can i get some recommendations for dual socket workstation pc case that can handle E-ATX 12"x13"?

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BLinux

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Looking to build a workstation PC with dual socket IvyBridge-EP Xeon motherboard. Would like to have a case that is more in the "gaming pc" category with side window, etc. Most cases in that category don't seem to fit E-ATX 12"x13"...

I figure some of you may have been where I am and found some interesting options? Hoping for some great recommendations... TIA.
 
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RageBone

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Are you willing to drill and tap mounting holes to make it fit?
Many Boards don't adhere to the ATX spec with mounting and therefore aren't compatible.
So depending on the board, its easy, or not so easy.
What board shall it be?
 

BLinux

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Are you willing to drill and tap mounting holes to make it fit?
Many Boards don't adhere to the ATX spec with mounting and therefore aren't compatible.
So depending on the board, its easy, or not so easy.
What board shall it be?
Drilling and tapping threads is no problem here; done it many times. I just don't want to be cutting the case apart to make room for the board. Something that can fit 12"x 13" is a good place to start... don't think I would ever need anything larger.

As for which board, not sure yet, don't have it... I have used the Supermicro X9DAi in the past, and may do that again, but I haven't actually picked up anything yet. Side panel window, and plenty of RGB lighting options are important for the person who this is for, so was looking at gaming pc cases, but haven't found one i like yet..
 

RageBone

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Well then,
did mod the in win 303 and 805 to fit SM Eatx by drilling cusom mounting and dremeling the unremovable standoffs away.

Edit:
The Fractal Design define r6 could fit it spacewhise, board will overhand a bit i think.
Define R4 won't fit because of a ramp, R5 not sure.

The Lianli 011 Dynamic / Air der8auer thing sould also fit spacewhise.

Some NZXT Cases work fine and were modded and showcased on here before.
 

itronin

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Can confirm the NZXT H500 is a good case for EATX with a few standoffs drilled and tapped, and a spacer/washer for the center hole if you don't want to use a plastic standoff. In the pics the cpu fans were on the less than optimal side until it was pointed out and I moved them (no pic of that). I found that there was very good front to back airflow across the whole of the motherboard in this case. Build was inspired by some posts here at STH and elsewhere. Build Log.
 
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i386

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I can't reccomend lian li cases :(
I used a lian li pc-a75x (with noctua 3k industrial fans) for while, it can fit almost all ssi eeb mounting points, I tried it with supermicro and intel server mainboards.

"Used" because the used components (especially sas hba/raid controllers, not just as add-in cards but also onboard devices) got too hot and triggered alerts/started beeping. One problem is the hdd/ssd cage between the mainboard and the intake fans.

Edit: fixed a few typos
 

RageBone

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Well, i guess that point is not against Lian li direct, rather against individual cases and their design.
In Win isn't much better in those terms, with the mentioned cases.
 

Spartacus

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Pretty sure the corsair 750d has eatx standoffs and a window. You would have to use only the first hdd tower mount but sounds like thats doable for you.
 

alex_stief

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Phanteks Enthoo Pro.
It has the added benefit of fitting SSI-EEB motherboards, without having to drill additional holes for standoffs.
I used it for 3 builds now, with the ASRock EP2C602-4L/D16 and the Supermicro H11DSi.
The included fans are crap though, be prepared to replace them. But I guess you were going to do that anyway, for added bling through RGB fans.
 
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BLinux

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Can confirm the NZXT H500 is a good case for EATX with a few standoffs drilled and tapped, and a spacer/washer for the center hole if you don't want to use a plastic standoff. cpu fans were on the less than optimal until it was pointed out and I moved them (no pic of that). I found that there was very good front to back airflow across the whole of the motherboard in this case. Build was inspired by some posts here at STH. Build Log.
I actually really like NZXT stuff and was looking at the H700/H700i. But their specs mention this:

Motherboard Support Mini-ITX, MicroATX, ATX and EATX(Up to 272mm or 10.7-inches)
So that got me concerned that a 13x12" would not fit...

which EATX board did you use in the H500 that fit? (sorry, if it was in the link, the link was asking for me to login or create an account, and I didn't bother)
 

itronin

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I actually really like NZXT stuff and was looking at the H700/H700i. But their specs mention this:

So that got me concerned that a 13x12" would not fit...

which EATX board did you use in the H500 that fit? (sorry, if it was in the link, the link was asking for me to login or create an account, and I didn't bother)
stoopid imagur... I have NSFW in the title so of course the website thinks its adult content. I will attach some pics.

This is a Gigabyte GA7-PESH2 and I am using a pair of Noctua NH-U12DXi4 coolers.
It is 305x330mm (E-ATX).

I had to remove the cable management arm and drill and tap some holes. I used nuts on the backside just in case. I'll attach the pertinent images.

Fans are mounted on the fan wall but inside the front plenum. I'm away from my office for the next 6 days so I can't go look if there was enough room to move the fans to inside the motherboard chamber with an EATX - I think there was but it was tight. Process I used to find a case I was happy with. I cut a a large piece of paper to the size of the motherboard, traced it and the cable connections and took that to uCenter and Best Buy (I imagine Fry's would let you do the same) and asked them to let me open up floor model cases and see how it would fit. uCenter was more friendly about the whole thing (actually interested in what I was doing) and they had the cheapest price on the H500.

Some things I like about this case.
cable management
air flow
2 x 2.5 drives in trays on the backside... you can fit 2 x 2.5 drives in the motherboard area but its tight. The trays will clip into the air grills above the power supply plenum. The trays are designed to do this. H500 comes with 2 trays so you'd have to acquire 2 more.
There is also space for 2 x 3.5 in the power supply plenum and you can fit dual 2.5" adapters in there (see picture) so you could theoretically have 8 x 2.5" of 7 or 9.5mm.
I was easily able to fit a seasonic titanium 1000 in the power supply plenum and alternatively I had no issues installing an evga 750+ gold in there too.

I was going for smaller is better and I went with the H500 instead of H700. H340 was too hard to acquire and also required manufacturing a standoff plate because the cable management gap lines up with where you need the motherboard leading edge standoffs.

motherboard mounting specs look similar between the H500 and H700 so I suspect it would be fine.
There's the i versions of these cases which has the RGB bling you mentioned. I just have fans with lights and now a cheap chinese x99 motherboard that has a lava lamp glow that is going in this case.

1-IMG_2703.jpg 2-IMG_2675.jpg 3-IMG_2679.jpg 4-IMG_2680.jpg 5-IMG_2681.jpg 6-IMG_2682.jpg 7-IMG_2683.jpg 8-IMG_2684.jpg 9-IMG_2693.jpg 10-IMG_2695.jpg 12-IMG_2697.jpg
 
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itronin

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As for which board, not sure yet, don't have it... I have used the Supermicro X9DAi in the past, and may do that again, but I haven't actually picked up anything yet.
Is the recipient going to run Win 10?

Have you thought about one of the "cheap chinese motherboards" ? Dual socket X79?

I have not yet installed Win 10 on my new "X99" single socket that supports ECC - going to do that when I get back home next week and see how it behaves on updates. my pesh2 and x9srl DO NOT reboot gracefully after a windows update and need to be powered down and I believe this has been pretty well documented for the C6xx chipset boards.

I have been told by the seller that the dual socket x79 has a C602 series chipset in it to which they added the nvme , dual x16 slots, audio etc. I have not confirmed so YMMV.

also looking at the pictures for this board, it appears to have a more standard ATX v2 hole spacing - especially in the upper corner by the IO ports - so possibly no drilling in that corner required? (IMO that upper corner by the IO is the bugger one to get drilled out on any smaller case.)

Szmz X79-dual Cpu Server Motherboard With Intel X79 Lga 2011 3-way Pcie 3.0 X16 Support Quad Channel 256gb Ram - Buy Dual Cpu Motherboard,Server Motherboard,2-cpu Motherboard Product on Alibaba.com
 

BLinux

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Is the recipient going to run Win 10?

Have you thought about one of the "cheap chinese motherboards" ? Dual socket X79?

I have not yet installed Win 10 on my new "X99" single socket that supports ECC - going to do that when I get back home next week and see how it behaves on updates. my pesh2 and x9srl DO NOT reboot gracefully after a windows update and need to be powered down and I believe this has been pretty well documented for the C6xx chipset boards.

I have been told by the seller that the dual socket x79 has a C602 series chipset in it to which they added the nvme , dual x16 slots, audio etc. I have not confirmed so YMMV.

also looking at the pictures for this board, it appears to have a more standard ATX v2 hole spacing - especially in the upper corner by the IO ports - so possibly no drilling in that corner required? (IMO that upper corner by the IO is the bugger one to get drilled out on any smaller case.)

Szmz X79-dual Cpu Server Motherboard With Intel X79 Lga 2011 3-way Pcie 3.0 X16 Support Quad Channel 256gb Ram - Buy Dual Cpu Motherboard,Server Motherboard,2-cpu Motherboard Product on Alibaba.com
No, the workstation will be running Fedora 3x Linux workstation, not Windows.

As for mobo, I think I rather stay with a brand I've worked with and a well known quantity.
 

RageBone

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Just to have mentioned it,
Asus does adhere to the ATX spec in terms of mounting and so does the sm x9dai I think. So, Z9??? Asus boards ...

SM x9drif does not.

The new Fake Apple case looked to basically support all the different mountings, it just doesn't have a window.
 

BLinux

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Just to have mentioned it,
Asus does adhere to the ATX spec in terms of mounting and so does the sm x9dai I think. So, Z9??? Asus boards ...

SM x9drif does not.

The new Fake Apple case looked to basically support all the different mountings, it just doesn't have a window.
I installed a X9DAi once in an older NZXT full tower case and I had to drill/tap and add additional standoffs. I don't know if it was the board or the case that wasn't following spec... lol, but it got done; no big deal.

what fake apple case are you talking about?
 

Markess

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@BLinux : Did you make a decision on what to use?

I have a Foxconn OEM board, of about the same size you plan to use, shoehorned in an ancient Antec NSK4400 case and I'm wanting to transplant it into something nicer looking and with better airflow.

The "fake Apple" case looks interesting. The other server in my home office is built into a gutted first generation Mac Pro.
 

BLinux

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@BLinux : Did you make a decision on what to use?

I have a Foxconn OEM board, of about the same size you plan to use, shoehorned in an ancient Antec NSK4400 case and I'm wanting to transplant it into something nicer looking and with better airflow.

The "fake Apple" case looks interesting. The other server in my home office is built into a gutted first generation Mac Pro.
no decision yet... but current case of interest is Thermaltake View 71, which lists this:

6.7” x 6.7” (Mini ITX), 9.6” x 9.6” (Micro ATX), 12” x 9.6” (ATX), 12” x 13”(E-ATX)
 
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William

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I have been using a Thermaltake Core X9 Black E-ATX Stackable
Core X9

Its huge tho., takes up a lot of desk space.
One the plus side... you can fit just about anything you can think of inside this beast. I love it :)