Looking for new, small, case ideas

[sgrinavi]

Hey All -

I am relocating to Germany for my company and need to shrink things down from my full tower case.

I have:

-x58 board
-(2) GTX480 SLI
-(4) 3.5 " drives
-(2) SSD's
-(2) Optical Drives
-TX 1000 PSU

I don't really care what it looks like
I don't want to spend a forutne

Any ideas?

 

[jchu14]

Lian-Li A05n is as small as it gets that can fit ATX mb and PSU. It'll only hold three 3.5" drive though and no dedicated 2.5" bay. You can rig up something to put the SSD into the space behind the hard drive cage, but that's where people usally rout and store excess psu cables. Cooling will be a big issue too with 2 gtx480 and completely full hard drive bay. You'll at least want a BS-03 side fan and maybe do some modding and add a blowhole.

After typing all that out, I realized that it's not really a great case for you Your computer is just too powerful and have too many drives to fit into a small case.

Have you considered just dismantle all of your parts and ship them in your luggage without the case? Then buy a case when you get to Germany.

 

[sgrinavi]

After typing all that out, I realized that it's not really a great case for you Your computer is just too powerful and have too many drives to fit into a small case.

Have you considered just dismantle all of your parts and ship them in your luggage without the case? Then buy a case when you get to Germany.

No, actually I had not thought about purchasing a case over there. Awesome idea!

 

[ebolamonkey3]

Well, check out prices in Germany before you decide to do that, it might be a lot more expensive.

What about this one? Don't know if it'd still be too big, but it's only 12lbs

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811112249

 

[Zap]

What is the capacity of your HDDs? One possible way to do this is to go with a micro ATX case (my recommendation Cooler Master Elite 341, which you might even be able to bring on as carry-on, cost around $40). You can get micro ATX X58 boards (starting cost around $160). You'll want to ditch one optical drive and maybe condense your two smallest HDDs into big 2TB drives (deals for around $110). Sell off old parts to help offset cost of new parts.

 

[sgrinavi]

What is the capacity of your HDDs? One possible way to do this is to go with a micro ATX case (my recommendation Cooler Master Elite 341, which you might even be able to bring on as carry-on, cost around $40). You can get micro ATX X58 boards (starting cost around $160). You'll want to ditch one optical drive and maybe condense your two smallest HDDs into big 2TB drives (deals for around $110). Sell off old parts to help offset cost of new parts.

Hey thanks, I had thought about re-building the system, but I really don't want to give up my P6x58D and my RAID 10 array. A mid-tower case should work out - I'm just concerned about fitting the two 480's & PSU in (for me) a small case.

 

[zagood]

I did a similar thing when moving to Alaska...brought all my components over separately and purchased a case when I got here. At least that was the plan. I ended up with a functional but case-less build for almost a month while I decided which one to get.

Check prices, and have a good idea on what case you'd like to purchase so you don't end up staring at something like this for a month:

 

[FishAk]

I travel a lot, and a laptop just doesn't cut it. I have the following:
5x 3.5inch drives
1x 5.25inch drive
Rampage II Gene
Noctua NH-U12
6 sticks of Kingston HyperX T1, (with the tall heat sinks)
Asus 5770 CuCore
Seasonic 750 gold PSU


I got it all to fit in a small no-name box that's 7.5x14x16 inches high, and it fits inside a carry-on bag with wheels. I can fit it in the overhead compartment on flights.


I tried to get a Silverstone TJ08, because it would also fit in the overhead, and it looks like a great case. But I was in Turkey at the time, and couldn't find one. The Silverstone is a liitle bigger than the case I ended up with but mine only cost $20. I have three Noctua 120mm fans- one in front, one pushing out the back, and one strapped to the cooler. I don't have enough room for the second fan on the cooler, due to the tall RAM, so I put tape around the cooler fins to force all the air to go through the cooler from the single pulling fan in the back. The rear fan lines up with the cooler fan, with only about a half inch clearance, so it's kind of like push/pull still- but not really. I have another 80mm fan blowing on the NB, and I can run my i7 920 at 3.8GHz without getting too hot. I put some plastic inserts into the top of the cooler, and drilled matching holes in the side of the case to support the cooler with a couple screws. I was concerned about the stress on the MB with all that arm sticking out so far while traveling. I intend to get a couple SSDs, and have room for them, but will have to mount them with velcro.


If you consider this rout, I would recommend Corsairs H50. It's very small for an efficient cooler, and would not stress the board like a big air cooler can. No need to mess with supporting the top of the cooler. With a small case you will have trouble with two GPUs. The ones you have will likely be too long at 10.5 inches, but the GTX 460s should fit. They're shorter than the 5770 I have. With two cards, you would probably have to drill holes in the bottom of the case to get air to the bottom card. Also, a modular PSU makes for a clean wire job, which is necessary for good airflow in a small enclosure.

 

[Massive Overkill]

AMD Flavor on water:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1523957

Intel Flavor SLI:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1508581

They've come out with a new hard drive bracket per my recommendations (nice huh?) that mounts over the video card to relocate or supplement the existing 3.5" hard drive bay. That gives you 4 3.5" drives right there. I put a hot-swap 5-1/4" SATA enclosure for my hard drive. Ditch your optical drive and get a USB slim external drive.........I use my optical drive like twice a year.

I used to use a Micro Fly case because I also travel alot, but it doesn't compare to the Lan Gear case.

 

[jaydee]

Lian Li Lancool K58?

 

[FishAk]

That K58 looks like a great box. Quite a bit bigger than the Silverstone all around, but that gives room for the GTX 480s. In any case, ahem, I highly recommend the H50 in tight quarters.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

That K58 looks like a great box. Quite a bit bigger than the Silverstone all around, but that gives room for the GTX 480s. In any case, ahem, I highly recommend the H50 in tight quarters.

chuckle...

Water cooling an acceptable form of liquid in a carry-on? I shudder at the idea of checking a pc...

edit: I am an idiot for forgetting that Germany has water.

 

[sgrinavi]

Since it's temporary I was thinking about just getting a test bench and shipping my full sized case with my household goods.

This one seems nice:

http://www.highspeedpc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=TopTechLRG

this one seems OK, and is cheap

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811166052

 

[REC]

Your options from cheapest to most effective should be as follows:

Smaller, tight-fitting case of the same form factor.

Swap Mobo for Micro-ATX and reap the benefits of it's 20% smaller form factor

Drop the Mobo and PSU and replace them with Mini-ITX, which measures just 6.7" x 6.7", which has ~49% the area of Micro-ATX, or ~39% the area of standard ATX. Think the size of 4-5 CD cases stacked on each other. The mobo's can have full features (only 1 PCIe slot though) but will run a lot hotter. You'd probably also have to drop 2 HDD's and 1 Optical Drive; depends on the case you find though.

See this link for reference.

 

[ismailfaruqi]

Hey All -

I am relocating to Germany for my company and need to shrink things down from my full tower case.

I have:

-x58 board
-(2) GTX480 SLI
-(4) 3.5 " drives
-(2) SSD's
-(2) Optical Drives
-TX 1000 PSU

I don't really care what it looks like
I don't want to spend a forutne

Any ideas?

You should replace some components:

1. x58 board: replace with x58 micro atx board
2. (2) GTX 480 SLI: keep
3. (4) 3.5" drives: replace with single larger drive
4. (2) SSDs: arrange it with 3.5" caddy
5. (2) optical drives: replacw with single laptop blu ray writer
6. TX 1000 psu: perhaps you'd be happyif you replace it with modular ones, like SST-1000F

and put it into smallest gaming Micro ATX case: Lan Gear Da Box 100.

 

[beginner99]

Since it's temporary I was thinking about just getting a test bench and shipping my full sized case with my household goods.

This one seems nice:

http://www.highspeedpc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=TopTechLRG

this one seems OK, and is cheap

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811166052

Or no case at all like zagood did till yours arrives? I mean you probably don't have to pay for the transport so no reason not to send the case (else buying a new one would probably be cheaper...). Just plan ahead well enough so the case arrives pretty shortly after you. (sen dit few weeks before you leave)

 

[sgrinavi]

You should replace some components:

1. x58 board: replace with x58 micro atx board
2. (2) GTX 480 SLI: keep
3. (4) 3.5" drives: replace with single larger drive
4. (2) SSDs: arrange it with 3.5" caddy
5. (2) optical drives: replacw with single laptop blu ray writer
6. TX 1000 psu: perhaps you'd be happyif you replace it with modular ones, like SST-1000F

and put it into smallest gaming Micro ATX case: Lan Gear Da Box 100.

Thanks for taking the time to write that out. I guess I wasn't clear; I know I could buy my way out of my jamb & spend the time to reconfigure my entire system, but the point was to keep my current system and stuff it into a smaller case.

Or no case at all like zagood did till yours arrives? I mean you probably don't have to pay for the transport so no reason not to send the case (else buying a new one would probably be cheaper...). Just plan ahead well enough so the case arrives pretty shortly after you. (sen dit few weeks before you leave)

That's kinda what I am going to do. I bought a test bench to mount everything on until I get my case off the boat.

THANKS!

 

[REC]

Sorry, missposted. Disregard this messge.

 

[Leyawiin]

I love my Lian-Li PC-A05NB. I basically did what you're proposing - took all the hardware from an old full tower and put it in there.