The plan: A water-cooled small form factor (SFF) microATX (mATX/uATX) gaming build able to drive triple-monitor Nvidia Surround/AMD Eyefinity resolutions.
The proposed hardware: Mobo: microATX Intel P67 chipset CPU: LGA 1155 i7 or i5 (water-cooled) GPU: Dual-slot or SLI/Crossfire (water-cooled) RAM: DDR3 dual-channel CAS6 Storage: SSD (not water-cooled, LOL!) Sound Card: Headphones-friendly Displays: Three widescreen (of course), no larger than 20", this will be a 'mobile' Nvidia Surround/AMD Eyefinity build able to be packed in a compact way for travel (LAN parties, vacations, family visits, business, etc).
What I need help with: Finding a Small Form Factor case capable of handling a water cooling setup and the proposed hardware within the case, if possible. I have three cases in mind already, which I will mod to fit the radiators and fans, if needed. I am leaning toward the Arc Mini:
I helped a friend out with a build based around the NZXT Vulcan, it's a great case! But what it really comes down to between both the cases that you listed is Portability vs Sleekness. Since you said that you would like to be taking it places, I would HIGHLY recommend the Vulcan. The handle is just so convenient, and will save you a lot of hassle when carrying it around.
I have been looking for a mATX case for a while now and the only ones I like are the Fractal Design Arc Mini and the new Silverstone TJ08-E. I would buy either of those now but I can't find the Arc Mini and the TJ08-e is not out yet.
Funny that wiki link actually directly refutes your statement: "SFF originally referred to systems smaller than the Micro-ATX. The term SFF is used in contrast with terms for larger systems such as "mini-towers" and "desktops." (emphasis added)
Actually, the most 'official' definition is the one used by Intel, which can be found in this PDF at formfactors.org. Here's a screencap of the relevant bit:
The cases you're considering are 2-3 times the size of a true SFF.
Arguing definitions is lame, but so is abusing terms to the point of meaninglessness.
You realize anyone can edit wikipedia, right? Which makes it, by itself, worth exactly nothing as a source. The fact that that line seems to contradict the one immediately following only underscores that point. It's worthless.
You want something closer to a real source? Have a look at the article (+the next twopages) that line references. That, plus the specification I already linked will give you a decent idea of what the classifications are.
By any reasonable measure, a 40 liter tower-shaped chassis is not even close to the established, loosely defined definition of "small form-factor." Face it, you are misusing the terminology.
Originally Posted by RonindeBeatrice;12795159
I'm not going to bust this guy's chops, as it's commonplace nowadays to accept any case which will only take a matx board as an SFF chassis.
Been planning the parts and their orientation within the case while I await the arrival of the Arc Mini. Here's an embarrassingly bad, though, quick and dirty rough sketch of the air and water flow of this build:
Anyone out there good with Sketchup? I am in need of your talents.
Why not front and top intake, rear and bottom exhaust? You can turn the PSU upside down to suck the air from above and exhaust to the back. It's better to have fans as intake on rads, right?
Been thinking about a 590 or 6990 instead of the two GTX 560s. The thing is, I want this to be a "floss" rig with a lot of eyecandy, thus, the multi-GPUs.
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