Mini ITX cases

[roblesaturcamilo]

Hi everybody! 

I'm new at linustechtips.com, and i would like to share mi toughts and experience about mini itx cases here.

 

About 6 months ago i built my first mini itx rig.

 

After watching a lot of reviews and build videos from linus, the one that called my attention was the "The MOST Compact Gaming PC". So after that, i decided that my rig case would be the Sugo SG13, like the one that linus used.

 

I'm writing from it right now,

I've managed to fit (after a lot of internal modding) a EVGA Kingpin 980 Ti and even a blu-ray reader\writer !

 

Funny is that the case is made for 10,5 inches max GPU (Kingpin 980 Ti is 11 inches) and also it doesn't have any factory optical slot  

 

I love my rig, but i got tired of the plain looking of it, even after i installed some cool led lights effects on it, so i decided to move to a new case!

 

My main goal is to have the smallest mini itx case that can fit a FULL SIZE GPU and a ATX PSU.

So in my searching of a new case i found some possible cases that could work for me:

 

1. The Colugo case from Lian-Li $125

 

It looks... Just ok... But is SFX PSU (i can live with that) and it won't support more than 7.5 inches GPU (unacceptable)

 

2. Corsair 380t  From $120 and up

 

Perfect, beautiful ! BUT... is just... bulky...

 

3. Carbide 240  $90

 

Same as the Corsair 380t, it's perfect but not tiny...

 

4. Dan A4-SFX around $230... WTF???

 

This is it! That's what i've looking for!!! Full size GPU, Tiny as hell, and... and... stylish? Whatever, i like it! Finally OMG

but... (there is ALWAYS a "but") is not out yet, is SFX PSU (again, i can live with that) and it will be very expensive...

 

5. ehmm... I don't know...

...

...

...

Any advice???

[Jacona]

Phantek Enthoo Evolv ITX? 

[razor767]

Node 304

[igno]

I think the Carbide 240 is nice, very clean looking and sidepanel for hardware appreciation.

[SteveGrabowski0]

The NCase M1 is also pretty awesome, though not as small as the DAN A4-SFX. But still really small.

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NCASE/M1/

 

[Noyu]

Cougar QBX is like a cheaper NCASE M1.

 

http://cougargaming.com/products/cases/qbx/

[ShaithEatery]

Can I ask why you particularly want to use an ATX power supply instead of an SFX?  In a Mini-ITX case you're most likely not going to be able to put more than 1 GPU in there and most likely not putting more than, at most, 1 mechanical hard drive if not completely SSD which doesn't take much power to run at all, so the current options of SFX power supplies seem like more than enough and have gotten much better with time.

 

I am currently using the Silverstone FTZ01 case which can fit a full sized GPU and SFX-L power supply, which is the new-ish format of PSU Silverstone came out which is a bit deeper than a standard SFX power supply so that it can fit a 120mm fan for cooling and therefore is much quieter than standard SFX power supplies.  The FTZ01 may have a larger surface area as it's a completely horizontal layout, but I'd imagine it would fit better in a backpack compared to the cube-style cases if your intention is to take it to Lan parties and such.  And of course you can set it vertically if it's going to be mainly sitting on a desk where you don't want it to take up much room.  I also really like the looks of it on the outside personally.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Ncase m1

/thread

[roblesaturcamilo]

To 

 

Can I ask why you particularly want to use an ATX power supply instead of an SFX?  In a Mini-ITX case you're most likely not going to be able to put more than 1 GPU in there and most likely not putting more than, at most, 1 mechanical hard drive if not completely SSD which doesn't take much power to run at all, so the current options of SFX power supplies seem like more than enough and have gotten much better with time.

 

I am currently using the Silverstone FTZ01 case which can fit a full sized GPU and SFX-L power supply, which is the new-ish format of PSU Silverstone came out which is a bit deeper than a standard SFX power supply so that it can fit a 120mm fan for cooling and therefore is much quieter than standard SFX power supplies.  The FTZ01 may have a larger surface area as it's a completely horizontal layout, but I'd imagine it would fit better in a backpack compared to the cube-style cases if your intention is to take it to Lan parties and such.  And of course you can set it vertically if it's going to be mainly sitting on a desk where you don't want it to take up much room.  I also really like the looks of it on the outside personally.

I would like to use ATX PSU because is the one that i have right now, is the SilverStone Strider Gold S Series ST75F-GS, which is 140mm depth, full modular and it uses 120mm fan...

 

Also i'm not sure if a SFX PSU can power a EVGA 980 TI KINGPIN clocked at 1430mhz... EVGA says that the TDP of it is 300W... But you know, i wouldn't like to push a PSU to the limits with a power hungry graphics card and a Skylake 6700k, even if i'm just using a single SSD and no liquid cooling at all...

 

Probably i could be mistaken and a 500W PSU should be enough for that, like the SilverStone SFX Series SX500-LG...

[Steve N. Mavronis]

Don't forget about the CPU cooler height limit. Not just for a CPU cooler but for GPU card height as well. Cards like the EVGA 980 Ti KIngpin are large height-wise as well. The Phanteks Evolv ITX has a CPU/GPU height of 200mm and GPU length of 330mm.

 

The EVGA 980 Ti Kingpin is 150.88mm high and 279.4mm long.