Small chassis with official SSI EEB support?

[dexvx]

A lot of SSI-EEB workstation chassis have a bunch of 3.5" and even 5.25" bays, which are useless for my needs. Was wondering if there was any SSI-EEB chassis in a small form factor (<40L).

This Rosewill case isn't made anymore, and GN has the build quality is 'disappointing':
https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...b-compatible-desktop-case-without-mods.14761/

NZXT requires some modding:
https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...70-build-in-the-smallest-case-nzxt-s340.8425/

 

[nthu9280]

Have you looked at Deepcool Matrexx series to see if they meet your requirements?

 

[RageBone]

You have two main problems with any of those non Desktop "ATX" Formfactors.

First is space as in does the board physically fit into the case.
Second is the Mounting-Holes which depending on the board, can be non standard and will therefore either require a Case from the same OEM with compatible mounting, or you mod it.

What board do you have ?

The budget and space king i know of, is the Deepcool D Shield V2 or E Shield, same frame different front.
In general, i'd advise modding the front for Airflow on those.

Mine houses a Supermicro X10DRC LN4+ which is EEATX which means this thing is much higher then Eatx or SSI EEB and i had to drill and tapp custom mounting holes.

 

[Marsh]

@RageBone

I like to see a picture of your setup.
I have few SM dual socket boards that needs a cheap and good case.

thanks

 

[RageBone]

@Marsh
X10DRC LN4+ as you can see.
Again, this is EEATX, much higher and as wide as EATX / SSI EEB.
One of the pictures should highlight how the board fills that case.
SSI EEB should have "meat" or metal everywhere where a mounting-hole should be, but you will need to drill at least one hole for your supermicro boards since top left is out of atx spec on all SM SSI EEB boards.
In the current configuration, 2 mounts are free-floating, especially the one beside the 24Pin ATX and EPS Power Connectors.
Calbe-Management is also a challenge since there is literally no space for anything else then board. So 24pin and EPS Extensions might be a good idea.

Sadly, the case is a bit wider then would probably fit into a rack.
Noctua NH U12S fits absolutely flush and perfect with the sidepanel.

Currently not in Service since i ran out of working PSUs. Woops.

IMG_20190403_224007.jpg
IMG_20190403_224041.jpg
IMG_20190403_223939.jpg

Other cases i made Fit are:
Inwin 303
InWin 805
I have chinese glas bullshit cheapo Bigtower that has Eatx Mounting -> SSI EEB mounting, just need to add the non spec hole.
If you happen to be near me, you can have that thing for free.

Another currently good looking option would be the
Fractal Define R6 or Define S ?
Basically all the Fractal cases that would physically Fit large boards.
Everything Design R before the R6 sadly had non flat motherboard-trays which makes it impossible to fit large boards inside.

Or the Lian Li O11 Dynamic / Air.
That would fit, though a bit of the board would overhang the vertical Radiator space, which you'd probably leave unpopulated.
And you'd still need to drill that non spec SM hole. ......

 

[Marsh]

Thank you for the pictures.
I like it.

My location is the BayArea CA.

I google and found a used Deepcool D Shield V2 case from BH photo for $30 , free ship , no tax.
I am thinking about buying the Deepcool case after seeing you pictures.

 

[RageBone]

@Marsh Glad i could help.

another relevant detail about the case is that it is constructed from thin steel sheets, powdercoated.
It is rather light and simple, you feel and see that it is a cheap case, but overall i think it is worth the 30$, heck even the 50$ it should sell for.
Though, when you have a fractal or NZXT or any other case above >50$, you notice the difference!
i can't remember cutting my hands in Fangrills or other evil places, so it shouldn't be deadly or dangerous
there are no fancy cable management features, the Frontpanel-cables just extend from the frontpanel and are there for you to manage.
The Frontpanel itself is horrible and has way to few air-intakes. You can either mod it, or what i plan on doing is slapp a few fans in front and build a frame of wood as a kind of case extension around the fans and put a mesh in front of them as filter.

When you drill the holes into the mainboard-tray, watchout, it is thin, and if you don't leave enough flesh or deform it enough, the standofs will not gripp and rotate freely after you screwed them in.

 

[itronin]

The NZXT H500 is also a good case to fit EATX/SSI-EEB. Bracket fabrication was not necessary unlike the S340 - reason is the H500 is just a little bit bigger. I needed to add only 5 holes so that was good as I am bad with tools.

YMMV based on the hole layout though and I used a full size template and visited some stores to see how it would fit.

I posted the build on imgur over the winter.

Here's a pic of a build I did over the winter with a Gigabyte GA-7PESH2 (ignore the fans on the less than optimal side of the Noctuas).

 

[Marsh]

@itronin

I looked at the pictures, very nice build and clean.

 

[nthu9280]

If it's just one hole, these Nylon PCB Standoffs
could do the trick to provide the support and prevent flexing of the board.

 

[dexvx]

Wow, did not realize the H500 worked well. I actually bought two for 9900K workstations. I thought it was small because it barely fit a Maximus XI Formula with the annoying vertical bar. Although one annoying thing I see now is that the 24pin ATX connector is in top, cabling is a little annoying.

Board in question is an Asus KGPE-D16 and a S2600ST. I might just set it on a test bench or something.

 

[RageBone]

Had a look at my deepcool d shield again.
It is 46 cm high, calculator tells me that is 18.11", but my mellanox switch is just 43cm wide ? What?
And the width of the d shield is 21cm which makes it a 4.5 to 5U case.

So it could be made to fit into a 23" Telco rack, and possibly even a 19" rack if there isn't any bogus going on.

Could be the budget King with a bit of modding.

 

[Aluminum]

FWIW Caselabs BH8 came in a SSI-EEB single plate option, I bought my first one that way for future proofing. The ATX version is not smaller but has two plates and the front standoff mounts are not there, though you could make it work fairly easily. Probably the ideal case for air or mixed cooling such a motherboard, anything smaller is either a rackmount jet engine or a design that really sucks in some other way.

They closed the business though, so you will only find on the used market or possible new-old-stock from a random foreign distributor. The build quality is high so they probably will keep their value until ATX and similar standards are retired, another couple decades I bet.

 

[kidgloves]

I know I'm resurrecting an old thread, but I needed did this recently with Supermicro X9 E-ATX boards and went with Deepcool Matrexx 55 MESH. The standoffs were _exactly_ right for the SM board, no drilling needed.

In my case I also needed to remove the HDD cage as I had a very big power supply (chisel the rivets off), and this meant mounting the SSD behind the motherboard and putting electrical tape on the opposite side (motherboard underside) to get things to work, but that was more self inflicted.

Seems most of the Deepcool Matrexx series is workable. I added some low voltage adapters to the fans and some Noctua's inside and it's super quiet too!

 

[tesla100]

Yep, very good case indeed. The Matrexx 55 Mesh has been my case of choice for any workstation I've built recently. The only issue I've seen is the one you already mentioned, it won't allow installing larger PSUs out of the box...