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Thread: Alternative to Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX case?

  1. #17
    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    Re: Alternative to Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX case?

    Ooo nice spots CAT I'd forgotten about the Ace Ecco 250 which is basically the same as core 1000 inside but with added sound damping material and a 2nd hdd strut
    The Zalman's looks interesting, very narrow so cooler height is going to be rather limited but nice idea to make it taller to fit 120mm fan in the top.

    @bonebreaker777, As too "Quoting user reviews" I hate to say it but these are often written by idiots who have not bothered to spend any time to understand the workings of a product they have bought.
    eg "Getting to some screws was difficult. Also 1 of the screw holes would not line up with a corsair power supply" this instantly says to me that the person was trying to fit the psu in upside down, as psu's have standard screw hole positions and dimensions.
    Some cases have mounting holes to fit a psu ether way up but not that many do esp the cheaper cases, and any time you put the psu in the wrong way up one screw hole will not be in the correct place.
    Only having the psu held in by 3 screws is not a problem however air flow could well be an issue as there is probably not enough space for air to get to the psu fan.
    Cableing will be slightly tricky it always will be in a small case, again it's a matter of understanding how to go about wire in a case with this layout.
    You cannot stuff cable behind the motherboard tray or drive cage, what you can do is tie up and put unused psu cables into an empty slot in the 5.25" bay which will hide them/get them out of the way. other cables you need to run the the front and secure them to the inside of the front panel, down the panel then back to the motherboard.
    Not the best for cable management but I don't think you'll find any case of the same size and cost to be any better.
    Similar situation come with general building a system in it, any case of a similar size is going to have issues, the issues are created by the lack of space more than the design of the case.
    here's a great example of how to do good cable management in a core 1000 http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...ostcount=20453

    Both the ARC mini and TJ08e/PS07 are bigger esp in width, having a wider case allows for far more options when it come to running cables behind/over and around things.

    CPU cooler height is limited to 140mm btw so no 120mm fan based tower cooler will fit in it as they are all around 160mm tall, most 92mm fan based tower will fit no issue eg arctic cooling freezer 7 pro or Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO or Thermalright True Spirit90

    However all told I do think you'd probably be better off with a small ATX mid tower case The bitfenix mentioned or casecom or silverstone PS02 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silve...r-case-w-o-psu (older but still a decent case and now cheap) or NZXT source 210 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/nzxt-...mm-fan-w-o-psu

    For a general office pc you don't need much in the way of power which in turn means you don't need a great deal of cooling nor any other major requirements.
    I would say go with the Ace Ecco 250 or core 1000 if you must have a smaller mATX case, but it doesn't sound like case size is really that big an issue for you, just nothing monstrous, you can still put a mATX motherboard into a ATX case, infact the extra space it will give you will probably make building a little easier.
    Look at the dimensions, heck cut up some cardboard boxes make them into boxes of the size of the cases to get a better idea of the size.

    You really want small then go for something like this http://www.scan.co.uk/products/inwin...-with-200w-psu now a 200w psu might not sound like much but stick in a h61 miniITX motherboard, an i3 cpu, 4gb ddr ram, single 3.5"HDD and you'll be fine.

    The core 3000 is a nice ATX case, but really nothing that special to command the price, nothing really bad or wrong with it, just nothing stands out ether, personally I'd rate the casecom cases over it, the one thing the core 3000 has going for it is the nice fractal design vibration damping hard drive trays.
    EDIT: Ok look like the core 3000 price has come down, it used to be £50+

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    Senior Member Ulti's Avatar
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    Re: Alternative to Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX case?

    Yep the Ace Ecco 250 is pretty awesome, it also supports 2x 120mm in the front and 1x 120mm in the back as opposed to the Core 1000.

    Here's a review/build log with it that I wrote up a while back: http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware/...ld-review.html

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    Bonebreaker777 (15-01-2013),Pob255 (15-01-2013)

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    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    Re: Alternative to Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX case?

    I forgot you did a build in the Ecco 250, you did a great job with the cableing.
    Why hasn't scan put that in the performance mATX cases list? no wonder I missed it.

    And why oh why did lian-li stop making the PC-Q07?? that's such a lovely itx case, yes its a bit cramped but what do you expect at that size and component set.
    They so should had that one over to LanCool make a cheap steel version, could stick a plastic bezel on the front to give it an extra 25mm or so and a front fan.

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    Re: Alternative to Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX case?

    Quote Originally Posted by Willzzz View Post
    1) Are you likely to reuse this case? Will you keep it for your next build? If you are only building it once, maybe the hassle isn't so bad. If you are going to reuse it several times, maybe you can justify spending a little extra.
    A reuse is possible in the future, but highly unlikely I will be changing components often, tops adding a HDD or so or GPU.

    Quote Originally Posted by Willzzz View Post
    2) Does it really matter about neatness inside? If you are doing a budget build chances are that the components aren't super sensitive to airflow and it's not like the case has a window.
    More of a OCD that a cooling issue, I like things around me in order and being neat.

    Quote Originally Posted by Willzzz View Post
    Most small cases are going to be slightly more difficult to build into, some ATX cases are not really much bigger, but that extra inch can make assembly a whole lot easier.
    Could be true, I need to look into the dimensions of the Core 1000 and the other cases.

  7. #21
    Senior Member Bonebreaker777's Avatar
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    Re: Alternative to Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX case?

    Quote Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH View Post
    Wonder why does the case on the German site have space for a lot more hard drives that the case on Overclockers.co.uk (least on the pictures, Overclockers state the drive configuration to be [2 X 5.25" (Exposed) + 1 X 3.5" (Exposed) + 3 X 3.5" or 1 X 2.5" and 2 X 3.5" (Hidden)].)

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    Senior Member Bonebreaker777's Avatar
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    Re: Alternative to Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX case?

    Reading all this lovely feedback made me decide to choose the Ace Ecco 250.

    Thank you soo much for all the effort. Will later read trough that review about the Ecco 250 building.

    Will later sort out the "thanks", but right now I am being pressed at work

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    Senior Member Ulti's Avatar
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    Re: Alternative to Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX case?

    Quote Originally Posted by Bonebreaker777 View Post
    Reading all this lovely feedback made me decide to choose the Ace Ecco 250.

    Thank you soo much for all the effort. Will later read trough that review about the Ecco 250 building.

    Will later sort out the "thanks", but right now I am being pressed at work
    Just reread your thread again and noticed that you may want to use the Xigmatek Thor's Hammer eventually, that's exactly what I've got in the Ace Ecco 250! It's pretty much a perfect fit. mATX is still a bit big when you don't use a graphics card though in my opinion, but a mini ITX motherboard will be more expensive than the mATX equivalent unfortunately.

    Thanks for the compliments Pob! It's definitely a top budget mATX case in my eyes. Well Lian Li have a few newer revisions to the PC-Q07 that manage to fit the same amount of hardware and managed to reduce the size from what I remember. (11.6L with the PC-Q07 and 10.2L with the newer PC-Q03. However I can only see the PC-Q03 for £60 at the cheapest whilst the PC-Q07 was around £40 IIRC)

  10. #24
    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    Re: Alternative to Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX case?

    That's why I loved the Q07, small and cheap but still a good quality lian-li case
    the q3 is basically the same, they replaced the 5.25" bay with a slim optical disk drive slot and reduced the drive mount to 1x3.5" or 2x2.5" (the q07 was 1x3.5"+2x2.5"), so not only is it more expensive but you lose the flexibility of a 5.25" bay.

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    Re: Alternative to Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX case?

    If you can afford a little bit extra, Fractal Design Define Mini is an awesome case.

  12. #26
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    Re: Alternative to Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX case?

    Quote Originally Posted by Konstantin1 View Post
    If you can afford a little bit extra, Fractal Design Define Mini is an awesome case.
    If the little bit of extra would be possible I would just go for the Silverstone TJ08B-E Temjin Evolution. But thanks.

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    Re: Alternative to Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX case?

    cooler master n200? fits your budget. considering for myself too.

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