Workstation / Horizontal Case - Q300L?

[Lee989]

I have a particular space I'd to put my new build into on my desk which is height restricted (I could remodel my office setup, but that's not a preferred option). I was going for a mini-ITX build, but they cost more, require more research into cooling and quite frankly I'm probably too much of a build newb to do a decent job of it anyway. I then found the Coolermaster Q300L case is designed to sit horizontally, which would increase the footprint (which should be fine) but keeps the height down. Plus I can switch to a vertical config later on if I do change my office. But there's some concerns about restrictive cooling...

 

Question 1, the case comes with 1 rear fan. If I add some additional fans to it, will it keep things adequately cool? Any suggestions on which fans, number of them and where to put them welcome.

 

Question 2, will doing that just push the price up so high I may as well get a different case or go back to an ITX build plan?

 

Question 3, is there a better case that I can put horizontally? Or maybe I get something with front power buttons and glue some rubber feet on the side panel to lie it down on?

 

 

Hardware wise my current plan (pending review) is an R5 3600 with an RX 570/580/590. Stock coolers, no overclocking. I'd love some feedback from others with this case that aren't trying to overclock or do other fancy things.

[berberries]

1. had the q300l housing my old htpc with an i5-4590 and a gtx 960, lots of airflow and temps below 70 all the time. i just grabbed a cheap 120mm fan i had lying around and added it to the front of the case.

 

2. a cheap 120mm fan should cost you less than 10 bucks

 

3. not that i know of

[Lee989]

17 minutes ago, berberries said:

1. had the q300l housing my old htpc with an i5-4590 and a gtx 960, lots of airflow and temps below 70 all the time. i just grabbed a cheap 120mm fan i had lying around and added it to the front of the case

Amazing. Not as bad as I was imagining then. I get overwhelmed by the number of options so I'm glad it's not a dead end.

 

No parts lying around so I'll just add a half decent fan to the build plan

[TVwazhere]

1 hour ago, Lee989 said:

Question 1, the case comes with 1 rear fan. If I add some additional fans to it, will it keep things adequately cool? Any suggestions on which fans, number of them and where to put them welcome.

Absolutely. Used the case for a friends build and temps are really good for a gaming PC under a stress test

(The case mod probably wasn't necessary given it's only an R5 2600 and an RX 570, but I really wanted to so I did it)

1 hour ago, Lee989 said:

Question 2, will doing that just push the price up so high I may as well get a different case or go back to an ITX build plan?

Nope!

1 hour ago, Lee989 said:

Question 3, is there a better case that I can put horizontally? Or maybe I get something with front power buttons and glue some rubber feet on the side panel to lie it down on?

Personally for a horizontal case I'd look into silver stone HTPC cases. Depending on the level of build you need, the hey have some VERY short mATX cases like the ML03, or some taller and better suited cooling cases like the GD04, GD05 and GD06 (though they're sometimes expensive, I dont think they make many of these anymore hence the higher price) The GD09 is ATX compatible but is under $100

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/case/#m=63&t=11