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SFF case hunt...

L

Llathos

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 16, 2005
Messages
151
So here are my humble requirements...

Portable without a carrying strap
Inexpensive (<$100)
Accepts standard PSU, optical drives, and accomodates an 8800GTS G92
eSata ports


Does it exist? The closest is the NZXT Rogue, but it's too big and too expensive, frankly.

A friend of mine got an Ultra Silver MicroFly and has been very happy with it. It's extremely inexpensive (< $50), but sometimes you get what you pay for. Anyone tried this case?

Am I being unreasonable?:)
 
The Microfly has what you are looking for, except an external eSATA header. If you can get past that, it's pretty hard to beat.

The build quality is much better than one would expect for a <$75 case. My only issue is that the motherboard tray is kind of flimsy.. It is, afterall, a piece of stamped aluminum with a 90 degree bend.
 
I had the x gene mini, which is exactly the same but not the same front panel. It was good. But it really needed the vents for the 120mm fan in the front. So i think it would be alot better with the aerocool panel.
 
Llathos said:
Anyone got any experience with the Aerocool M40?

http://www.pro-clockers.com/review.php?id=311&page=1

Cost is about 15% more than the Ultra MicroFly, but has a snazzy LCD and a 120mm intake and room for 3 80mm output fans, full PSU and optical, etc.

Looks pretty decent, though the wiring setup looks bizarre to me...
Click to expand...

Okay, after reading the review and just going by it alone I'd say its a decent SFF case but it does have some disadvanteges. SFF cases always do. No e-SATA and no FireWire. This may or may not be important to the user. three 80mm fans in the back are nice but 92mm or 120mm would be better. The two important things I wanted to really know more of is how big of a hsf and a video card can you get into it? The reviewer said 'around' 4" (thats 101mm) for the hsf but thats not accurate enough for my liking and no mention of how big (long) of a video card you can fit in it. A real shame the reviewer didnt cover this about video card length.

Its about the size of the Ultra Microfly. $80-$90 to the Microfly's $120 price (some models go up to $160). Before giving a final opinion I'd want to know how big a hsf and video card the M40 can hold. If it can hold the 8800GTX/Ultra sized cards then it'd be a case worth looking into.
 
Skott said:
Okay, after reading the review and just going by it alone I'd say its a decent SFF case but it does have some disadvanteges. SFF cases always do. No e-SATA and no FireWire. This may or may not be important to the user. three 80mm fans in the back are nice but 92mm or 120mm would be better. The two important things I wanted to really know more of is how big of a hsf and a video card can you get into it? The reviewer said 'around' 4" (thats 101mm) for the hsf but thats not accurate enough for my liking and no mention of how big (long) of a video card you can fit in it. A real shame the reviewer didnt cover this about video card length.

Its about the size of the Ultra Microfly. $80-$90 to the Microfly's $120 price (some models go up to $160). Before giving a final opinion I'd want to know how big a hsf and video card the M40 can hold. If it can hold the 8800GTX/Ultra sized cards then it'd be a case worth looking into.
Click to expand...
I fit a cnps 9500 in mine after I cut the little holes on the second level out.
 
The 9500 is a good hsf. If it fits that then you should get some really good cooling going on the cpu. How big are the holes you had to cut and was it hard to do?
 
Can anyone who owns an M40 tell me what the clearance is for the PSU to the HD rack?

Someone on newegg mentioned it was only 140mm...which is hard to imagine.

I've got two PSU's laying around and I intended to use one. One is 167mm and the other is 165mm. Are they really 25+mm too long?

The case details said it accepted a full sized PSU...
 
Actually the hdd cage is wayy to close to the psu, its pretty hard to get the cables to be connected cus they will be right up against the psu. I just used the 3.5 bay holder and one of the 5.25 bays.
 
That's actually enough to make me want to change out for a NZXT Rogue. I planned on putting in 3 drives and 2 optical devices....so simply not being able to use the drive cage isn't acceptable...and certainly not for $90 + shipping.

With the Rogue, I'm looking at

1) eSata ports
2) No conflicts with full sized PSU
3) Plenty of space for the components I want
4) Better cooling
5) Sadly...another $40 in cost after mail in rebate

Hmm...
 
go with the rogue! You can put a huge power supply in it because it has a extender for the psu.
 
why dont u take a thermaltake lanbox lite ?? it cost aroudn 80 euro here but probably be also around 80 dollar there...
i have it it can even use the 8800 ultra (u need to make a little adjustment) 8800 gts wil fit perfectly
but no ESATA on it :S
 
nafraq said:
why dont u take a thermaltake lanbox lite ?? it cost aroudn 80 euro here but probably be also around 80 dollar there...
i have it it can even use the 8800 ultra (u need to make a little adjustment) 8800 gts wil fit perfectly
but no ESATA on it :S
Click to expand...

The Lanbox Lite isn't a bad choice... downsides are it's a little bigger, fans are 60mm and 90mm (so your choice of aftermarket fan will be more limited than cases with 80mm and 120mm fans), and it can fit an 8800GTS/GTX as long as your PCI-Express x16 slot is the one closest to the CPU socket (which rules out motherboards like the ASUS P5E-VM).
 
Aerocool M40: arrangement of the hard disks enclosure.

With the power supply which I used W150 x L140 x H86, the space between that and the hard disks enclosure was 3.5cm which is ridiculous. Why on earth didn't they place the enclosure further forward - there's a 2.5cm space in front the enclosure. In the end I decided to dispense with the enclosure, turn the hard disks flat side down and fit them on a home made plastic "bridge" between a ridge on the inside of the case and the 5.25" enclosures. I also placed them forward using the 2.5cm headroom to give me a decent space behind to connect them up.
 
@ nray not really gts can be fitted on any spot theres enough room for it, with a gtx yea true u need a pciex16 closest to the cpu in order to do that.. (running a P5E-VM HDMI with a Gainward 1gb 8800GT Golden Sample(gts size))
and i even have 2x60mm 1x90mm 2x80mm and 1x70mm so u can fit alot more in it just have to improvise a little :p but yea the case is bigger then the average SFF case...
 
nafraq said:
@ nray not really gts can be fitted on any spot theres enough room for it, with a gtx yea true u need a pciex16 closest to the cpu in order to do that.. (running a P5E-VM HDMI with a Gainward 1gb 8800GT Golden Sample(gts size))
and i even have 2x60mm 1x90mm 2x80mm and 1x70mm so u can fit alot more in it just have to improvise a little :p but yea the case is bigger then the average SFF case...
Click to expand...

Hmm, could you post pics? I'm trying to picture it, and things must be *really* tight in your case... look what you have to do if you try to put a GTX in that case:

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/77909585/m/222005907831
 
yea i will try to post sum pics soon,its indeed a little packed right now
mostly caus of my zalman fan controller :S damn bunch of wires but i removed the hdd bay so i could put 2 extra 80mm fans there , putted my hdd in 3.5 inch bay and fitted a 70 mm at the bottom of the 3.5 inch bay the blow the air straight against hdd and the optical drives it all just fits ill try to post sum pics in a day or 2
 
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