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Corsairs that live in Crystal houses shouldn't throw rocks

Subject: Cases and Cooling | June 12, 2018 - 06:19 PM |
Tagged: Crystal 280X, corsair, MicroATX, CUE

Recently announced at CES, the Corsair Crystal 280X RGB is up for review over at The Tech Report.  This microATX is wider than your average breadbox, 398x276x351mm (15.7x10.9x13.8") which gives you room for a 240mm rad and numerous 120/140mm fans on almost any side you desire, including the bottom.  Corsair CUE software will ensure all your RGBs blink in sync and with three tempered glass sides you will be able to see all of them.  Head on over for a better look at Corsair's newest case.

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"Corsair's Crystal Series 280X RGB is an unabashedly high-end microATX enclosure—a unicorn, in other words. We built up a high-end system worth of this enclosure and put the 280X RGB to the test to see if its performance can keep up with its striking looks."

Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:

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Source: The Tech Report

Rosewill's Cullinan chassis, a diamond in the rough?

Subject: Cases and Cooling | September 19, 2016 - 01:49 PM |
Tagged: rosewill, cullinan, XL-ATX, MicroATX

The press photos at the start of TechPowerUp's review do not do the Rosewill Cullinan justice, that obnoxiously bright glow actually looks nice behind the tinted glass panels which the case features.  As you can see from the picture below the case does allow light through it but the reflective side and front panels are the obvious highlight of the case.  It will accommodate any motherboard from MicroATX to XL-ATX, at 8.54x19.57x18.78 you should be able to fit in the plus sized coolers from the review just below this post.  You might find that needing to remove all of the the thumbscrews to get the side panel open a bit cumbersome but when assembled it does look quite fancy.  Drop by TechPowerUp for the full story.

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"The Rosewill Cullinan utilizes glass panels on three sides of the chassis. It looks sleek and clean and comes with four LED-equipped fans, but also offers a long set of functional and design-specific features. We light it up and take a closer look behind its tinted glass panels."

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Source: TechPowerUp

ASUS Announces the X99-M WS Motherboard

Subject: Motherboards | August 1, 2015 - 11:54 PM |
Tagged: X99, MicroATX, asus

The X99-M WS combines the Haswell-E platform with extra certification for workstation computers, and it does so in a microATX form factor. The WS line goes through extra QA against a variety of accessories and add-in boards, which should lead to less situations where something like a user's wants to install two different video capture cards in their system, but ends up getting random blue screens.

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As expected, the motherboard uses the X99 chipset, which allows Core i7 and Xeon processors with up two eighteen cores. It can accept up to 64 GB of DDR4 memory, which can be aligned in a quad-channel formation. It allows dual graphics cards from both AMD and NVIDIA, even though it has three PCIe 3.0 lanes. I assume this is because a dual-slot graphics card would cover up the third x16 bus -- this is a microATX motherboard, after all.

Beyond being a small, workstation-certified motherboard, it also has USB 3.1 (which brings 10 Gbps of bandwidth to external devices). This is obviously useful for external storage, and that has a lot of uses for workstation applications.

The ASUS X99-M is available now for $279.99 MSRP. It is currently listed on Newegg at $275.99 with a three year warranty, but I cannot find an official warranty listing from ASUS to confirm that.

Source: ASUS

Corsair extends the Carbide Series line up with the Air 240 High Airflow

Subject: Cases and Cooling | February 26, 2015 - 05:39 PM |
Tagged: corsair, Carbide Series, Air 240 High Airflow, MicroATX, mini-itx, SFF

Corsair designed the Carbide Series Air 240 High Airflow for small motherboards but left enough room to fit fair sized add in cards and coolers.  The case is 397 x 260 x 320mm (15.6 x 10 x 12.6") and will hold GPUs up to 290 mm in length and a cooler of up to 120mm as well as a full sized ATX PSU.  [H]ard|OCP installed two GTX 280's with no issues and had no problems installing several popular AiO watercoolers either.  Even with just air cooling it would seem that Corsair's Direct Airflow Path is much more than just a marketing gimmick and kept the components at reasonable temperatures even after heavy loads.  It certainly earned the Gold Award it received and for less than $100 it deserves to be on your short list of tiny cases to consider purchasing.

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"Are you in the market of a case for that new Mini-ITX or MicroATX PC build? Corsair today shows off its Carbide Series Air 240 High Airflow MicroATX and Mini-ITX PC Case. It's big, it's black, and it will remind you the the Borg. OK, maybe it is not that big, but big enough to allow mATX fans plenty of room for cooling and hot dual GPUs."

Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:

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Source: [H]ard|OCP

Video Perspective: Building a High Powered MicroATX Gaming PC

Author:
Date: December 31, 2014
Subject: Systems
Manufacturer: Various
Tagged: video, Windows 8.1, wd green, Samsung, nvidia, MicroATX, mATX, Intel, H80i, GTX 970, gigabyte, geforce, G.Skill, evga, corsair, carbide air 240, 850 EVO

Big Power, Small Size

Though the mindset that a small PC is a slow PC is fading, there are still quite a few readers out there that believe the size of your components will indicate how well they perform. That couldn't be further from the case, and this week we decided to build a small, but not tiny, PC to showcase that small can be beautiful too!

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Below you will find a complete list of parts and components used in our build - but let me say right off the bat, to help alleviate as much vitriol in the comments as possible, there are quite a few ways you could build this system to either get a lower price, or higher performance, or quieter design, etc. Our selections were based on a balance of both with a nod towards expansion in a few cases.

Take a look:

  MicroATX Gaming Build
Processor Intel Core i7-4790K - $334
Corsair Hydro Series H80i - $87
Motherboard Gigabyte Z97MX-Gaming 5 - $127
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws X 8GB DDR3-2133 - $88
Graphics Card EVGA GeForce GTX 970 FTW - $399
Storage Samsung 250GB 850 EVO - $139
Western Digital 2TB Green - $79
Case Corsair Carbide Series Air 240 - $89
Power Supply Seasonic Platinum 860 watt PSU - $174
OS Windows 8.1 x64 - $92
Total Price $1602 - Amazon Full Cart

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The starting point for this system is the Intel Core i7-4790K, the top-end Haswell processor for the Z97 chipset. In fact, the Core i7-4790K is a Devil's Canyon part, created by Intel to appease the enthusiast looking for an overclockable and high clocked quad-core part. This CPU will only lag behind the likes of the Haswell-E LGA2011 processors, but at just $340 or so, is significantly less expensive. Cooling the 4790K is Corsair's Hydro Series H80i double-thickness self contained water cooler.

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For the motherboard I selected the Gigabyte Z97MX-Gaming 5, a MicroATX motherboard that combines performance and features in a mATX form factor, perfect for our build. This board includes support for SLI and CrossFire, has audio OP-AMP support, USB ports dedicated for DACs, M.2 storage support, Killer networking and more.

Continue reading our build for a MicroATX Gaming system!!

A small case with big features from Silverstone

Subject: Cases and Cooling | June 5, 2012 - 07:23 PM |
Tagged: Silverstone, Temjin TJ08-E Evolution, SFF, MicroATX

Silverstone's Temjin TJ08-E Evolution is a strange beast, with a 180mm fan and the ability to house full sized graphics cards but it is built for microATX boards.  That does make it perfect for some SandyBridge/SBE boards with multiple 16x PCIe slots that are of microATX design.  There is a fan controller, a removable motherboard tray and quite a few other handy features all of which netted a Recommendation from The Tech Report.  If you need a LAN box or just want a PC in a smaller case then you really should check this one out.

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"With an 180-mm intake fan and room for high-end video cards, Silverstone's Temjin TJ08-E Evolution looks well-equipped to take on mid-tower cases. Except it's a Micro ATX mini-tower. We take a closer look to see if size really matters."

Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:

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Source: The Tech Report

Fractal Design thinks small with their Define Mini MicroATX Tower

Subject: Cases and Cooling | December 15, 2011 - 01:00 PM |
Tagged: fractal design, Define Mini, MicroATX, SFF

SPCR has reviewed a case for those designing mATX cases, a shrunken version of the Fractal Design Define R3, the Define Mini.  The case is 210mm x 395mm x 490mm (8.3" x 15.5" x19.3") and places the PSU at the bottom which in this case made add stability to the design.  Careful attention was paid to the acoustical qualities of the case, with the stock fans cooling the system it produced 16dBa which should easily be drowned out by background noise.  Even in such a small case there is still room for six easy-to-access hard drives, six large fans, large CPU heatsinks, long graphics cards and the cable management holes will help make your build tidy.  No wonder this case received a recommendation from Silent PC Review.

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"The Fractal Design Define Mini is a smaller version of the popular Define R3. It might just be the answer to those looking for a solid microATX tower with all the trappings and conveniences of a modern ATX case."

Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:

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Source: Silent PC Review

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