Spec me a case - Portable, HTPC?

mishima · 17 Aug 2008 at 12:58

Hi guys,

What I'm after is a case that is quite portable. I take out the motherboard quite often and have to replace things and having a standard ATX case is starting to become quite a pain.

What case would be ideal for my requirements?

* ATX
* Easy to remove motherboard and other components

suitcase · 17 Aug 2008 at 15:36

Portable and ATX don't really go hand in hand- Silverstone LC17 (whilst being large) is an excellent htpc case.

Do you really need ATX? Something like the NZXT Rogue might be more suited to your portable needs whilst still being fairly expandable.

Acid_death69 · 17 Aug 2008 at 15:37

When your doing a HTPC build normally ya go for M-atx, it just makes life easier being that its a smaller board.
What do you need an ATX for that you cant get with a MATX?

mishima · 17 Aug 2008 at 21:52

I like the space and features I get on ATX, what are the main differences then with mATX?

This is a test bed system so it needs to be fully flexible.

Acid_death69 · 17 Aug 2008 at 21:57

well you can pretty much get everything on a MATX that you can on a ATX apart from things like SLI and things of that nature.

mishima · 17 Aug 2008 at 22:00

That NXZT Rogue is nice, except its mATX. If I could get something similar to that but with this option that would be great. Is there anything on the market like this?

suitcase · 17 Aug 2008 at 22:35

I can't think of anything at the moment- the Nzxt Rogue supports 4 hd's, 2 dvd drives, full size psu, long graphics cards.... it'll cope with pretty much everything you would normally want in a pc. Of course you'd be looking at matx motherboards but as said above- you can get most of the features in matx nowadays anyway.

mishima · 18 Aug 2008 at 09:12

Two things affect me though if I go mATX - would have to replace brand new mobo and I need the support for SLi/CF for future.

I'll have to keep looking if anyone knows of anything on the market simialr to the Rogue that allows ATX please post up!!

Acid_death69 · 18 Aug 2008 at 13:02

well i've never heard of a HTPC needing to use SLI/CS. As far as i know you just need an ok GPU and thats it.
What are you going to use the HTPC for exactly?

mishima · 18 Aug 2008 at 17:30

It's a test bed. It's one of the systems we used to test bits of hardware on for a review website. I just need a case that is more portable but allows ATX with plenty of space etc.