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Club for those with beastly mATX/ITX rigs.

2M views 13K replies 1K participants last post by  opheen 
#1 ·
This thread is for a congregation of members that pack high-end hardware into tiny mATX or Mini-ITX cases without compromise. The emphasis is on small cases. Feel free to post pictures or just discuss SFF cases in general.

9/2012 Update:
Many, many pages of bickering have arisen due to my flexible definition of "beastly" and "SFF".

In general, a beastly system needs to have discrete graphics and a quad core processor. Watercooling, custom cases, or in-depth case mods all help as well. Micro-Atx or smaller boards, and no cases with more than 4 expansion slots regardless of the board inside.

However, this thread has grown into a much larger discussion about SFF, and has grown beyond these original guidelines. As such, any mATX or smaller system is fair game, including the Prodigy. Hating the Prodigy is fine, but doing so in this thread is not.

3/2015 Update:

Since everyone loves to quote me, and treat what I say like commandments, here's a list of points making it clear:
  1. I'm not going to define a list of acceptable cases, or volume/size criteria. This just creates more drama and bickering.
  2. Content here is posted by the community. I do not have control over what happens, I'm just a poster like all of you.
  3. Users need to recognize that we all have specific tastes, and not everything will line up with what we want to see.
  4. No one person here decides what belongs and does not belong. Not even me. We do that together as a community.
  5. Posters should be mindful of the SFF passion we all share. It's very possible your build may not click with us. Don't get offended.
  6. If you don't like something, it can be safely ignored. If you're going to say something, perhaps refer them to a more fitting club.
  7. Toxic comments, or calling anyone out gets referred to the mods. Healthy and passionate discussion is always welcome.
Now, for a handful of "technical suggestions"
  1. The club has evolved into a primarily Mini-ITX focus. Consider mITX boards in mITX cases the standard of what we look for.
  2. We exist to demonstrate legitimate high-end gaming hardware can fit in small spaces. This is not the place for your low-power HTPC or Raspberry Pi.
  3. If you're going to post a Micro-ATX board, it needs to have two or more video cards. Period. If you have just one GPU on mATX, this is not your thread.
  4. Any "borderline" large cases had better be special. Full watercooling, a scratch built case, clever use of PCIe risers etc. is to be expected.
I love how passionate we all are. I really do. It makes this thread with thousands of posts feel like a tight-knit community. (and indeed we are). Best I can tell, this is the most popular thread in the entire "Specialty Builds" section by a long shot. We have come a long way in these 6 years. You, the community, have made it what it is. That's not to be taken lightly. Let's keep it up!
 
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#4 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by nemesi5 View Post
bet you that case has the worst airflow, how come you aren't running on a rampage gene? those tend to be the best matx mobos
I needed a floppy controller.

I keep all my passwords on a floppy disk, security through obscurity.


And yeah, airflow is an issue considering it's only got 2 92mm fan holes. I cut the grills out though.
 
#6 ·
Hey everyone, I took some more pictures since I had to take the panels off to add in 3 more gigs of RAM. It's really crazy how small this bugger is compared to most cases here on OCN. I'm about to put my DVD drive in, and once Newegg ships my $148 4890, it's going in too. Crossfire might be in the future as well. No compromises.

In the 3rd pic, I added in an Antec Big Boy 200 for size comparison.
LL
LL
LL
LL
LL
 
#7 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Dyson Poindexter View Post

.
Wow that 3870 is definately not getting much air. But thats cool how you fit everything into that small case.
 
#11 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by iommichild View Post
Maybe cut a hole out under the 3870 for some fresh air for the vid card at least...looks very tidy!
I'm holding off on the holes because I've got a 4890 coming in soon, but I think blowholes will be in order for sure. Thanks for the complement, cable mangement was made pretty easy due to the hollow section in the front of the case, but I've still got a lot of work to do.

nafljhy, Beautiful case, I love the brass accents.

Freezebyte, nice to see all that beastly kit crammed into a SFF case.
 
#13 ·
Nice systems y'all have.

My new LAN party rig is composed of the following parts:
Core i7 920
MSI X58M
3GB Corsair DDR3-1600
Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX (with a bolt-thru kit)
BFG GTX 285
BFG LS-550 PSU
1TB Seagate 7200.12 HDD (short stroked to 300GB)
750GB Samsung F1 HDD for data
random (Samsung?) DVDRW
Cooler Master Elite 341 micro ATX case

I just built it recently and was going to debut it at a LAN party today. This morning I even booted it up to download the Razer mouse drivers. Bring it to the LAN party, it won't power on. Not no POST, but won't power on. Motherboard power button LED lights up, but that's it.
Good thing the LAN was just a few miles from home, so I went back to get my old LAN party rig (Xeon E3110, Foxconn G45 chipset board, 8GB RAM, GTS 250, Antec NSK3480, etc.).
 
#19 ·


 
#20 ·
Havent taken a picture of my rig since i replaced my last card with a 9800GTX+

but heres the innards at an earlier point in time.


heres a mod done shortly after to get moar airflow.


(yes, my xiggy has been dropped, and recently replaced with one without dented fins.)
 
#22 ·
XFire 5870 in THAT!? :O
nice!
 
#26 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by akromatic View Post
Here is my little contribution + update to my system









more pictures of it here
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread....post1035076184
Looks amazing, but man i feel bad for those poor cards, gotta be HOT! props to ya for cramming all that in there!
 
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