A good MATX case

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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BillyBuerger
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A good MATX case

Post by BillyBuerger » Mon Feb 28, 2005 7:10 am


4-Bay MATX Black Computer Case


I just picked up one of these the other day. I was looking for the cheapest case I could find to put some old parts in. This was the best I could find at $20 with shipping.

My first impressions was that it looked like an OEM IBM case or something. Black with the blue power button just reminded me of IBM for some reason. It obviously was some OEM case as the power switch/led and hd led wires were connected to a block connector instead of being the standard individual connectors. As if it were designed specifically to fit a single type of motherboard. So those had to be cut and soldered with new ends. That was really the only major problem with it. It fits a full sized ATX PSU, has two 5.25" drive bays and 2 3.5" drive bays. One of the 3.5" bays has a black floppy drive cover. It has room for an 80mm exhaust fan on the back which is fairly open. Not the best but definitly not the worst I've seen. The front is very open easily allowing air to flow in.

The case is a little short on the depth. I have less than an inch between the back of the DVD drive and the PSU. Also, there is no reset switch or front USB connectors.

I currenlty have installed a P2-400 on a PCChips motherboard, a 145W PSU with a bottom mounted 92mm fan, and a panaflo 80L on the exhaust. I'm picking up a P3-550 which I plan on mounting an old Dell P2-266 HS on. It's a big fanless brass colored HS. The 92mm PSU might even be enough to keep it cool as it will be blowing right by it. But I think the Panaflo on a low voltage will help keep the PSU fan from spinning up too much.

I was very pleased with this case and will probably be picking up another one soon to throw some more old parts in. Just thought I would share with the rest of you all.

rei
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Post by rei » Tue Mar 08, 2005 8:41 pm

it's an inwin iw-v523g. i have one.

rei
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Post by rei » Tue Mar 08, 2005 8:42 pm

well an older version
they have various variants on the V series if you check in-win.com.tw's website


older version only had 180w psu
new one had 300w psu and p4 ready

yeha
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Post by yeha » Tue Mar 08, 2005 8:53 pm

inwin has been piquing my curiousity lately, i can't think of any reason not to go with the z720t, which can be picked up for $31 plus $14 shipping here.

the z720t has the bonus of supporting a 92mm rear fan and a built-in 120mm-fan 300w psu, as well as that nice looking duct for the cpu cooler to bring in fresh air. the grill below that intake is also well-placed for venting a hot graphics card. there's a huge amount of room to suspend a full cage of hard drives, about all it seems to miss is a mounting position for a front intake fan - however the case does have a nice-looking intake that'll actually let air in.

about the only problem i see with it is that it might be too open on the sides and front, letting noise escape. but with such great opportunities for airflow directing i haven't seen any matx case that's caught my eye since.

rei
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Post by rei » Tue Mar 08, 2005 9:35 pm

well a big turnoff is it's ugly :)

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Post by rei » Tue Mar 08, 2005 9:36 pm

anyone know if there are any other minimalist/classy/non-gawdy matx microtower cases like this?

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Post by yeha » Tue Mar 08, 2005 10:12 pm

can't please everyone :)

i actually like the look - ugly bays are covered, nice big accessible power button, little to no unnecessary bulges/ripples/logos, overall pretty minimalist. plus a symmetrical design is much easier on my eyes than asymmetrical ones.

the design i prefer most of all is the dead-grey-box look, like this or this but with even less personality - purely functional, nothing there that doesn't need to be. the inwin i linked to is actually one of the least offensive cases i've been able to find lately :? the popular antec cases horrify me, though i don't mind the overture too much. in fact looking at the list of microatx cases at newegg and directron, the overture is the only other matx case i could consider buying, and it'd be much harder to silence and much less functional.

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Post by dhutch » Thu Sep 15, 2005 8:23 am

Im building a MicroATX Sytem, and looking to put it in a mini tower type case.
- So far the suitable cases ive found are:

Qtec EL-Micro 300W
Jeantech JNF11S
AOPEN A340 - Black (stood up vertical) (least fav)
Powmax Mini Tower

There all not to bad, and i particalerly like the Handle on the Powmax, but i can find that one anywhere in the UK? (only on ebay.com)

- Also whatever case i get, i'll proberbly end up with geting a diffrent PSU, (better quality, and quieter!) so it would good if they supported a full ATX PSU, becuase there a lot more of them.

And thoughts


Daniel

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Post by lucienrau » Thu Sep 15, 2005 11:31 am

You might also want to check out the coolermaster 540-541.

I've had quite a few micro atx cases and this is the only one I've really liked.

http://www.coolermaster.com/index.php?L ... 0ATX%20540

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Post by dhutch » Thu Sep 15, 2005 11:54 am

its quite BIG tho, compaired to the ones with the vertical CD drive

Qtec
Image

Powmax
Image


Daniel

lucienrau
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Post by lucienrau » Fri Sep 16, 2005 4:38 am

It is relatively big (still small compared to an ATX case). I chose to sacrifice a bit on the size for airflow (it has dual 80mm exhaust and a 120mm intake).

My personal issues with the vertical drives are:
1. The small width usually only allows for 60mm fans which are loud no matter how much you slow them down.
2. They rarely allow for a good intake, severely limiting airflow.
3. The form factor usually only allows a proprietary PSU. If not, then a micro ATX psu at the best which limits the system you can put in there.
4. The small size makes them very difficult to mod for decent airflow which is essential in small systems.

Your priorities may vary. It all depends on the system you want to put in there. My main system is a gaming machine whereas I'm also building an HTTPC out of older parts. I am using a case for the HTTPC that I wouldn't even think about for the main system because of the PSU (proprietary 240W) but since it's going to be a low power undervolted Athlon M-XP that's not as much of an issue.

One thing you will want to consider is wire routing as you will be working with much less space than in a tower. Poor wire routing can completely kill airflow. Another is build quality as a cheap m-atx case can rip up your hands if you're not careful (I know this from experience).

The only m-atx cases that I've found that take full ATX PSUs are towers (aside from the Chenbro one that is out now which I won't consider for myself because it's made from thin aluminum).

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Post by Halo » Fri Sep 16, 2005 2:58 pm

The small size makes them very difficult to mod for decent airflow which is essential in small systems.
Having just bought a case of this type (Chenbro PC805) I wholeheartedly agree with this. The case itself is nice and solid but proper cable routing is impossible and everything is horribly cramped. It could definitely be improved slightly by using a shorter length mATX PSU but that still leaves little room for excess cables.

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Post by dhutch » Sun Sep 18, 2005 4:41 pm

lucienrau wrote:My personal issues with the vertical drives are:
1. The small width usually only allows for 60mm fans which are loud no matter how much you slow them down.
2. They rarely allow for a good intake, severely limiting airflow.
3. The form factor usually only allows a proprietary PSU. If not, then a micro ATX psu at the best which limits the system you can put in there.
4. The small size makes them very difficult to mod for decent airflow which is essential in small systems.

The only m-atx cases that I've found that take full ATX PSUs are towers (aside from the Chenbro one that is out now which I won't consider for myself because it's made from thin aluminum).
Ok, thanks.

I relise that a 'vertical drive' case will be small, and only have cutout for a 60mm fan, and maybe your right i ort to go for somthing a little larger in order to be able to keep noise down.
- Ive never had one of these cases, so maybe my plans are over optimistic?


Daniel

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Post by lucienrau » Mon Sep 19, 2005 4:57 am

Probably a little over optimistic. But as I said before, it all depends on what you put in there. There are side mounted drive cases that take 80mm fans but you will need to be very very careful about the system you put in there.

If you have onboard video and an undervolted cpu most smaller cases are ok. Or a Via system etc... Once you start adding things in like videocards, you're adding a lot of heat to the system that will have to be gotten rid of. Even with a well ventilated case, it pays to pay attention to power consumption as the less heat you create, the less heat that needs to be gotten rid of. Mike has a pretty good article on the main site about that.

dhutch
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Post by dhutch » Mon Sep 19, 2005 11:32 am

The system i plan to put in there is this.

Gigabyte K8NMF-9 K8-939 nForce4 fsb1600Mhz uATX
AMD Athlon 64 3000 32/64Bit S939 Venice 90nm
1Gb (2x512Mb) Corsair, DDR400/PC3200,CL2.5,
Samsung SpinPoint P SP1614C 160GB SATA 8MB Cache - OEM
256Mb Gigabyte PCI-E GV RX80256D-X800 DDRIII Silent Heatpipe

Casefan wise, i though id use a 80 or 92mm fan with a duct to the 2*60mm fan holes that most of these cases seam to have. (with the grill cut out, obvously!)

I have a vary simular system in a ATX case which survives fine with one 7v'ed 92mm papst, and the fan in the Nexus3000.

- What vertical drive cases do you know that hold a 80mm fan?


Daniel

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Post by dhutch » Mon Sep 19, 2005 1:43 pm

I was also looking at this enermax case HERE

Im also worryed about how quite these cases will be, as there dont seam to be many quite Matx powersuppleys?


Daniel

lucienrau
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Post by lucienrau » Tue Sep 20, 2005 4:59 am

There was one silverstone floating around for a while there, but I think it's off the market now. I got one and it had issues (it's my future HTTPC case). I was looking at the Enermax before I bought the Coolermaster and I got hung up on the PSU. In looking at it now, it's a standard m-atx PSU so you should be able to replace it with a Seasonic or something if it's not acceptable. It also uses a standard 80x20mm fan which means you can do a fan swap easily. My issue with the silverstone was the proprietary PSU that had an 80x10mm fan that couldn't be swapped.

You may want to look at ducting your CPU heatsink so the heat is directly exhausted and doesn't interfere with the power supply airflow since the PSU is directly up against the heatsink.

The intake on the Enermax is a little restricted and you'll have to be VERY careful about cable routing. A little bit of messiness will kill that case. I've found that following in some of the guru's footsteps around here pays off amazingly. This last case is the first time that I've taken the time to re-route all the cables and it's been amazing (most everything is routed under the motherboard). It took me about 2 hours before I could even really start on the build but now messing around inside cake.

You may have issues with the video card since that's going to add up to 63W of heat during load with an X800 (the card may draw more power than the rest of your system all together). If you're going with that card you will want to consider an Arctic Silencer on it since those exhaust the video card heat. I would say look at the HIS cards but I just got one and the fan died within a day so I'd reccommend buying a less expensive card and adding the silencer. Just remember that with the silent pipe or any other silent heatsink, you're dumping the heat into the case so you have much more heat to exhaust thru the PSU and fan exhausts.

I have a similar system in the coolermaster and the saving grace is that I could put a decent PSU in there (Seasonic S1 380). I've had to work to keep it cool and silent and I know I couldn't do that with an OEM psu.

In my system I have:
MSI RS480M2-IL
Athlon 64 3200 Venice
Samsung Spinpoint 80GB PATA
Spinpoint 40GB SATA
HIS Radeon X800
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz

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Post by dhutch » Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:23 am

Thats a grat post, thats.
- I know i'll ahve to be carefull about cable routing, but thanks for th info on the enermax PSU, i think i might go for that, the blue/silver is a nice look, and if i can swap the PSU fan, that could work out well.
- What about this seasonic uATX PSU, it that a quiet one?
- Also, i take on board about the passive GPU heatsink, and im defonatly looking into the arcticcoolers. (which seam to have changed since the SPCReview?)
- Also also the bit abut ducting the cpu heat, although depending on the cpu, that might not be posable. (i have one of the old molex radial coolers, which is great for that, but a bit small)


Daniel

lucienrau
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Post by lucienrau » Tue Sep 20, 2005 11:20 am

You may want to try the enermax PSU before you switch as they're a pretty reputable brand. The Seasonic is pretty quiet but you may want a fan swap to a Nexus or something as well. I know that I build with what I've got and work on what I'm not satisfied with in any new system.

Having used several of the arctic silencers both the nvidia and ATI ones...it all depends... some are quiet some are a bit noiser but they're all better than stock. It may be worth trying the system you're building stock and then seeing what needs to be done or modded. You might search the VGA forum as they post about that sort of stuff over there.

Definitely get as big a heatsink as you can afford (both space and $) as it will make quieting down much easier. The newer heatsinks with heatpipes in them tend to work well in pulling configs. I put an XP 120 on mine and can run it fanless if need be (I put a fan on there to cool the northbridge which is a scorcher).

As far as ducting goes, I usually rough in a duct with fiberboard and tape (works just fine) then bend some plexi to the appropriate shape. More out of fastidiousness than anything else.

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