Can I reduce my Case size to make it more living room friendly?

kinger8938

kinger8938

kinger8938

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Without changing any other components, can I put what I currently have in to a smaller form factor case?

I use my PC as a gaming console effectively. It hides behind my TV but means i need the TV quite far away from the wall.

Considering wall mounting so would like something a little more visually appealing as it will then be on show.

I have an M-ATX B450 MAX board, will get specifics in a bit.

Rtx 2060 super

3600 CPU, AMD heatsink

1 normal HDD and one ssd

Thanks for any advice given, if its not really possible without major hardware chabged I'll leave it be :)
 
What case do you have currently and what model of 2060 do you have, both will be important for people to answer the question properly due to card length and wanting to know where you are coming from size wise..

As you know I went from the Node 804 to the 304, but that's a switch from mATX to iTX, something that's not ideal or cheap if you want to keep as much of what you have as possible..
 
Trig said:
What case do you have currently and what model of 2060 do you have, both will be important for people to answer the question properly due to card length and wanting to know where you are coming from size wise..

As you know I went from the Node 804 to the 304, but that's a switch from mATX to iTX, something that's not ideal or cheap if you want to keep as much of what you have as possible..
Click to expand...


Sorry the card is an EVGA 2060 Super, the case is a Coolmaster Master box lite 3
 
kinger8938 said:
The silverstones look nice! One concern I guess going smaller is heat?
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With a 3600 and a 2060? You'll be fine. At worst, you might need to add a few exhaust fans to help get the heat out of the case.

The other option is to look at swapping your motherboard for an ITX one, as TBH case selection is far better with ITX. Very few MATX cases get released now at this end of the size spectrum.
 
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Quartz said:
Something like a Siverstone ML03/04 or GD06 would mean you could have it under the TV.
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I think I like that idea, something more horizontal or small cube like. Our current TV unit is fairly generous in terms of depth and width of the compartments

Thanks for all the suggestions all,

Sill check one of these out now

Any note worthy things to be away of?
 
My only concern is they seem to be aimed more at HTCP builds rather than being used for Gaming?

Will have to check cpu cooler height and GPU length I suppose?

My 3600 gets quite hot as it is but from what I can tell it's not a concern yet, but wouldnt want it getting much warmer
 
kinger8938 said:
My only concern is they seem to be aimed more at HTCP builds rather than being used for Gaming?

Will have to check cpu cooler height and GPU length I suppose?
Click to expand...

Pretty much.

MATX is a dead format. And HTPCs, as a concept, pretty much died when streaming took off. So you won't find a lot of recent information about repurposing these cases as gaming cases. As such, you'll have to do the legwork.

Things to look for:
  • Ventilation. Take the GD05, as an example. Clearances are fine. But it was designed for TV tuner cards, not GPUs. The CPU area is well catered for, with 2x 120mm intakes and 2x 80mm exhausts. But the expansion area? 1x 120mm intake fan. No exhaust. And basically no ventilation. So unless you fancy modding the case, it won't work.
  • CPU cooler clearance. But TBH this isn't likely to be a huge drama. A Noctua L9i or Cryorig C7 will handle a stock clock 3600 without any major drama.
  • GPU clearances. These will be tight, for the same reasons as the ventilation situation; these cases weren't designed for modern GPUs. Worth noting that you need to factor in space for GPU power connectors. But 180° adapters can be bought for a few quid, somewhat negating this problem.
  • Space and ventilation in your TV unit. You could have excellent cooling and still have high temperatures if the case is too tight a fit. Same goes for hot air being recirculated within the cabinet; it'll ruin even the best planned builds. So you need to think about this. Is there adequate space around the PC case, particularly where the fans are? How are the intakes and exhausts set up? Is the exhaust air leaving the cabinet, or getting pulled back in by intake fans?
To be honest though, the best advice anyone could give you is to seriously consider swapping to an ITX motherboard. It unlocks better case choices which are more suited for what you're looking to do (e.g. Silverstone SG13 and RVZ, Fractal Design Node series). And you'll find plenty of advice on these cases. Far less chance of running in to problems.

kinger8938 said:
My 3600 gets quite hot as it is but from what I can tell it's not a concern yet, but wouldnt want it getting much warmer
Click to expand...

You're using the stock cooler at the moment though. So plenty of scope for improvement.
 
McPhee said:
Pretty much.

MATX is a dead format. And HTPCs, as a concept, pretty much died when streaming took off. So you won't find a lot of recent information about repurposing these cases as gaming cases. As such, you'll have to do the legwork.

Things to look for:
  • Ventilation. Take the GD05, as an example. Clearances are fine. But it was designed for TV tuner cards, not GPUs. The CPU area is well catered for, with 2x 120mm intakes and 2x 80mm exhausts. But the expansion area? 1x 120mm intake fan. No exhaust. And basically no ventilation. So unless you fancy modding the case, it won't work.
  • CPU cooler clearance. But TBH this isn't likely to be a huge drama. A Noctua L9i or Cryorig C7 will handle a stock clock 3600 without any major drama.
  • GPU clearances. These will be tight, for the same reasons as the ventilation situation; these cases weren't designed for modern GPUs. Worth noting that you need to factor in space for GPU power connectors. But 180° adapters can be bought for a few quid, somewhat negating this problem.
  • Space and ventilation in your TV unit. You could have excellent cooling and still have high temperatures if the case is too tight a fit. Same goes for hot air being recirculated within the cabinet; it'll ruin even the best planned builds. So you need to think about this. Is there adequate space around the PC case, particularly where the fans are? How are the intakes and exhausts set up? Is the exhaust air leaving the cabinet, or getting pulled back in by intake fans?
To be honest though, the best advice anyone could give you is to seriously consider swapping to an ITX motherboard. It unlocks better case choices which are more suited for what you're looking to do (e.g. Silverstone SG13 and RVZ, Fractal Design Node series). And you'll find plenty of advice on these cases. Far less chance of running in to problems.



You're using the stock cooler at the moment though. So plenty of scope for improvement.
Click to expand...


Thanks! I think if it boils down to changing the board etc for now I may just leave the idea behind and live with how I have it. It's not terrible but could be better. I was just thinking if I could find a say £50-60 case to better suit the situation then I'd give it a shot.

Is there any performance decrease by going with an ITX board? Are they limited in some way?

Thanks for the advice
 
kinger8938 said:
Is there any performance decrease by going with an ITX board? Are they limited in some way?
Click to expand...

4 expansions slots (PCIe) drops to 1.
4 memory slots drops to 2.
Fewer connectors on the board (fan headers, SATA, etc.).

But no performance drop, no. ITX boards, typically, are quite a good spec.

To put the difference in perspective, your current case is ~27 litres. MATX HTPC cases are mostly 20-23 litres. The SG13 is 11.5L, while RVZ01-E is 14L. And both cases were designed with gaming applications in mind (i.e. ventilation around the GPU is much better). They're tried and tested; it only takes a few minutes to dig up (for example) CPU benchmarks in the SG13 with a bunch of different coolers.

But the flip side is that yes, it's going to cost more that £50-60 to swap. SG13 is ~£40. But you'll need a new cooler (~£50) and you'll need to swap to an ITX board (probably another £40-£60 after selling your current board).
 
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I was really lucky with my iTX board, I was looking at the Aorus B450 Wifi Pro iTX, new it was about ~£130iirc, managed to get the x570 version used on here, for £150 so I'm happy. Was my first iTX board and the quality and features is spot on..
 
I think to make this work suggestions above are correct. I would need to go for an ITX board and go from there.

Not sure if it's worth it to me or not, it would make the TV unit a bit tidied but vs the cost in may hold off
 
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