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Mini ATX board too weird in ATX mid tower case?

DemonAtBudget
By DemonAtBudget
in Cases and Mods
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Go to solution Solved by mariushm,

An mATX motherboard is just less tall than an ATX motherboard.  It will just not reach the bottom of the case, there won't be pci-e or pci slots on the motherboard to make all openings in your case useful for something.

 

It may look a bit ugly with the usb 3 cables and front end audio cables being visible if you don't route them through the back of the motherboard some way, but other than that I think you'd be able to tolerate it and not even think about it.

 

It will look similar to this picture... but will actually look even better because you'll have that shroud over the power supply, across the whole bottom, so it will make the case look less empty. 

 

image.png.c99351fb4952a67d603776cda5c07afb.png

 

actually here found a cougar 330 atx case picture and resized motherboard cut from the picture above to show how it would look :

 

image.png.103575ecbbeae8753b8632a7875dfc2d.png

Posted

So I am at a budget and am buying the Gigabyte DS3H mATX mobo b550. Now thats all cool and fine, but for case, i've got a Cougar MX330 ATX case mid tower. I wonder if my mobo would look too weird in it? Or if it can even go in it

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2 minutes ago, DemonAtBudget said:

So I am at a budget and am buying the Gigabyte DS3H mATX mobo b550. Now thats all cool and fine, but for case, i've got a Cougar MX330 ATX case mid tower. I wonder if my mobo would look too weird in it? Or if it can even go in it

It can fit in the case, just doublecheck which standoffs you need and which you should remove.

In my opinion it looks kind of weird, as there is just three centimeters or so of dead space. Your videocard does partially cover that space, if your PC is places lower than your eyeline.

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1 hour ago, DemonAtBudget said:

I wonder if my mobo would look too weird in it?

An ATX case will fit an mATX case, as if it looks weird or not, i mean looks are subjective, i have an matx board in an atx case and it looks fine imo, some people may not like it. 

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ATX cases follow a standard such that they can fit all similar and smaller motherboard sizes. However, I'm on the side of getting a case that fits the motherboard, rather than getting a motherboard that fits the case (I just think small motherboards in big cases look dumb). There will not be any performance impact whatsoever just by having a small motherboard in a big case.

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I used to have an ATX motherboard in my ATX case, with my GPU in the 2nd and 3rd slots, until I was given a newer mATX (micro ATX) motherboard. It also has the GPU in slot 1 and 2, but still looks just fine in my ATX case. I would say, go for it! :)

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  • Solution

An mATX motherboard is just less tall than an ATX motherboard.  It will just not reach the bottom of the case, there won't be pci-e or pci slots on the motherboard to make all openings in your case useful for something.

 

It may look a bit ugly with the usb 3 cables and front end audio cables being visible if you don't route them through the back of the motherboard some way, but other than that I think you'd be able to tolerate it and not even think about it.

 

It will look similar to this picture... but will actually look even better because you'll have that shroud over the power supply, across the whole bottom, so it will make the case look less empty. 

 

image.png.c99351fb4952a67d603776cda5c07afb.png

 

actually here found a cougar 330 atx case picture and resized motherboard cut from the picture above to show how it would look :

 

image.png.103575ecbbeae8753b8632a7875dfc2d.png

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