Some here have already dwelved into this arena, some have looked, some have scoffed. But no one can deny there is a large allure for these small systems. Who can argue that small foot print cases like small footprint LCD monitors don't have good aspects? But it has a whole new set of rules.

I've gone from midtowers to SFF to midtowers and I am now again back to the SFF. You might think it disgraceful to limit you're overclocking, the amount of steel to be formed into a canvas being reduced by half or more may not sit well with you. But it suits me just fine. Don't think I'll be trading "up" again for a while. Sure she can't overclock well, my videocard isn't exactly top tier either. But she chugs along quietly, and cubic inch to cubic inch a helluva lot more fun. So lets look at what you can expect to gain (and lose) from a case diet.

Modding potential - it's all still there generally, but it takes a lot more deft skill to pull it off it seems, and requires more measuring and thought. When I fit 120mm side fans on my old Powmax mATX, I knew I could mount these suckers (or blowers) anywhere.

Power requirements - Many people seem to be able to install the most power hungry video cards on the market into their Shuttles with 250 watt PSUs, and still overclock their CPUs. But personally I like my 6600GT, I think it's a great small form factor videocard, it's short, it isn't anymore power hungry than my 9600XT was - but twice the performance for 220 bucks. Look into things like this when building a SFF.

Airflow - normally horrid, but that's why we've got modding skills. With mesh and 120mm fans, we can make anything cool well. Remember, with their smaller cubic area, you can "purge" the heated air out faster with less cfm. CFM to CFM in a theoretical world, a SFF case would actually cool better than a fullsized. But the key there is theoretical.

In the end though - you either love them or hate them, but if you're sitting on the fence give it a try. Small Form Factor for me is turning into a worse addition for me than free internet p0rn.

Iateronmly

The only problem I have with SFF rigs is that I can't just take some of my hardware and dump it in it, ie motherboard, PSU. And I have quite a bit invested into some components.

Good idea (and info) .
Unfortunately (space-wise) i'm about to drastically increase the footprint of my case. I blame you: it was one of your posts that lit a fire under my rear-end to put a custom case build in the works

Quote: Originally Posted by droeblek9 Good idea (and info) . Unfortunately (space-wise) i'm about to drastically increase the footprint of my case. I blame you: it was one of your posts that lit a fire under my rear-end to put a custom case build in the works

Sell a kidney and do one of both?

I love my shuttle XPC. Right now its been slightly crippled with a 2.4@2.64 and an ATI 9550 but it used to kick it hard with a 3.0 and an x800 pro. It portability is great but tinkering inside of the case is tough. It involves fully disassebling most of the case. As for cutting the thing up, it still has a few months for the warrenty to die out. But when that happens expect the dremel to taste flesh.,

I just built that Shuttle I told you about lateron, I love it. Don't even know its on.
It really is so damn quiet, to bad I gotta give it away.

Ive submitted my review on the Aopen XCCube EZ18 (amd version). Should be in members reviews shortly. Do have a quick read.

On thread topic, I do love SFFs. When I got my first shuttle to use as a courtesy PC for customers wwhos' PCs were being fixed, I couldnt help but marvel at its size...and its speed! I htk due to the sheer mini size of the board features are minimal but at the same time the reasources gained add up on a large scale. If theres anyhting Id do to the XCCube ive just reviewed, it would be a better HSF, but shuttle got it off to a fine art first time. the ICE system keeps even the hottest Duron 1800 (what my shuttle has) down under the mid 30s.

Great machines.

I just finished my SFF case. FIc Ice Cube. Built it for gaming. Took forever to get it where my Asus 9800XT wasn't melting the whole system but it runs great now.