Recommendation for mATX chassis

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sc5mu93

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Wanting to rehome my mATX build but I am so out of the loop on the good enclosure solutions.
I'm looking for mid tower (non ATX or larger). mATX boards or itx. Top mount 240 radiator. Limited or no RGB. and no glass.

I was looking at fractal define mini C as it checks most of those boxes, but for the life of me, I cannot find an image or clear indication that top mounted AIO radiator is supported.
(Product page says "240 and 120 mm, max component height on motherboard 40mm" - i'm not sure what that means). I have a fractal 240mm AIO that I want to transplant into the new chassis.

Is anyone else aware of other chassis options that check these boxes, that may be a better buy?
 
sc5mu93 said:
Wanting to rehome my mATX build but I am so out of the loop on the good enclosure solutions.
I'm looking for mid tower (non ATX or larger). mATX boards or itx. Top mount 240 radiator. Limited or no RGB. and no glass.

I was looking at fractal define mini C as it checks most of those boxes, but for the life of me, I cannot find an image or clear indication that top mounted AIO radiator is supported.
(Product page says "240 and 120 mm, max component height on motherboard 40mm" - i'm not sure what that means). I have a fractal 240mm AIO that I want to transplant into the new chassis.

Is anyone else aware of other chassis options that check these boxes, that may be a better buy?
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that 40mm thing means the components at the top of the board in the area where the rad+fans will hang. so stuff like vrm heat sinks and i/o covers. what board you got?
 
sc5mu93 said:
ASUS Prime Z690M-Plus D4
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k. so you need to measure the stuff in this area to make sure nothing is over 40mm 'cause the fans will overhang there at least. i think that is what it is trying to say...
edit: including ram
1643857861373.png
 
pendragon1 said:
k. so you need to measure the stuff in this area to make sure nothing is over 40mm 'cause the fans will overhang there at least. i think that is what it is trying to say...
edit: including ram
View attachment 440091
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Thanks for interpreting that for me. Ugh, so that cable header has to fit under the radiator. Assembly has to be very purposeful. 4cm may be do able. I will measure.
thanks.
 
sc5mu93 said:
Thanks for interpreting that for me. Ugh, so that cable header has to fit under the radiator. Assembly has to be very purposeful. 4cm may be do able. I will measure.
thanks.
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yup just have to get assembly order right and shouldnt be an issue. mobo in and then connect psu and anything near the top first.
 
also looking at Coolermaster Silencio S400.
looks like it MAY have a little more clearance at the top, but my some reviews, the thermals arent that great. Assuming board will fit in either, I'm looking at both features/performance as a wash. Should I chose on price and move on with my life, or is there something I am missing? Is there another chassis that is a WAY better deal/configuration that I am missing?

In some ways, I really miss being able to walk down the aisle at Frys and pick out my new PC Clone beige case -since they were all were pretty much the same outside of the front plastic moulding...

​

 
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sc5mu93 said:
also looking at Coolermaster Silencio S400.
looks like it MAY have a little more clearance at the top, but my some reviews, the thermals arent that great. Assuming board will fit in either, I'm looking at both features/performance as a wash. Should I chose on price and move on with my life, or is there something I am missing? Is there another chassis that is a WAY better deal/configuration that I am missing?

In some ways, I really miss being able to walk down the aisle at Frys and pick out my new PC Clone beige case -since they were all were pretty much the same outside of the front plastic moulding...

​

Click to expand...
anything "silence" wont be quite as good at cooling.
 
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I find the mATX factor doesn't have a lot of new cases. All the new cases have glass.

Define mini C and Silencio S400 are the only ones I am aware of. There is the old Coolermaster n200, but it will only take a front rad.

The Silencio S400 has a horrible PSU filter design. You actually need to get underneath the case to remove it. It does not slide out from either the front or back.
 
3dprophet said:
I find the mATX factor doesn't have a lot of new cases. All the new cases have glass.

Define mini C and Silencio S400 are the only ones I am aware of. There is the old Coolermaster n200, but it will only take a front rad.

The Silencio S400 has a horrible PSU filter design. You actually need to get underneath the case to remove it. It does not slide out from either the front or back.
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why does case makers (and motherboard makers) hate mATX? i find the selection of both cases and boards lacking. some of us dont want ITX and dont need eATX.
 
current trend is glass, so most are. could you like with smoked glass?
 
sc5mu93 said:
why does case makers (and motherboard makers) hate mATX? i find the selection of both cases and boards lacking. some of us dont want ITX and dont need eATX.
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I believe a big reason ATX held on for so long is SLI support. I'd hoped that mATX might take off given that most people have little need for expansion cards anymore (it's mostly USB now) and SLI is no longer a thing. But those who wanted small went all the way to mITX or laptops. Builders of regular systems stuck with ATX mostly for case size, I believe, for better support for more fans/larger radiators. Also, ATX simply has a lot of inertia behind it. And, the deletion of 5.25" bays plus the adoption of SSDs/reduction of HDD space has done a fair bit to shrink the size of the typical ATX case.

Very few consumer-level mainboards are eATX. Maybe some HEDT (Threadripper, Core-X). It's more of a workstation/server thing.
 
BlueLineSwinger said:
Very few consumer-level mainboards are eATX. Maybe some HEDT (Threadripper, Core-X). It's more of a workstation/server thing.
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According to PC partpicker there are 6 E-ATX boards for intel Z690 vs 5 M-ATX and 5 mini-ITX.

Manufacturers of mobo's tend to go E-ATX on some of their higher end baords

I built one M-ATX pc so far, was in an NZXT case, was barely smaller then my regular case, case was nice but I would not build my main PC in one of those due to space constraints but for a basic pc they are more then fine.
 
sc5mu93 said:
also looking at Coolermaster Silencio S400.
looks like it MAY have a little more clearance at the top, but my some reviews, the thermals arent that great. Assuming board will fit in either, I'm looking at both features/performance as a wash. Should I chose on price and move on with my life, or is there something I am missing? Is there another chassis that is a WAY better deal/configuration that I am missing?

In some ways, I really miss being able to walk down the aisle at Frys and pick out my new PC Clone beige case -since they were all were pretty much the same outside of the front plastic moulding...

​

Click to expand...

I have the NR400 which is the meshier version of the Silencio. It has room up top for a 240mm AIO. At least I've put one up there after removing the drive cage.
 
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The price isn't too bad for the Alta G1M . https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GVS5LBD

It has a nice footprint, Supports mATX , seems like good AIO and air cooling support and support for todays gigantic GPUs with no riser to deal with. Double bonus for no tempered glass! I like it.
 
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Let us know what you decide. I'm also considering a micro-ATX case for re-homing some parts from an HP Omen. I'd be interested to hear what you get and how it


sc5mu93 said:
I have a fractal 240mm AIO that I want to transplant into the new chassis.
Click to expand...
Which one, Lumen or Celsius? I've been looking at the two along with others.
 
JonCZ said:
Let us know what you decide. I'm also considering a micro-ATX case for re-homing some parts from an HP Omen. I'd be interested to hear what you get and how it



Which one, Lumen or Celsius? I've been looking at the two along with others.
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Celsius.
 
JonCZ said:
Happy with it? I'm highly considering it, I really like Fractal products. Never had an AIO before though
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It does the job. I generally don't push the PC that it is in that frequently. I use it primarily for VR, and as a server for Steam In Home Streaming. I wanted something relatively quiet and non-rgb. discrete to be put in the corner and forgotten. so in that respect, it has been very good.
 
I'm gonna bring this back up instead of creating a whole new thread for just about exactly the same topic. I'm still looking for a case, mATX mini tower, RGB either built in or compatible, but it doesn't have to be overkill. I don't really want a mid-tower and I prefer not to do mini-ITX if I can avoid it.

I really like the ThermalTake Level 20 VT. I've also looked at the Core V21. I could see myself using either of these.
I also liked the darkFlash DLM21, but it's out of stock.

I've been looking over the last couple days and haven't really found anything that makes me say 'that's the one!' or something to that effect, because in reality there are lots of good options out there. Maybe I'm also a bit picky or indecisive when it comes to cases, but in a way I believe the case is the most important part of a quality PC build.

Does anyone have any suggestions, or comments about the cases mentioned? I'd appreciate them.
 
I currently use a Silverstone SG09 in my setup, and I'm thinking to upgrade as well (to something with better overall thermals/noise). It's about as compact as an mATX case can get while still having a full CPU cooler and high end components, but I'd like a little more versatility. Personally I'm looking at the Lian Li O11 Air Mini, and using it with the 5-slot backplate configuration. It's bigger than my current case but still small-ish compared to most standard mid towers.

There really aren't a lot of cases that prioritize the mATX form factor anymore, and it's a shame.
 
Choopyplz said:
I currently use a Silverstone SG09 in my setup, and I'm thinking to upgrade as well (to something with better overall thermals/noise). It's about as compact as an mATX case can get while still having a full CPU cooler and high end components, but I'd like a little more versatility. Personally I'm looking at the Lian Li O11 Air Mini, and using it with the 5-slot backplate configuration. It's bigger than my current case but still small-ish compared to most standard mid towers.

There really aren't a lot of cases that prioritize the mATX form factor anymore, and it's a shame.
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That Lian Li Air Mini looks awesome.

I agree, I wish mATX cases were more common. Some of us don't want larger towers but also don't want to deal with mITX. It seems like ThermalTake has the most mATX-specific options that I've seen so far, Fractal has a few, but many of their cases are designed to be just big enough to accommodate standard ATX while still being right on the line of 'mini' and getting away with it. I've been tempted to go with a Fractal case for a number of reasons, but most of their cases, even 'compact' or 'mini' variants, are larger than what I'm looking for.
 
applegrcoug said:
While not perfect, the cooler master N200 can take a big rad in the front....
Click to expand...

I initially liked the comment because I was thinking of the NR400 instead of the N200. Although, I've used the N200 also, it's not quite as nice as the NR400. The NR400 is a solid mATX chassis.

Might even be able to get a 240mm AIO in the top depending on the RAM you use or if you use slim fans.
 
Have also been looking at the nr400, as well as the silverstone rl08. The latter is slightly over-fancy for my taste, but ,if I understand correctly, is still being produced in Taiwan , which has my preference, and I prefer a somewhat higher build quality than that of budget lines.

Problem is, the rl08 seems to have disappeared here (Japan), so I am again looking around for other alternatives (matx, optical drive bay preferred). I am not in too much of a hurry, thanks to the current situation^TM pricing of other components, but would still like to at least start building a system this year ^_^
 
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sc5mu93 said:
why does case makers (and motherboard makers) hate mATX? i find the selection of both cases and boards lacking. some of us dont want ITX and dont need eATX.
Click to expand...

Probably because, according to what several mobo makers have told Dan D, mATX systems never had a significant share in the DIY space; and the smaller OEMs/boutique makers who do use it are probably happy with only a handful of options to keep their supply chains simple.

https://hardforum.com/threads/why-arent-itx-motherboards-cheaper-than-matx.2018281/post-1045303812 (more context available in the thread above/below the post I quoted from)
Dan_D said:
DIY has been mostly ATX since it very quickly displaced the AT form factor back in the day. mATX was never very popular in the DIY space to begin with. I'd say mATX builders have primarily either dropped out or went to mITX. With the death of multiGPU systems and the increase in integration of motherboard features, mATX just isn't all that appealing anymore. People who opted for mATX often did so because it either predated mITX or they wanted something smaller but still required some expandability. From a motherboard manufacturer's standpoint, mATX is cheaper to produce than mITX. It doesn't require a full redesign compared to full sized ATX motherboards. They only need to redesign the bottom half of the motherboard rather than the whole thing.
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chameleoneel said:
Sliger Cerberus. Its the same size as the NR200----but supports MATX. Side mounted radiator or you can put a full fat Noctua in there.
https://www.sliger.com/products/cases/cerberus/

These seem pretty good. I almost bought one recently:
https://www.amazon.com/PC-Case-Desktop-Computer-Mid-Tower-Supporting/dp/B09794CB4X/ref=sr_1_6?crid=367N0X7H019AH&keywords=zzew+c3&qid=1647552342&sprefix=zzew+c3,aps,116&sr=8-6
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I had a Cerberus. I wasn't impressed. It's basically just a NR200 with mATX support at 4x's the price. I would buy one at $99. I wouldn't buy one at $245 or whatever they are charging now. It's also somewhat taller than the NR200 and slightly narrower.

Also, the cooler height is severely restricted with the Cerberus. I think the max height is 149mm vs. 158 or so in the NR200. You can generally fit a 120mm tower cooler in a NR200, but you can't in the Cerberus.
 
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kirbyrj said:
I had a Cerberus. I wasn't impressed. It's basically just a NR200 with mATX support at 4x's the price. I would buy one at $99. I wouldn't buy one at $245 or whatever they are charging now.
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Sligers are expensive. But....I had an NR200 and the holes for the power supply mount weren't in alignment with the mount itself. The paint job is soft. The mounts for fans at the top is really dumb. No USB-C up front. Also....it doesn't support MATX.

I have a Sliger S610 and love it. I wish it didn't cost so much. But, the quality is higher than cooler master. and it sticks to what you would expect or what's actually functional, for mounting stuff.
 
kirbyrj said:
I had a Cerberus. I wasn't impressed. It's basically just a NR200 with mATX support at 4x's the price. I would buy one at $99. I wouldn't buy one at $245 or whatever they are charging now. It's also somewhat taller than the NR200 and slightly narrower.

Also, the cooler height is severely restricted with the Cerberus. I think the max height is 149mm vs. 158 or so in the NR200. You can generally fit a 120mm tower cooler in a NR200, but you can't in the Cerberus.
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Cerberus fits a Noctua NH-D15 ****actually, it doesn't! I assumed it did, because the S620 ITX case does. guess they need to update the Cerberus. Hmm!
 
chameleoneel said:
Cerberus fits a Noctua NH-D15
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There's no way mine would have fit a D15 and gotten the side panel on. I barely got a Fuma in there and it's much smaller. Maybe they have a different revision?

The specs on their site say max height 149mm or 142mm if you have the side hinge installed. It only goes down from there.

And I actually used the top fan mounts in the NR200 to create a chimney effect. If Sliger made a case that was identical to the NR200 just higher quality, I would buy it. I think the NR200 is a better case overall from the design standpoint. The biggest problem is the Sliger just isn't wide enough to accommodate a larger air cooler. And if CM made a slightly larger mATX case, I'd be interested also.
 
kirbyrj said:
There's no way mine would have fit a D15 and gotten the side panel on. I barely got a Fuma 2 in there and it's much smaller. Maybe they have a different revision?

The specs on their site say max height 149mm or 142mm if you have the side hinge installed. It only goes down from there.

And I actually used the top fan mounts in the NR200 to create a chimney effect. If Sliger made a case that was identical to the NR200 just higher quality, I would buy it. I think the NR200 is a better case overall from the design standpoint.
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I was able to JUST fit a Scythe Mugen 5 Rev. B into the NR200. The original Fuma 2 would have worked. But I think the Fuma 2 Rev. B is taller :(

Cerberus should be great for AIO cooling, though. Looks like even a 280mm would be easy in there.
 
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