Which SFF/Cube Case?

[UseItNow]

Hi All,

I'll keep this short, I've been asked by a younger sibling to build them a system which is value for money/cheap, call it whatever you want. Now their one requirement is that it is a small PC, so therefore a SFF, whether it be a HTPC/Desktop or Cube design.

I presume that cheap and Cube/HTPC cases do not come into the same equation?

I've had a brief look at some cases, coming up with 2 possibilities, the AeroCool M40 & the Sunbeam UFO Acrylic Cube. However, these do seem to be quite big.

I would appreciate any suggestions for small cases and pricing, any places where they specifically cater for the SFF market. Any further advice on what to lookout for when building as this will be my first SFF build.

Thanks in advance.

[chrestomanci]

What about an Asus Pundit barebone system. (Though they have dropped the pundit name). From the spec on Scan there is even room for a graphics card.

If your sibling is not interested in gaming, or they have a bit more money, then what about a prebuilt laptop? It will be small, and unlike something you build will come with a warranty and an OS.

[Webby]

How small is small? and what is the intended use? If its a surfing, office type application system then the spec is obviously going to be different to a gaming rig equally the case is going to be different as cooling and full height/number of expansion slots become an issue.

Silverstone Sugo are nice enough cases the SG-02 (Scan) is a cube and is £53 on Scan today only (will change tomorrow lunch time to normal price of £58) If thats a bit expensive then maybe a mATX tower could be in order

Coolermaster Elite 340 @ Scan

The towers tend to have slightly larger volume than cubes but obviously have a different footprint, they also in my opinion are more versatile as they usually don't have height restrictions (at least not as stringent) on CPU cooler, come with full height expansion slots and have decent size case fans for quiet cooling.

If you fancy a bit more bling in your mini tower then Silverstone TJ-08 @ Scan Mmmmm brushed aluminium!

[staffsMike]

I have the TJ-08 in black that webby has. Very nice case and it is very petite. But you've have mentioned the case that I really wanted... the areocool m40. That case is SFF heaven! Do it

I'm fairly sure you can fit a scythe ninja mini in it which is an awesome cooler for an sff so would give you so overclock potential if you want to go that way.
3x80mm fans in the back, I was going to use sharkoon silent eagle 2000's. very quiet and a hell of a lot of air being moved
Then the 120mm in the front which is awesome and actually by the looks you could stick another 120mm next to it to blow straight over the ram and cpu cooler.

The only cube case which is better is the NZXT rouge
NZXT Rogue Crafted Series Micro-ATX Case - Black/Red
5x 120mm fans and room for everything you could want. 4 hard drives, nvidia 8800 ultra, extended PSU's.. It's not cheap so probably not going to be a consideration but I had to mention it

With regard to size you will struggle to get much smaller than these in a cube case as they are dictated by mATX motherboards (9.6" x 9.6") with a little extra room for other stuff.

This is a very nice desktop HTPC case and PSU option
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

This is probably the smallest cube case you will find
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

If you want smaller then something like the as pundit above or the asus terminator are smaller.

Other than that look at shuttle barebones.

[DanceswithUnix]

How about a Shuttle SS21T with a cheap AM2 cpu and just enough graphics card to play the games he requires?

[muddyfox470]

Sugo SG01e great case and you can pretty much put whatever you want in it, it is small but maybe not as small as its competitors but it more than makes up for this

Ian

[UseItNow]

Thank you all for your suggestions, will look into all of these in the next few days.