Best SFF ATX

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jamesgalb

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Feb 11, 2015
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What are some of the best and smallest full ATX cases available out there?

Im looking to fit a full ATX board, 3 120mm W/C radiators and a 12" gfx card.

I'd like to find something that looks nice and may eve have a window or look good with case lights.
 
Full ATX? That's an evil omen around here. Do you already have a system and just want to change to a different case, or are you starting a new build?
 
If you're starting a new build, why not go mATX, or better, mITX?

Full ATX is only useful for people doing Tri-fire or tri-SLI for the most part at this point, since onboard audio has gotten pretty good and many boards include a WiFi adapter.
 
jamesgalb said:
What are some of the best and smallest full ATX cases available out there?

Im looking to fit a full ATX board, 3 120mm W/C radiators and a 12" gfx card.

I'd like to find something that looks nice and may eve have a window or look good with case lights.
Click to expand...
Your desire for a small ATX case is at odds with the requirement for three AIOs. If it weren't for that I'd say the Lian Li PC-A55, which is pretty small for ATX at just 32L. But considering the AIO requirement you're probably looking at something in the 40L+ range. Maybe the Corsair Carbide 100R? It's smallish at 40.5L and has a window. Not positive it can take all three AIOs, but it has the three 120mm fan mounts, at least.
 
Corsair 450D. Not the smallest ATX, but it is a mid-tower with outstanding airflow with lots of fan/radiator mounts, and not much bigger than the uATX 350D.
 
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On a serious note, I would've scoffed at building anything smaller than ATX for a LONG time, but I had a realization recently that I hadn't built an SLI setup my previous 2 builds, and half of my motherboard was basically sitting unused. Aside from the RAM slots, I could move down to a mini board and not have any negative effects. With GPUs & CPUs getting ridiculously powerful in recent years, and smaller form factor boards supporting a wider variety of chipsets, there really isn't a reason to stick with large boards anymore. I understand some people want to build crazy OC builds, and more power to them, but for an everyday kickass gaming rig, bigger =/= better anymore.
 
With a bit of mods, the SilverStone GD09 may work for you. It was designed to fit ATX motherboard, ATX PSU, three 120mm fans, and 12.2" long gfx cards all in less than 27 liters size, which is smaller than some of the Mini-ITX cases on the market now.

Otherwise, our PS11 tower case at 42 liters should be your top pick.
 
I can't see getting more than a single 120mm AIO into the GD09. It's an HTPC case, and aside from maybe having a bit better cooling, little different from HTPC cases that have been around for years. The Fractal Design Node 605 is very similar, and even slightly smaller. But again, no room for more than one AIO.
 
GD09 looks nice... Would take a LOT of work to get water cooling to work in it and a custom windowed top (which I think would look sweet for that case)... But seems like the most solid choice in terms of size.
 
Off the shelf, the NZXT S340 would be my choice, at 38 liters it's reasonably small for an ATX. Not exactly SFF though...
 
iFreilicht said:
If you're not hesitant to build it yourself, this could be helpful Full ATX and 2x2x120mm rad space in 20L.
Click to expand...

BTW this concept is AWESOME! I wonder if there could be any demand for a ATX system nearly half the size of other options? Could add a few liters for Water Cooling and this case would make sense thermally for even heafty OCers...

a 20-25L case capable of quad-fire/SLI... :O
 
Just learned about this one, jonsbo makes the RM1, which is just 22L large.
Typical Jonsbo, has very bad ventilation, but it wouldn't be too hard to fix that.
 
ho-lee-shiet....

That case would be tits if there is somehow I way to mount a radiator above the expansion slots...
 
jamesgalb said:
ho-lee-shiet....

That case would be tits if there is somehow I way to mount a radiator above the expansion slots...
Click to expand...

  1. Get a drill and masking tape
  2. Put masking tape on top of case
  3. Draw mounting holes and ventilation hole pattern on masking tape
  4. Drill holes
  5. Mount radiator
  6. ???
  7. Profit!
 
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