matx or mitx
- Thread starter Garthy
- Start date
There's a few things to keep in mind with MATX/ITX:
- Motherboard price and availability, MATX motherboards are usually cheaper and more widely available.
- PSU support: the max length and if it supports ATX or SFX/SFX-L.
- What happens to the graphics card length depending on your config: e.g. does a longer PSU impact the graphics?
- Cooler support: radiators, air cooler max height.
- Motherboard price and availability, MATX motherboards are usually cheaper and more widely available.
- PSU support: the max length and if it supports ATX or SFX/SFX-L.
- What happens to the graphics card length depending on your config: e.g. does a longer PSU impact the graphics?
- Cooler support: radiators, air cooler max height.
MATX might be a good place to start. If you look into going ITX it will add have a higher total cost.
This review might may help you
gamersnexus.net
This review might may help you
Excellent Budget Case: Lian Li DAN A3-mATX Review & Benchmarks | GamersNexus
Cases Excellent Budget Case: Lian Li DAN A3-mATX Review & Benchmarks September 27, 2024 Last Updated: 2024-09-27 We test the Lian Li Dan A3-mATX-WD’s build quality, thermals, design, and more The Highlights The A3-mATX is a micro-ATX case that offers either a plastic front panel or one with wood...
Associate
- Joined
- 10 Sep 2006
- Posts
- 1,861
- Location
- UK
No point paying the ITX tax unless you want to go pretty small, like <15L. Dan A3/m-ATX route will save you a fair bit of money and headache.
Seeing as you want to upgrade GPU, it's worth noting that no ITX cases I know of (I've trawled a fair few including NCase, Dan, FormD etc.) will fit the current monster sized RTX 4080/4090/5080/5090 3.5+ slot monsters. The NRP200 you linked supports triple slots up to 330mm IIRC. So you're either limited to the compact founders edition 5080/5090 which are exceedingly rare, or you're looking at weaker GPUs.
As for MATX that can support huge GPUs, then Dan A3 as you've listed was first on my shortlist. You've also got some slightly larger options although may be too large for you - the Lian Li PC-O11 Air Mini is one that comes to mind.
The Dan A3 can fit a full size PSU along with the largest GPUs and air coolers on the market so should fit most of your existing gear, but bear in mind it has zero cable management at all.
I will note that MATX motherboards tend not to offer flagship options (e.g. I couldn't find any X670E/X670/X870E/X870 MATX boards), but ITX does.
Also note that ITX motherboards are a bit tricky in the Dan A3 - the front panel connectors have to stretch all the way up to get there, but it's doable.
As for MATX that can support huge GPUs, then Dan A3 as you've listed was first on my shortlist. You've also got some slightly larger options although may be too large for you - the Lian Li PC-O11 Air Mini is one that comes to mind.
The Dan A3 can fit a full size PSU along with the largest GPUs and air coolers on the market so should fit most of your existing gear, but bear in mind it has zero cable management at all.
I will note that MATX motherboards tend not to offer flagship options (e.g. I couldn't find any X670E/X670/X870E/X870 MATX boards), but ITX does.
Also note that ITX motherboards are a bit tricky in the Dan A3 - the front panel connectors have to stretch all the way up to get there, but it's doable.
The NR200P V2 is basically the MAX case so I would go for the MAX as it comes with the PSU and AIO. I have a v1 MAX with a RTX4080 FE and it runs extremely cool and quiet. be Quiet offer decent SFX PSUs at reasonable cost. My 1000W Corsair SFX PSU was £100 B Grade which is 50% off!
I recently bought a Fractal Ridge in prep for a RTX 5090 FE plus the Corsair 1000W SFX PSU but decided the performance increase wasn't worth the cost. The case is very attractive though limited CPU cooling especially if you want to fit a big GPU.
So as prices have gone up the Dan A3 has now become my next case of interest for future builds because of the mITX tax and ever bigger GPUs!
Last edited:
MATX cases also typically larger, more cooling options, fan placements. This could result in a quieter build all things considered, but this is highly dependant on components.
May also include more SSD/HDD placements if thats a requirement.
May also include more SSD/HDD placements if thats a requirement.
I've just ordered the Dan A3 with an ITX motherboard and SFX PSU intending to fit an air-cooled 5090 in it and a Thermalright Peerless Assassin. I'm specifically after a quiet build so will be min-maxing it for this purpose. None of the ITX options impressed me in terms of low-noise gaming, you tend to be forced to fit a low-profile CPU cooler in order to fit the humongous GPU and hence get thermal issues or noise issues on the CPU. I specifically didn't want to opt for an AIO in this case, although that may have been a viable option to make ITX work.
what board and cpu did you go for ?
9800X3D and Asus Rog Strix B650E-I Gaming Wifi. I was after the most flagship-like ITX board that did not get into ridiculous prices and this one came in at £230. Looks/colour was not a concern as I'm fairly sure I won't see much of the motherboard in use with the huge air cooler and GPU covering it.
I went for an ITX instead of MATX in case I decide I do want to go even smaller (perhaps with an AIO) in future. Good to have options!
sounds good mate. It would be nice to see some pictures of it once its built