Which is the best SFF Case to get regardless of budget? Factors to consider would be performance and/or performance potential, heat and/or overclockability (I think they go together), and size (and maybe little bit for looks). What about best bang for the buck?
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Best SFF Case?
- Thread starter Alai
- Start date
that case is sweeet. The price is kind of heftyPC Design Labs QMicra V2
/thread
. I will consider this for my next build though. 
mrmylanman
[H]ard|Gawd
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The Qmicra is pretty large as well. I really like my SG03 although it does definitely get warm, like most Silverstone mATX cases.
I wouldn't trade it in though, it looks awesome, I just wish it felt a little more solid and had a way from the factory to expel heat other than the PSU.
Shuttles are pretty cool too, if I had the budget I'd hop on one of the X48 chipset ones.
I wouldn't trade it in though, it looks awesome, I just wish it felt a little more solid and had a way from the factory to expel heat other than the PSU.
Shuttles are pretty cool too, if I had the budget I'd hop on one of the X48 chipset ones.
Vengance_01
Supreme [H]ardness
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I echo the P180 mini. Very nice case even though its a bit like a mid tower.
From my somewhat-limited experience, Shuttle Prima series. Plenty of room even though it's tiny, cable management already done for you, room for 3 HDD's, all very well thought out. Mediocre cooling and noise, though.
What surprised me the most, however, is that the CPU heatsink screws onto the actual case - not the motherboard. Probably far more secure for moving it around, and shorts, etc.
Best bang for the buck would be Newegg Open Box Shuttle SP35P2V2. Motherboard, PSU, Case, CPU Heatsink - for 200.99 - more than half off retail price. Mine works like a charm.
What surprised me the most, however, is that the CPU heatsink screws onto the actual case - not the motherboard. Probably far more secure for moving it around, and shorts, etc.
Best bang for the buck would be Newegg Open Box Shuttle SP35P2V2. Motherboard, PSU, Case, CPU Heatsink - for 200.99 - more than half off retail price. Mine works like a charm.
Vengance_01
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not there anymore. I agree the Shuttle P35 V2 is a great barebones.
Just my opinion but the Qmicra v2 is a hands down clear winner when cost is no object. My choice for something a little cheaper? The SG03. I'm not a serious OCer though so there may be other SFF cases that cool better than the SG03 for those heavy intensive OCing people that require better cooling potential and not to mention allow for better hsf. The NZXT Rogue is one possibility but its not small either. The bigger SFF cases should give best performance due to their bigger case fans (and number of fans) and size allotment for hsf.
Edit: Also the larger SFF cases allow for all the various sized video cards. This may or may not be important to the buyer.
Edit: Also the larger SFF cases allow for all the various sized video cards. This may or may not be important to the buyer.
Digging my Silverstone SG01 with windows. Great case still, good cooling for video cards, and with some slight modding, even long graphics cards like 280 GTX will fit. Also very useful are the 4 USB ports at the front, most cases offer only 2 of them. Another nice mod for this case is to use the power supply fan as CPU fan, what I did. So it's fairly quiet, has good cooling and is light wheigt, I'm carrying it around a lot with my Sugo bag.
How do you use powersupply fan as your cpu fan? Doesn't that blow hot PSU air to the CPU?
The Cisco Kid
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I know it's not a "true" SFF, but I'm loving my Antec Mini P180! It's very roomy and I like the footprint.
Doesn't the fan from the PSU serve as an exhaust instead of an intake?
I think he is using a PSU with both an intake fan on the bottom and a exhaust fan on the front(external plug side) of it as well. Still, lol, I don't think I would put much trust into that rig.
I m pretty sure the fan on the bottom of a psu pulls air through and out the back.
[LYL]Homer
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Bang for the buck - I like the SG-01.
Why would you need four ports on the front? Do you really use that many USB peripherals at the same time? I'd rather have things plugged into the back if they're going to remain plugged in.
The SG03 does this w/o any mods. The way the PSU is positioned, it automatically acts as the "CPU fan" and exhausts the CPU's hot air out the back.
mrmylanman
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The SG01 has the same PSU position relative to the CPU so it does it too.
No it's working ok. Got my 6850 overclocked to 3.6 GHz, working stable without any problems. Never have the computer crashing, everything works like a charm. The trick is, to change the power supply fan (original Corsair 620HW fan doesn't spin up enough) for a more efficient one ( Scythe SFlex 1200rpm here) connect to the CPU fan header and you're done. That does increase the air flow through the power supply and compensates a bit for the hotter air coming from the CPU.
[/QUOTE] The SG03 does this w/o any mods. The way the PSU is positioned, it automatically acts as the "CPU fan" and exhausts the CPU's hot air out the back.[/QUOTE]
Yes, but the original power supply fan is meant to cool this device only, so changing it for a stronger one can be better for the CPU cooling. When the CPU gets hotter, the fan must spin up to 100%, the original fan does not do this, because it's not connected with the CPU fan header of the motherboard.
Yes, but the original power supply fan is meant to cool this device only, so changing it for a stronger one can be better for the CPU cooling. When the CPU gets hotter, the fan must spin up to 100%, the original fan does not do this, because it's not connected with the CPU fan header of the motherboard.
monkeynetman
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NZXT Rogue...
He said it was a "mod".
Not sure what you're talking about with that "original power supply fan" comment. Are you saying the SG03 comes with a PSU? I've had four of them and none of them came with a PSU.
The fan in my ST85F doesn't ramp up and if it does it's really quiet. It's a 135mm fan. My Enzotech Extreme-X keeps my G0 Q6600 pretty cool though.
In both SFF cases, SG01 and SG03, the fan of your power supply fan can be used as CPU exhaust fan. But it does spin up and down according to internal power supply temperature readings, not CPU temperature readings. So you're better off connecting the fan to the motherboard CPU fan header. You can either keep the old fan or build in a new one. In either way for this mod you have to disconnect the fan cables from the power supply and connect it with the MB fan header. Might be risky for your power supply ..
mrmylanman
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If the CPU is getting warm, the power supply will get warm as well based on the fact that the heat will be dissipated through the heatsink into the PSU. So if it's based on PSU temps, the fan will get a little slower to ramp up, but it will just the same. Besides if the whole case is hot (with the SG03 this is quite possible) the PSU will be included in that.