sarahbau Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 There are a lot of Micro-ATX motherboards that are 9.6x9.6 inches, but I can't seem to find any really small cases for them. They're all around 14"x12", have a full size 5.25" bay in the front (or two!) and a few internal bays. I'm trying to find something that's not too much bigger than the board itself, and has a low profile as well (either only allowing one standard external 5.25" bay with no other external bays, or maybe a half height one for a slot loading drive). I don't want to go with Mini-ITX because the boards are too expensive (around $300), but I am looking for something kind of like the mini-ITX cases I've seen (which are all like the Mac Mini), just for Micro-ATX. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vonneuton Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 The Antec Minuet 300 cases are pretty small... nothing I've seen for Micro-ATX remotely approaches the style of the mac mini. I know that I've seen some company that built a mac mini clone, pretty much, but I can't remember what it was called. (five minutes later...) Okay... searched some more and found it. It's called the Aopen Pandora. Sorry if it isn't much help, but I've been searching myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahbau Posted June 6, 2007 Author Share Posted June 6, 2007 The Aopen case is a mini-ITX case. Those motherboards are all pretty expensive unfortunately. I'm basically trying to find something Apple Mini-esque, but for a bigger board (9.6x9.6 instead of 6.5x6.5). It probably doesn't exist though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vonneuton Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 I think the main reason that we haven't seen one like that is that the board manufacturers don't think the same way as the mini-itx people. The mini-itx boards tend to have lower component setups, ie. mobile processors, laptop memory, and they also design for a laptop style slim DVD drive. Pretty much, if you're so inclined, I would find someone who works with acrylic and have them build you a case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crzdmniac Posted July 8, 2007 Share Posted July 8, 2007 I ran across this on Newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16856110069 and almost bought it for myself. It's a barebone system, and it's 14x10, just about the smallest I've seen. I'm pretty certain the sound card works on this system, and the only real concern would be the firewire and the network. I really wanted to order the system, but I already had a case and PS, so it seemed like a waste for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mohoyt Posted July 18, 2007 Share Posted July 18, 2007 Hey all... I was looking for a small micro-ATX case for a while for a media centre Mac. I eventually found this really really small one from Hiper. www.hipergroup.com I think. It cost me only £20 (£30 with postage) off of eBay and is smaller than my current DVD player. It requires a slimline DVD/CD drive (the seller included that for me) and a less than 40mm CPU fan (I'm using the regular Intel fan, and it protudes, but once I get a decent SATA HD then I'll think about modding the case to have it stick out slightly...). It has a 240W PSU, which, yes its not too powerful, but it works fine for me (I use integrated graphics and the only expansion card is a WiFi one). The only thing that concerns me about this case is the cooling... Normally, there would only be two fans in the case, the small PSU one on the side and the CPU one. As this is a pretty solid metal case, I would expect things to get rather hot. I will probably try and add a few silent fans when I get round to fitting everything in! The case looks great otherwise, with 4 USB and a 4 pin firewire hidden on the front, which is nicely mirrored too. It has a nice blue power light aswell. Pretty good for only £20! Anyway, if you want any pics of it, just ask as the ones on their site are pretty poop if I rememeber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neilis Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 I ran across this on Newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16856110069 and almost bought it for myself. It's a barebone system, and it's 14x10, just about the smallest I've seen. I'm pretty certain the sound card works on this system, and the only real concern would be the firewire and the network. I really wanted to order the system, but I already had a case and PS, so it seemed like a waste for me. Awesome looking little system. I've already got my hackintosh built (though I think I am gonna put it into a new case. probably one of these http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...82E16811173013), but my Linux system is due for a rebuild/replacment soon. Anything to get it smaller and lower power is a good thing in my book . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rschultz101 Posted August 7, 2007 Share Posted August 7, 2007 here is one, from Aopen A340 http://www.2cpu.com/articles/22_1.html just came out, have one on order,... thought , everything needs to be half height cards, including graphics,... will stick a 7300gs low profile in, till the 8500gt is working on 10.4.10,.... have a firewire 800, but still need the bracket, and looking for a 29160lp u160 lvd scsi, just for testing, now need to find a carry case, maybe large laptopbag,... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onetrack Posted August 14, 2007 Share Posted August 14, 2007 Sorry about the crosspost, but this looks like a nice small system, and its even white. http://www.athenatech.us/a100ww.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paranoid Marvin Posted August 16, 2007 Share Posted August 16, 2007 ^ ^ Looks like someone drew inspiration from the Wii, lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rschultz101 Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 need half height , low profile brackets,... for firewire 800 pci card, has 2 800 on bottom , and one 400 horizontal on top, a quiet nvidia cooler, heatsink, for low profile 7300gs,... they send me one with a fan,... esata/sata low profile bracket slot cooler, low profile,... also be interested in replacement fan , 80mm 20mm, or stack 2 10mm and flex-atx PSU, with active power conversion, with high efficiency,.... a bag, carry case, any sort of bold/screw on handles and where to order heatpipes, besides germany,... notes: not a bad case for small form factor, cpu E2160 at 2.5ghz , stock fan is most on the time off,... since the psu is sucking the air out, the psu air out take is kinda warm, the stock fan tring to push air through, could be a tiny bit quieter, but think , it needs more pressure, maybe double stack 80mm 10mm x 2, for more pressure, and or fit a 60mm on the backend of the psu to push air out, and jam a alu or heatpipe, on top of psu to case, since in the psu there is a small heatsink under the label, what gets hot, have not measured the disk temperature, has litle airflow, but is not obstructed, thinking of putting 2 500gb in,... the dvd door opens with a button, has little fold out feet, case is alu and light, feels rigid enough. overall nice, did intend to use it with building graphics, X3100, but that did not work out, so with a building graphics, this case stays cool enough , for the OC, PSU is good enough, stock cooler is good enough, just thinking of getting some better chipset coolers, maybe make some, aka, cooper block, with heatpipe to case, to not fry those, since those are the hottest in the case, besides the nvidia, if run without fan, keep me posted, tips, suggestions, questions,... thanks, Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
learning_bird Posted September 8, 2007 Share Posted September 8, 2007 I was looking for a small micro-ATX case for a while for a media centre Mac. I eventually found this really really small one from Hiper. www.hipergroup.com I think. It cost me only £20 (£30 with postage) off of eBay and is smaller than my current DVD player. meber. Finally a decent designed small case. Can you give me the link for that ebay seller? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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