• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Absolute Minimal mATX Low Profile Case

B

BecauseScience

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 9, 2005
Messages
1,047
I'm in search of a tiny mATX case that supports:

  1. all four low profile cards allowed by the mATX spec
  2. one 2.5" drive

But not:

  1. conventional power supply
  2. 3.5" drives
  3. 5.25" drives
  4. full size cards

It should be around 10 x 10 inches and 3-5 inches high. Power will come from a picoPSU style dc-dc converter so there's no need to waste space on a conventional mATX / flexATX psu. Ideally, the space provided for the 2.5" drive will fully overlap the motherboard.

The result should be very similar to the M350 ITX case but large enough for an mATX board and with a low profile four slot card cage.

The Cooler Master Elite 100 seems to come the closest. Too bad they decided to put a conventional psu in there. The Elite 100 would be exactly what I'm looking for if the psu was gone and a low profile card cage was put in it's place. It could be a couple inches shorter front to back but I could live with it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119211
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cases/display/mini-itx-cases-roundup_4.html

Low profile desktop cases like the IN WIN BL series have a low profile card cage but they add 3-4 unnecessary inches to accommodate a psu and drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811108065

The IN WIN BK series is close. I could live with the extra width lost to full height cards if the bottom area that holds the psu and drive cage was gone.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811108191

Has anyone ever see anything like what I've described?
 
mtrupi said:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4627627&CatId=3429
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147098

Looks like they are the same thing with a different bezel.
Click to expand...

Yea if you google DM-387 you'll see that there are quite a few different "manufacturers" selling that same case. It's nice and thin but it's far too long (back to front) for me. Newegg lists it as 15.8 plus bezel and that's at least another inch judging from pictures.

I absolutely need under 11 inches back to front including bezel. The IN WIN BK's are the closest I've seen.
 
Apparently, some of the larger mini-ITX cases also support mini-DTX. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-DTX

Some of the smallest mATX boards are also mini-DTX compliant even though it's not mentioned in the specs. Example:

Foxconn G41S-K LGA 775 Intel G41 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186178

If your board is a little over the mini-DTX spec it looks like you can often squeeze it in by ditching a drive cage or tossing the psu and replacing with a picoPSU. You may lose a slot in the process.

There are a decent number of mini-DTX compatible caes that come in near my size requirement.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top