Best Micro Case?

Rjupiter · 03-April-05, 10:18 PM

I am looking to do some test cases for my buisness ( so I can so what is avaliable) and am lookin for some of the better micro cases out there for price, material etc... any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Coelacanth · 06-April-05, 05:19 AM

I'm not sure if there's a "best" M-ATX case. There's so many designs, and many new ones popping up all the time. Almost all of them are a pain and a challenge to work with. To have something that small, you KNOW you're gonna run into some roadblocks!

Is your main focus looks? Ease of construction? Quality? Even the ones that are of the highest quality can be a pain to work with. In general, the small "cube" style cases are probably the easiest to work with, due to their larger internal area. The Antec Lanboy and Shuttle cubes are probably quite easy to work with (though I haven't used either, I've seen their internal layout, at least in comparison to some much smaller designs).

Here are some things to watch out for:

-Does the case have room for 80mm fans? Some (many?) will not. This means you will have a louder PC, maybe not what you want if you're looking to build a home theater PC.

-Does the case have room for a high-end video card? Some don't. Often, a side-mounted optical drive chassis will obstruct VGA and other cards sometimes. Don't forget, the high-end video cards have a Molex connector on the end, which can get in the way or even prevent you from using it. I avoided this problem by going with a GF6600 in my micro-ATX project.

-For some designs, you might go with folding your IDE cables instead of rounded ones, because they're usually too stiff to be manipulated in a small case.

-PSUs in many M-ATX cases are pieces of chit. You can get some better ones, I chose an A-Power 320W unit for mine.

To see some of the challenges you can run into with a M-ATX project, just a few of them can be seen in my Micro-Beast Project .

The end result will be worth the annoyances though.

THRASHER2 · 06-April-05, 05:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rjupiter


	I am looking to do some test cases for my buisness ( so I can so what is avaliable) and am lookin for some of the better micro cases out there for price, material etc... any advice would be greatly appreciated.

There is so many Micro cases.....
Aria MicroATX Cube Case, 300watt Power Supply is the most Popular

I would love to Mod this one....

RAIDMAX BLACK/SILVER Mini Scorpio 168 MicroATX....
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...156-159&depa=1

Check out the things you could put in Them....

http://www.mini-itx.com/

03-April-05, 10:18 PM		#1 (permalink)
Rjupiter Apex Advanced Techie	Best Micro Case? I am looking to do some test cases for my buisness ( so I can so what is avaliable) and am lookin for some of the better micro cases out there for price, material etc... any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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06-April-05, 05:19 AM		#2 (permalink)
Coelacanth Apex Tech God	I'm not sure if there's a "best" M-ATX case. There's so many designs, and many new ones popping up all the time. Almost all of them are a pain and a challenge to work with. To have something that small, you KNOW you're gonna run into some roadblocks! Is your main focus looks? Ease of construction? Quality? Even the ones that are of the highest quality can be a pain to work with. In general, the small "cube" style cases are probably the easiest to work with, due to their larger internal area. The Antec Lanboy and Shuttle cubes are probably quite easy to work with (though I haven't used either, I've seen their internal layout, at least in comparison to some much smaller designs). Here are some things to watch out for: -Does the case have room for 80mm fans? Some (many?) will not. This means you will have a louder PC, maybe not what you want if you're looking to build a home theater PC. -Does the case have room for a high-end video card? Some don't. Often, a side-mounted optical drive chassis will obstruct VGA and other cards sometimes. Don't forget, the high-end video cards have a Molex connector on the end, which can get in the way or even prevent you from using it. I avoided this problem by going with a GF6600 in my micro-ATX project. -For some designs, you might go with folding your IDE cables instead of rounded ones, because they're usually too stiff to be manipulated in a small case. -PSUs in many M-ATX cases are pieces of chit. You can get some better ones, I chose an A-Power 320W unit for mine. To see some of the challenges you can run into with a M-ATX project, just a few of them can be seen in my Micro-Beast Project . The end result will be worth the annoyances though.