Now, what if you were to lay your pillar down? This third style uses a design that more closely matches a long, thin box. SilverStone Sugo 14: Shoebox dimensions The Tower 100 is a vertically designed case constructed with solid steel all around, the vertical design allows the chassis to have a smaller footprint, and helps to minimize obstruction to your gaming and workspace area. The vertical design also helps extract heat from the chassis by using a chimney effect, taking cold air from the base and dispelling the heat via the top.

These cases tend to be among the most compact, with some designed to support a monitor sitting on top. They also tend to be easier than most to build in, as opening one large side of the enclosure grants easy access to all of the internal hardware. A whole host of other variables also limit what you can and can’t put inside a Mini-ITX system. Some of them have nothing to do with the Mini-ITX case itself. Routing cables down and around behind the motherboard was super easy, barely an inconvenience™, with plenty of space to the sides and passthrough holes which kept wiring out of the air exhaust path.Examples: Corsair 2000D RGB Airflow , Phanteks Evolv Shift X , SilverStone Lucid LD03 , Hyte Revolt 3 Style 3: The Shoebox Style

Beside the motherboard mounting tray and the PSU compartment, Thermaltake left a large space for the video card. The cavity can accommodate a dual-slot card up to 330mm long.

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Let’s start with the space issue. Mini-ITX cases come in more unusual, one-off shapes and sizes than other kinds of PC cases, but their one unifying aspect is the class of the motherboard they accept. As noted earlier, the Mini-ITX form factor defines both a size class of motherboards, as well as the cases that fit those boards. Raijintek Ophion Elite Building a system in the Tower 100 chassis led me to believe that Thermaltake was really trying to do some good things here with regards to visual flair and system thermal management. Some of their other past accessories don’t always work out the way they hoped. However, with the Tower 100 chassis, the pieces are well made (even if numerous) solid (except the perforated pieces obviously), and fit together very well. I am personally a fan of the ITX tower design idea, but do realize this is not a small ITX enclosure by any means. The easy answer: It comes down to the components you intend to install. For some shoppers, the look of the case tops everything, and that is fine. Just make sure to factor in some practical considerations, especially if you already own some of the parts. The motherboard gets mounted vertically in this case, positioned so that the board is on full view through the front glass panel. With all of the glass panels removed, getting access to all of the various headers to get them connected up is made fairly easy; you have easy access from three directions. The same goes for the RAM slots on your board, and the PCI Express slot for your graphics card. The biggest one is whether you will (or will ever) install a video card. The absolute smallest Mini-ITX cases support no video card and assume your CPU’s integrated graphics will handle video output and acceleration. That factor will eliminate (or recommend) a whole swath of cases. Otherwise, look to the maximum video card length supported, as well as the number of lateral slots the card can occupy, and shop accordingly. Nvidia's newest top-end RTX 40 Series cards are huge and some occupy three slots across; Mini-ITX cases are generally not their friend.

Examples: Fractal Design Era ITX , Phanteks Eclipse P200A DRGB Style 5: The Cube (or Near-Cube) StyleAfter the top panels have both been removed, you can remove all three glass panels by simply sliding them up and pulling them off of the case. It’s only after removing these panels that you’ll be able to start building a system. People may have concern about the cooling performance of a mini-ITX chassis. However, the cold air intakes and hot air exhausts are well-developled, ensuring the interior temperature stays low at all times. The downside? They also have the most hardware restrictions. Most mandate low-profile coolers, half-height add-on cards (if any cards at all), and SFX (or even smaller proprietary) power supplies. This makes them a poor fit for gamers but an excellent choice for a moderate or light-duty work PC (or an HTPC) that relies on processor-integrated graphics. You may also see support in a given case for a variant of the SFX form factor, the SFX-L. This is an offshoot, a slightly larger version of an SFX power supply with a longer body. (An ordinary SFX PSU measures 3.9 inches long, versus 5.5 inches for SFX-L.) The extra body size on an SFX-L supply allows for more and larger components and cooling hardware inside, in turn allowing for higher wattages. Don’t assume, however, that you can cram an SFX-L power supply into a case that only supports SFX PSUs. Look for that specific support.

To make looking over Mini-ITX cases more manageable, we’ve opted to organize them into five rough design types. Not all Mini-ITX cases will fit into one, but most do, and this scheme gives you a solid idea of the options out there. Style 1: The Horizontal Console Style A system built into Thermaltake’s The Tower 100 case has potential to be a real eye-catcher. The Tower 100, however, leaves a lot of that work to you. The price is attractive enough, but Thermaltake doesn't give you a whole lot outside the glass (aesthetically speaking, and in terms of accessories in the box) to make it an attractive option for someone looking to build a flashy PC case. It's something of a blank-slate box. The second should be the number and kind of drives you intend to install. Most Mini-ITX cases support at least two 2.5- or 3.5-inch SATA drives, but factor in room for what you have. This won't matter if you go all-in on motherboard-mounted M.2 drives, but cramped Mini-ITX boards have room for just one or two of those.

Raijintek Ophion Elite

How could it be corrected in a future revision? A vertical motherboard mount like this necessitates the I/O positioning up top, to be sure, but some extender cables to the most commonly used ports (such as to a subset of your USB ports or to the display output) would be very thoughtful accessories to include. Or perhaps some L-adapters for stiff cables like HDMI or DisplayPort. For as long as I can remember, I've had love of all things tech, spurred on, in part, by a love of gaming. I began working on computers owned by immediate family members and relatives when I was around 10 years old. I've always sought to learn as much as possible about anything PC, leading to a well-rounded grasp on all things tech today. In my role at PCMag, I greatly enjoy the opportunity to share what I know.