Originally posted by: hans007
you are going to want something that has the cdrom "on top" of the motherboard, and not in front of it and the power supply. the nsk3480 (which i've had) might work, but its not really as small as possible.
I know the Antec isn't as small as possible, but it fits the criteria. Also, while most optical drives work just find on their sides, some people don't find them as easy to use.
That InWin BT566 slim case is actually 15.7" deep. The 12.2" is the width.
The Athenatech S100 doesn't have that great stock ventilation or noise floor.
The Antec actually also needs a short optical drive. While in the Athenatech longer drives tend to hit the CPU fan, in the Antec they will hit the power supply. Good news is that pretty much all optical drives sold within the past couple years are short.
Besides fitting (literally) the criteria, compared to the InWins and Athenatechs the Antec has the best PSU, best ventilation and most quiet design thanks to the 120mm fan and soft HDD grommets.