Short ATX Case

champ222

champ222

champ222

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19 Aug 2005
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Beds, UK
Hi all
i've been looking about for a short case. Width and height doesnt matter to much, but i want it as short as possible.

Any thoughts on a case that will fit regular sized components that is quite short front to back?


Long version:

Ive bought a friends second PC which makes a great backup/second PC that i want to leave at work for lunchtime gaming when i have the office to myself.

its an ATX board, ATX PSU, GPU is about 280mm long. It has one 2.5" SSD, and i may add an m.2, so there isnt really much to house.

Its Ryzen 2600 with a Vega 64, 32gb ram over 4 sticks.

Ive looked around at loads of cases, the design of many boggle the mind, but most of them are soooo deep. ATX is about 250mm deep, many cases are 430mm+ deep. i dont need a load of space at the front of the case for a radiator etc, but there doesnt seem to be many cases that are much shorter.

I could drop to mATX, but they are the same depth anyway, though the cases tend to come up a bit shorter.... changing the board would inevitably spiral and lead to a cpu and mobo upgrade... which is both good and bad. the Silverstone Fara H1M looks good at 366mm deep... though they could just make it a bit taller to fit ATX. the ATX equivalent is 390mm deep, but it need not be.

I could go ITX, but they are spendy, and the cases then often go the way of SFX PSUs etc, by which point ive largely replaced everything. plus i have 4 sticks of ram, though 16gb is probably enough.

I just want a case that is just deep enough for the board, some fans and thats it. PSU at the bottom, SSD behind that, job done....

Cheers guys
 
Thanks

i had spotted the Thetis, and added it to my list, but at first glance, i couldnt see how it went together. ive watched a few videos, none great though, and it does look good. Id worry about the GPU and the PSU getting in the way of each other, though i think it would be alright, its a 160mm long PSU. I cant quite figure out what to do regarding cooling though. research required i think. Looks good though.

I'll check out that reddit page too, thanks
 
champ222 said:
Id worry about the GPU and the PSU getting in the way of each other, though i think it would be alright, its a 160mm long PSU. I cant quite figure out what to do regarding cooling though. research required i think. Looks good though.
Click to expand...
CPU cooling should be easy - Thetis will fit pretty much any air cooler, even the huge D15.
(I went with 240 AIO on top, but tubes could interfere with longer GPU)

160mm PSU and 280mm GPU should fit. Technically.
Will not leave much room for cables
 
Yeah it looks like it would fit.

the Jonsbo U4 looks like the layout i had in mind. quite short but tall... doesnt look like it has very good cooling with that solid front though.

Tempted to switch to micro atx and upgrade a bit... will wait and see how the lower cost B660 boards test. with a 12400 that would be a nice little system
 
Last edited:
champ222 said:
Jonsbo U4
Click to expand...
nice find, seems to tick your box for shortness.
cooling does seem tricky. And looks like with a 280 long GPU may interfere with one of front fans. Which would make front fans completely useless. If there is only one, it will be recirculating inside air.
 
alec said:
nice find, seems to tick your box for shortness.
cooling does seem tricky. And looks like with a 280 long GPU may interfere with one of front fans. Which would make front fans completely useless. If there is only one, it will be recirculating inside air.
Click to expand...
yeah it does, it has a mesh front panel it would work pretty well.

i need to do some tests on a few games and see how the 2600 is still holding up in 2020. if id benefit from an upgrade, i'd go mATX or ITX, though ITX boards seem pretty spendy at the moment.
 
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