Feature Articles

6 cases for your next small form factor system

By Koh Wanzi - 12 Feb 2016

Lian-Li PC-Q10WX & Xigmatek Nebula C

Lian-Li PC-Q10WX

Lian-Li PC-Q10

This case is quintessential Lian-Li, extremely minimalistic and clean in design. Its windowed side panel is constructed entirely of glass, which gives it a premium look. On top of that, it is quite a rarity seeing glass used as most cases feature acrylic windows set into metal panels. These tend to pick up scratches quite easily, but the glass side window should look good for a far longer time.

Hardware support is a bit limited compared to the other mini-ITX cases featured, but you should still be able to build a fairly powerful system. There is space for CPU coolers up to 140mm tall and graphics cards up to 270mm in length - good thing graphics cards these days are getting more compact. It can also fit up to a 150mm ATX power supply (vertically mounted at the front of the case), so you should probably take note of your PSU’s dimensions before installation as certain higher wattage models like the Seasonic X-series units are slightly longer at 160mm. And if you want to go down the liquid-cooling route, the furthest you can go is an externally-mounted 240mm radiator at the top.

Lian-Li PC-Q10 interior

Tool-less storage drive mounts are located along the bottom of the case, with room for up to three 2.5-inch SSDs, two 3.5-inch HDDs, or one of each type. Lian-Li has gotten even more creative with the optical drive bay, and it slots between the PSU and the front panel and feeds into a cutout near the top of the case. Naturally, this means that you’ll have to opt for a slim drive of the slot-in variety, as opposed to the full-sized models.

Lian-Li PC-Q10 optical drive

The Lian-Li PC-Q10WX retails for US$119.

 

Xigmatek Nebula C

Xigmatek Nebula C

If we ever had to pick out a cute-looking chassis, we’d definitely go for the Xigmatek Nebula C. Measuring 260 x 260 x 305mm, the Nebula C is almost a perfect cube and is just a little taller than it is wide. But perhaps the most unique thing about it is that it’s available in a range of cheery pastel colors, including pink, purple, yellow, emerald, lime green and even white. In a DIY market where black and white are almost too common, these bursts of color certainly help the Nebula C stand out.

However, this is a mini-ITX case that is more suited for your living room as opposed to your go-to gaming rig. There is space for just a single dual-slot graphics card that measures up to 230mm in length. This means that most mid-range cards will fit inside, but you probably won’t be able to install a high-end card like the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980. You’re also limited to just 80mm of clearance when it comes to CPU cooler height. It does support a full-sized PSU though, and has two 3.5-inch HDD mounts that will support 2.5-inch SSDs as well.

Xigmatek Nebula C interior

It’s also easy to find your way around the case as three of its side panels can be removed without tools for easy access to your hardware, but you’ll want to have plenty of cable ties on hand to help with cable management.

The Nebula C is available for US$79.99.

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