Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ITX, will it fit?

[silviustro]

<RANT>

 

I like ASUS, they have quite an awesome variety of products, but i think it was quite retarded to increase the elevation of the ASUS MAXIMUS VII IMPACT motherboard. It is an mITX board, which means it is meant to be installed in small, space efficient enclosures. And yes, having the caps on a separate board is A-OK from a engineering point of view, it actually makes a lot of sense, but... by god, at least make them the same height as the I/O ports....

 

</RANT>

 

Anyway... here's my question: I want to build inside the Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ITX case. Will the ASUS MAXIMUS VII IMPACT motherboard and a standard 240mm AIO water cooler like the Corsair Hydro Series H100i GTX  (if mounted on the top of the case) fit together??

 

There seems to be just enough clearance... but there is no way of knowing just by eyeballing it...

 

Alternatively, could you guys recommend any other decent mITX mobos for the build? i was thinking about the ASUS Z97I-PLUS motherboard, but i'm not that sure about it. I don't plan to OC a whole lot, I might not even OC at all.

 

Thanks for your answers.

[berniebennybernard]

I have a H97i-PLUS in the case w/ a Cooler Master 240M.

 

From I see inside my case and the height of the daughterboard in photos, it "should" fit. 

 

Now I won't question your choice of motherboard, but I do think that you will get by fine with the Z97i-PLUS for much less or even the H97i-PLUS.

 

I have a 4790K currently running at 4.5GHz @ 1.24V stable. It's a very mild overclock seeing as the 4790K can boost up to 4.2GHz across all cores, but it's still nice to have.

[Steve N. Mavronis]

The M7I should fit. It's one of the ones that I'm considering, although with an air cooler like the NH-U12S which I know fits based on web photos and review. Another motherboard I like is the ASUS Z97I-Plus and it sells for a lot less.

[silviustro]

Thanks guys! Well, i do like the looks of the ASUS Z97I-Plus, but i don't know how well it performs for gaming and light workstation use (by light i mean Adobe Suite and some simple 3D rendering) but i guess RAM and CPU performance are the key here.

 

I just don't want the mobo dying on me because i threw Battlefield 4 at it at 1080p (let's say, with an i7-4790K and a GTX970).

[Steve N. Mavronis]

Wiell the premium Z97 board the Maximus VII Impact will have better audio and 8 power phase VRM, the Z97I-Plus still has 6 power phases (others have just 4) and quite capable. It shouldn't hurt performance I would think. Maybe the M7I can overclock to the higher level compared to others but the Z97I-Plus can overclock too. I think it's the next best mITX board for Z97 Intel processors, at least in the ASUS lineup.

[berniebennybernard]

Thanks guys! Well, i do like the looks of the ASUS Z97I-Plus, but i don't know how well it performs for gaming and light workstation use (by light i mean Adobe Suite and some simple 3D rendering) but i guess RAM and CPU performance are the key here.

 

I just don't want the mobo dying on me because i threw Battlefield 4 at it at 1080p (let's say, with an i7-4790K and a GTX970).

 

A motherboard does not simply die. A Z97i-PLUS is more than enough for you. You can get the Maximus if you want, but your money is better spent elsewhere.

 

In addition, I wouldn't really recommend the Phanteks Evolv ITX. There isn't enough space under the video card for it to draw enough cold air, and the front intake fans are starved for air. I've already invested into this case, but looking back, I probably should've just made a mATX system in a N200.

[Steve N. Mavronis]

I don't know. How much space for airflow is under a GPU? I know there is that perforated panel but there seems to be 1/2 slot space above and not sure how much space is under between the panel and PSU. This looks like a lot of space for air:

 

 

Maybe that HDD cage impedes some airflow but that can be removed and if using a SSD and HDD elsewhere that would help or swapping the single 200mm fan for two 120mm intake fans.

[silviustro]

You gotta admit, the Phanteks is much better looking than the Cooler Master (Cooler Master Silencio 352 looks nice, no side window tho)

I guess that an ASUS Strix GTX970 would work well enough inside the Enthoo EVOLV iTX, as it uses the more efficient cooler.

 

It's strange how the Cooler Master cases are smaller and manage to fit a mATX motherboard... they are quite deep tho and are not optimized for water cooling and cable management...

[era506]

You gotta admit, the Phanteks is much better looking than the Cooler Master (Cooler Master Silencio 352 looks nice, no side window tho)

I guess that an ASUS Strix GTX970 would work well enough inside the Enthoo EVOLV iTX, as it uses the more efficient cooler.

 

It's strange how the Cooler Master cases are smaller and manage to fit a mATX motherboard... they are quite deep tho and are not optimized for water cooling and cable management...

 

Did you end up getting the M7I and paired it with the H100i GTX? I'm thinking of building a new compact gaming PC with the Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV ITX, the ASUS Maximus VII Impact, the Corsair H100i GTX and I already own an ASUS Strix GTX 970, so if you were able to fit all this OK, feedback would be welcome

[KronosOne]

This is my build log with the Evolv ITX.  I was able to fit a H110I GT as well as 980 into it with TONS of room.  The H110 took some modding to the brackets to support the removable rad bracket.

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/362035-build-log-project-currently-without-a-name/

 

There is no pictures of the full build, but I can get around to snapping some if there is enough interest once I finish some small upgrades / mods.

[era506]

This is my build log with the Evolv ITX. I was able to fit a H110I GT as well as 980 into it with TONS of room. The H110 took some modding to the brackets to support the removable rad bracket.

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/362035-build-log-project-currently-without-a-name/

There is no pictures of the full build, but I can get around to snapping some if there is enough interest once I finish some small upgrades / mods.

Awesome! I'll take a look, I would be most interested in the mods you had to do to fit the rad.

[Steve N. Mavronis]

This is my build log with the Evolv ITX. 

 

I was looking at your build log parts list. That's a lot of storage you got going on. Good job looks like a killer rig!

[KronosOne]

I was looking at your build log parts list. That's a lot of storage you got going on. Good job looks like a killer rig!

 

I have a bit of a love for tons of storage.  I had 9T of storage in my HTPC and had it mostly filled until I decided it was a great idea to RAID 0 them all together when I was building it and turned out that one of my drives was a lemon...  Now it's down to 6T + boot drive and mostly empty because I haven't gotten around to transfering all the spare drives I have for different content.