Which ITX case???

Migo Lai

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May 22, 2014
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Hi guys, I was thinking on the silverstone raven rvz01 or the bitfenix prodigy mini-itx version, not really sure which to choose. Please help thx :D
 
Solution
Hugely depends on what you want to put in it (and how you want to use it).

Prodigy is great because it's not too specialised, you can fit almost anything you could want in there, large number of drives, water cooling, big air coolers, pretty much anything within reason. That's not to say it doesn't have flaws - the flex does wobble, especially if you sit it on a soft carpet (though on a desk/hard surface and ballasted with a PSU, it's much better). It's also very large for an ITX case, wider than most ATX towers and often width is the single most important dimension for space-saving (height is essentially unlimited in most cases and depth is often a desk).

Most other cases suffer from compromise due to being designed more...

Rammy

Honorable
Hugely depends on what you want to put in it (and how you want to use it).

Prodigy is great because it's not too specialised, you can fit almost anything you could want in there, large number of drives, water cooling, big air coolers, pretty much anything within reason. That's not to say it doesn't have flaws - the flex does wobble, especially if you sit it on a soft carpet (though on a desk/hard surface and ballasted with a PSU, it's much better). It's also very large for an ITX case, wider than most ATX towers and often width is the single most important dimension for space-saving (height is essentially unlimited in most cases and depth is often a desk).

Most other cases suffer from compromise due to being designed more around a specific set of components and that can ultimately limit your decisions, so if you have a build in mind, it'll dictate what you need really.

Corsair 250D - great if you want to use a H100i (or similar), otherwise fairly pointless. It's even wider than a Prodigy due to side-radiator provision, it's not terribly well suited to air cooling, and the side fans mean that a lot of ITX motherboards will have issues with cables blocking/clipping fans. There's a reason most of the stock photos use a H100i and an Asus motherboard, most other configs won't work as well.

RVZ01 - about as thin as you'll get which if you need the space is excellent. SFX PSU is a pain, but it's not a limitation (you can run a lot of stuff on 450W), it'll cost you a decent chunk of cash though and it's not terribly flexible (thin ODD, SFX PSU, limited cooling options).

Fractal Design Node 304 - great for high end air cooling in a compact form. Fits standard PSUs (same limitations as a Prodigy here) and can fit pretty huge air coolers, build in fan controller too which is nice. No ODD provision might be a significant downside depending on your perspective though, and it works best with a small number of drives.

Coolermaster Elite 130 - great value. If you are building on a budget, it's the first place to look. Full sized PSU and ODD, compact size, low price. Main downside is limited scope for airflow/CPU cooling, but if you aren't overclocking that's a pretty minor grievance.

That's more or less the most popular ITX cases right now. Lian-Li make a bunch of them, but they tend to start at reasonably high prices.
 
Solution

Migo Lai

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May 22, 2014
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4,510


Thanks man, this helped a whole lot :D