Case for Research Computing

[dergreg]

So, I work in a research environment that sometimes requires some very... unique... hardware. I'm looking for a mid-tower case with room for some VERY(450mm and larger) long PCI/PCIe/ISA cards that we can keep around for any potential issues we run in to.

I haven't found anything in the form factor that will really fit our needs, so I don't even have an example.

We may go HAF 922 and mod out the drive rails if necessarily, but that is neither elegant nor ideal.

 

[rflcptr]

how big is the motherboard? what's the maximum length of one of these expansion cards?

 

[dergreg]

The motherboard(in this case) is a full-ATX board. Cards can get relatively long, perhaps longer than 450mm; this is more for future proofing than anything at this point. We'd like to be prepared.

 

[mi7chy]

That's going to be somewhat rare considering the PCI-SIG standard for the longest full length card is 312mm.

Nevertheless, some Lian-Li cases accommodate up to 440mm but you probably want to verify how many slots you need and where they line up inside the case for clearing power supply, hard drive cage, case fan, etc.

http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-v700/

http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-6/

 

[dergreg]

Nice.Thanks. I didn't even think about Lian-Li.

Also, the larger cards tend to be ISA and are VERY uncommon for us to deal with.