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ATX in SFF cube?

G

gobBobo

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 30, 2006
Messages
342
I have become extremely interested in the Cube SFF cases as of late and I'm looking for a good case. The thing is, I want to be able to use my entire existing system and just transfer it to the smaller case if possible.

I wish to put in the following:

ATX Asus a8n-SLI
a single BFG 7900GT OC
2GB XMS DDR400
Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty w/drive panel
SATA Maxtor 200GB
Dvd Burner

I understand that these cases are not designed for ATX boards, but it'd be nice to know if any actually existed that could possible accomodate the board. As far as PSU goes I'm willing to purchase a new one for the case. Which ones are good and what range of Wattage should I be looking for based on these components?
 
Short answer, No, not ever.

Long answer: yes it can be done with heavy modding, someone did it in the case modding forum and fit a DFI board into the QPACK.
 
There are also a handful of ultra-expensive custom plexi cubes you can buy that will fit an ATX board.
 
i love plexi cases. would you happen to know where to find them? i know it'd be silly to do that rather than get an inexpensive case and just a new mobo, but i'd like to check them out anyway.
 
Steeeeve said:
if it uses ATX it kind of rules out it being SFF
Click to expand...
not really; is a qpack thats modded to hold a atx mobo not considered sff anymore even though it's the same size? sff is more the size than the form factor of the mobo, but generally cases that will fit an atx mobo will be too big for the sff stamp.
 
its modded to do so...this guy is talking about something standard.

I don't think its size and the majority of people don't either...we took a poll on it
 
We did this guys and we all came to the conclusion that Dillusion is a deighty. ;)

Anyway, here is one I was thinking of:
http://www.cubedpc.com/thecube.htm
Indefinitely discontinued. :( Should be easy enough to copy though, if you have the tools. Lucite, a glue gun & a dremel at Home Depot.

I have seen another place that does these, but cannot remember where.

Something else:
http://www.crazypc.com/products/81362B.html
 
Thanks guys for all your help. The Bob Slay looks the most promising out of those, while being the cheapest. You've all been a big help and I appreciate it. Now to come up with the $$$ :cool:
 
That bob slay cube does look pretty cool. I've been planning out an SG01 for awhile now but this seems like a viable alternative and allows full atx motherboards. Its not that big either really. Not much bigger than an SG01 turned upright (~ +3" width), which makes me wonder if I could fit it in a reasonably sized backpack.

There are a few things I would rather have on the case if I ever decide to get a slay:

- optional sidepanels/overlays that screw in with the case's acrylic panels to hide some of the uglier internal areas of the case. I like the top-down view and the side views of the motherboard, but alot of the bottom chamber and rear panels just show ugly hardware dump areas in the case imo.

- at least one more 5.25" bay, and maybe a FDD bay or two. There is alot of wasted open space on the case around the bottom. I could use more bays for an audigy sound card panel, fan control panel, hotswap hard drive drive bay perhaps, and an FDD bay or two for a firewire+usb panel and a universal card reader on the front of the case to the right of the 5.25" bays..

------------------------------

I'd prefer one audigy drive panel, one dvd-recorder, one fan control panel, and one harddisk hotswap bay for 5.25" bays. That makes 4. From the pictures it could easily support one more 5.25 bay above the existing two to make three on the front, and I think it could fit a bay on the back above the harddrive area. In fact the harddrive seems to just be floating around in a large square area next to the PSU.
They could integrate a short removable sheetmetal (or acrylic) tower of 5.25" bays there if they wanted to , similar to the one their full-size metal cube cases use for the bare 3.5" harddrives. It would probably be able to fit three 5.25" bays there, like I suggested on the front. This would allow you to put harddrives in the bays on rails, but still have room for 5.25" bay addon options on the front and/or back like hotswap hard drive bays, 5.25" bay harddrive coolers/system exhaust fans, fan controllers, audigy sound card panels, port replicators, etc.

If I had a sheetmetal (or acrylic) 5.25" drive bay three high on the front and back, and one or two FDD bays on the front to the right, with some sheetmetal panels cut perfect for the option to cover up the mess on the bottom layer of the case, it would be awesome. .
 
Heres one of the guys on my home forums with a BobSlay setup ----> http://www.over-clock.com/ivb/index.php?showtopic=16023

Watercooling%20final%20008.jpg
 
Hey thanks for the link.. the pics on it give me a much better idea of the scale next to the stuff on his desk.
 
elvn said:
Hey thanks for the link.. the pics on it give me a much better idea of the scale next to the stuff on his desk.
Click to expand...


No probs mate, he's done a good job :)
 
i can totally see this case housing my pc! lol i can't wait. after i do the build i'll see about posting some pics of mine as well. those of you getting the case also do the same perhaps? :cool:
 
I just ordered the case w/ 2 120mm fans with red leds as well as some red uv cables and a single 120mm fan vent for the intake. It should all be here next week sometime, at which point I'll piece it together and try to take some pics to share with you guys.
 
If I ordered one to the custom specs I mentioned, I might rebuild my home pc with one of these someday, using the handle for perhaps moving it from one desk to another once in awhile in-house only. However right now I'm in the market for a more portable SFF so I think I will go back to my original plan to build an SG01 case with a SUGO dufflebag. The acrylic cube case is small but I don't think that its quite small enough to be carried around in a bag or backpack unobtrusively.
 
I'm still not completely decided about which case to get. I looked around for some carrying cases for the acrylic cube and found a few so far. Its difficult to find cases that fit because most bags are only 7" or 8" wide, unless they are gigantic like a hockey-bag.

Cube Case: 14.59 " L x 11.11" W x 12.21" H

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Picnic Plus Trolley Cooler Combo: 15" wide x 13" deep x 16" high
(Cube Case: 14.59 " L x 11.11" W x 12.21" H)

http://www.dunhamssports.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1323744&cp=1159723.712454&parentPage=family

p1025469dt.jpg


The Picnic Plus Picnic Trolley cooler is a convenient collaspible cooler bagg on wheels with a retractable handle for easy hauling. It offers a large, fully-insulated food compartment and elastic cords to hold additional items.
Retractable handle and rugged wheels
Opens/folds easily
Large, fully-insulated food compartment
Cell phone holder
Elastic cords to hold additional items
Holds up to 42 cans
Dimensions are 15" wide x 13" deep x 16" high



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Igloo Hard Liner Cooler 48: 18.5" L x 11.62" W x 12.5 " H

(Cube Case: 14.59 " L x 11.11" W x 12.21" H)


http://www.igloocoolers.com/products/SoftSides/IglooBasics/2442/


http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/602-8797972-3577418?_encoding=UTF8&frombrowse=1&asin=B000F6SHVI $19.99




• With thick PolarTherm insulation, this soft-sided cooler keeps up to 48 cans nice and frosty
• Adjustable shoulder strap makes toting comfortable
• Outside pockets offer plenty of storage space
• Hard plastic liner comes out for easy cleaning
• 12.5H x 18.5W x 11.62D"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
B000F6SHVI.16._SCLZZZZZZZ_SS384_V55173334_.jpg
 
I'm leaning twd the cube case now if I can get one customized to my liking. The cube is pretty tall but it would fit in that square cooler-bag. Its hard to tell but in the pic the bag seems to have carrying handles on the sides only, other than the extending arm. I'd probably have to add a carrying handle on the top. I would investigate adding a shoulder strap to it also.. By the way from the places I've checked that cooler bag is $35.


The cube-case is probably larger than a mid-tower case but its still pretty easily transportable. It uses width to essentially squash nearly a full tower pc into a relatively small cube. I think I will try it out and if transport doesn't work out with it I can just swap my new rig's parts into an SG-01 and replace my home pc/server case with the cube.
 
my Bob Slay should be arriving today. I'll be sure to take some pics and show ya'll my lil project! (pun intended)
 
Cool I'm looking forward to your feedback and pics. I'd especially like to see how the case looks compared to an average person, carrying it for example.

I'm still undecided on my case.

As I started to outline before -- I'd like them to make their 5.25" bay three high on the front of the case instead of two, and add another bay setup three high on the back, to give me more options. I would load 2 harddrives in the back, one on rails and one on a hotswap bay. The third would be a harddrive cooler bay. On the front I'd have an audigy2 sound panel, a fan control panel, and a writable dvd drive. I also wanted them to cut one or two FDD bays to the right of the 5.25" bays on the front, to allow for adding a multi-card reader, and a port replicator like the SG01 has.


I emailed mountainmods.com once using their webpage form, and later once more from my own email client, asking them about custom modifications to the case. This was over a week ago now. I've yet to hear from them. :(
 
ok here's the link to my pics.



the case was pretty cool, easy to work with, and looks great when finished. the only thing that sucks about it is that my power cords inside almost weren't long enough and that all of the screw holes holding it together do not line up perfectly. plus i ran out of screws...

Pics Here

1 other thing, the cooling is great with this thing! just make sure you order 2x120mm fans cause the case comes with none. my cpu temps have dropped 10 degrees celcius since moving to this case. i'm sure dusting off my cpu fan helped some too though lol.
 
Thanks for the pics its looking good. It gives me a good idea of the size too - much appreciated.

However I might have to seek other acrylic case manufacturers or try to make my own unfortunately since mountainmods never returned any of my email inquiries about the modifications I wanted. :(
 
I was thinking that if I had to I could order the bob slay case and then bring the front and back plates to a local acrylic cutting shop for my custom cuts. I will first contact mountainmods by phone later today in a last attempt at getting some answers about them customizing the case for me though. It would be easier for them to do it, and they could easily supply the extra 5.25" bay mounts and cut a few pieces of brushed steel to cover the bottom like I wanted.
 
There is a Old School YY Cube case that ain't little as SFF but it's a cube and different.
You can build in whole server in it.




MD
 
I called mountainmods today and they told me they could do all the modifications I wanted, and gave me a ballpark figure for each mod. The mods I want all add up but its not too bad. I'm going to write them an email detailing the modifications I went over on the phone with them so they can give me some exact figures in writing. The guy I talked with seemed like a cool guy and answered all my questions. When I mentioned my previous emails he told me that his web server mail had been acting up last week and that it should work fine now.

I'm going to get the three-high 5.25" bays on the front and back, and he suggested that I get the 3.5" bays I wanted cut vertically (sideways) to save room. He said that drives back to back would be very tight since its only 13" front to back. I told him it wouldn't be a problem since I plan on putting the harddrives(on rails) on top and bottom layer on the back bays, and the dvd recordable on the middle bay of the front. The other two (top and bottom) front bays will have a fan control panel and the audigy sound panel, which aren't long. The back middle panel will most likely be a harddrive cooling panel short enough to fit vs the dvd drive on the front. That or I'll install some sort of grill and a crossflow-fan.

The steel panels I was thinking of getting cut to fit the bottom half of the case are too cost prohibitive unfortunately. He suggested a cheaper alternative of screw or rivet mounted 1/8" black acrylic panels for the bottom level that I want to conceal. I'm still considering that. I don't think you can paint acrylic very easily and durably or I would paint the bottom layer myself. My other option I just thought of would be to have the whole case done in black acrylic or perhaps leaving only the top panel itself clear, but I do like the idea of being able to see the entire top layer of the case with the motherboard. :confused:
 
that sounds like quite a project. I've always wanted a black acrylic case, but the only one i ever found they stopped selling. keep this in mind when determining where to put your 5.25" drives. i was going to put my x-fi sound panel on the bottom as well, with the dvd burner above it. BUT the mounting holes are on the bottom of the case and there are no holes there on the sound panel, so i have to settle with the dvd burner being on the bottom.
 
Thanks for the heads up on that bottom-mount issue. When I called mountainmods they had mentioned that to me but its still cool of you to have pointed that out in case I didn't still hadn't found out.

For the 5.25" bays I'm going to put the DVD-RW on the bottom, a hot-swap HD bay on top of that, and the X-Fi Fatal1ty panel on the custom 3rd bay at the top. Alternately I skip the hotswap bay and use an acrylic panel there until I get the hotswap drive bay or an LCD readout panel that supports winamp or something.

I'm going to see if they can fit three 3.5" bays on the right front of the case. When I called they mentioned that things mount on the bottom, so they suggested that the 3.5" bays be mounted vertically instead of the standard horizontal, using a custom acrylic plate similar to their harddrive racks across the top of them. That works fine for me. Those bays will hold a 3.5" fan controller panel, a combo floppy + multi card reader, and a silverstone 3.5" port replicator. If I have to settle for two 3.5" bays, I'll drop the port replicator since the motherboard ports aren't all that far away on right side of the case.

I decided to stick with their rear harddrive setup as-is with the addition of their 3-high 3.5" harddrive mount kit - since after further investigation I realized there really isn't much room to play with larger bays. However I had still considered having another 120mm fan hole cut back there but hopefully that won't be necessary. The drives are so close to the PSU fan that I'm hoping it just flushes that heat via the PSU right out of the back.

The more I looked at (and found more) pictures of nice slay cube setups, the more I like the overall clear case. I still might get the black acrylic panels as a removable addon-option though, using thumbscrews. Its funny you mention black acrylic case, because I'm sure they could make one of these entirely out of black acrylic if you wanted. The see-through look of the top-layer motherboard components always looked cool to me so I wouldn't want to lose that personally. I just didn't like some of the mess on the bottom layer of the case at first, but its grown on me. In the proper setup the overall clear look is pretty cool so thats what I'm going with after all.

Another thing I did was build a cardboard box to the dimensions of the slay cube. I'm really pleased with the size. I had measured it out before but its not the same as having a mockup that I could move around. I'm really looking forward to building this box.

I just finished ordering all the computer parts besides the case tonight so now its time to wait for shipping.

:)
 
I haven't had any luck contacting mountain mods for 5 days. I don't know if their email server is screwed up or maybe the owner is on vacation or something. I even called mountainmods on the phone several times on different days, and all I get is their answering machine telling me the phone hours time window (which I called during for several days).

All my other pc parts should arrive in the next few days. I had some freetime coming up that I wanted to use to build the pc but now its not looking good without a case. :( Since I ordered a full atx motherboard my portable case options are pretty limited too.

I'll try to call mountainmods again today. They haven't returned any of my calls even though I left 2 contact numbers and my email address on several occasions. I suppose mountain mods might be a one-man show and he is out of town, but if so it would be nice if he updated his answering machine and web page to reflect that.
 
Update:

I did get a hold of mountain mods eventually. I was right, it seems like a small custom operation and the main dude was on vacation a week or so. I just had bad timing.

I ended up ordering the slay cube modified to three 5.25" bays high , and two or three 3.5" bays to the right of it. The extra bays are to allow for the control panels, etc I mentioned above. I also requested mounting a three-high acrylic harddrive rack to the bottom of the case where the harddrives go so I can use my harddrive cooler heatsink+fans.

The mockup cardboard box I made 'slay cube sized' shows me just how small the cube is. It should turn out really cool. I think I'm going to be glad I opted for this full atx "sff". For now I have my pc parts in a mid-tower case. I'll post pics of the cube when I get it installed.
 
We have our review sample from Mountain Mods that we took to QuakeCon this year before publishing review to see how good would it work as a portable/LAN party PC. Let me tell you, it was GREAT. The handle was perfect for carrying it around and having full size hardware in there is a huge plus. Let us all know how you like it.
 
did you receive yours pre-assembled or did you guys have to assemble it? i only ask because there were some alignment issues with the screw holes when assembling mine.
 
"did you receive yours pre-assembled or did you guys have to assemble it? i only ask because there were some alignment issues with the screw holes when assembling mine."

The trick is not to tighten anything until all the screws are in. Then manipulate panel in place and tighten. If you tighten the first screw you place in the hole you lose the ability to move the panel.
 
I wanted to make sure all the custom modifications I ordered were going to install correctly so I ordered mine pre-assembled. I had already added to the cost with my modifications so I figured I'd go the full route. Addin shipping charges it turned out to be a chunk of change but I think it will be worth it.

My case should arrive early next week. :cool:
 
onekewlchip said:
"did you receive yours pre-assembled or did you guys have to assemble it? i only ask because there were some alignment issues with the screw holes when assembling mine."

The trick is not to tighten anything until all the screws are in. Then manipulate panel in place and tighten. If you tighten the first screw you place in the hole you lose the ability to move the panel.
Click to expand...

yep that's what i'm having to do, but on each side there is still at least one hole that does not align at all. i've even tried multiple screw blocks. oh well, i was just wondering if others had the issue as well.

elvn - i believe you will find it will be worth it. the case rocks!
 
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