Well, I'm almost done the "Coelacanth" case mod, and thought I was going to be finished modding for a while, then I came across this sweet little beauty of a Micro-ATX case:

Powmax Micro-ATX case





Looks like a cool case to mod, eh? And the best thing is, it's only $47.99 Canadian! It's gonna be a l'il speed demon too, I also got an MSI M-ATX motherboard to slap into it, which will go with the P4 1.6 Northwood I used to have in the Gargoyle case (which overclocked to 2.45 GHz with that rather radical ducting mod), a spare Corsair XMS3200 RAM, and everything else is onboard.

Hmm...now I just need a video card, which I can't afford now, but I have my eyes on the new Nvidia 6600 GPU for the "performance on a budget" level...

Oh, I forgot to ask (I'm not posting this as an Edit to set it apart from the original post): This case has a silver look to it, it's finished with something called Zinc thermal heat electroplated steel (SGCC). Anyone know anything about this? What about painting it? It looks like aluminum, but I've never heard of this steel treatment method....?

Nice! That's a pretty serious looking case -- so many Micro ATX cases look polished or wimpy, but this one looks solid and industrial. Can't wait!

And it looks like they're using Modder's Mesh. Isn't it interesting how some of our ideas end up in mass-produced cases? I remember wayyyy back when--oh, about 2 or 3 years ago, when I designed the ducting mod in the Gargoyle case--I suggested my ideas for a near-optimal cooling solution for a heatsink; 2 80mm fans on either side of the heatsink, one pulling and one pushing, exhausting directly outside the case. (You could probably even find it in an exhaustive forum search.) Well, except for the direct-exhaust, there are now a number of heatsinks with this exact design now (ThermalTake is one of the manufacturers making them).

God only knows how many of our modding ideas end up being copied by manufacturers.

Quote: God only knows how many of our modding ideas end up being copied by manufacturers

I know one mod that won't end up w/ a case......my 10 foot long ducting mod!

i used that case on my girlfriends moms computer i built (no mods tho).its a nice little case, cheap price too.

stock it has space for 3 60mm fans, two 80mms above the proccessor area and an option to put a 80mm fan instead of using any of the pci expansion slots..

one warning... becareful putting the side panel back on, i had some troubles with mine, i scratched mine up where the side panel slides over the chassis by the bezel, (mine accidentally went under the chassis lip and scratched the paint a bit.... you can even see in the first pic you posted that the side panel is bowed where it meats the bezel on the left side.. looks like they didnt seat the panel right...

Quote: Originally Posted by ThomasMF3D stock it has space for 3 60mm fans, two 80mms above the proccessor area and an option to put a 80mm fan instead of using any of the pci expansion slots..

I'll probably use up a slot for one of those VGA Coolers on the GeForce 6600 card, and might eventually need to put in a soundcard with digital optical output.

Quote: one warning... becareful putting the side panel back on, i had some troubles with mine, i scratched mine up where the side panel slides over the chassis by the bezel, (mine accidentally went under the chassis lip and scratched the paint a bit.... you can even see in the first pic you posted that the side panel is bowed where it meats the bezel on the left side.. looks like they didnt seat the panel right...

Yep, I did notice that, but I'm also pretty familiar with modding cases of cheap construction...none of the cases I've done were worth more than $50 CDN. Sometimes there will be fitment issues...

This case you can it Cut Up.....And don't have to worry about the $..
It's only $5.00 USD
http://www.dumpinggoods.com/dumpingg...2D0023&cc=&tpc=

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Quote: Originally Posted by THRASHER2 This case you can it Cut Up.....And don't have to worry about the $.. It's only $5.00 USD http://www.dumpinggoods.com/dumpingg...2D0023&cc=&tpc=

I think a $5 case that costs over $40 to ship to central Ohio is overall a bad deal, especially when they are located in the USA. Anyway, Coel, this looks promising.

Quote: Originally Posted by THRASHER2 This case you can it Cut Up.....And don't have to worry about the $.. It's only $5.00 USD http://www.dumpinggoods.com/dumpingg...2D0023&cc=&tpc=

Hey Thrasher, I just checked out that site and d*mnÂ…. Cheap prices.

IÂ’ve never heard of it. Have you ever bought anything from them? if so, how was the experience and their product(s)?

I had one of those, threw a 120mm fan on the side and called it good for case cooling even.

Yah - it's a fun case, but the PSU isn't worthy of paperweight status it's so light and cheap.

Quote: Originally Posted by Iateronmly I had one of those, threw a 120mm fan on the side and called it good for case cooling even. Yah - it's a fun case, but the PSU isn't worthy of paperweight status it's so light and cheap.

What would you recommend for a PSU? You don't have a lot of options, unfortunately...I'm building my own with a P4 1.6 that I intend to overclock, and another (for the parents) with a 1.2 GHz T-bird I had lying around, planning to leave that stock. With any case costing under $50 you gotta wonder what crappy PSU they'll stick in there...

Quote: Originally Posted by shusa Hey Thrasher, I just checked out that site and d*mnÂ…. Cheap prices. IÂ’ve never heard of it. Have you ever bought anything from them? if so, how was the experience and their product(s)?

I buy stuff from them every week....
Knoc....Knoc.....Who is it ! FedEx.... with another Case! Sweeeeet.

Update: I received two of these cases and immediately proceeded to totally tear-down one of them (the other I'm using to build a new PC for my parents, they're gonna be blown away by how small it is, but I'm not gonna mod it much). Here are some of the pros and cons.

PROS:

-Very easy to disassemble, with the minor exception of removing the side panels, as stated by ThomasMF3D. It actually just takes a knack; not only do they have tabs that slot in at the front bezel area, but they slide along a sort of rail along the grooves at top and bottom. The bezel just pops in and out with 6 plastic knobs. The case has 3 thumbscrews at the rear that are nice and shiny. The CD/DVD caddy has 2 metal tabs for a hard drive, and the entire thing pops out with 3 screws. There's a caddy for two 3.5" drives on top, and this pops out with 1 screw. In less than 10 minutes I think the whole case was in pieces.

-Very neat design. I like the vents and the vent mesh-holes beneath; I like the looks and feel, the steel is a polished, smooth silver color, and looks almost like aluminum, but has a clear-coated kinda look & feel. The plastic bezel is painted and matches perfectly. It really looks like a much more expensive case than what you get for under $50.

CONS:

-Cooling will be a problem. Note the center grooves at top and bottom, this groove turns out to be a rail attaching the front to the rear of the case, once you remove the two C-shaped wraparound side-panels. This rail prevents you from installing a blowhole on top or a floor fan on bottom. I was hoping to put in a floor intake, but I had to scratch that idea. The rails are there for structural rigidity.

-The steel quality is pretty weak. This thing would bend pretty easily if you leaned on it. It's strong enough when assembled, but the individual parts are rather weak. But hey, it's less than $50.

-There are some rough-cut areas on the front bezel, they looked like afterthoughts to make room for the power switch and a USB/audio port I/O panel. No worries, you don't see it when the front bezel is installed, anyway.

-BE VERY CAREFUL how big a heatsink you choose! The case has adequate depth, but you have a problem, at least with P4's, and the damn CD/DVD caddy. The drive obstructs with the heatsink if the HSF is too tall. If you're gonna use a mobo with a top-central-located P4, or ANY mobo with a CPU in this location, you better shop around for a low-profile copper HSF. And you'll find there aren't many to choose from.

-There is barely enough room, I think, for a side-panel-mounted 80mm fan, if you buy one with the standard 25mm thickness. I used 15mm-thick 80mm fans for my Gargoyle case, and I'd LOVE to have some of those units for this rig, but I'll be damned if I can find any more! If you're hoping to use 92mm or 120mm fans, fuhgeddaboudit.

I'll take a bunch of pics of the unit, assembled and disassembled, with some of my modding plans, shortly. Overall, I was impressed with the visual quality and appeal of this case. With a little modding this will be a sweet, kickass little beast!

Deja vu....
Coel, I have a near identical case to that one (I'm on it actually) made by Maxtop. It's so close I'd say they came from the same factory. The stock PSU popped in mine for no apparent reason, running just a stock 1800+. I replaced it with a mATX Enermax 270W PSU, and it's been flawless, even OCing well.
The mods I did to mine were:

Added a 92MM NMB silent fan to the front where the 80mm is now (check it out...it'll fit), added 4 80mmX15MM Zalman ZMOP1fans over the CPU, GPU (also with a Zalman silent heatpipe cooler), under the bezel and over the HDD trays, and at the top next to the PSU(mine doesn't have the ribs), plus other cosmetic mods, such as adding a Matrix Orbital display under the 5.25" bay that control all the fans via thermal sensors. It's quiet with a TT Silent Boost cooler, and there's even room for another HDD later.

I went for a stealthed look, but I know a lot more now than when I put that rig together. I may just give it a makeover too.

Here it is in the gallery.

Edit: Just wanted to say....go for a Lite-On drive for this case. It's shorter than most at 170MM depth and will give more room for a H/S. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with yours.

Good Luck with that thing, looks like it would be a blast to mod that mini. when you going to start?

It's already begun! Wordbiker, I already tried, an 80mm won't fit in the front. There's a little standoff piece where the CD caddy mounts to. On the bottom there's that little rail, which is raised up a bit. There's no way I can fit an 80mm fan there unless I cut the rail or the CD caddy piece off. I suppose yours probably lacks that central longitudinal raised chassis rail that mine has.

Quote: Originally Posted by Coelacanth It's already begun! Wordbiker, I already tried, an 80mm won't fit in the front. There's a little standoff piece where the CD caddy mounts to. On the bottom there's that little rail, which is raised up a bit. There's no way I can fit an 80mm fan there unless I cut the rail or the CD caddy piece off. I suppose yours probably lacks that central longitudinal raised chassis rail that mine has.

Hmmm....perhaps it does. Here's a pic of mine with a 92mm. Is it the same?

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Nope, the front of my chassis doesn't look anything like that. Trust me dude, if it was physically *possible* to put an 80mm front fan in this case, there's no reason why I wouldn't have been able to do it. I saw the pic of your case in your gallery, and it's not even close to being the same thing. Yours is a desktop layout with horizontal CD and floppy trays in the middle. Mine is a tower layout with vertical CD drive on the left side, and 2 horizontal floppy drive bays on the top. Remember, I'm talking about the FRONT of the chassis--not the rear. I barely have room to put in a 60mm fan, in the place where one is SUPPOSED to go. (The area I'm talking about only has 3 mounting holes for it. The rectangular hole through which the front USB/audio I/O ports extends takes up the spot where the 4th hole would've been.

I don't think our cases are as similar as you thought, even though their dimensions are perhaps the same.