Recommend a smallish case?

[The Halk]

With my watercooling days behind me, I stepped down from full towers to a very small cheap case which sadly due to a combination of not quite perfect airflow and very very tight for space isn't what I need.

The PC is an 1090T, 4x2GB, 5870, Crosshair IV, Xonar Essence STX. Cooling is a Prolimatech MK-13 with 3 fans, and a Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2. There's 3 SSDs, a DVD drive and no hard drives. In other words the only notable thing is the graphics card cooler.

I don't mind tossing out the CPU cooler in favour of another. I'm much more reluctant to throw out the graphics card cooler because as far as I can see there isn't going to be a quieter aftermarket solution.

As far as cases I quite like the Corsair 600T although it apparently has LED lights on the large fans which I'm not keen on.

Money isn't an issue.

I'd like something as small as possible while still having roughly the same space inside as the 600T. As far as my tastes are concerned I like black cases, I like them black inside, I don't like LEDs or anything flashy. Window or no window doesn't bother me. I like the idea of the cable management in the 600T.

So basically what I'm trying to work out without a great deal of success... what are my choices other than the Corsair which have roughly the same space? The Corsair seems like it might be the best choice, but I'd like some other options to consider, if there are any.

 

[The Halk]

I hadn't noticed that one Scone, thanks. The R3 is in the same kind of size range that I'm looking at. The XL is way out of it!

 

[The Halk]

I've had a bit more of a look at it. And the thread has pretty much turned into something between my own notes, and me thinking out loud about it.

Currently the case is the OcUK Athena. It's surprisingly good considering the price, but price really just isn't an issue. It's pretty much the minimum size things could be. The motherboard area is the same size as a standard motherboard, and is right next to the hard drive racks, with no space between them. There's no space between the motherboard and the PSU either.

As a result the airflow is pretty poor, and while the PC idles at very low temps, it can quickly reach a high ambient - although the GPU/CPU don't go greatly higher than that so the cooling on them is sufficient.

I also have things crammed in the case a little tighter than I would like to.

The dimensions of my case at the moment h-w-d are 450x185x412

The width I'm not unhappy with, but the cases I've all looked at are pretty much the same anyway give or take an inch. They all are not much wider than a 5.25 bay. So the width can be ignored.

The depth is the drive racks plus the motherboard plus the space between them, plus any filler/margins. I'm at 412mm already, and I'm not keen to go much deeper than that since it may mean the case wouldn't fit where I have it.

Height I don't have a lot of extra space for, but there is some. 450mm is what I have now. The cases I've listed all have a little extra but not too much. With the exception of the Antec Dark Fleet - I was looking for an excuse to rule it out anyway. The HAF X is a full 10cm taller, which will still fit if I move a shelf up but is a little higher than I want so it's unlikely to be the right choice.

Current (Athena) 450x185x412
Silverstone Fortress FT02B 497x212x616 motherboard reversed
NZXT Hades Midi Tower 430x200x501 Out of stock
Fractal Design Define R3 440x207x521
Corsair 600T 507x265x592
Coolermaster HAF X 550x230x590
BitFenix Survivor 502x230x510
Antec Dark Fleet Looks awful 596x213x505

One of the problems with the case I have just now is the bottom of the motherboard is flush with the bottom of the case. That means looking into the case the bulk of the heat is being produced beneath the graphics card in an area which doesn't easily get to the top. As far as I can see the biggest things I could do to benefit this would be to have a slightly wider case to allow air enter and leave that area slightly easier - the graphics card acts as a sort of partition at the moment. Additional space below the last expansion slot would help too. A combination of these would be good. The PSU is a Seasonic X-750, so while 7 years ago when I started doing this I'd be all about getting the PSU up at the top and out of the way so it wouldn't pollute the case with heat... it's really not producing much heat.

One of the cases, the Fortress has the motherboard tray rotated 90 degrees from it's usual position. I used to have a Lian Li 180 rotated case and I'm aware heatpipes don't work quite as intended in that configuration. However the reviews I've seen of the Fortress shows it's extremely good for air temps, so perhaps any disadvantage is offset. And further reading at Silverstone's site confirms it might be a problem for the GPU cooler I have. I didn't really like the look of it anyway.

I'm now going to look at the cases I have left in turn and see which ones I can rule out. If anyone wants to chip in with their opinion then feel free!

Edit : And that didn't take as long as I thought. I've now found that all the cases remaining in my list have the PSU below the motherboard, and all apart from the NZXT Hades are ducted. The NZXT Hades falls at a hurdle as it has an awful front. I'd say it was pointless but it's pointed.

All of the remaining 4 cases have a problem with them, apart from the R3.

The 600T has LEDs on the fans, plus a front panel on the top which does nothing for me. Connecting front panel audio on every case I have ever owned has added noise to sound. I listen to my PC with custom sleeved Shure SE535s and a Xonar Essence STX, which means that sadly any noise at all is picked up meaning front panel audio is useless to me.
The HAF X has a nasty 80s design which would annoy me.
The BitFenix Survivor is the most attractive case yet, apart from the cutout which is marred by a nasty LED.

Next step is to read as many reviews as I can get my paws on to find out more about the R3. I'd also like to find out about cases I may have missed out. Lian Li and Coolermaster both have large ranges. I'm going to need to trawl through them to see if there's any cases I've missed.

Edit Edit : I can't seem to see anything wrong with the R3. It seems to be the right case for me. It came down to it and the Corsair. The Corsair was a bit better finished as it had curved edges.. but the R3 is quieter, and surprisingly has better cooling performance according to Bittech reviews. I'm a little bit hesitant to go for a case so cheaply priced, but after my experience with the Athena I'm not that worried. It seems it's not just down to how much you pay. The Athena was an excellent case for the money.

 

[The Halk]

Well.. this tale went strange!

I went and ordered the case. However OcUK had none in stock, so I went to a competitor who had the same case for the same price and also offered free delivery (although it was 4-5 days).

I got to their checkout, after a warning that orders may be delayed for a day or two, and they offered it on next day delivery for Monday the 20st. Fine thinks I, if I order it then it'll be in for Christmas even if it is delayed for a few days. I'll pay an extra tenner because I'll be kicking about on Boxing Day and it's an ideal day to do it.

On the 21st I notice it's not arrived yet, so I go to their website. It's now changed to delivery on the 31st. Unacceptable of course. I send them a webnote and ask them for a refund of next day delivery charges or for them to cancel the order. They reply and tell me I should have known. I reply and ask for a refund of delivery charges or cancel the order, I get a similar reply to the first one. I'm puzzled why they can't cancel an order that hasn't left their warehouse, but if they want to be like that then I'm not bothered. Paypal dispute filed, delivery won't be accepted by me.

And about half an hour ago I notice OcUK has a 5% off sale, so I order the case through OcUK who now have it in stock and the end result is I'm getting it a little cheaper.

The moral of the story (or the tl;dr) is don't go elsewhere