Smallest Full ATX Case?

anything I don't mind · 4 Jul 2015 at 17:44

I am looking to move all my secondary sata HDs from my main case in to a second PC and using flexraid I will add disk redundancy. My current case is a Fractal Design r3. I would like a case with a similar quality with sound dampening. I only need space for full atx motherboard and powersupply and ssd and a AMD 290x. I don't need anything else in the case. What is the smallest case that will fit full atx?

I currently have a coolermaster 360 elite in use as my pfsense with a full atx, that is the smallest full atx case i know about.

There is the Fractal design define mini and the Cooler Master Silencio 352, both are mini and micro atx only unfortunately.

IPBA · 4 Jul 2015 at 18:06

Have a look at the Cooltek W2.

anything I don't mind · 4 Jul 2015 at 18:22

IPBA said:
Have a look at the Cooltek W2.

thanks, looks very good.

Interesting idea to split the psu on the other side and go for a wide case, exactly the sort of thing i was looking for.

That case would be even better if it is did not have that extra inch on the side of the motherboard. I guess that is for water cooling, well the width is for radiator at the front. They could reduce the width easily in that case. Do you know any more with the psu on the side like that?

Quartz · 4 Jul 2015 at 18:36

Why not take the opportunity to buy a smaller motherboard? Otherwise look at the Silverstone FT05.

Legend · 4 Jul 2015 at 18:39

I have the Cooltek W2 myself and it's probably the easiest case I've ever built in. Very easy to create a clean smart looking build. I'd highly recommend it for sure. Here's mine...

savagesam117 · 4 Jul 2015 at 22:30

What backplate is that you've got? I want one!

Legend · 4 Jul 2015 at 23:18

savagesam117 said:
What backplate is that you've got? I want one!

On the GPU? It's just what comes on the EVGA 980 SC reference. Standard I thought?

savagesam117 · 5 Jul 2015 at 00:05

Ah man

I want a backplate for my 980Ti, they don't usually come with backplates

Grumbledook · 5 Jul 2015 at 10:08

anything I don't mind said:
thanks, looks very good.

Interesting idea to split the psu on the other side and go for a wide case, exactly the sort of thing i was looking for.

That case would be even better if it is did not have that extra inch on the side of the motherboard. I guess that is for water cooling, well the width is for radiator at the front. They could reduce the width easily in that case. Do you know any more with the psu on the side like that?

Only the Corsair 540 Air and the Anidees AI-07 so far, both of which OCUK sell. I personally like the Cooltek W2 the most but I'm hoping some other companies bring out an ATX cube case for a bit more choice.

If the black Amnidees came without blue LED fans I may have already purchased one of those due to the lower price.

anything I don't mind · 5 Jul 2015 at 11:17

Grumbledook said:
Only the Corsair 540 Air and the Anidees AI-07 so far, both of which OCUK sell. I personally like the Cooltek W2 the most but I'm hoping some other companies bring out an ATX cube case for a bit more choice.

If the black Amnidees came without blue LED fans I may have already purchased one of those due to the lower price.

Ok thanks for the suggestions, those are bit bigger than i had in mind and bigger than the coolermaster 360 elite.

That is a great design though, they could easily reduce down the size of the full atx case to the size of the motherboard using that design. It would only need to be as thick as a normal form factor slot + the height of a power supply on its side. Essentially removing the drive bay and dvd rom drive bays completely. Although you could still fit a hd or many ssd on the back side with the psu.

The Cooltek W2 looks very nice though, i like the aluminium front.

Grumbledook · 5 Jul 2015 at 11:44

Yeah, I'm after a fairly compact ATX case. I like that the cube design makes them a bit shorter. I agree they could make them a bit more compact but cases seem to all try and cater for water cooling as well.

That same reason has also meant that a nearly every ATX mid tower is now larger than my ancient lian li case I'm looking to replace. Obviously it's cheaper to just have the one design but there is certainly room for more cube style designs. I'm just not sure how popular they are, but I think the corsiar 540 sold has sold fairly well.

anything I don't mind · 5 Jul 2015 at 12:49

The water cooling is definitely holding back any further moves towards making it smaller.

I don't even think all these massive fans are that necessary. I have a fractal design r3 with one 120cm noctua out take fan that is reduced in speed and no other intake or outtake fans with a zalman low form factor hsf and never had any heat problems. Once I removed all the hds the heat would reduce even further i think.

This is a quick design i made in paint to show how they could reduce the size down.

anything I don't mind · 5 Jul 2015 at 14:28

Found another small case but it looks like it might be out of production.

http://www.rosewill.com/products/2528/ProductDetail_Overview.htm

It uses the the same design as the coolermaster 360.

Legend · 5 Jul 2015 at 14:42

anything I don't mind said:
Found another small case but it looks like it might be out of production.

http://www.rosewill.com/products/2528/ProductDetail_Overview.htm

It uses the the same design as the coolermaster 360.

That's the Cooltek UMX2... still very much in production and available. Expensive though.