I’m thinking about my next build, and if there’s one thing I want to do better than last time, it’s picking a smaller case. Still ATX, but not the massive, 8 3.5" drive bays design. I liked the look and price of the Fractal Define C, but none of these smaller ATX cases that I could find have any optical drive bays. I could buy an external drive, but it takes up room on my desk, it’s a pain to plug it into the back panel every time I want to rip a CD, and I already own an internal drive. Does anyone know any smaller-sized cases with a single 5.25" bay? Alternately, if anyone has suggestions for other ways to deal with optical media that helps too.
Riotoro CR1080 is one of the smallest ones I know of. It’s certainly not the prettiest case out there, but it’s a small ATX case with a 5.25" bay.
https://www.amazon.com/RIOTORO-Compartment-Support-Dedicated-CR1080/dp/B01D205IXS
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I remember seeing that and I thought it would look fantastic with an AMD GPU with the Radeon logo matching the text on the case. it looks promising!
A little bigger would be fine, but that one’s going on my list for now. Thanks!
You beat me to it.
I think it’s a good looking dual chamber (The PSU and Drives are under the motherboard) case that doesn’t look like every other case.
Hello there Fractal Focus G…
Standard layout nice looking actually good Fractal case from the last 5 years…
It’s just a bit too barebonesy for my taste.
How small are we talking about? If a mid-tower is OK then I would say that the Phanteks Enthoo Pro M is probably the best all-around option on the market. It has the exact same internals as some of Phantek’s more expensive options just with fewer bells and whistles and actually better airflow thanks to the mostly-mesh front. And yes, it actually has a 5.25" drive bay:
http://www.phanteks.com/Enthoo-Pro-M-TemperedGlass.html
(That’s the tempered glass version but that’s optional)
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Bite the bullet and buy an external drive, thats what I did.
With the amount of features packed into modern cases it’s completely absurd that anyone should have to do that.
… Why it takes up space, most people dont use them anymore (I do), why keep adding them if most people dont and they just cost more to add and limit radiator/fan support ect.
There are 3 modern trends, that I absolutely despise anymore. Glass, RGB and the fucking PSU shroud. They put it on every case now, ignoring the fact, that it kills airflow. But no. It must be here by law or something… Not to mention most manufacturer STILL don’t know what to do with it.
I think in many cases an 5,25" bay can be more useful for readers, controllers, bay reservoirs etc…
I did some quick rectangular prism 3D models to compare these. The Riotoro is shorter than the Define C, but it’s much wider. I have some doubts about mounting my tray-loader vertically—it has the little tabs, but I’m not sure how reliable it would be.
The Pro M is actually taller than the Define R5 (the “big” case I had been weighing against the C). And the R5 is on sale for the same price as the Pro M right now…They’re both around the same size as my current case, just a little shorter and wider.
Ah well. I was planning to water-cool with a 240mm radiator, so my options are:
- Riotoro: Smaller radiator, vertical ODD gamble, small, weirdness
- Define C: No ODD, good cooling, small
- Pro M: ODD, cooling, good price, but get nickel-and-dimed for drive brackets etc. Not very compact.
- Define R5: ODD, front-panel USB 3 and 2, cooling, front panel covers ugly ODD, tiny bit smaller than Pro M, but expensive (unless I buy it, like, today).
Honestly I think I’m still sold on the R5 just for the front panel USB. We all have that one peripheral that only works on 2.0. I guess I can settle for just not getting any bigger. Thanks all for the input.
Look at the Fractal Core line and also the Be Quiet 600 Silent Series. They are out there but it takes a little search. The big problem I find is finding them in stock at a local retailer.
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Wow, I think the Core 2300 is exactly the case I’m looking for. Smaller in some dimensions than the C, 5.25" drive bays, both USB protocols on the front panel, support for thicc radiators, cheaper…that’ll teach me not to look through Fractal’s website by hand. Many thanks.
My PC at work, a Dell Optiplex has a vertically mounted slim optical drive, such as those used in laptops. Sadly, I am not familiar with the internal layout of the case. Something like this might be an option.
I haven’t seen any cases that use the slim disk drive form factor, besides Dell OEM systems (my school has them too). I think they’re mostly for laptops. I took a quick look and found a couple cases that might support it, but they were mini-ITX or HTPC cases—not what I’m planning to build. Thanks though.
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Have you seen this?
amazon. com/iStarUSA-S-35-Compact-5-25-Inch-mini-ITX/dp/B00DJ7T3YK
This is basically exactly what I am looking for, except I wanted it to be micro atx instead of mini itx. but you said you was ok with mini itx.
oops I thought that was November 17th, just realized it was November 2017. Disregard
That said, does anyone know of a case like this one but is micro atx and still has the 3x5.25 bays, is actually in stock, and doesn’t cost more than the rest of the system I intend to put in it?
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