Question Looking for a case suggestion

punkncat

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I currently have a Rajintek Metis Plus case being used as the gaming/htpc machine in the living room. I LOVE the size of the case and the look is good with the furniture. From the start this case was going to be nothing but a streaming machine, however I went ahead and shoehorned the following into it:
AB350 Gaming ITX with an R7 1700 running stock speeds to offset heat, and an EVGA GTX1080FTW....I am (currently) using an m.2, a 2.5 SSD, and a 3.5 HDD for storage inside, and is the minimum storage space required for the build. I turned the rear fan to pull air in, added a top fan pulling air in, and have the PSU turned to be fan out. It was the only way it would maintain any manner of temp stability over long play and worked well for some time. It does sound like a drone about to take off after playing for about five minutes.

My main draw to the case is it's small footprint and plain brushed metal look. I used a Lian Li Q series in the spot previously but it also had air flow problems with powerful equipment.
I would like to avoid a "tower" case in this spot. I am not feeling the Silverstone "stereo case" looking (flat) cases too much....but it appears to be the only thing offering the type of air flow this build is going to require. Must use ATX power supply.

I welcome suggestions for small brushed aluminum (looking at least) conservative type case for looking unobtrusive in an obvious spot beside the entertainment center.
 
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Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
I'd help us two fold if we knew what the innards were. Please include/list your specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
OS:

That way we can look into a suitable replacement but please keep in mind that the Raijintek chassis wasn't meant to cram so much heatware and leave the ears alone.

You could look at the Fractal Nano S chassis but anything that's smaller(like the era) will lead you to the same thermal issue you're suffering from right now. Jonsbo is another brand you could look at, but they have the same thermal walls as Lian Li, Silverstone, Coolermaster and their ilk when going for a box style case. Coolermaster(Elite 110, 120, 130) make similar styled airflow cases but they don't have an elegant front fascia.
 

punkncat

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please keep in mind that the Raijintek chassis wasn't meant to cram so much heatware and leave the ears alone.

You could look at the Fractal Nano S chassis but anything that's smaller(like the era) will lead you to the same thermal issue you're suffering from right now. Jonsbo is another brand you could look at, but they have the same thermal walls as Lian Li, Silverstone, Coolermaster and their ilk when going for a box style case. Coolermaster(Elite 110, 120, 130) make similar styled airflow cases but they don't have an elegant front fascia.

Lol, no it certainly was not. More like a "turned science experiment" that was much along the process of:
This isn't going to work
wow, that worked!
Hmm, wonder if that will go in there?
And the subsequent mitigations for the issues I was creating putting that much power in such a small space. The Metis actually builds upside down in the case and used some interesting method to fit all you need inside....but yeah, powerful GPU/CPU combos are well overwhelming.

I will check your case recommendations, and thank you.

Edit to say that I have used the Coolermaster Elite series and where the thermals are dreamy good, that fascia issue is understated, particularly after using them for a few months. There is an area of the front mesh fan area that is nearly impossible to fully clean and ends up with the cruddy dust ring look. Aside from that aspect a perfect case to use for such.
 

punkncat

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Lol...I went LOW tech on it. I had an old critter cage in the trash pile. Removed the plexi side cover, cut and fitted a bit of the critter cage back in and made the whole side panel alternate air flow. Cooled things down immensely, if not so helpful for noise. May see how this works while I shop around.

I dig those Jonesbo cases as far as look. Perhaps not for this build but worth a look into later.