Micro ATX Case suggestions

Scottland

Scottland

Scottland

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
15,713
Location
North Wales
I'm looking for a Micro ATX case for a Core2 system.

So far the best I've seen is the Lian Li V300.

Has anyone got any experience with this? What's it like heat wise?

Any better for the money?

Cheers
 
I use a Silverstone TJ-08, it's a great MATX case except for HD bays/fitting/lack of HD cooling. One HD is on the case floor, another is just above the front intake fan.

Used a Qpack it's ok but it's a bit too cramped, the PSU above the mobo restricts choice in CPU HSF, because it's so cramped it's difficult to fit memory, CPU etc. But it does have a mobo try.

Used a Antec NSK2400 and it's very good, the cable routing/compartments is logical and works, any excess is bundled in gaps, only cables that go into mobo/HD bay are the ones you need. It could do with a bit more intelligent in/out cooling (ie like the TJ-08) and HD cooling.
 
Thanks for that, what was the antec like for large gfx cards or CPU coolers?

The LL looks quite good from that respect, plus it uses normal ATX PSU's.
 
I'd get a Silverstone Sugo Evolution.

The best mATX case I've seen is the Aerocool Aerocube, but it's not available yet.
 
Cheers, I like the antec and the fact that it comes with a decent PSU is a bonus too, but it's not that small compared to the LL, at least on paper anyway.

And I think I prefer the LL over the Sugo
 
Looking at the page for the V300 on LL's web site it looks like the PSU is over the CPU so room for a decent HSF may be limited.

Jonathan
 
None of these systems except the mATX towers have any headroom over the CPU. They all require the CPU cooler to be less than somewhere in the region of 125mm tall. Silverstone make really good low profile CPU coolers. Arctic cooling make the Silencer which is an upgrade for the stock intel cooler and works a little better, the Zalman flower fans are all less than 120mm tall and the Thermaltake Blue, Gold and Ruby Orbs all work very well.

Just be careful of the position of the CPU on the motherboard as sometimes a 120mm fan cooler will fit, and sometimes it won't. As a general rule of thumb, anything with a 92mm cooler definitely fits and anything 120mm you can expect to be bending fins either to get it in, or to get the case side panel on.

My personal preference is for the Silverstone Nitrogon NT06 as long as you have a really good 120mm fan in the PSU and the PSU is fitted right over the CPU (like the Sugo).

In terms of build, the Lian Li is the best by far. The Sugo and TJ-08 are great front plates with pretty ordinary cases behind them and the Antec used to have fairly big cooling issues when it was called the Aria. The only way for air to leave the case is through the PSU as the 120mm PSU fan is the exhaust.

The Lian Li is also the least compromised on drive bays (2 full size and a floppy) whereas the Sugo you tend to end up with using laptop drives (as shown below).

One thing that picture doesn't show is the difference in depth between the Aria and the Sugo.

Sorry that I don't have a covered shot of the Sugo on the same plinth, but you can very clearly see the Sugo is much deeper.

http://www.walteranderson.com/Images/silverstone/side.jpg

http://www.walteranderson.com/Images/aria/aria2.JPG

Frontal sizes are shown in the picture below. The Akasa Acrylic mATX case is the same dimensions as the TJ-08.

http://www.walteranderson.com/Images/akasa/PICT1123.JPG
 
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