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Smallest case for full size motherboard

The Apex does not take a full ATX mobo - mATX and flex only. The nMedia 3000 does but it isn't all that small. This is the smallest I've seen in a while: http://www.rosewill.com/products/288/series.htm - The RZS series. But I haven't seen it on Newegg in a while and since Rosewill is a Newegg in-house packager, you're not likely to find much Rosewill anywhere else but it's still listed at the Rosewill site. You'll probably have to find out who OEMS the case for Rosewill and then look to see if it's sold under another brand as well like the R560x which is also YeongYang, and the R6A can be found as Compucase and others. I'm thinking In Win does some smaller ATX cases (the S and EA series are on the smaller side of the midTower bracket, but not sure. Good luck!

.bh.
 
I think I have a winner!

Silverstone LC04

review

horizontal/desktop style HTPC case
Standard ATX motherboard
one 5¼" external drive bay (optical drive)
one 3½" internal drive bay
includes TFX sized 300W power supply
only two expansion slots which require riser cards
420 mm (W) x 115.5 mm (H) x 309.4 mm (D)
(16.53" wide x 4.55" high x 12.2" deep)
~$200

Problem is that it might be a discontinued case as nobody seems to have it in stock.

I DARE anyone to find a smaller case that can take a normal ATX motherboard and a normal optical/HDD! :evil:
 
The Lian Li mentioned above is pretty short but it's deep.
. LC04 is a lowpro case - only takes two add-on cards and PCI only. Uses TFX PSU, won't find one of those w/ much more than 300W. Though you can find them in decent brands, so one may actually have true rated power. Consider all the angles before pulling the trigger.
. What's your plan for this rig? Maybe we can look at going another way... Some of today's microATX mobos are pretty nice...

.bh.
 
Thanks all. The reason I am not going to an mATX is because I am trying to build a bedroom HTPC out of spare parts. I have some older mid tower cases but they are pretty large. I would also like to use full height cards. I thought about going to mATX but the ones that take full size cards are not much smaller than ATX machines. I looked into the lanbox format and it did not seem to offer much over a small ATX case.

Perry
 
The Silverstone is definately the smallest but it limits you a goodbit with the sideways mounting of cards. You will be hard pressed to get a graphics card and TV tuner card in there. I think they would have been better to just stick to short style cards and give you more slots than two.

I looked at the Lian Li and it seems like a pretty good case. I also found this one GMC R-3 Corona.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811110008

This one is tall but not real deep.

Here is one I already have one for my main HTPC. It is a pretty good case but a little deep for my tastes. I wish they had taken about 3 inches off the depth and added it to the width. It is too deep for most entertainment centers that have a back on them. It still may make a good bed room HTPC. It also comes with a 500W power supply.

APEVIA Black SECC Steel / Aluminum X-MASTER-BK/500 ATX Media Center

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811144231

Perry
 
Another here had vid card conflict with X-Master due to the PSU location. He needed a short ATX PSU but none are easily found. Plus the cable bundle comes out of the wrong side of the PSU to prevent even more space problems.

.bh.
 
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