have you asked your friend for a more specific preferred size?

I own the Rosewill case in the link I'd shown and the phantom 240 so my friend has seen both along with my telling them a little about my experience working with each case.  Based on that along with my explaining the issues with such a small case as that Rosewill my friend agreed that something larger than the Rosewill would be acceptable but voiced a preference for something smaller than my Phantom 240 if possible.  They want to conserve space but understand that too cramped of a case won't make sure to have enough room for things they want such as a full length GPU.  

 

If you mean specific as in inches for length, width, and height no I haven't asked that but I don't get the impression the space issue is big enough that I need to be that precise.  Mostly it's just a preference for something relatively compact compared to my 240.  

 

So far I'm thinking either the Corsair 88R or the Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 seem to be the top choices.  I showed links for both to my friend and they said both looked good to them.

[Skiiwee29]

7 hours ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Sounds good.  Thank you for the pictures.  It's very helpful to be able to see how it looks with parts inside instead of an empty case like you'd see on an Amazon item page.  

Here are the pictures.