Short ATX Case for Conroe! No Drives Necessary

[intelcore2duogrid]

Hello,

I'm building a grid of Conroe based machines and need to put 2 cases "front to front" on a shelf with less than 32" available of total depth. I have no need for any drives whatsoever so this part of the case doesn't matter. My only other needs are the ability to fit a full size ATX mobo (currently using Gigabyte DS3) and a decent sized heatsink/fan.

Open to all suggestions! My current case is 17.5" deep with the bezel (needed to prevent all sorts of dust from being sucked in) so this is 3" too long (2x17.5=35").

Appreciate the help!

 

[Zepper]

I know of no case for ATX mobo that doesn't allow for drives, so they will always be deeper than 16". Sorry. Though I did find one HTPC case from nMedia that's supposed to be exactly 16" deep - I suppose you could stand it up on one side or another. Then there are the Suntek 9311/9511 which are 15x15", but you'd probably have to do some surgery to fit a good sized HSF in there - maybe a low-pro Zalman radial would fit.

.bh.

 

[keeleysam]

Why do you need a full size board for a grid? You can do something plenty small in mATX.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129012 is the best I found.

 

[Zepper]

Even that is 16.5" deep - doesn't anyone actually read the OP???

.bh.

 

[keeleysam]

I read the OP, I said it was the best I found because it was the least deep I found.

 

[Zepper]

Yes, that is the real problem. Even most microATX mobos are still mainly 10" deep (some aren't, but the cases still have to allow for that depth) so even finding a mATX case that's less than 16" deep is difficult unless you can make do with something like the Athenatech A100 or the Enermax Venus series. But those might not cool well enough for a Conroe. But most of the drive bay metal can be easily removed from those to help with cooling.

Hey OP,

How are you at metal-bending? You can buy a Lian Li mobo drawer separately as a replacement part and build a box to fit around it. You could make that as little as 12" deep. Some aluminum sheet, a drill, a nibbling tool and a pop-rivet tool and you're on your way...

.bh.

 

[VinDSL]

N/M

 

[intelcore2duogrid]

I need a full size board because I need something that can OC very well. Right now we're using the Gigabyte DS3 with E6300 chips and OC'ing to 3.2GHz. The E6600 arrives today so I'll be testing that chip as well. However, I'm not aware of any mATX mobos that support DDR2 800 RAM and reach 400+ MHz FSB. The E6300 ran SPrime95 for 24 hours at 3.2GHz with no errors and at a reasonable temp (60deg cel. and not yet in air conditioned colocation facility).

Zepper, do you mind linking the the "mobo drawer" you mentioned? My friend is in a colo with Google and he said they have mobos w/onboard NICs+RAM and power supplies just mounted to plywood and shoved in a rack. That too would work for me, but I'm not very proficient with hardware and would have to sub it out somewhere. I'd prefer using a small enough case (16" would be ideal) and not having to worry about manhandling some aluminum.

 

[Zepper]

Here's one place:
Lian Li drawer

SilverPCs.com also carries them.

.bh.