Looking for a good SFF Case and Mobo

[roguerower]

As title says, i'm looking for a nice case and mobo for a build i might put together to replace an aging laptop. I've found some cases, but only can find old mobos.

 

[TheStu]

Are you looking for a barebones kit? Also, please define things like budget, whether you are looking for something for a HTPC, or more of a desktop usage also, what do you define as old?

 

[roguerower]

Right now just looking for a case and motherboard. Budget when I build it will be around $900-1k. It will be for desktop use and gaming

 

[TheStu]

I have heard nothing but good things about the Aspire (I think they go by Apevia now) X-Q-Pack case. It will fit the largest mATX boards out there, so there is room in there for a full size graphics card. It can also fit 2 (or is it 3) hard drives, and 1 (or is it 2?) optical drives. It is definitely larger than your average SFF case, but is still small enough for LAN transpo, and a small footprint.

Then you just choose any old mATX mobo and you will be set.

 

[erwos]

The DG33TLM is a particularly nice motherboard that Intel put out recently. Still hard to find, as neither Newegg nor Mwave stock it, but the feature set is excellent, and you can do HDMI+component for less than $45 using an ADD2 card. Of course, if you're gaming, that won't matter much (you'll need a discrete video chipset), but there it is.

The case I recently bought is the Spec-Research 01023, which, nicely enough, includes a decent PSU - a HiPro True 400W (dual rails!). Not the greatest, but it does guarantee 70%+ efficiency at full load, giving you a reasonable idea of whether you're going to run out of power or not.