Any MATX case interest? & Newbie case advice?

mshan · Post by **mshan** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 8:46 am

What about the Aspire X-Qpack:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6811144109

Seems like it has a lot of silent pc potential. I am just concerned to all of the references to defective or damaged brand new cases.

Is this typical for Aspire or do you think it is due to initial production run lack of quality control?

sundevil_1997 · Post by **sundevil_1997** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 8:59 am

mshan wrote:Seems like it has a lot of silent pc potential. I am just concerned to all of the references to defective or damaged brand new cases.

Is this typical for Aspire or do you think it is due to initial production run lack of quality control?

I've been eyeing that case. Bluefront recently updated his post on it because Newegg was having a sale on it. There is a lot of good discussion on that case in this thread.

I'm in search of a small case that I can easily carry around (take next door to play games with friends), but still have all the horsepower as a regular ATX PC. This case seems to fit a lot of bills, and the built in carrying handle is a nice bonus (although a handle on top would cause me less concern for tall/heavy heatsinks on the motherboard). This case, and the shuttle cases are considerations for me.

lucienrau · Post by **lucienrau** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 9:39 am

I don't understand what the advantage is. Thermally, there is no difference compared to the board mounted normally. Nor is there any functionally. About the only thing I can thin of is that maybe it's possible to modifiy this more easily to one or another of the BTX form factors.

I'd guess the same thing. My bet is that it is easier for case manufacturers to use the same chassis with minor modifications (different backplate) for BTX rather than having to retool.

The only thing I was thinking of is the CPU is away from the PSU so it is easier to duct without blocking the airflow for a bottom-intake PSU.

I keep looking at the aspire/chenbro thing and it has everything I'm looking for except it has aluminum. I've had it with hum.

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 10:04 am

lucienrau wrote:The only thing I was thinking of is the CPU is away from the PSU so it is easier to duct without blocking the airflow for a bottom-intake PSU.

You're right of course. I got confused because I was looking at the pics of the Coolermaster case here -- the PDF spec sheet shows it correctly, but these pics are simply wrong.

|Romeo| · Post by **|Romeo|** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 10:26 am

MikeC wrote:
lucienrau wrote:It looks like it's the same pseudo-BTX configuration that is pretty popular right now (Lian-Li 1000 etc...) with the board flipped.
I don't understand what the advantage is. Thermally, there is no difference compared to the board mounted normally. Nor is there any functionally. About the only thing I can thin of is that maybe it's possible to modifiy this more easily to one or another of the BTX form factors.

I think it's an ergonomic thing -you want the optical drive to be at the top of the case, so you can't fit a nice big air intake at the top, however if you flip the motherboard you can put a nice big intake at the bottom.

lucienrau · Post by **lucienrau** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 10:39 am

That's wierd. Mike it looks like the pcs you linked to are a BTX case whereas the PDF shows a flipped ATX.

I especially like how they misspelled holes in the PDF.

Looks like the retooling guess was right. Now if I could only get my hands on one to look at.

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 8:45 pm

I started looking at other components after I saw the Coolermaster RC-540 / RC-541 and Aerocool VM-101 (and maybe VM-102) came to my mind. It looks like a good combination with the orientation of the fans.

vdorta · Post by **vdorta** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 4:02 am

mshan wrote:What about the Aspire X-Qpack: Seems like it has a lot of silent pc potential. I am just concerned to all of the references to defective or damaged brand new cases.

I believe the similar Chenming MATX-118 is better out of the box, with what looks like a medium-speed 120mm Yate Loon that is very quiet (I compared it to a Yate Loon) and an ever quieter variable-speed, temperature-controlled PSU fan. I bought mine from Computer HQ (out of stock right now), cheaper than Newegg and they ship it double boxed.

mshan · Post by **mshan** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 8:00 am

Anyone know if the Aspire X-Qpack's psu fan is also thermally controlled?

Also, will a Zalman Fanbracket123 fit in the removeable motherboard tray and underneath the case cross braces? (I have an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ with stock AMD heat sink and 60 mm fan and ideally would like to use the same heat sink, but an undervolted Panaflo 80 mm L1A. My mobo is a Biostar M7NCG rev. 7.2)

sundevil_1997 · Post by **sundevil_1997** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 8:44 am

vdorta wrote: I believe the similar Chenming MATX-118 is better out of the box, with what looks like a medium-speed 120mm Yate Loon that is very quiet (I compared it to a Yate Loon) and an ever quieter variable-speed, temperature-controlled PSU fan. I bought mine from Computer HQ (out of stock right now), cheaper than Newegg and they ship it double boxed.

The Chenming comes with a 300W PSU, though, not the 420 W of the Aspire.

*shrugs*

Hard to tell if the PSU is worth it, but an addition $4 for another 120 W is nice.

lucienrau · Post by **lucienrau** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 5:38 am

Just for anyone who was following this thread. I received a Centurion 541 in the mail yesterday and will be building a system in it over the next few days. Just let me know if you have any specific questions that I can answer.

siudej · Post by **siudej** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 7:25 am

Helo, I am new to to SPCR.

I was thinking about building my first quiet and small PC in Centurion 541 case.

What's your first impression about this case? How about quality? Is it solid?
Do you have mATX or mBTX version?

lucienrau · Post by **lucienrau** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:21 am

I just finished the system today and I like it alot. I have the m-axt version. I haven't done much thorough testing, but it's well built (unike quite a few m-axt cases). It's definitely solid. All the edges are rolled so I only had one scraped finger (a big deal for me since I have large hands and have a hard time building in smaller cases). THe case is very very sturdy, no twisting or loose parts. Everything fits together very well.

It has very good cooling potential with the 120mm intake and dual 80mm exhaust.

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:34 am

Any pictures of your new mATX system?

siudej · Post by **siudej** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:59 am

Where did you get mATX case? Newegg lists only Centurion 541 mBTX but with pictures and serial number of mATX case.

lucienrau · Post by **lucienrau** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 4:49 am

As far as pics go, I lost my camera when I moved so I can't take pictures. I'll post some when I can.

I got the case from Newegg. There is a BTX version of the case coming out, but the one they're selling is the m-ATX version. I was worried too but I checked the pictures and product numbers before I ordered and it's just a mistake on Newegg's site.

The BTX version has a regularly mounted board the ATX version has the board flipped (cards above the CPU).

Having worked with the system more, I'm more impressed. It's very open and I thought that would translate into more noise. The black version has a mesh front and both of them have the CPU duct and vents for the graphics card. I'm coming from using a very modded Lian-Li and it's much quieter even with the hard drives hard mounted. All the drives use rails, which made building the system quite simple.

In the case I have:
Athlon 64 3200 Venice core, with an XP-120 passive.
MSI M-atx 939 board ATI chipset
Leadtek Geforce 6600 GT with Nvidia-Silencer
Dual Panaflo L1A's soft mounted with Ear Fan mounts
120mm Nexus hard mounted.
Samsung DVD+-RW drive
2 Samsung HDD One SATA 1 IDE hard mounted.
Seasonic Sl-380

All fans are controled by Cool & Quiet.

The loudest and really only noticible noise is from the hard disks. There is space to suspend them but I just haven't gotten to it yet.

The fan grills are as open as I've ever seen stamped fan grils. I was impressed with the fan mounts, which are wide drilled so it is very easy to mount grommets (no additional drilling required). The case is thick steel which helps damp the noise quite a bit. I've had a similar setup in a Lian Li and an Athenatech cheapo case. This beats both of them hands down.
The inside is roomy for a micro atx case, but not terribly spacious (if you fill all the drive areas you're going to be hurting for room). Because of the tight space you MUST be very very careful with wiring or you'll run out of room very quickly. I spent two hours routing wires to not block airflow. With only one removable side panel the wiring is pretty hard.

Some pretty cool ducting mods could be done fairly easily with this case.

The only complaint I have with my system at all at this point is that windows won't recognize the SATA drive.

This is my 4th m-atx case to date and certainly the only one that I could consider for full time use.

happycoyote · Post by **happycoyote** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 11:42 pm

The Silverstone SG01 Sugo (263 x 210 x 393 mm) has had some interesting reviews.
Phoronix review
Tom's Hardware Guide review

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 8:58 am

lucienrau wrote:Just for anyone who was following this thread. I received a Centurion 541 in the mail yesterday and will be building a system in it over the next few days. Just let me know if you have any specific questions that I can answer.

Will a Scythe Ninja (15cm height) fit?

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 2:58 pm

SG01 review.

lucienrau · Post by **lucienrau** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 5:52 am

Winguy, The case is very narrow (just over 18cm). So once you consider you're working with the internal dimension, motherboard +standoffs I doubt that anything more than 10cm would fit very comfortably.

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 6:11 am

lucienrau wrote:Winguy, The case is very narrow (just over 18cm). So once you consider you're working with the internal dimension, motherboard +standoffs I doubt that anything more than 10cm would fit very comfortably.

I doubt those will add up to more than 4cm. So 14cm tall heatsinks seem possible. But I'd like to know whether the 15cm tall Scythe Ninja will fit.

lucienrau · Post by **lucienrau** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 6:37 am

I'll check tonight but it'll be very very close if it does.

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 11:57 am

The more pictures I look at, the more I feel the Scythe Ninja won't fit.

lucienrau, do you have any good news?

lucienrau · Post by **lucienrau** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 1:47 pm

It should fit, barely. There is 16.5cm of clearance from the mobo to the edge of the case.

fikapaus · Post by **fikapaus** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 12:13 pm

My first post

From what I've read about the Coolermaster Centurion 540 it sounds quite cool. Does anyone know if they're available in the UK, or even Europe? I haven't been able to find anyone suppling them yet.

Whilst looking for the smallest case that could accomodate an mATX mobo and standard ATX psu I came across the Chieftec BS01:
http://www.chieftec.de/?page=products_s ... anguage=de

It accomodates large fans and the info states that it's 355mm long... With a standard size PSU and a optical drive along the top there won't be much (any?) room for the wiring to emerge will there? Particularly if it's a PSU with modular/plug-in connections? Looking at the images it also appears that it would be necessary to cut away some metal to allow a PSU with a 120mm fan to breath. Anyone have any experience of this case?

Thanks for any advice.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 6:14 pm

Hello & welcome to SPCR!

Nice looking case -- is the right side removable? It seems to have several opening on the right side that have rolled edges, even... The front intake slots could be more open, but the sides are going to make up for this, largely; though getting air flow over the HD's would be better. The front intake grill (in the case, as opposed to the bezel) is okay, but if you run a fan there, it might need snippage.

fikapaus · Post by **fikapaus** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 11:27 pm

Thanks and hello all!

Looking at the photo of the back it does appear to have thumbscrews on both sides, so I guess the other side is removable too.

This is the power supply that supposedly comes with it:
http://www.chieftec.de/?page=products_b ... anguage=de

It appears to be 100mm x 150mm x 86mm. Is this any kind of standard dimension? I was looking at getting it from www.Xcase.co.uk and they supply it without PSU, which I thought was good, as I could then choose my own PSU. Putting a standard ATX 150-160mm long PSU in this 355mm long case though is going to leave me needing an extremely short optical drive... How short can they go? Perhaps it’s better going for slightly longer case, which is a shame.

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 6:56 am

fikapaus: Why the name fikapaus? Are you from Sweden or what?

fikapaus · Post by **fikapaus** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 10:43 am

Nej, men jag bodde i sverige forra aret (...don't have enough keys on this laptop to write that properly...). It was cool. Fika was a pretty important part of the day, and that was fine with me!

winguy · Post by **winguy** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 8:22 am

lucienrau wrote:Dual Panaflo L1A's soft mounted with Ear Fan mounts

I was impressed with the fan mounts, which are wide drilled so it is very easy to mount grommets (no additional drilling required).

Hi, do you have a closeup pic of the back of the case showing the EAR mounts mounted? I thought the grooves (especially the middle one) might impede the mounting, or is that not a problem? Thanks.

Any MATX case interest? & Newbie case advice?

Aspire X-Qpack?

Re: Aspire X-Qpack?

Re: Aspire X-Qpack?

Re: Aspire X-Qpack?