TL;DR
I’m looking for a case that fits 2 full-sized GPUs without covering any additional PCIe slots besides the one its using, in addition to handful of 3.5" HDDs. Nothing exists on the market, with only moddable option being Meshify 2 XL.
System
I am looking to rebuild my server on a new platform due to PCIe limitations on AM4. I have hard time with organizing it into one box.
What I will be using:
- AMD Epyc 7003-series CPU on SuperMicro H12SSL
- PCIe
- 2x NVidia RTX 4070Ti
- Arc A310
- NVidia P400
- Google Coral
- Mellanox MX-4 25Gb SFP+
- 4-5 NVMe SSDs
- 8-10 3.5" HDD (external hotswap isn’t a goal here)
- 3-4 2.5" SSD
I spent a lot of time looking, beyond just PCPP, and came up with almost nothing. The main challange appears to be fitting two full-sized GPUs without each using 3 slots (and wasting two). It appears most cases are made bigger with a goal of accomodating more water cooling and RGB, rather than PCIe/HDDs which isn’t suprising. However, I found two options that could work, with only realistically feasible and with mods.
Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 Server Edition
The case is relatively big and has a lot of clever solutions. It is also available for purchase for ~$160 which is enticing… so I decided to purchase it and it didn’t go very well, but I’m not returning it yet.
Pros:
- 11 PCIE horizontal slots
- Great airflow, including ventilated metal side panel and very open back
- Plenty of length clearance for any PSU
- The case’s built quality is, given the price surprisingly, very high quality
- Plenty of room for functional [not visual] cable management
- Built-in solid GPU anti-sag support
- Additional HDD trays are cheap
- Very clever 2.5" mounts if you need less 3.5" mounts
- Support for any size motherboard
Cons (from most serious to least):
- No way to mount 2 big GPUs
- Despite 11 horizontal spaces in the case, there is no sensible way to fit 2 GPUs without wasting at least 2 PCIe slots on the motherboard.
- One GPU can be placed in motherboard’s 7th/last slot, occupying slots 7/8/9 in the case and having plenty of “breathing room” between PSU and the intake.
- Due to width of GPUs (~145mm from motherboard) there isn’t enough clearance between side panel and the GPU in bottom slot to put another GPU vertically.
- No space to put GPU “upright” like in O11D GPU Kit as it will either not clear CPU cooling, collide with HDDs, or block the whole airflow
- No space above motherboard to put GPU there (more on that in Meshify 2 XL section)
- Badly designed 3.5" mounts
- Trays are supported only in one spot (back) creating resonating springs
- To replace a single drive 2-3 HDDs needs to be unplugged & unscrewed on left side, and then removed on the right side. It’s simply a bad design.
- Trays are fully enclosed, limiting airflow and heat exchange.
- Case leaves gaps every 2 HDDs, allowing for 8 HDDs directly in front. Mechanically 13 can be installed with by drilling addiional screw holes (i.e. there doesn’t seem to be a good reason why this limitation exist)
- No vertical slots: while I cannot fit a full size GPU there, a 2 slot accessory or e.g. SAS passthrough can be easily mounted there. It’s a strange decision as there’s plenty of space for that and the non-server ed. has 3 vertical slots there. It is to a point DIYable thou.
- Hardly-cleanable front filter
- The case has a magnetic filter just in front of fans, accessible by yanking on the front panel
- The front panel itself has a non-removable dual-layer fabric for esthetic reasons(?) that looks impossible to clean
- This can be solved with a bit of moding thou.
- Front panel ports a behind a plastic door: minor, but this not only blocks bigger flash drives from being plugged in but also makes cleaning of the front filter impossible without unplugging things
- Difficult to install wheels
- The case has three(!) holes that by accident fit standard size of “office chair” wheels… I was laughing hysterically when I saw they almost made it accidentally compatible with wheels
- Adding a 4th hole to current bracket is nearly impossible due to how the bottom brackets are molded.
- Designing a 3D printable adapters is possible but difficult as the feet aren’t separate pieces but a part of a larger assembly holding PSU filter and serving as a guide for side panels.
- Side panels are difficult to install: comparing to other cases, phanteks opted for back-to-front slide with a sideways swing. Moreoever, panels have captive screws but the retainers have poor tolerances making them fall out very easily.
- Non-removable top panel: this makes working in the case a bit harder, in comparison to Fractal cases
- Flush uncovered power button: very minor, but a bit of a “did nobody think about that?!” since just brushing the button will press it; but this seems like parts reuse from regular version and people print “anti-cat covers” for it
- No fans included: not an issue for me, but for the price it’s a con
Fractal Design Meshify 2 XL
I already own the non-XL version, so I sort-of know what to expect and what the quality would be like. In addition I own additional HDD trays, so I am a bit biased towards it.
Pros:
- Hackable to fit 2 big GPUs
- One GPU is installed in the 7th slot
- Second GPU is installed above motherboard, as there’s ample of space for a radiator (~80mm per CAD). While this requires DIYing a bracket to mount it there isn’t ideal, at least it appears to be possible given space available and sturdy top meant to support big water cooling radiators.
- Mounting a card there will require a creative routing of a riser from 1st PCIe slot and through space between top of the CPU cooler and the side panel. Per CAD, the space appears to be there.
- While the GPU will be above the CPU heatsink, which is not idea given convection, the access to fresh air through the top should make it a non-issue.
- Additional custom duct may be needed to direct exhaust (I didn’t go as far as simulating flows ;))
- As with Phanteks case, fitting one in the vertical slots isn’t feasible
- 3 vertical PCIe slots (can fit one of the GPUs if needed too)
- Great back-to-front airflow
- Open and easy to use 3.5" mounting mechanism, with great density and flexibility
- Sturdy, high quality construction with quite good cable management
- Easily modable to use wheels (feet are separate and attached with screws)
- Great design of side panels attachment without screws
- Manual is very clear and (unlike Phanteks) doesn’t contain mistakes nor uses pixelated barely-legible pictures
- Included good quality fans & hub
Cons (from most serious to least):
- Poor airflow for bottom GPU
- Placing GPU in the 7th slot gives ~10-18mm of space (verified in CAD) for air intake. This is partially due to the bottom “box” housing power supply. While the metal has perforations, most PSUs with cables will just block them completely as I can even observe in non-XL Meshify 2. While Enthoo and Meshify are similar height, the difference in space is due to the motherboard being way lower in Meshify.
- Placing the GPU vertically gives similar amount of space for airflow, but against the side panel.
- Glass side panel
- Seriously, who thought it’s a good idea to ONLY offer two glass panel options for a case that clearly has a big market in homelab space, given the number of HDDs?
- The panel is (obviously) not ventilated, and being tempered glass, fragile
- Rumors say that, if one can find it, to a the metal panel from Define 7 XL fits Meshify 2 XL
- Seriously, who thought it’s a good idea to ONLY offer two glass panel options for a case that clearly has a big market in homelab space, given the number of HDDs?
- Price & availability
- The case has MSRP of $180, but it’s almost never under ~$205 (with many retailers pricing it at ~$220)
- I tried buying it before and it was very hard to find, at present (11/2024) it appears to be available
- Removable top panel structurally supports HDDs
- The HDD mounting mechanism uses support plate (page 30 of manual) for HDD trays that is movable
- The plate is screwed on the bottom, but on the top relies on loose fitting pin into removable top panel. This causes HDD supports to get misaligned, wobbly, and sometimes knocks part of the HDD trays support.
- To be fair, this is fixable with a small 3D printable bracket and a screw
- Separate bottom compartment
- Before I bought Meshify 2 I thought separating PSU and hiding cables in the bottom metal “tunnel” is a great idea
- Later I realized it’s a huge PITA trying to plug/unplug cables
- …and it also limits airflow for anything mounted in the last PCIe slot
Other options
I also looked at options that seemingly are good on paper but won’t work in practice:
- Other cases
- Any rack case: rejected due to width limitations and the fact the only option are 4U ones, this was out almost instantly. I wasn’t able to find anything better than Rosewill offering
- Thermaltake The Tower 500: huge case but mostly geared towards having space for water cooling.
- Fractal Design Define 7 XL: same shell as Meshify 2 XL, but with worse cooling.
- Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2: similar to server ed.; while it has vertical slots it has even more issues with clearance than Meshify 2 XL.
- Phanteks Enthoo Pro II - Server Edition XL: still unreleased but from press photos it appears to solve nothing besides front fabric “filter”.
- Phanteks Enthoo Elite: eye-watering price with the same problems as all Enthoo variants.
- Old full tower cases: besides being unobtanium, while these often came with a lot of expansion slots and places for HDDs, we didn’t have mini PC sized GPUs back then, so they often cannot fit a single modern card
- Water cooling GPUs:
- I rejected this option, mostly d/t risk of leaks, maintenance requirements, and overall added complexity
- Added cost, not just for blocks makes this option even less appealing
- Looking at various build water cooling trades the problem with space for GPU space for space for water cooling components. Moreover, my GPUs aren’t active 24x7 and water cooling solutions don’t seem to usually include usage-based adjustment of flow etc.
- Making any changes in water cooled system is also rather difficult vs. air cooled system
- Using single-slot GPUs: price and noise with static pressure required for such setups disquialified it for me.
- Splitting into 2 boxes: this would increase my complexity beyond what I can reasonably consider right now
Help? 
Anyone saw any solution allowing for such machine to exist, preferably without heavy case modding?