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JustAnEngineer
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Just how big is that case?

Fri Sep 11, 2015 8:38 pm

I calculated the footprints and volumes of some cases that pop up frequently in SBA forum threads.

Mini-ITX
Silverstone Raven RVZ01 Mini-ITX: 15.04" wide (or tall) x 13.78" deep x 4.13" tall (or wide)
Footprint: 207 in² (or 57 in²), Volume: 857 in³ (14 L)

Silverstone Sugo SG08 Mini-ITX: 8.74" wide x 13.82" deep x 7.48" tall
Footprint: 121 in², Volume: 903 in³ (14.8 L)

Fractal Design Node 304 Mini-ITX: 9.84" wide x 14.72" deep x 8.27" tall
Footprint: 145 in², Volume: 1198 in³ (19½ L)

Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini-ITX: 9.45" wide x 15.69" deep x 8.17" tall
Footprint: 148 in², Volume: 1210 in³ (19.8 L)

Corsair Obsidian 250D Mini-ITX: 10.9" wide x 13.8" deep x 11.4" tall
Footprint: 150 in², Volume: 1715 in³ (28 L)

BitFenix Phenom Mini-ITX: 9.84" wide x 14.72" deep x 12.99" tall
Footprint: 145 in², Volume: 1882 in³ (31 L)

Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Mini-ITX: 9.0" wide x 15.5" deep x 14.7" tall
Footprint: 140 in², Volume: 2051 in³ (34 L)

Corsair Graphite 380T Mini-ITX: 11.5" wide x 15.5" deep x 14" tall
Footprint: 178 in², Volume: 2493 in³ (41 L)

Micro-ATX
Silverstone Sugo SG10 Micro-ATX: 8.7" wide x 13.9" deep x 11.6" tall
Footprint: 121 in², Volume: 1402 in³ (23 L)

Lian Li PC-V351 Micro-ATX: 11" wide x 14.7" deep x 10.3" tall
Footprint: 161 in², Volume: 1664 in³ (27 L)

Silverstone Temjin TJ08-E Micro-ATX: 8.27" wide x 15.16" deep x 14.72" tall
Footprint: 125 in², Volume: 1846 in³ (30 L)

Antec P50 Micro-ATX: 10.25" wide x 14" deep x 14" tall
Footprint: 143 in², Volume: 2000 in³ (32.8 L)

Corsair Carbide Air 240 Micro-ATX: 10.2" wide x 15.6" deep x 12.6" tall
Footprint: 159 in², Volume: 2005 in³ (33 L)

Cooler Master N200 Micro-ATX: 7.95" wide x 17.52" deep x 14.9" tall
Footprint: 139 in², Volume: 2075 in³ (34 L)

Cooler Master Silencio 352 Micro-ATX: 7.87" wide x 17.83" deep x 14.88" tall
Footprint: 140 in², Volume: 2090 in³ (34¼ L)

Fractal Design Define Mini Micro-ATX: 8.27" wide x 19.29" deep x 15.55" tall
Footprint: 160 in², Volume: 2481 in³ (40½ L)

Fractal Design Node 804 Micro-ATX: 13.5" wide, x 15.3" deep x 12.1" tall
Footprint: 207 in², Volume: 2507 in³ (41 L)

Aerocool DS Dead Silence Micro-ATX: 10.4" wide x 15" deep x 16.2" tall
Footprint: 156 in², Volume: 2532 in³ (41½ L)

Corsair Obsidian 350D Micro-ATX: 8.3" wide x 17.7" deep x 17.3" tall
Footprint: 146 in², Volume: 2537 in³ (41½ L)

ATX
Corsair Carbide 200R ATX: 8.3" wide x 19.6" deep x 16.9" tall
Footprint: 162 in², Volume: 2739 in³ (45 L)
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Sat Sep 12, 2015 2:40 am

Corsair Carbide 300R
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Carbide-M ... rbide+300r
Dimensions: 19.1” long x 8.3” wide x 17.7” tall
Footprint: 158 in², Volume: 2806 in³ (46 L)

P.S. long = deep
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Sat Sep 12, 2015 7:55 am

I love to poke fun at Corsair's pathetic attempts at small form factors, but it seems not without good reason. Their smallest case is double the size of the competition. Same could be said for the Bitfenix Prodigy which is just a weird choice for something so limited.

The Carbide 200R is a fine case, and it's almost comfortably large to work in, even for an ATX build with a 280mm radiator. At 45L it's definitely larger than it needs to be which is what makes working inside it so easy, so why do Corsair produce an mITX option that's almost as large? (41.5L)
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Sun Sep 13, 2015 12:35 am

One could make the argument that a smaller swept volume can be cooled better by a given CFM. You could use fewer fans to get a given flow through the case if it had a smaller volume. Or you could get higher velocities of cooling air for a given CFM.
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Sun Sep 13, 2015 1:09 am

The Carbide 200R is a fine case, and it's almost comfortably large to work in, even for an ATX build with a 280mm radiator. At 45L it's definitely larger than it needs to be which is what makes working inside it so easy, so why do Corsair produce an mITX option that's almost as large? (41.5L)

Most likely because the people that buy them like easy to work in cases and/or room to install liquid cooling solutions for overclocking.
 
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Sun Sep 13, 2015 1:05 pm

I thought the Prodigy was actually pretty good. I had a NAS/HTPC in one for a while, but I replaced the HTPC part with a NUC, and at that point didn't require as much storage. I didn't mind so much the size of it since I wanted to cram it full of hard drives anyway.
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Sun Sep 13, 2015 3:09 pm

I'm a bit surprised actually - a lot of those mini-ITX cases are the same volume or larger than a business SFF machine - and those, unlike ITX, usually have 4 PCI slots. I guess it's the price you pay to have a full size power supply and GPU in there.
 
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Sun Sep 13, 2015 3:28 pm

EATX
Cooler Master Cosmos II EATX: 13.5" wide x 27.7" deep x 26.1" tall
Footprint: 374 in², Volume: 9760 in³ (160 L)



:P
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JustAnEngineer
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Mon Jan 04, 2016 10:18 pm

As used in the Muscular Breadbox:

EVGA Hadron Hydro Mini-ITX: 6.6" wide x 12.1" deep x 13.8" tall
Footprint: 81 in², Volume: 1112 in³ (18¼ L)


A few cases that have been mentioned in the comments:

NCase M1 Mini-ITX: 6.3" wide x 13.3" deep x 9.8" tall
Footprint: 84 in², Volume: 825 in³ (13½ L)

Fractal Design Node 202 Mini-ITX: 14.8" wide (or tall) x 13.1" deep x 3.5" tall (or wide)
Footprint: 194 in² (or 64 in²), Volume: 672³ in (11 L)

Fractal Design Core 500 Mini-ITX: 9.8" wide x 14.4" deep x 8.0" tall
Footprint: 142 in², Volume: 1137 in³ (18.6 L)
P.S.: I updated the Fractal Design Core 500 dimensions with numbers from the company's updated product page rather than the review where I saw them originally.
Last edited by JustAnEngineer on Sun May 29, 2016 6:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Sun Jan 10, 2016 5:49 pm

Good thread, thanks
You should put a note or tickbox "full sized GPU capable Y/N"
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Sun Jan 10, 2016 7:41 pm

All of the cases that I linked are capable of running gaming graphics cards.
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Sun Jan 10, 2016 8:04 pm

Nice. Although you should add volumes in fl.oz. and pints for JBI ;)
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Mon Jan 11, 2016 12:54 pm

Suggestion: keep updating the list at the top with any new ones that get posted. Here is a link to a list that slowriot posted on the front TR page (AMD slashes nano prices)
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Mon Jan 11, 2016 1:48 pm

I ran into this on my last build. Modern mico-atx and mini-itx cases really aren't that much smaller then a regular ATX minitower.

localhostrulez wrote:
I'm a bit surprised actually - a lot of those mini-ITX cases are the same volume or larger than a business SFF machine - and those, unlike ITX, usually have 4 PCI slots. I guess it's the price you pay to have a full size power supply and GPU in there.


Pretty much. Adding in room for aftermarket coolers doesn't help either. I'm one piece away from being able to shift to an SFF prebuilt, which would be a quarter of the size of my current micro-atx build.

Redocbew wrote:
I thought the Prodigy was actually pretty good.


The Prodigy case bounces, and it's not that small. It's a cool looking case with lots of room and storage, but I'm worried about the hard drives in mine when my desk moves.

Mr Bill wrote:
One could make the argument that a smaller swept volume can be cooled better by a given CFM. You could use fewer fans to get a given flow through the case if it had a smaller volume. Or you could get higher velocities of cooling air for a given CFM.


The airflow could be channeled and segmented, which would improve efficiency, but that's pretty high level stuff.
 
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Mon Jan 11, 2016 2:01 pm

Mr Bill wrote:
Suggestion: keep updating the list at the top with any new ones that get posted. Here is a link to a list that slowriot posted on the front TR page (AMD slashes nano prices)


Thanks for the link. I've updated it further and tried to include pretty much every popular/interesting mini-ITX case on Newegg plus a few others. I have also indicated which PSU form factor a case requires, like SFX, and if they can accommodate full-size cards (11"+). If anyone spots an error let me know.


There's a lot of factors besides size why people go with a certain mini-ITX case. For instance, one issue that often gets completely glossed over is GPU and CPU boosting in small cases which lack exhaust fans. I recently ran into it with a Silverstone RVZ02. My GTX 970 will not boost as well in the RVZ02 because the heat eventually builds a pocket and doesn't dissipate fast enough. So even cases which are "good enough" to fit huge graphics cards may not have the thermal capability to maximize them.
 
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Mon Jan 11, 2016 3:41 pm

Flatland_Spider wrote:
localhostrulez wrote:
I'm a bit surprised actually - a lot of those mini-ITX cases are the same volume or larger than a business SFF machine - and those, unlike ITX, usually have 4 PCI slots. I guess it's the price you pay to have a full size power supply and GPU in there.


Pretty much. Adding in room for aftermarket coolers doesn't help either. I'm one piece away from being able to shift to an SFF prebuilt, which would be a quarter of the size of my current micro-atx build.

I run an SFF prebuilt (HP 8200, and I've dealt with a school district full of these and similar models). If you're OK with being a bit proprietary (power supplies are often 12V only to the mobo, molex out of there to the drives, plus proprietary mobo), you don't need a fancy GPU, and you need a quiet, stable machine, go for it. If you need more than that, then you might be better off with a DIY rig. Or a fancy workstation PC with an upgraded consumer GPU. :lol:
 
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Mon Jan 11, 2016 4:35 pm

localhostrulez wrote:
don't need a fancy GPU, and you need a quiet, stable machine

That pretty much sums up where I'm at in life. :)

Dell Precision T1700 SSF was what I was looking at, and I'm okay with the limitations of a pre-built. Right now, the only thing holding me back are the two 1TB 3.5" HDs I have for storage.
 
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Mon Jan 11, 2016 4:53 pm

Yeah, same - I had a gaming rig a few years back, but never got into gaming. Ended up selling some of the parts here and sold the case to a friend.

About the HDDs - looks like the T1700 gives you 255W and 1x3.5" or 2x2.5", a slimline ODD, and a Xeon E3-v3. I wonder how easily you can get a pair of 2.5" 1TB HDDs, order it with no DVD drive, and put an SSD in there. Use double-sided tape if you have to (seriously, I taped the DVD drive in on the 8200).

Another thought - the HP Z230 SFF (Xeon E3-v3) is a bit bigger and only has a 240W power supply (and I'll admit, I like the look of the Dell), but it'll take a 3.5" drive, a 2.5" SSD, another 3.5" drive or 3.5" card reader, and supposedly 5 SATA ports on the motherboard. Get a few SATA cables and maybe a SATA power splitter, and you should be able to get those 2 drives and the SSD. For that matter, I have an 8200 (which lacks the 2.5" space and is older - the model numbering is one off, so an 8200 = a Z210/Sandy), but I could probably jam another 1TB drive in there if I want to (tempting to do that for RAID 1). Get another power connector (or take another proprietary molex ponytail and use the second power connector on the mobo), tape the 2.5" SSD in somewhere (or go slimline for the DVD drive), and voila. Hell, I already split one of the power cables for a USB 3 PCIe card. Not sure about the Z240's (Xeon E3-v5), since they changed the design a little.
 
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Mon Jan 11, 2016 5:00 pm

I'm using a NUC as my work machine. I have two 34" 21:9 monitors hooked up to it, and everyone who sees the home office looks at me funny when I tell them both of these displays are running from that little box. :lol:

Personally, I've never really understood why some people seem to be annoyed at mini-ITX cases that aren't super-tiny. I've always thought ITX was more about building a less complicated system than it was being physically smaller than some other form factor, but maybe that's just me.
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Mon Jan 11, 2016 5:42 pm

Redocbew wrote:
I'm using a NUC as my work machine. I have two 34" 21:9 monitors hooked up to it, and everyone who sees the home office looks at me funny when I tell them both of these displays are running from that little box. :lol:

Personally, I've never really understood why some people seem to be annoyed at mini-ITX cases that aren't super-tiny. I've always thought ITX was more about building a less complicated system than it was being physically smaller than some other form factor, but maybe that's just me.

Eh, I always thought it was about being smaller. (Hey, I don't have a super fancy use case, and even I need more than one PCIe slot! Though it's one for the video card, one for USB 3 - might want to change that for type-C eventually - plus the GT730 video card heatsink needs another internally, and I have a parallel port bracket for some reason. There goes all 4 slots.)

One of my friends has a compact mini-ITX box with a high wattage GPU, and that thing gets freaking hot - usually throws a thermal warning in the BIOS if you reboot it warm. He says it's fine, laptops get that hot anyway, and it's the same chip design. Umm, I guess? :o I can feel slightly warm air coming out of the 8200, but it's nowhere near worrying me. (And it's been a while since I cleaned out the vents, come to think of it - those older HPs aren't the best at this. The newer ones are more annoying, but filter dust quite well.)
 
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Mon Jan 11, 2016 5:54 pm

Redocbew wrote:
I'm using a NUC as my work machine. I have two 34" 21:9 monitors hooked up to it, and everyone who sees the home office looks at me funny when I tell them both of these displays are running from that little box. :lol:

Personally, I've never really understood why some people seem to be annoyed at mini-ITX cases that aren't super-tiny. I've always thought ITX was more about building a less complicated system than it was being physically smaller than some other form factor, but maybe that's just me.


I was once pretty hard line on the "Oh that's too big for mini-ITX!!" wagon for some time but have come around a bit. There are still some cases, like Corsair's 380T for instance, that are ridiculous large for only accommodating an mini-ITX board though.

But at this point.... I see it as the logical choice in form factor for anyone who doesn't need more than one expansion card. If you only need a graphics card and will be using external devices or integrated stuff for everything else ITX makes perfect sense. A slightly larger case, like the Phanteks Evolv ITX or Corsair 250D, is a perfect solution for the hardcore overclocker looking to watercool but doesn't want to deal with SLI/Xfire.


I've been doing mini-ITX builds since Core i5-750, it was in a Silverstone SG05. I recently tried out a Silverstone RVZ02, coming from a Lian Li TU200, and will be going back to the TU200 or maybe considering an Evolv ITX. Yep! Larger! Why? Heat and noise. When I built my first ITX system I was in college and space was a real premium. Now I can *suffer* having a slightly larger case as I go for silence + fastest ITX I can reasonably afford. And the GTX970 I have doesn't boost much inside the RVZ02, as mentioned earlier, though it will get replaced with whichever next-gen Nvidia or AMD GPU comes out on top.
 
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Mon Jan 11, 2016 6:05 pm

localhostrulez wrote:
Eh, I always thought it was about being smaller. (Hey, I don't have a super fancy use case, and even I need more than one PCIe slot! Though it's one for the video card, one for USB 3 - might want to change that for type-C eventually - plus the GT730 video card heatsink needs another internally, and I have a parallel port bracket for some reason. There goes all 4 slots.)

One of my friends has a compact mini-ITX box with a high wattage GPU, and that thing gets freaking hot - usually throws a thermal warning in the BIOS if you reboot it warm. He says it's fine, laptops get that hot anyway, and it's the same chip design. Umm, I guess? :o I can feel slightly warm air coming out of the 8200, but it's nowhere near worrying me. (And it's been a while since I cleaned out the vents, come to think of it - those older HPs aren't the best at this. The newer ones are more annoying, but filter dust quite well.)


If the GPU is throwing thermal warnings then your friend needs to fix something. The GPU is going to protect itself from damage but there's more too it. All the modern GPU options have clock boosting. Which is generally limited by your thermal headroom. I've tried a few cases now where I can run at the "base" clock rate that's guaranteed all day long, but not have the same boost headroom versus having the system on a desk. GPU boosts can provide quite significant performance benefits, so just leaving it there on the table due to thermal issues is a waste IMO.

It was a Linus Tech TIps video (sorry, can't find the specific video right now) that first really clued me into the GPU boosting issues and mini-ITX. I did some investigation on my own with cases I have on hand plus my GTX970 and came away pretty shocked.
 
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Mon Jan 11, 2016 6:38 pm

Redocbew wrote:
I'm using a NUC as my work machine. I have two 34" 21:9 monitors hooked up to it, and everyone who sees the home office looks at me funny when I tell them both of these displays are running from that little box. :lol:

Personally, I've never really understood why some people seem to be annoyed at mini-ITX cases that aren't super-tiny. I've always thought ITX was more about building a less complicated system than it was being physically smaller than some other form factor, but maybe that's just me.


I've been seriously looking at the Zotac boxes lately. The Magnus EN790 and SN970 are pretty interesting little things.

Via started Mini-ITX, and the original boxes were tiny. Like this thing: http://www.logicsupply.com/ag150/
 
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Wed Jan 27, 2016 5:59 am

The most inefficient waste of space yet appeared on the front page today.

NZXT Manta Matte Black Mini-ITX: 9.65" wide x 17.7" deep x 16.8" tall
Footprint: 171 in², Volume: 2866 in³ (47 L)

This fat whale of a mini-ITX case (single PCIe slot) is larger than many good ATX cases with seven PCIe slots. NZXT's matte black monstrosity is also larger than two Sugo SG10 micro-ATX (4 PCIe slots) cases or three Raven RVZ02 mini-ITX cases.
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Wed Jan 27, 2016 10:32 am

Volume alone can be a bit misleading. If you were to state just an RVZ02 volume but then compare it side by side with the NZXT Manta I think in real life a lot of people would be surprised with the lack of space savings. An RVZ02 has similar height and depth, just much less width. There's really only a few desk configurations people can have that would really take advantage of that reduced size.

In the last couple weeks I've had... Silverstone's SG13 and RVZ02, Lian Li's TU200, Phanteks Evolv ITX, and a BitFenix Prodigy thru my hands. I ended up going completely left field with an NZXT S340 (ATX, though less volume than the Manta). Why? Because well... all those ITX cases often lead to more headaches and noise with near minimal real life size savings. An RVZ02 in particular comes across as "What... the volume is really that low? Because it sure doesn't seem small." An SG13 on the other hand feels legitimately tiny (though very exposed and loud).
 
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Wed Jan 27, 2016 4:47 pm

JustAnEngineer wrote:
The most inefficient waste of space yet appeared on the front page today.

NZXT Manta Matte Black Mini-ITX: 9.65" wide x 17.7" deep x 16.8" tall
Footprint: 171 in², Volume: 2866 in³ (47 L)

This fat whale of a mini-ITX case (single PCIe slot) is larger than many good ATX cases with seven PCIe slots. NZXT's matte black monstrosity is also larger than two Sugo SG10 micro-ATX (4 PCIe slots) cases or three Raven RVZ02 mini-ITX cases.


Size isn't everything. Not a fan of the shape, but after having toyed with mini-ITX cases I can honestly appreciate that the Manta is designed for TWO dual-140mm rads with proper airflow. I can't count how many ITX cases I've seen that sacrifice the PSU (1U server units are a terrible idea) or don't have enough airflow for a high-end system without getting loud. Cases require intake AND exhaust fans plus obstruction clearance for said fans else they get loud under sustained loads, and a few extra inches for >10db reduction is fine by me.
 
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Wed Jan 27, 2016 6:25 pm

Having recently built a mini-ITX system, I have resolved to go back to micro-ATX for my next gaming PC. It would have been a real shame to make all of the compromises to use a mini-ITX motherboard and then end up in a case that's no smaller than a good micro-ATX case.
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Wed Feb 03, 2016 12:50 pm

The point of Mini-ITX was really to enable smaller, cheaper, quiet systems. (Really, that's what VIA was going for. Then, the enthusiast market had to actually start adopting the ones that took desktop CPUs with desktop heatsinks, and put desktop GPUs in them.) Mini-ITX was basically one of the reference platforms for the VIA C3/Eden Samuel 2 core - effectively, the Atom of its day. (Eden was even fanless.)

I'd say, nowadays, the point of Mini-ITX is to enable smaller builds than Micro-ATX and full ATX, and you're going to make some compromises as a result. That's why I like the M1 - you are forced to make compromises to get the small size, but it's flexible for which compromises you have to make, and it being as open as it is helps the cooling situation - I don't see over 65 C on the motherboard or CPU under three threads of Prime95 and FurMark, on a stock clocked 6600K, and that's with a blower GTX 960 (although it's sitting at ~80% fan, 82 C, and against both the power and thermal limiters). Oh, and that's with the only fans being the CPU fan (a Scythe GlideStream 120 mm PWM, mounted to the case fan bracket above a Kabuto II), GPU blower, and PSU fan (which is oriented such that it's not interacting with case airflow in any way).
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weaktoss
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Wed Feb 03, 2016 1:03 pm

Having recently built a mini-ITX system, I have resolved to go back to micro-ATX for my next gaming PC.

JAE, what specific limitations are driving you back to micro-ATX, out of curiosity? My most recent personal build was micro-ATX, and I've been leaning towards mini-ITX whenever I build next. I really like the look of the Node 202.
 
slowriot
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Re: Just how big is that case?

Wed Feb 03, 2016 2:00 pm

bhtooefr wrote:
The point of Mini-ITX was really to enable smaller, cheaper, quiet systems.


Really? Because your own case choice invalidates one of those points i.e. the M1 is very expensive. And quiet is absolutely not an advantage most mITX builds have, more the exception than the rule IMO.

I think it's pretty silly how we're creating idealogies around motherboard form factors. mITX has a wide variety of appeal. It can be ideal for a cheap or an expensive build. It can be loud or quiet. It doesn't even necessarily need to be *that* much smaller depending on your needs in total.

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