Advantages of going micro ATX

dalehitchy1 · 14 Dec 2014 at 19:23

I have this beast of a case
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2010/05/cooler-master-haf-x-and-the-future/haf-x-official-large.jpg

Whilst some of you would like the room to work with inside this case ... I personally detest the size of the case and its grill look lol. To be perfectly honest... I don't know why I bought it those many years ago.

I'm thinking of doing an upgrade and was thinking of buying a new mobo, cpu and case. I really like the look of the corsair air 240. Currently have i5 750. Are there any disadvantages with micro atx boards and cases? I have never built a mATX PC before... I can only imagine the disadvantages being less expansion slots, not as good air flow, and less room to work with.

As I only run a single GPU and want a smaller build... I think it would be better for me. What do you guys think? Was thinking of devils canyon i5, Asus gryphon mobo and air 250. Cant link at the moment I'm on my phone.

ali_83 · 14 Dec 2014 at 19:34

My current build is a mATX setup built around a Corsair 350D case. The case itself is really nice, I like its understated looks. I'm not a fan of extravagant cases so the 350D met my requirements on that front. I've got a Akasa Vegas white light in there and it lights up the case really nice.

The big one was fitting everything into the case, although stepping up from a BitFenix Prodigy ITX build it felt huge by comparison. I don't have much room under my desk so a small case was essential and the 350D fit that perfectly as its also quite narrow.

Squeezing everything in is tough as like a fool I bought a massive aircooler which doesn't leave much room in the case, in fact there is a couple of mm between the top of the cooler and the side panel. It also leaves a gap of 2mm between the cooler and the GPU so I will be swapping to either an AIO or a custom loop down the line. My system is quite a squeeze with everything in and to be honest I could have done a better job with component selection and cable management. I keep meaning to sort it out properly but might wait until I have a better cooling solution, probably rebuild it from the ground up at that point.

I have the same motherboard that you are considering, although I went for the i7 package off here with the amour edition of the gryphon. Its a nice little board and does what I need it to without any fuss.

I can't comment on the Corsair 240 Air or 250D as I havnt seen them in the flesh but if the build quality is anything like my 350D then they will be nice to work in and nicely made (in my opinion of course).

Mattus · 14 Dec 2014 at 22:06

I never thought I'd give up my tower case, but I'm an mATX convert. My current system (Silverstone SG10):

Advantages are that it looks nicer (IMO), takes up much less space, and is much more portable if that matters to you.

Main disadvantages, as you say, are lack of room for expansion and lack of room to work in. I don't see either as a major issue though. You can get two high-end GPUs, four HDDs (two SSD and two mechanical) and a fairly beefy air cooler into that case. That's all the expansion most people need. You're going to have issues if you have custom watercooling or half a dozen HDDs, but that's not really the target market for an mATX case!

It is fiddly to build in for sure. I can see it getting annoying for someone who is always switching hardware out. If you rarely rebuild your PC it is fine, and actually quite satisfying to put together!

Airflow is fine. It runs cooler than the P182 it replaced. It's only an i5 and HD7850 though. I can see an i7 and SLI getting a bit toasty.

dalehitchy1 · 14 Dec 2014 at 22:14

Mattus said:
I never thought I'd give up my tower case, but I'm an mATX convert. My current system (Silverstone SG10):

Advantages are that it looks nicer (IMO), takes up much less space, and is much more portable if that matters to you.

Main disadvantages, as you say, are lack of room for expansion and lack of room to work in. I don't see either as a major issue though. You can get two high-end GPUs, four HDDs (two SSD and two mechanical) and a fairly beefy air cooler into that case. That's all the expansion most people need. You're going to have issues if you have custom watercooling or half a dozen HDDs, but that's not really the target market for an mATX case!

It is fiddly to build in for sure. I can see it getting annoying for someone who is always switching hardware out. If you rarely rebuild your PC it is fine, and actually quite satisfying to put together!

Airflow is fine. It runs cooler than the P182 it replaced. It's only an i5 and HD7850 though. I can see an i7 and SLI getting a bit toasty.

Thanks for the info. I think that some of the issues you pointed out will be none existent for me if I go with the corsair 240 or fractal 804 as these have the dual chamber design. Allows me to have good airflow, tidy cable management and I think looks nicer too. The fractal case has room for 10 drives!

Does anyone have experiences with these two cases? I don't mind wide cases - just sick of my beef of a case. Too big tall and heavy.