Looking for a compact chassis to fit an X8DA6 Mobo

[scottyman]

Hi guys
I've recently gotten an X8DA6 motherboard with processors and a small amount of RAM, but the chassis was a custom rackmount design, with 4x120MM full-speed fans and multiple SAS drive bays

I'm trying to find a quiet, compact chassis that I can hide behind a bookcase so I can turn it into the home office server, run Plex and Backups and whatever else is required

The motherboard is slightly wider than normal, at 30.5cm x 33cm, and the current coolers foul the X8 slot

http://www.supermicro.com/products/m...5500/X8DA6.cfm

I don't want to spend a pile of money, and unfortunately I live in the land of Nopes and Drop Bears, so I'm gouged on parts and availability of more esoteric cases
I was hoping a 330R would fit, as it's nicely within budget, but it's slightly too wide (according to the reseller MWave)

Any thoughts?

[scottyman]

The BitFenix Aurora might do it - but I would rather something dark and quiet, but can't find a spec on the mount points, as many of them just seem to supply ATX risers and not EATX risers

[Pob255]

you'll need a full tower case for EATX and unfortunately they tend to be on the high end budget.

Things like the corsair obsidian 750 and carbide 600q, coolermaster HAF X and cosmos 2, Nanoxia Deep Silence 5, Fractal Design Define XL R2, be quiet! Dark Base 900

The corsair carbide 540 cube case is worth a look, it's got the size to hold EATX but does seem to lack the extra screw holes.

[scaryjim]

If you're struggling with having the screw holes for stand offs you could always pick up some self-adhesive plastic PCB stand-offs. I used some when I was adapting a plastic project box to use as a shallow rack case, and they work really nicely. Plenty of places do them in a variety of heights and fixings, so you should be able to find something that'll do the job

[Pob255]

If you're struggling with having the screw holes for stand offs you could always pick up some self-adhesive plastic PCB stand-offs. I used some when I was adapting a plastic project box to use as a shallow rack case, and they work really nicely. Plenty of places do them in a variety of heights and fixings, so you should be able to find something that'll do the job

That's a really good idea.

[Pob255]

Here's another idea, get your DIY on, get some cupboard doors to fit over the bottom of the bookcase and turn it into the case.
Same basic idea as the desk mod's people do.

[scottyman]

Yeah - our cupboards and shelves are just too small.
I think I can probably rebuild the chassis and drive mounts to remove all the custom bits and the FC interfaces, but it's still going to weigh a tonne
I might need to work out how to fit a fancontroller into places it probably won't quite fit






Currently the drive bay has 4 SAS bays and 6 FC bays, but it's using custom cabling, so it will still probably be easier to buy a bigger case and fit it with silent fans

[malfunction]

Not exactly cheap for what it is but something like this might be worth a punt:

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/aero...-black-colour-

Alternatively, depending on what you need storage wise you could look at normal ATX cases with removable drive bays (*might* fit, I wouldn't buy something but if you have spare stuff lying around I would measure up and see what you can do).

[scottyman]

Yeah - that did look really cool, I'd been looking at it already, but have found a couple of 'cheaper' XL-ATX options that will definitely take the Mobo but every bloody one of them has hugely ugly illuminated fans. It might be just worth looking at the Fractal XL cases as they're dead quiet, even though they're massive.

[Pob255]

Word of warning EATX and XL-ATX are not the same, talking from a case point of view XL is taller and E is longer.

XL-ATX usually has 2 additional pci expansion slots but is the same length front to back as a normal ATX board.
E-ATX is the same vertical height as ATX but longer front to back.
So an EAXT will not always fit in an XL-ATX case and visa versa.

[scottyman]

Yeah - I've decided to modify the existing steel case - it's not ideal, but certainly better than coughing up $200 for a case that doesn't quite fit. I'm having to rewire existing switches as we had a custom panel that was a combination fan controller, power switch and led controller which takes up a huge amount of space, and doesn't really do much that's hugely useful