Anyone else have a love/hate relationship with ATX tower cases/form-factor?

[VirtualLarry]

I can admit that I do.

Some days, I wish that my big, bulky, occasionally-noisy ATX mid-tower case, was a svelte, tiny, nice little box that connected to, or on the back of, my 24" LCD HDTV / monitor.

And other days (gaming, DC), I'm glad that I have a roomy tower case to work on, that can take a full-sized / full-power discrete gaming-class graphics card, and a decent-sized CPU heatsink for overclocking, without a hint of thermal throttling like some mini-PC boxes.

 

[Essence_of_War]

This seems pretty off-topic for CPU/OC and pretty on-topic for Cases/Cooling?

 

[Burpo]

:\

 

[DrMrLordX]

I would say this post belongs in Cases & Cooling. Or General Hardware.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Sorry, I was trying to also draw a contrast between "desktop PCs" and "mini Pc", not only in terms of size, but also performance and thermal limitations.

But you're right, would probably be more germain to SFF sub-forum. Mods plz move?

 

[cbn]

I can admit that I do.

Some days, I wish that my big, bulky, occasionally-noisy ATX mid-tower case, was a svelte, tiny, nice little box that connected to, or on the back of, my 24" LCD HDTV / monitor.

And other days (gaming, DC), I'm glad that I have a roomy tower case to work on, that can take a full-sized / full-power discrete gaming-class graphics card, and a decent-sized CPU heatsink for overclocking, without a hint of thermal throttling like some mini-PC boxes.

Here is what I want (which I believe addresses part of your dilemma):

A laptop with Thunderbolt III (for discrete card) with the ability to remove the battery and replace with modular cooling for extra performance when connected to AC power.

 

[Raduque]

I prefer the best of both worlds: SFF boxes with ITX boards that can also take beefy PSUs and full-size (well, not the massive 15" 3-slot cards).

 

[Yuriman]

Don't miss 'em. I stuffed all of my hardware into a box 1/4 the size of my old ATX case, and it's actually quieter now.

 

[ClockHound]

I've been out of love for ATX towers for years. Only one system left in a lonely tower. I'm almost fully cubed up now - ATX cubes, mATX cube, itx cube. Might apply for a Cuben passport soon.

 

[MongGrel]

Still have 3 towers here, not like I pick em up and move em around.

The wife doesn't even use hers a lot these days in the guest bedroom, the last one was just for a HTPC in the main bedroom from older things mostly.

I do still like the the room in them and the airflow, have never been a big water cooling user.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I have a microATX case that itself is much larger than it needs to be. But to tell you the truth, unless it was book-sized and could fit somewhere out of the way, such as under the desktop, or behind a monitor, there'd be very little gained from shrinking it. It sits on the floor next to my desk. If it were smaller, it would just take up a little less room sitting on the floor next to my desk.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

"That's a nice looking refrigerator there..."
"Umm... that's my computer."

I don't have ATX PCs anymore, and am glad for it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

But to tell you the truth, unless it was book-sized and could fit somewhere out of the way, such as under the desktop, or behind a monitor, there'd be very little gained from shrinking it.

That is very true, I sort of learned that too. I've got a mini-ITX rig, in an Apevia X-FIT-200 case. It's not nearly small enough to fit behind the monitor, so it sits on the desk beside it. It's smaller than my tower case, but my computer desk(s), have a cubby-hole in them for a PC tower anyways, so I'm actually taking up more room than I would by just having a tower case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...86740&cm_re=apevia-_-9SIA3912D86740-_-Product

 

[master_shake_]

i think i found the perfect balance.

tragically that pc is gone.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm actually a big fan of big 3-4U rackmount cases, I find they are the easiest to work with and have tons of room and good cooling, too bad the selection sucks. I actually converted my workstation to rackmount, though it's also because I put it in my rack. No more loud PC in my home office, it's in the server room with long cables going up to the office.

 

[Carson Dyle]

It's been at least 5 years since I had a PC that made any discernible noise.

 

[NTMBK]

The whole design of the PC case is completely wrong for our high-TDP parts. We need something with fixed cooler mounting positions on the motherboard and the GPU board (something like MXM), so that we can have coolers properly integrated into the case.

 

[mikeymikec]

My main PC is ATX: I planned to keep the case I already had, so I thought I may as well go with an ATX board with all the trimmings.

My server is MicroATX and connects to my 32" TV via HDMI.

I haven't yet encountered a smaller-than-mATX PC that I enjoyed working with its innards, every one has been hopelessly cramped for space.

 

[Sonikku]

I got a Fractal R4 and I was mildly dismayed by how huge it seemed compared to my antec sonata. They actually make them a lot bigger than that too.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The whole design of the PC case is completely wrong for our high-TDP parts. We need something with fixed cooler mounting positions on the motherboard and the GPU board (something like MXM), so that we can have coolers properly integrated into the case.

Isn't that what BTX was supposed to do?

 

[bigboxes]

My PCs sit under my desk so I actually prefer ATX. They are so much easier when it comes to maintenance. I get the sexy factor and portability, if one needed such a thing. I recently build a dedicated HTPC and yup, I got one of those full sized ATX cases. Allows me total flexibility for motherboard/GPU selection, storage and cooling. Plus, I think it looks pretty damn good!

 

[Kenmitch]

I like a case with room to work and good airflow. Currently using a ATX as I'm running a crossfire setup.

Doing a build currently for my son in a NZXT S340 Razer addition....He's into their products and it's this case that made him finally pony up the cash to upgrade his rig. We were both kind of surprised by how tiny the case actually is. It's not too bad to work with but the power supply area in kind of tight. Keeping the cables out of sight seems to be very doable with the case. Just got to kind of plan ahead on the power cords and plug in all the needed ones from the start....Which I didn't of course.

 

[nerp]

I like the presence of a computer case. Call me old school.

 

[MrTeal]

I dislike a standard ATX tower. It's tough to fit three foot and a half long rads in one.

 

[JimmiG]

I like the full tower ATX cases. Plenty of room to work, good airflow. It might be a bit heavier, but that's only a problem about once every 3 years when I move the case to another room to perform some hardware upgrade.