Enthusiasts love the ability to choose their own hardware. Yet, the portability advantages Shuttle introduced in its early cube-shaped PCs drove many of them to build upon “proprietary” base systems.
The other side of space savings was similarly-handled by VIA, its mini-ITX products offering an even smaller “standardized” form factor for media-oriented PCs that were the antithesis of performance and value. Value champion AMD stepped in four years ago to fill the gap with a standardized form factor for Shuttle-style cubes. Its DTX initiative specified two-slot motherboards that fit half-way between ITX and Flex-ATX, all while using the same mounting screw locations.
Like many of AMD’s initiatives, its DTX announcements fell upon seemingly deaf ears in the mass market, and the few case manufacturers who paid attention quickly discovered that few of their customers ever knew what DTX was (to be fair, Intel similarly stumbled on its own BTX initiative, which was conceptualized to deal with the out-of-control thermal issues encountered by its Pentium 4). These cases were quickly relabeled ITX. After that, they sold in fairly large numbers. Fortunately, these cases have not gone away.

The reason we use the word fortunately is that these cases can fit a double-slot graphics card on available ITX motherboards. With LGA 1155 processors up to the Core i7-2600K now supported, ITX is finally able to fill the performance role of a truly high-end portable gaming machine.
| Cubitek Mini-Tank | Lian-Li PC-Q08 | SilverStone SST-SG07B-W | SilverStone SST-SG06B | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | ||||
| Height | 13.3" | 11.2" | 7.5" | 7.1" |
| Width | 10.4" | 9.0" | 9.0" | 8.7" |
| Depth | 15.9" | 14.0" | 14.3" | 11.7" |
| Card Length | 13.5" | 12.0" | 12.0" | 9.8" |
| Cooler Height | 6.5" | 4.5" | 4.8" | 3.3" |
| PSU Depth | 7.5" | 7.0" | 5.6" | 4.0" |
| PSU Form Factor | PS/2 | PS/2 | PS/2 | SFX |
| Space Above Motherboard | 7.0" | 1.2" | 4.8" | 3.5" |
| Weight | 10.1 Pounds | 6.8 Pounds | 11.5 Pounds | 7.8 Pounds |
| Cooling | ||||
| Front Fans (alternatives) | 1 x 140 mm (stock only) | 1 x 140 mm (stock only) | None (stock only) | 1 x 120 mm (stock only) |
| Rear Fans (alternatives) | 1 x 120 mm (stock only) | None (stock only) | None (stock only) | None (stock only) |
| Top Fans (alternatives) | 1 x 140 mm (stock only) | 1 x 120 mm (stock only) | 1 x 180 mm (stock only) | None (stock only) |
| Side Fans (alternatives) | None (stock only) | None (stock only) | None (stock only) | None (stock only) |
| Drive Bays | ||||
| Optical Drive | 2 x 5.25" | 1 x 5.25" | 1 x Slim | 1 x Slim |
| 3.5" External | 1 x Adapter | None | None | None |
| 3.5" Internal | 1 x 4-bay Cage | 1 x 4-bay Cage 1 x 2-bay Cage | One | One |
| 2.5" Internal | Four | One | Two | One |
| Price | Unknown | $110 | $220 | $120 |
Not shown in the above chart is the fact that SilverStone’s SG07B includes a quality 600 W power supply. The SG06B also includes a power supply, but its 300 W unit isn’t designed to support the high-end gaming hardware we plan to stuff within its otherwise-capable shell.
New to the U.S. market, Cubitek had the good fortune to happen across one of its competitor’s chief designers just as that designer was transitioning from employee to freelancer. Hank Chen made the introduction for us.

You’ll see reminders of Hank’s style through various elements of the Mini-Tank, including the primary use of flat sheet and two-dimensional bends. The largest of today’s case, this one is designed as a full-function PC for those who want something smaller and more stylish than the traditional mid-tower.

The Mini-Tank is actually taller than most full-ATX motherboards, though its full-sized power supply bay occupies much of that space. A 120 mm exhaust fan is designed to assist full-sized tower-style CPU coolers, while a 140 mm top fan pulls air past those oversized parts.

Compactness is reserved exclusively for the motherboard, with up to four 3.5” hard drives supported by the Mini-Tank’s main cage.

Two 2.5” drives (presumably SSDs) fit under the hard drive cage’s mounting bracket.

A third 2.5” drive can be mounted to the base of the Mini-Tank’s 3.5” drive bay adapter. There’s even enough room to mount a 3.5” external drive (or bay device) above a 2.5” drive on this bracket.

A removable panel reveals the 140 mm intake fan and filter, requiring an included Allen wrench for removal.

A dizzying array of hardware lends itself to a deceptively simple build. Four rubber dampeners are affixed to each 3.5” hard drive via shoulder screws.

Also included in the installation kit is an internal USB 2.0 adapter for ports that are designed to use external USB 3.0 jacks. We find it bothersome that this case, designed to be modern in 2011, still doesn’t support the internal USB 3.0 header introduced last year. But that’s the only thing we really disliked about the Mini-Tank’s design.

Hard drives simply slide into the bay from the left side, and can be oriented with the connectors facing either side. We had to install ours with the cables on the right, for card clearence.
Though the installation was easy, we did have a few small complaints. First of all, having the drives slide in from the left means that the graphics card must be removed before accessing the top two drive bays.
A sliding bar that locks the drives in place is secured by three screws. Because the top screw was within 1/8” of the back of our card, we had to remove it.
The entire drive cage is secured using two larger thumb screws, but the top screw protrudes far enough to block insertion of any card longer than 9.9”. Replacing it with a standard screw allows cards up to 13.5” to be installed, including such monsters as the GeForce GTX 580 and Radeon HD 6990.

Both the front and top 140 mm fans light up with a soft red glow. That is, if such an aggressive color can ever be considered soft.
Next up on the list of miniature gaming cases that appear far larger than their “ITX” designation is Lian-Li’s PC-Q08. The idea, once again, is to fit full-sized performance and storage within a reduced-size package by attaching those big parts to a tiny motherboard.

A look around back shows that the PC-Q08 would have been tall enough to hold a microATX board, if not for the fact that critical parts have been shifted lower. That downward shift provides extra space for the optical drive and top fan, where several inches of added depth would have been required in order to make a taller motherboard fit.

Users benefit from a case that’s only 14” deep (including protruding hardware) rather than the more traditional 18”, allowing it to fit atop a smaller desk. A full-sized power supply up to 7” long can be positioned between the rear mounting panel and hard drive cage, with enough room to spare for hard drive mounting hardware and cables.

CPU cooler height restrictions prevent most tower coolers with perpendicularly-oriented fans from being installed, but large parallel-fan units are still supported. Users whose motherboards don’t support wide coolers have a third option, since the 120 mm exhaust fan fits single-fan liquid-coolers such as the older Corsair H50 or the new CoolIt ECO.

Though a total of six 3.5” hard drives are supported in the PC-Q08’s as-delivered configuration, removal of the lower two-bay cage extends maximum card length from 7.1” to 12”. That’s enough for a single Radeon HD 6970 or GeForce GTX 580, though most dual-GPU cards still won’t fit.

Rubber grommets secure a 140 mm fan bracket into key holes behind the PC-Q08’s front panel, and Lian-Li even includes a clip-on dust filter and 3-pin-to-4-pin fan adapter. Unfortunately, opening the case to access the fan and dust filter requires at least six side-panel screws to be removed each time, wearing on the screw’s black finish and potentially reducing the finished system’s pristine appearance.
Factor- equipped with external USB 3.0 front-panel leads, the PC-Q08 includes a slot adapter for I/O panel pass-through. Lian-Li adds an external USB 3.0 plug to internal USB 2.0 header adapter, along with a replacement drive cage support bracket, cable ties, and mounting screws.

Though we’re sorely disappointed not to find any internal USB 3.0 header support, this particular case predates its introduction. Having said that, we still wish Lian-Li had taken the time to update this model to support newer hardware.

The bracket from the above kit replaces the PC-Q08’s lower drive cage to allow mid-sized and longer cards, such as our GeForce GTX 560 Ti, to be installed. It uses the screws from the original drive cage.

A single thumb screw releases the upper drive cage from the external drive bay, easing access for its mounting screws.

Lian-Li leaves enough space between the optical drive and the bottom of its tray to install a 2.5” drive, adding mounting holes to this unusual location.

Removable motherboard trays often add expense without doing much to reduce build time, but Lian-Li’s “removable tray” is actually an external side panel. The company even makes its front-panel leads long enough to install prior to reattaching this panel.

Lacking any egress holes for the USB 3.0 I/O panel to front-panel extension cables, we routed these through the card holder’s hole. Threaded holes in the card bracket allowed traditional screw-mounting with the hold-down bracket removed.

Note that we ended up plugging the cables into USB 2.0 ports. The manufacturer of our motherboard made the unusual design decision to put its USB 3.0 ports at the top of the I/O section, and the PC-Q08’s cables simply wouldn’t reach that far. Rather than revert to internal ports, we decided to represent a more common build by placing these cables into a typical motherboard’s USB 3.0 port positions.

The finished system is softly lit by its blue LED fan, though the brighter power button can be somewhat distracting in dark rooms. Because of the bright power button, the PC-Q08 is probably better for gamers than it would be for home theater users.
Size, shape, and quality make the SG07 (B for black) a perfect alternative to the Shuttle cubes it competes against, while providing all of the benefits of non-proprietary component selection. The –W (windowed) version adds a little flair to the SG07B’s classic style.

SilverStone has not yet updated this model for USB 3.0 support. We hope this shortcoming will be addressed soon, as the company has recently added the feature to other, newer models.

SilverStone replaced its traditional crossflow fan mount with a solid steel panel, instead relying on an oversized intake fan and side vents to cool the CPU area.

Removing a medium-thickness one-piece steel lid reveals the company’s familiar 180 mm two-speed fan. We would have preferred to let the motherboard adjust fan speed in response to heat, though many ITX boards lack this capability. Configured as an intake fan that blows directly into the CPU cooler, a slide-out dust filter is included.
Also notice the space between the single 3.5” hard drive bay and the power supply. Designed to support two 2.5” drives side-by-side, we didn’t notice it until after the system was assembled.
The SG07B’s included 600 W power supply is 100% non-proprietary, exactly matching PS/2 form factor specifications typically reserved for ATX mid-towers. Those specifications include a 5.6” depth that many high-capacity power supplies now exceed, so replacement parts must be chosen carefully.
The SST-ST60F-SG provides 46 A of current on its single 12 V rail. That’s enough power to support any components that physically fit within the SG07 chassis.

An intake filter is also supplied for the power supply, but this one is secured with screws. The SG07 chassis uses vents on the side panel for power supply exhaust.
With most of its hardware factory-installed, the SG07B’s installation kit is fairly sparse. Its power supply includes a high-quality cable, and SilverStone adds a self-adhesive foam ring (shipped with a supportive foam disk) for porting the graphics card fan directly to the side panel.

Unfortunately, the shape of our graphic’s card’s cover didn’t conform to the fan port’s design, and that type of ventilation isn’t designed for dual-fan cards anyway. We advise anyone building with the SG07B to choose a graphics card with single-fan, blower-style cooler instead.

We said before that the SG07B’s included power supply is a standard full-sized (PS/2) form factor unit, and card installation is the snag that will force buyers who want to replace it to spend extra time shopping. Most high-capacity power supplies are longer than standard and will block card installation, as do the power cables of most modular units.

Anyone with minimal build experience will find nothing unfamiliar in the SG07’s hardware installation, though we didn’t notice the dual-2.5” drive space between the case’s 3.5” drive bay and power supply until we took this photo.

Our finished SG07B-W looks nice to us, though we find it somewhat incomplete without blue (USB 3.0) front-panel ports.
The smallest of today’s portable gaming contenders, the SG06 (B for black, S for silver) takes second place in weight, even with its included power supply installed. A high-quality extruded aluminum face plate adds class to an otherwise low-cost design.

One of the thinnest steel chassis we’ve tested, the SG06 appears to rely on size alone (and the closeness of its bends) to retain rigidity. At first, we believed that the lid might actually be thicker than the chassis beneath it, but closer inspection reveals that it’s likely the paint that makes this lid appear and feel more substantial than its underpinnings.

The SG06B we received was still fairly priced at $110, since it includes a $45 FSP300-60GHS power supply. SilverStone also offers this model with its own brand of 80 PLUS Bronze-rated 450 W unit.

Yet, even the small size of this SFX form-factor power supply isn’t enough to prevent it from twisting the case’s rear panel during shipping, so SilverStone adds a cross-brace under its leading edge.

A space between the SG06B’s 3.5” hard drive and optical drive bays supports 2.5” drive, perfect for adding an SSD. SilverStone appears to believe that some users will forgo the optical drive, and leaves an EMI shield over its bay.

With six clips simultaneously holding the face panel in place, accessing the filter for the SG06’s intake fan is no easy task. Yet, even the laziest builders must do this at least once to remove the case’s optical bay cover and its EMI shield.
We’ve mentioned that the SG06B is a little flimsy, but it’s still well-designed and accurately manufactured. Unfortunately, a well-made cheaper case still comes with stick-on feet.

SilverStone also adds an Ultra ATA (rather than SATA) notebook drive interface adapter.

A 3.5” hard drive bolts directly to its cage without the benefit of noise-dampening grommets, but that’s not surprising in a budget case. Sliding tabs engage the optical drive tray above it.

Builders get easy access to the optical drive tray once the hard drive cage is removed. Flipping it over reveals a 2.5” drive bay.

There’s a trick to inserting a card as large as Gigabyte’s overclocked GeForce GTX 560 Ti in the SG06 chassis, and that trick is in the order of assembly. First, the card must be installed with all drive hardware removed. Next, the uninstalled hard drive (and cage) must be connected to its power and data cables and placed in its approximate position, since its interface is blocked by the card. The graphics card’s power cables then must be installed before dropping the optical drive tray into position.

Once the optical drive bay is secured, the hard drive can be lifted into position, its mounting tabs slid into the optical drive tray’s slots, and its screws attached to the upper rail.

Even though many components fit tightly, we found that our gaming system performed acceptably within the SG06B. Our tests will show how well it functions compared to other solutions.
| Test System Configuration | |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i7-2600K: 3.4-3.8 GHz, 8 MB L3 Cache, Stock |
| Motherboard | Zotac H67ITX-A-E: Intel H67 Express PCH, BIOS 2.02.1205 (12/15/2010) |
| RAM | G.Skill F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM: 2 x 4 GB, DDR3-1600 at DDR3-1333 CAS 9-9-9-24 |
| Graphics | Gigabyte GV-N560SO-1GI: 1000 MHz GTX 560Ti GPU, 1.0 GB GDDR5-4580 |
| Hard Drive | WD WD3000HLFS: 300 GB, 10 000 RPM, SATA 3Gb/s, 16 MB cache |
| Sound | Integrated HD Audio |
| Network | Integrated Gigabit Networking |
| Power | SilverStone SST-ST45SF: 450 W, ATX12V v2.2, 80 PLUS Broze, SFX |
| Software | |
| OS | Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce 266.66 |
| Chipset | Intel INF 9.2.0.1019 |
A powerful CPU is required to push high-end graphics cards to peak performance. Intel’s Core i7-2600K fits that bill perfectly.

Here’s where our build will befuddle many up-and-coming enthusiasts. Our processor doesn’t care how small the case is, and will operate at full performance as long as it’s kept at or below 98° Celsius. Lacking a small enough performance-oriented CPU cooler to fit within the tiny confines of our smallest case, we were stuck with Intel’s retail-boxed unit.
Had we a high-end, low-profile cooler, it may not have fit our motherboard. Zotac’s H67-ITX is packed with features, but any CPU cooler wider than 100 mm will block its PCI Express slot. We’ve noticed that this problem is consistent across Asus and ECS products also.
Since we never got a chance to review Zotac’s board, we thought it prudent to include the full set of images above. This board does not support manual memory adjustments, but does include the additional memory voltage controls needed for certain modules. The third BIOS image is more important, as users must manually increasethe fan speed limit to 100% in order for the Core i7-2600K to operate normally with its stock cooler. We have no idea why Zotac would artificially lower the maximum CPU fan speed by default, since its “smart controls” prevent that limit from being reached unless it’s actually needed.

G.Skill's DDR3-1600 CAS 8 modules defaulted to DDR3-1333 CAS 9. We were hoping for DDR3-1333 CAS 8 at least, since our motherboard’s BIOS doesn’t support manual configuration.

Thermal testing requires a constant, high-load level that’s hard to reach with most of today’s performance graphics cards. That’s because most of the latest enthusiast-oriented products respond to a constantly-high load by dropping their clocks to cope. The only current-generation high-end card we had on hand that doesn’t exhibit this behavior is Gigabyte’s GV-N560SO-1GI.
Many builders might think we're crazy for using a 450 W power supply in today’s configuration. Yet, SilverStone was certain its SFX form-factor ST45SF would be up to the task. Our non-overclocked CPU contributed to a combined CPU and GPU full load power draw of 420 W, which means the unit was only being tasked with a 374 W output according to its 80 PLUS report.
The ST45SF includes a PS/2 form-factor adapter plate.

Our motherboard didn’t include any right-angle cables, so we dug a pair of SilverStone’s 90° cables out of our collection.

Two of our cases required slim optical drives, so we ordered Samsung’s low-cost SN-S083 DVD writer, along with a store-brand mini-SATA adapter cable.
| Benchmark Configuration | |
|---|---|
| Prime95 v25.8 | 64-bit executable, Small FFT's, 7-threads |
| FurMark 1.6.5 | Windowed Mode, 1280x1024, 8X AA, Stability Test Minimum and maximum temperature |
| RealTemp 3.60 | Highest core reading at full CPU load (60 minutes) Highest core reading at 30 minutes idle |
| Galaxy CM-140 SPL Meter | Tested at 1/4 m, corrected to 1 m (-12 dB), A-weighting |
We arranged our results by lowest average temperature, but we have to admit that some readers might not think this is fair. The reason is that our graphics driver would kick the card into thermal-protection mode whenever the GPU exceeded 95° Celsius.

That means a room temperature of only 21° would cause the graphics card to kick down in the “leading” configuration, and that the only two acceptable cases were Lian-Li’s PC-Q08 and SilverStone’s tiny SG06B. But how could this be?
Our test card is a dual-fan design that feeds half of its exhaust out the back of the case and the other half into the case. Because the second fan is completely shrouded by the side panels of the SG07B and Mini-Tank, it received only pre-heated air from the first fan. Ouch. Size was not even an issue here, as proximity to an unvented portion of the side panel made all the difference.
Yet, not all cards have dual fans, so we went on to retest the SG07B and Mini-Tank with an equally-challenging card that used a single-fan, blower-type cooler. While blower-type GPU coolers are ideal for reducing case temperature, power-throttling on current models like AMD’s Radeon HD 6950 and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 580 would have made consistent results almost impossible to achieve. Finding a blower-type card without this limitation forced us to step back to our older samples.
The card we chose, Gigabyte’s 2 GB GeForce GTX 285, runs around 5° hotter, yet has around 5° more thermal headroom before it kicks into a lower-performance mode.

The results are pretty impressive, as the SG07’s GPU temperature rises to only 4° over the open platform (using the same GeForce GTX 285), while the Mini-Tank is only 6° warmer than the open platform. We credit SilverStone’s foam air duct for the case’s 2° advantage over the larger competitor, and case fan speed didn’t affect GPU temperature with that duct in place.

Getting back to our original tests, SilverStone’s SG07 has the lowest average noise level, while Lian-Li’s PC-Q08 did the best job of hushing our noisy graphics card. This result also makes sense, because the graphics card cooling fans faced the PC-Q08’s bottom, rather than side-panel vents.

An intake fan that blows directly on the CPU, along with the lowest average noise, gives SilverStone’s SG07B the highest cooling-to-noise ratio, but only when its fan is in low-speed mode. Lian-Li follows with a close second-place finish, and is the quietest case that properly supports the thermal design of our original graphics card.
While ITX motherboards represent the most compact derivative of ATX, our “one step bigger” two-slot case roundup was supposed to reveal the ultimate in high-end gaming portability. With portability our primary concern, SilverStone’s SG06B appears to be a true winner. One of only two cases that support the cooling design of our factory-overclocked dual-fan graphics card, mere adequacy is a strong selling point when a case this small is able to support this caliber of hardware. SilverStone even offers a version of this case with the 450 W power supply from today’s test included.
Its not surprising, however, that the smallest case in today’s comparison didn’t take any performance wins, or that its virtually-open side panel let out most of the noise from our graphics card. We also fear what might happen when a case this thin gets “excessively handled” on its way to and from LAN parties, and some builders might even find its 9.8” maximum card length too restrictive.
The next step up in quality, durability, and card space is SilverStone’s SG07B-W. Supporting cards up to 12” long (including the 10.5” GeForce GTX 580), its built-in standard power supply provides the extra amperage needed for such excess. The case, unfortunately, requires a blower-style graphics card cooler that exhaust out the rear panel (again including the mighty GeForce GTX 580) to work properly, severely limiting our choices in the more-typical $200-300 “enthusiast” market.
As a side-note, we've heard from system builders like Falcon Northwest who've "failed" GeForce GTX 550 and 560 Ti combos in SLI because of the problems with mid-card fans that blow air back into small cases. AMD and Nvidia could make life much easier on everyone by engineering products with cooling solutions that more effectively cope with heat generated by their GPUs.
Lian-Li’s PC-Q08 takes quality even higher, while supporting even larger power supplies, and has the card support advantages of both the SG06 (supporting dual-fan cards) plus the SG07 (supporting 12” cards). Lian-Li also adds USB 3.0 front-panel support, though its rear-panel cables orphaned the internal USB 3.0 header on our motherboard. The PC-Q08 even has the space to support 120 mm miniature liquid CPU coolers. Yet, all of that extra size somewhat defeats the purpose of ITX. The PC-Q08 competes against several microATX cases of similar size in the portable gaming market, facing a strong argument against the limitations of ITX motherboards.
Though its still light enough to be portable, Cubitek’s Mini-Tank goes further than any other case we’ve seen towards defeating the size advantages of ITX with dimensions similar to some compact full-ATX mini-towers. Of course, it has far more room for big CPU coolers than any other case its size, and that could be a big advantage to overclockers if anyone ever develops an ITX motherboard that supports high-end overclocking. Cubitek even adds ingress and egress holes for external water cooling lines. Two inches wider and shorter (in depth) than a "standard" microATX mini-tower, the Mini-Tank appears to be designed primarily for stationary systems where storage is more important than slot space. A visually-stunning design has made the Cubitek Mini-Tank the most coveted case in this lab, in spite of its disregard for ITX's space-saving intentions.













