Drive-less case

populusque · Post by **populusque** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 1:32 pm

Do such things exist? My idea would be to have just a microATX board, with no optical drive, and perhaps even no 3.5" disk, just a 2.5". Somehow the cases I see all seem to have useless 5.25" and 3.5" slots...

Thanks.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 9:35 am

Try looking for small HTPC cases. I don't know where you'd start looking in France, though. It'll be hard to find one that doesn't have an any external bays as it's not likely the manufacturer would make an item with such a limited capacity unless it was for a builder or other OEM.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 9:54 am

miniITX?
or is that not enough computing power?

bandrew · Post by **bandrew** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 5:57 am

Now the 5.25" and 3.5" slots of which you have talked here are surely those obsolete floppy drives, but there are cases which can be found in our places without these drives. As someone said here too the best thing for you would be to go for an assembled PC where you can mention your specifications clearly. Have limited idea whether the 'mini' version case which you want for needs would be a good idea but nowadays anything can be tailor made and done that is for sure.

kevral · Post by **kevral** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 6:13 am

I've been thinking about this kind of case myself, particularly as I took the lid off my NSK2480 and looked at all the wasted space.

I'd also really like a case for a Micro-ATX motherboard, a Pico-PSU, a 2.5" drive - and nothing else. Well, half- or even full-height expansion cards would be nice, but the main idea would be getting rid of all the wasted space from an ATX PSU and the drive cages.

Mini-ITX while small has a lot less options, and costs more.

I'd use 3 of these hypothetical cases: for an HTPC (networked DVD drive), for a UTM firewall, and for a quiet low-power "nettop".