SFF for Gaming PC?

[Scottland451]

Hey i had some q's about building an SFF gaming rig. I wanted to know what the heat looks like on a general level, is it worth it? I have no idea. Ive built computers into low profile cases, but nothing outside of ATX. I know most Micro cases tend to overheat, but my experience with them has never been with a custom built one. If anyone could give me some info that would be great! Even if it just points me to some other articles!

Thanks in advance!

[Zephik]

It really depends on a number of factors. The case you use, the types of fans, the types of heat sinks, the electrical components themselves.

But I know people build them, so there must be a realistic solution there somewhere.

The Nzxt Rogue, albiet somewhat on the large size, cool's pretty well and can fit most parts. But, like I said, it's a bit big, like probably the biggest SFF case out there. lol

[Indybird]

I just recently built a an Ultra SFF gaming PC for my friend. It has a Zotac Mini-ITX motherboard, slim-line disc drive, 500GB 2.5" hard drive, HD-5770, Core i3 and 4GB DDR3 RAM all packed into a Silverstone SG-05. Even with all that packed in there the temps are very cool.

Hope that helps,
Indybird

[Trace]

My bro built one too. Runs pretty cool. I'll post some pics

[mofo]

Have never run an atx case. Never encountered any real heat issues (had only one fan in a micro with a watercooled 8800ultra, 850w psu, 4 gigs, and all oced, then started to get heat issues, added a second fan no problems). Micro is the way to go.

[x88x]

As long as you keep everything properly cooled and keep airflow through the case you shouldn't have any problems. If you check out my mightyMite mod (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17448) or craigbru's Rogue (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17346), you can see some of the limits of SFF cooling. The problem I ran into that ended up prompting me to moving to a larger case was that my NB wasn't getting properly cooled because it was still on air and I wasn't getting enough airflow through that part of the case.