Case Assistance

[dudeskee1325]

At the moment, I am looking for a case that will support a full ATX motherboard BUT is no taller (height) than 17 inches. I have a drawer/desk setup and my current case barely fits in one of the drawers. I have looked but there isn't much out there in that realm but I thought you guys might have some suggestions. Any help is appreciated!

[Hashiba]

what about an S340 flipped to the side?

[VicciVicVic]

I seriously suggest not putting your case in a drawer, unless by drawer you mean cubby. It would seriously screw up your temps as it can't breath fresh air or exhaust properly. It's like building your pc in a cardboard box and adding two small holes for every fan to breathe through.

[dudeskee1325]

Air flow is not an issue, that thought entered my mind first and I took care of it. 

 

Inches, centimeters, whatever. I'm pretty sure doing a conversion isn't hard if you're already online hahaha. 

 

Hashiba, I'll check that case out!

 

The dimensions of the space (BTW I modded a drawer set from Ikea and kinda stole the idea of turning one of their desk sets into pc storage) are 16 inches high (406mm) x 12 inches wide (304mm) x 20.5 inches deep (520mm). 

 

After some more searching, I think the corsair air 540 might be a winner but I'm hoping you all might have a better suggestion. Lian Li has some contenders but they're all so old that they're almost impossible to find. 

[dudeskee1325]

Are there any other atx cube cases? Newegg shows like 7 but there have to be more

[Christophe Corazza]

10 hours ago, dudeskee1325 said:

Air flow is not an issue, that thought entered my mind first and I took care of it. 

 

Air flow restriction is really something to consider when working in such confined spaces. If I may ask, what solution have you used to circumvent this problem? Since there are a few true and tested methods out there though.

[Christophe Corazza]

15 hours ago, James Evens said:

first off you should read and understand this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Units

second: 17 inch are 43cm.

third: what are the limits in the other dimensions? for example a Corsair air 740 is 42.6 cm in height but 510 cm in depth.

 

Are you really that triggered when seeing non-SI units? I’m really wondering though... how do you manage to keep your cool when browsing the internet? ;-)

[dudeskee1325]

1 hour ago, Christophe Corazza said:

Air flow restriction is really something to consider when working in such confined spaces. If I may ask, what solution have you used to circumvent this problem? Since there are a few true and tested methods out there though.

I cut a hole in the back of the drawer unit and mounted three 140mm fans after screwing them into a space piece of thin hobby wood I had. They pull air in through the back and my system is set up to intake air from the back and exhaust in through the front (initially to minimize dust buildup on the front of my case). I also left off a few of the front drawer pieces. I only have three of the five drawers in the unit, since that's all that would fit after sitting my computer in the bottom most drawer. Much later on down the road, I plan to build the case into the drawer completely (not unlike Linus and the gang).  

 

I took the time to think of a cooling solution but I was waaaaaaaay too confident in my size estimates and didn't take into account my case's feet (removed) and the slight lift it gets from being in the drawer. And yes, I do want to keep the drawer for my computer to sit in because I like the idea of being able to access the back of the case easily for changing cables or maintenance. I'd say there's about 2-3 cm clearance between the top of my computer and the bottom of the drawer above it, making it precarious to open that drawer. 

[dudeskee1325]

Looks like I'll be going with the anidees AI-07BW case since its one of two cases that fit everything. 

[Christophe Corazza]

1 hour ago, dudeskee1325 said:

Looks like I'll be going with the anidees AI-07BW case since its one of two cases that fit everything. 

 

Not a bad choice. That's indeed a decent case with ample mounting spots for fans.

 

On 7-6-2018 at 4:14 AM, dudeskee1325 said:

only have three of the five drawers in the unit, since that's all that would fit after sitting my computer in the bottom most drawer. Much later on down the road, I plan to build the case into the drawer completely (not unlike Linus and the gang).

.

The case has 4 blue LED fans included, but you are planning to cover them (later on down the line)?

[dudeskee1325]

15 hours ago, Christophe Corazza said:

The case has 4 blue LED fans included, but you are planning to cover them (later on down the line)?

My plan is to make one solid acrylic (with some breathing holes) cover to create a single panel that goes from the bottom most drawer to the one above the case. This would be an attempt to prevent junk from accidentally getting in/on the case since it'll be so low to the ground. 

 

This will likely be the last case I buy for a while since it can fit so much and has ample room for watercooling components which I plan to do in a few years after I upgrade to all new hardware. 

[Christophe Corazza]

5 minutes ago, James Evens said:

nano

 

'nano' is a legit SI prefix. It's 10^-9 of the base unit. 

[Christophe Corazza]

7 minutes ago, James Evens said:

what would be the imperial prefix?

 

Prefixes are not that commonly used for imperial or US units. However, you sometimes see for example MeV (megaelectronvolt), kip (kilopound), mbarn (millibarn) etc.

[dudeskee1325]

I honestly prefer metric, its just so easy to default to imperial. At any rate, anyone have any experience building in one of these two-chambered cases? Also, 120 or 200 mm case fans? I want to upgrade the fans eventually for some nice and quiet ones so I figure I can buy a fan here and there until I have as many as I need. 

[IAnthonyFX]

2 hours ago, dudeskee1325 said:

I honestly prefer metric, its just so easy to default to imperial. At any rate, anyone have any experience building in one of these two-chambered cases? Also, 120 or 200 mm case fans? I want to upgrade the fans eventually for some nice and quiet ones so I figure I can buy a fan here and there until I have as many as I need. 

buy once, cry once

[Christophe Corazza]

3 hours ago, dudeskee1325 said:

anyone have any experience building in one of these two-chambered cases?

 

Which two cases? The Anidees AI-07BW and the ???

 

3 hours ago, dudeskee1325 said:

Also, 120 or 200 mm case fans? I want to upgrade the fans eventually for some nice and quiet ones so I figure I can buy a fan here and there until I have as many as I need. 

 

Basically, all else being equal, for the SAME AIRFLOW a 200 can be run at lower rpms than the 120 so reducing noise. 

Are you planning on swapping the 4 blue LED fans of the Anidees AI-07BW?

[dudeskee1325]

14 hours ago, IAnthonyFX said:

buy once, cry once

Hahaha good point. I usually buy slowly in case I make a change to plans, that way I don't have parts I won't use. 

 

12 hours ago, Christophe Corazza said:

Which two cases? The Anidees AI-07BW and the ???

Sorry, the Anidees. But advice for building in/using any two-chambered cases would be nice. 

 

Quieter would be nicer, so maybe I'll go 200 mm on the fans. I've read that the fans the Anidees case comes with have a shorter than usual life span so I'll pull em when they start to crap out. I doubt I'll be able to get quiet AND lighted case fans so I'll probably rig up some kind of led strip lighting when I finally replace the fans.  

[Christophe Corazza]

1 minute ago, dudeskee1325 said:

I doubt I'll be able to get quiet AND lighted case fans

 

Depends on your definition of ‘quiet’ :-D

[dudeskee1325]

2 hours ago, Christophe Corazza said:

Depends on your definition of ‘quiet’ :-D

Fair enough. But I think I an led strip with different lighting options and remote control would be nice. Plus I only have like 3 more fan controller plugs available!

 

Another question: is having multiple fan controllers a thing? Can I daisy chain two fan controllers?