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Dear All,

I am remodeling my home office and the compartment for the computer will have a depth of about 20 inches. Width and eight are not an issue, but depth is. 

My current case in an Antec 300 two, which has a depth of about 19 inches without the wiring coming out of the back. The case will therefore be too long. That is not an initial issue as I can leave the door off the new furniture, but I would like to transition my current components to a new ATX case with a depth between 16 and 17 inches; maybe 18 inches. 

I found that the Corsair Carbide 100R (either versions) has a depth of 430 mm (16.92 in). However, this case doesn't seem to have such good airflow. I have a Radeon R9 290 to keep cool in there, and I have my doubts that it would be suitable.

Another possible case would be the Fractal Design Core 3200, at 450 mm (17.72 in).

I would appreciate any recommendation for a case with a smaller depth. I am in no rush to buy it, and price is not really an issue if it is within normal cases price.

Looking forward to your recommendations!

M.

What form factor is your motherboard and how many peripherals (ie: drives and such) do you have?

Thanks for your question:

Motherboard is an ATX, and I have 2 HDD (3.5 in), a SSD (2.5 in) and a Blue ray disk reader, and a 850 Watt PSU from EVGA. Size of PSU is pretty standard as far as I can tell.
My videocard is an Asus R9 290 direct CU2 OC card which is 287 mm (11.3 in) long. So I need at least 3 spots for 3.5 in drives (assuming I place the SSD in one), and a 5.25 in spot.

M.

Would you consider upgrading to a more efficient Micro-ATX system at this time?

Hang on... sticking the computer in a compartment will be bad for airflow. Have you considered this? Like maybe providing some more info on this compartment as some cases have different preferred airflow especially if you're gonna be running an 850W PSU, so I assume a serious GPU.

^^

OP: Assuming air cooling not liquid with the radiator outside the "compartment", how will you get cool air in and hot air out?

If you have this figured out, great, if not you might want a GPU recommendation too, as I have my doubts that your Radeon R9 290 would be suitable

Dear All, thanks a lot for your questions and comments:

@JustAnEngineer:I would consider a micro-ATX board and system for a future system to be built early next year. I am waiting to see what Intel will treat us with next year. My current CPU is a i7 3770 that still serves me well. I do need a case recommendation to move currently owned ATX mobo and system to a new case.

@yogibbear: the compartment will be open at the front to let air in, and the back will have the sides open (both of them) to let the air out. There will be a door that I can close, but that will be for when the machines are off.

Re: the 850 W PSU: I needed a PSU to drive the R9 290 and the 850W was on sale and had great reviews. I could have gotten away with a 750W for sure!

@Topinio: See above. But I do like the idea of liquid cooling for my future system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNPT0zqS5rc

Even though the depth is OK, you could place this case on it's side with the clear side-panel facing you (and it's easy door handle).

Shallow depth, good airflow, and Front expansion bays for Optical media + HDD cages are not going to coexist in one case. You will need to make a sacrifice. Either live without the door and keep the case you got, or live with only the ssd and get something that has no front bays but 3-4 front facing intake fans. 

I would go with the former, as you already mentioned a possible new build in the near future. But if you choose the later then this would be my case recommendation: https://www.nzxt.com/products/s340-white

The Fortress FT03 turns a micro-ATX motherboard on end to produce a shallow (but tall) form factor.

Too many ATX cases have more space wasted for huge numbers of hard-drive bays.

Dear All,

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions!

I like the NZXT case, it is pretty stylish. I realize now that if I can do without an optical drive, there are a lot of other possibilities in terms of cases, and even more if I am willing to move to a micro ATX motherboard.

I have to say that all your suggestions are making me reconsider my current use of my computer a lot. I don't remember the last time I used the optical drive, and aside from one slot used by my GPU, none of the other expansion slots have seen any use.

If anyone has other suggestions, I would be happy to have them. 

However, based on the above, I think I will start looking at this little project from a different angle.

I'd recommend take a look through the SFF Station forums here as a start. There is definitely some good information provided by the fellow gerbils in there. 

PS13 is 400mm (15-3/4") deep.
Grandia GD09 is just 358mm (14.1") deep.

**Disclaimer,  I'm just looking for cases from brands that I trust/like that match your depth restriction here.  It's up to you to make sure they'll fit everything you need/want.
I didn't see you give a budget so I'm trying to stick close to the $70 cost of your existing case.  Plus or minus.
NZXT Source 220 for $57
NZXT S340 for $87
Phanteks Eclipse for $71
Corsiar 400C for $90
Corsair 400Q for $100

Dear All,

Thank you very much for the recommendations! Very helpful. I appreciate the kind help.

I will be looking and reading reviews on each in the next few days.

Best, M.

I have the previously mentioned Phanteks Eclipse and like it a lot. The only weird thing about it is that there is literally zero airflow through the bottom 3.5" drive cage. It doesn't worry me too much since my 3.5" drive is only for occasional backups, and it rarely gets spun-up, but for somebody who was doing file sharing or something else that caused constant HDD access, it might be a concern. There is a spot to mount a drive cage behind the intake fans, but you'd have to order the cage from Phanteks (who are quite prompt and friendly to deal with; I ordered a cover for the top vent on mine since I don't use it).