Gadgetory

it's not the size but what you do with it that counts at least that's what I keep telling myself and lately you know what I seem to be getting some backup here because there's been a lot of love for big things that come in small packages if you know what I mean I TX cases and the motherboards that go with them have been growing in popularity for some time but there are some inherent trade-offs that come with tiny computing size noise cooling performance and of course one of the big reasons anybody wants a small computer in the first place looks so we rounded up eight of the best small form-factor designs for your viewing pleasure come along for the ride the package ride you bought the ride package CyberPower pcs lineup of gaming desktops feature intel seventh generation core i7 processors check them out at the link below we'll kick things off with the venerable Silverstone mellow mlo 8 which rocks a classic HiFi look this particular model comes with a carrying handle along with a vertical stand should that suit your fancy taking a peek under the hood reveals a separate chamber for a full sized GPU which helps with both thermals and acoustics in our testing on the other side we find generously sized front panel cables and two tool lists two and a half inch drive mounts for any combination of spinning or SSD storage take it all together we think this one's a great choice for a living room PC next up fractal designs node 202 a moderately sized media center style case again with a vertical stand if you're into that sort of thing and optional feet if you're not one thing you'll notice right away here is that there are no screws anywhere on the top or the back they are all on the bottom and thankfully they use standard Phillips heads something apparently you can't take for granted inside is a spacious clean design with well proportioned cables and a power supply mount that uses rails for additional stability all the fan intakes are filtered including the GPU intakes dual 120 millimeter fans which we would recommend using our GPU got pretty toasty and testing and with two two and a half inch drive mounts it's a pretty versatile option crowdfunded on indiegogo this is the doctor's aber sentry a polish built mini monstrosity made entirely of steel right down to the brackets and vertical stand everything from the satisfying power button to the weight of the panels exudes quality construction getting inside past the hex bits you can see a fairly sensible layout with a separate GPU cooling zone and slightly long front panel cables if your GPU is shorter than 200 millimeters you can actually make use of a provided bracket to stack up to four two and a half inch drives in place of one of these mounts for a grand total of up to eight drives of course if you were to actually load in that many drives I would suggest taking off all their clothes because in our testing it got pretty hot in there behind the GPU not content to provide only one case for our roundup silverstone also sent in their raven our v01 ii which i guess we'll call ron another larger case Ron trades volume for cooling coming with two slim 120 millimeter fans with space for a third and convenient magnetic filters for each of them all of which combined to give it the top results in our thermal testing inside we see an incredibly sturdy PCI Express riser for two and a half inch drive mounts ample room to maneuver and amount for a full sized ATX power supply Ron's not perfect though between the two long for comfort too short for reach around front panel cables he's a little bit of a pain to service and aesthetically we don't think Ron fits in well in the living room making it more of a small ish showcase piece for the computer den now we're doctors aber debuted on IndieGoGo the dann case a for SFX burst onto the scene by way of Kickstarter it is currently the world's smallest computer case it's super light and it's really beautiful the panels snap on and off easily which actually could be a problem with how jam-packed tight things are in there if not for the optional screw holes it's extremely space efficient under the hood with the full sized GPU compartment separated by way of a plastic flap to save weight while offering darn impressive thermals now the a for SFX is size and lack of dust filters do hurt its acoustic performance and a single front USB 3 port is not ideal for the year 2017 but two two and a half inch drive mounts give you decent options for internal storage and while sadly the a4 sfx is unavailable for purchase at the time of filming more good news they do have a subscription service that will notify you when they're returning to production moving along to the end case m1 we see many similarities between it and the a4 sfx it's lightweight constructed from aluminum and features snap-on panels though these ones unfortunately don't screw down its holy get it hole ly ventilated with two 120 millimeter fan mounts that we would recommend filtering and using as intakes to help prevent the rest of the case from sucking and dust thanks to its perforated design the M one's thermals were great even if it's a little on the loud side and in spite of its diminutive size our unit includes amazing Drive expansion with the optional slot loading optical drive that goes where you could also mount a two and a half inch drive and even an option to mount dual three and a half inch drives if you like to store your media locally and you'll want a small case you'll want to give this one some consideration it's probably the most versatile chassis at its size support for triple slot video cards is just icing on the cake at that point next up I hope you're ready matey's cuz we've got the our agent tech matey plus affordable with a premium looking aluminum finish this is a more traditional looking cube PC much care and attention clearly went into making it look and feel streamlined with brackets hiding the slot screws and the bizarre power supply mount sadly though this makes working in it a huge pain and each side panel is held on by Phillips screws rather than you know little quick releases looking inside though we find space for up to four two-and-a-half inch drives or two two and a half's with a single three and a half or two three and a half inch drive so the storage options are definitely a strong point making it an attractive home theater PC option even if I can't emphasize this enough it's not great to work in finally a brand new chassis to round off our roundup the BitFenix portal evoking a certain turret design this is probably the most overcomplicated case we have on hand with an inner frame for our parts to bolt onto attached via a rail this doesn't leave much room in spite of its size for cable routing but there's plenty of cooling which was a big benefit to the portal in our testing it even managed to stay pretty quiet for the portal showing off your build is just a window option or two thumb screws away and it features twin quick detach three and a half inch drive sleds and up to two two and a half inch drive mounts so if you want something absolutely unique you're looking at it as long as you don't mind dealing with yet another case that is difficult to work with so then final recommendations what to buy for someone with forward-thinking style the BitFenix portal at 139 us looks pretty good looks it's got plenty of options sturdy construction and head-turning appeal but it's far from the smallest in our showdown and really not that small for an ITX case so make sure you've got the room for it for those of you looking to build a gaming grade home theater PC to store and consume your content we like the Silverstone mlo eight at seventy nine US dollars the doctor's aber sentry does get an honourable mention here for its stunningly slim and clean design but at 235 us it's very pricey finally for those of you who just want a slick small form-factor PC the km1 at 185 us is the Cadillac and the fractal design node 202 at 79 is the similarly functional if less luxurious Camry the Dan case a for SFX gets an honorable mention though when it's available but at 230 euro it's a little tough to swallow though it should be noted that in spite of their size all of these cases are relatively easy to work with and performed very well in our testing so there you have it this video was a metric but ton of work so guys drop a thank you for Anthony max and Ivan in the comments while you're at it Cable mods custom length individually sleeve cables actually did legitimately help us complete these builds in some cases and keep it real guys until next time real small that is do you like talking to robots and navigating automated phone trees ha no you don't don't lie so switch to the mobile carrier that's focused on customer service and satisfaction first ting when you call them you talk to someone directly and everything about what they do is all about saving you money you pay only for example for the services that you use with the average ting bill coming in at just 23 bucks per month per device and if you're stuck in a contract they'll even pay 25% of your cancellation fee up to 75 bucks to get over there so will ting save you money while all you get to do is head over and try their savings calculator it's at linus dot ting calm we've got that linked below you enter your last few bills you enter how much you paid and find out if you would save money on ting and if you use our link you'll get 25 bucks in service credit or towards a new device for your trouble so thanks for watching if you just like this video you can hit that dislike button but if you liked it hit the like button get subscribed maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the links in the video description also down there is our merch store where you can buy cool shirts like this one and our community forum where you can go and talk tech it's a pretty cool place for a tech forum