Corsairs that live in Crystal houses shouldn't throw rocks
Subject: Cases and Cooling | June 12, 2018 - 06:19 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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.
"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:
- Corsair Crystal Series 280X @ Guru of 3D
- Enermax LiqFusion 240 RGB @ Modders Inc
- XSPC RayStorm Pro X4 Photon AX360 WaterCooling Kit Review @ NikKTech
- Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L RGB @ Modders-Inc
- Reeven NAIA 240 @ TechPowerUp
Rosewill's Cullinan chassis, a diamond in the rough?
Subject: Cases and Cooling | September 19, 2016 - 01:49 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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.
"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."
Here are some more Cases & Cooling reviews from around the web:
- RIOTORO CR1080 Review @ OCC
- Corsair Carbide Air 740 @ Kitguru
- DeepCool Captain 240 EX AIO Liquid CPU Cooler Review @ Neoseeker
- REEVEN Brontes Low-Profile CPU Cooler Review @ NikKTech
ASUS Announces the X99-M WS Motherboard
Subject: Motherboards | August 1, 2015 - 11:54 PM | Scott Michaud
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.
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.
Corsair extends the Carbide Series line up with the Air 240 High Airflow
Subject: Cases and Cooling | February 26, 2015 - 05:39 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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.
"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:
- Fractal Design's Define R5 case @ The Tech Report
- Raijintek Metis Classic Computer Case @ Benchmark Reviews
- Fractal Design Core 2300 @ techPowerUp
- In Win 703 @ Legion Hardware
- Thermaltake Core V51 Case Review @ Hardware Asylum
- Thermalright Silver Arrow ITX @ techPowerUp
- Phanteks PH-TC14S Dual-Tower Review: Conflict-free CPU Cooling? @ Modders-Inc
- Phanteks PH-TC12LS CPU Cooler @ Modders-Inc
- Reeven Justice (RC-1204) @ eTeknix

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!
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 |
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.
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.
A small case with big features from Silverstone
Subject: Cases and Cooling | June 5, 2012 - 07:23 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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.
"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:
- LIAN LI PC-Q05 Thin Mini-ITX Chassis Review @MissingRemote
- hermaltake Armor Revo Snow Edition Review @ OCC
- SilverStone Fortress FT03-MINI Case Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Cubitek ATX-ICE Case Review @ OCC
- CM Storm Trooper Gaming Case Review @ HardwareLOOK
- In Win BUC 101 Midi Tower Review @ NikKTech
- Cooler Master Cosmos II Ultra Tower Chassis Review @ OCIA
- Lian Li PC-TU200 Case @ Kitguru
- In Win BUC 101 @ techPowerUp
- Corsair Vengeance C70 Case Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Thermaltake Armor Revo Snow Edition Full Tower Case Review @ Hi Tech Legion
- Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro Cooler @ TechwareLabs
- Thermaltake Water 2.0 CPU Watercooler Review @ Ninjalane
- ARCTIC Breeze Pro & IOCrest Mini USB Fan Comparison @ NikKTech
- Xigmatek Dark Knight SD1283 Night Hawk Edition CPU Cooler @ Tweaktown
- SilenX Effizio EFZ-120HA5 Review @ OCC
- Thermaltake Frio Extreme Cooler @ TechwareLabs
- Arctic Freezer Xtreme Rev 2 Heatsink Review @ Ninjalane
- Xigmatek Praeton CPU Cooler Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Noctua NH-L12 Low Profile CPU Cooler @ Pro-Clockers
- Noctua NH-L12 cooler @ Hardwareoverclock
- Noctua NH-L12 Low Profile Silent CPU Cooler @ HCW
- Thermaltake Frio Advanced CPU cooler @ Funky Kit
Fractal Design thinks small with their Define Mini MicroATX Tower
Subject: Cases and Cooling | December 15, 2011 - 01:00 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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.
"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:
- Streacom FC5 OD & Streacom ST-150WP @ techPowerUp
- Antec Solo II @ XSReviews
- Antec Eleven Hundred Case Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Diablotek Legend Computer Case Review @ TechwareLabs
- Raidmax Seiran Mid-Tower Computer Case @ Benchmark Reviews
- NZXT Tempest 210 @ techPowerUp
- Antec Eleven Hundred Mid Tower Gaming Case Review @ ThinkComputers
- Rosewill Blackhawk-Ultra HPTX Computer Case @ Benchmark Reviews
- Case Labs MAGNUM M8 Case Review @ Legit Reviews
- ATX System Cases from Ascot, InWin and Scythe @ X-bit Labs
- BitFenix Merc Alpha @ Computing on Demand
- Antec Kuhler 620 WC kit @ XSReviews
- octua Focus Flow 120mm NF-F12 PWM Fan Review @ Legit Reviews
- Noctua NF-F12 PWM Fan Review @ Hi Tech Legion
- Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Fan @ Funky kit
- NZXT Havik 140 Cooler Review @ Tweaknews
- Coolermaster Hyper 612S cooler @ Hardwareoverclock
- 4-Way Aftermarket CPU Cooler Roundup @ Techspot
- Thermalright Macho CPU Cooler Review @ Hardware Secrets
- NZXT HAVIK 120 CPU Cooler @ Tweaktown