DTX Lives! Four Double-Slot Cases For ITX Gaming Machines

By Thomas Soderstrom
published

The ITX form factor is great for space-saving portability. But gamers still need that extra expansion slot to support a high-end graphics card. We compare four compact cases that support double-slot cards on a tiny single-slot motherboard.

Building With The SG07B-W

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.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
61 Comments Comment from the forums
  • iam2thecrowe
    the silverstone sg06b is the only one that looks any good (not great though). the rest are just plain ugly.
    Reply
  • Darkerson
    iam2thecrowethe silverstone sg06b is the only one that looks any good (not great though). the rest are just plain ugly.Opinion = Fact?

    Anyway, I actually like Cubitek's case. Sure, it looks like it would be a pain to make changes to when doing upgrades or whatnot, but nothing is perfect. If it had a handle on top or something, Id probably use it for LAN parties and the such.
    Reply
  • hmp_goose
    Pst: Guys! Ya' flip the plexglass vent on the SG07! http://www.maximumpc.com/article/how-tos/how_build_ultimate_small-form-factor_gaming_pc?page=0,1
    Reply
  • Crashman
    hmp_goosePst: Guys! Ya' flip the plexglass vent on the SG07! http://www.maximumpc.com/article/h c?page=0,1Thanks! But if you're building a new system...better still, use a single-fan GPU cooler and the foam air guide! Imagine this beast with a GTX 580!
    Reply
  • gti88
    Nice article. Very informative.
    Reply
  • Oh wow, lets reinvent a box that holds computer parts, accomplishing the exact same thing all other computer cases before it did, only this version will suck a little bit harder.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    m84092Oh wow, lets reinvent a box that holds computer parts, accomplishing the exact same thing all other computer cases before it did, only this version will suck a little bit harder.So, you're saying you'd have preferred an AT desktop case roundup?
    Reply
  • Onus
    I would like to have seen the PC-Q08 tested with the blower-style cooler. I cannot imagine how that could have been omitted.
    Otherwise, it was an interesting read.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    jtt283I would like to have seen the PC-Q08 tested with the blower-style cooler. I cannot imagine how that could have been omitted. Otherwise, it was an interesting read.The PC-Q08 didn't fail.
    Reply
  • and the advantage of any of these over a "lunchbox" style mATX case is?
    Reply