[citation][nom]bounty[/nom]Since only 1 guy in your marathon stuck with the concept, does that mean he automatically wins? If height isn't an issue while using a handle, why limit yourself to mATX then? It seems people were looking for "gamming cube" portable enclosures, not a mATX case shootout. The 1300$ box doesn't even have a handle, it's a mid tower ATX case where they just forgot the extra mount points to make it ATX. I was looking forward to some creativity in making 2500$ do something useful in a small box (1 Dual Gpu, SSD's in Raid? RAMdrives? creative cooling etc.) It's not like you bring a micro sized portable computer, but also your massive 30" 2500x1600 monitor. Instead we got the same set of articles we get every month, with slightly smaller motherobards. So close, but missed being a great article.-Bounty[/citation]
Look at the Silverstone cube. Lay it on its side. Voila, you have the Silverstone micro tower seen here.
Cubes really are a bad idea. Micro ATX cubes are around 30% wider than a standard full tower and around 50% taller than an HTPC-style desktop. If you're building for HTPC, the desktop fits the rack and is shorter. If you're building for portability, the skinny tower is easier to carry assuming you're lucky enough to have a top handle.
The SG03 micro tower and SG01 cube are within 2% of each other in size (lenth*width*depth) so if your excuse for using a cube is size, there's no good reason not to put the SG03 in the same category as the SG01.
As for the mid-sized mini-tower used in the $1300 PC, you'll have to start a thread there to address it.