ATwentyX: E-ATX under 20L

It fits:

1. SSI CEB and similar sized E-ATX motherboards like the Asus Rampage V. (SSI EEB definitely does not fit.)
2. 120mm rear fan for exhaust.
3. A top 140mm slim fan like the Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 14 also exhaust.
   
4. Some 120mm tower coolers, most importantly the Scythe Fuma "simply the most amazing air cooled heat sink I have ever tested". (But also the Cryorig H7 and the Thermalright TRUE Spirit 120M BW Rev.A. In other words, max 150mm high.)
5. SFX / SFX-L PSU. Intake from the front, exhaust to the top (there will be a grille, missing from the render).
6. Every video card there is, 12" and more.
7. Two 120/140mm side fans, intake.
8. One 3.5" disk or two 2.5" disks on the front. The 3.5" disk only allows for 11.5" graphics cards.
9. The bottom fits two 140mm slim fans for intake OR one fan and two 2.5" disks OR four 2.5" disks.

All this in 178*350*320 which makes it a small form factor case just a hair below 20L.

While there are/were some smaller ATX cases (the GTR GT3-BH ten years ago was 13.6L) they tend to use risers and small fans. And I am unaware of any other E-ATX case in the small form factor space.

We will use the same AC cable as the nCase M1 and will run inside the case along the top, having the C14 connector above the 120mm fan, there's enough space. SFX PSU will connect inside the case. For SFX-L, the same cable will exit the case to the top and connect outside. Very little will be visible of the cable even for SFX-L. This way both SFX and SFX-L are at the same height, their bottom can be supported by a small lip. SFX will be screwed to the front using two L pieces, SFX-L will be directly screwed to the top with the grille removed.

What do you think? If there is interest I would create a prototype crowdfunding campaign and then a normal production crowdfunding campaign.

Ps. With feet and protrusions the case is 178*380*330.

Ps2. For short video cards, we could add a "pile" of 2.5" disks between the video cards and the front. 8 at least but perhaps 10 even. This is not yet designed, it's just an idea in my head. Or we could use the existing fan frame for a few. This will be explored in the future.

Ps3. While the Rampage series should fit, it's very likely only a real prototype can show us whether the ASUS Z10PA-D8 fits, the likely cooler at least for the front CPU socket is the Thermalright 120M. We know the D16 series doesn't fit as those are SSI EEB.

Large cases have a niche market for people who want multi gpu or running water cooling. Small Form Factor cases have a niche market when it comes to size and simplicity. This looks like a normal small case of yesteryear with no real place. I had tons of these cramped cases growing up and could never do back.

Interesting, I can't remember any ATX case without drive bays but w/e. My problem with the very small cases are a) cooling b) motherboard selection.

You might want to check out the jonsbo u4. Also 20 liters, 205MM (W) * 340MM (D) * 428MM (H).

I like the general idea of making E-ATX somewhat-SFF case cause I'd like to build a dual processor unit in something like that in the future.

I'd try to mimic the mITX cases with PSU basement by supporting GPU only in the first slot and hiding low profile SSD/raid/audio/capture cards in the basement behind the PSU. Two mounts for 120mm AIO either for single CPU AIO and a gpu with blower/water cooling combo or dual cpu + air cooled cpu.

Unless you can do something extraordinary like that while still having interesting aesthetic, it may not be worth the effort.

SaperPL said:

I like the general idea of making E-ATX somewhat-SFF case cause I'd like to build a dual processor unit in something like that in the future.

I'd try to mimic the mITX cases with PSU basement by supporting GPU only in the first slot and hiding low profile SSD/raid/audio/capture cards in the basement behind the PSU. Two mounts for 120mm AIO either for single CPU AIO and a gpu with blower/water cooling combo or dual cpu + air cooled cpu.

Unless you can do something extraordinary like that while still having interesting aesthetic, it may not be worth the effort.

Click to expand...

If you say so I started with the PSU being perpendicular to the motherboard blocking three slots leaving four open for SLI. My initial idea would've covered the other three slots completely and that, I think might be the best. Basically you get a uATX worth of slots but still, E-ATX motherbards. You are still very limited in choosing a dual CPU motherboard because SSI EEB still doesn't fit, that's practically impossible within 20L if you want quiet cooling, that is. But the ASUS Z10PA-D8, the Supermicro X10DAL-i / X10DRL series and such would fit this case, no problems.

Let's make the case 337mm high, 329mm deep and 180mm wide.

So we are looking at the PSU blocking the bottom three slots completely, intaking from the bottom, exhausting to the back.

There's 11mm between the case bottom and the MB and 21mm between the MB and the case top. This means a 180mm fan would fit in front of the CPU(s). AP181 for the win In the back, a 120mm rear exhaust fits.

For water cooling, there's some 62mm between a 10.5" GPU PCB and the front. A slim as in 26-30mm thick 240mm rad and a 25mm fan easily fits from the bottom to 280mm high. If you are using 1U CPU blocks then the top could easily accommodate another 240mm rad with similar thickness.

Would this be more interesting?

Why dont you mimick ncase m1, but make it taller and slightly longer, that way it would support a big radiator on the side.
It would also leave plenty of space for 2 gpus.

This is something that I have roughly laid out some time ago for an ATX case. Rough designs only, no real case structure.







Whether it would be an ATX or E-ATX version is just the difference in depth. Final size for ATX version would be something like 320 x 320 x 205 mm ~ 21L

The case is significantly wider, but that would also let you install a 240~280 mm radiator on a side bracket like in M1. We could go with SFX-L for making it slimmer, but this would once again limit the height of the GPU significantly like in our Sentry. Using SFX-L might clear out some space for the low profile cards though like pci-e x4 SSD's, capture cards etc, like I said before.

Yes, this arrangement is what I had in mind. But looking at https://hardforum.com/attachments/6-jpg.20653/ -- if you want a low profile card then the case would need to be 214mm wide (2U is the smallest case fitting low profile cards =89mm + 125mm for the SFX PSU).

If you go that wide, you still need 300mm depth at least for GPU and 317mm height and that's slightly above the desired 20L size.

But, sure, there would be size for a 240mm on the side above the video cards and partially over the CPU area and another one on the top.

Not sure why is this better than the arrangement I described above.

Pity. I thought there would be interest for this.

I have another custom case idea for SSI EEB obviously not in 20L but I am not sure whether I am catching the right vibes :/ I thought water cooling is a niche that everyone recognizes to be more trouble than worth it. That's what I read everywhere.

We could try to go with TFX power supply or put the SFX inside and rotate it, but the latter would make the case taller and this isn't what we'd want, yeah?

TFX might be interesting if we were to have single GPU, but the wattage of those units is something around 350W top ;/

We could also try swapping the PSU location with hard drives, but it would push the hot air output upfront and potentially recycle this hot air.

I'm not sure however if we definitely need those remaining slots even as low profile - 3 x M.2 is enough for people to want full ATX over mITX and SLI is not that relevant anymore.

Yes, if we can recognize that four slots are enough then the arrangement in #6 which is somewhat similar to yours would be very viable.

I've played a bit with the design, it looks like a promising concept imo except for the pretty hard target.



Case width went down to 180mm so its 320 x 320 x 180 now making it an 18,5L chassis (it's something )

I wouldn't necessarily take the lack of replies as lack of interest - this subsection of the forum moves a lot slower than it used to ~1.5 years ago.

Personally I like the idea of sub 20L ATX cases and would like to see a modern idea such as the ideas displayed in this thread seen through to completion.

While 320 x 320 x 180 is great I would like to reiterate that with 337mm * 329mm * 180mm you can have one 240mm in the front and one on top

I like the idea a lot. I'm using the Cooler Master Elite 361 at the moment and its really packed with evertything inside. Your idea looks great. Where would you ship from if there would be a Kickstarter campaign?

I am in Canada so that's one place but I have presence enough in the EU that we could ship from there as well.

Any news on that idea?

I am torn at the reaction and the push towards watercooling :/ I do not like watercooling.

Oh ok.
But there is no need to use Watercooling. If there are fans in front and back there should be enough airflow for Coolers.

What case are you using at the Moment?