Mid Tower for new build

[Dravenspur]

Sorry guys...I know I’ve been asking a lot of questions lately. You guys have been great in answering them. I have one more. I recently bought the 3700X. I was waiting on the Asrock X570M PRO4 (since I have an mATX case), but Newegg has been our for a while and Amazon doesn’t even carry the board. With Asrock’s recent release of their X570 ITX board, I don’t know if they will ever restock the micro board. Seems everyone is selling/using full ATX or mini ITX boards for AMD.

That being the case, I would love some recommendations for a new mid tower case that can support ATX boards. I would try an ITX case, but I like good airflow for my components, which to me means at least a front and rear fan, and I don’t like the idea of plugging in multiple fans to the single fan header on an ITX board. I like Fractal Design and I was looking at the R6 or S2, but my case sits on the floor of my room and it is carpeted. So the feet from those cases would just sink into the floor and the airflow under the case (if there was any) would be gone. If that hurts the overall airflow in the case at all, then the case wouldn’t last very long in my room.

I would like one with an external 5.25 inch bay if possible as I have a Blu Ray drive in my machine I’d like to keep using (although I’m not tied to it...I can buy an external drive if need be). I know hardly anyone uses discs anymore, but I have a lot of movies on Blu Ray and DVD that I still like to watch.

Does anyone have recommendations for a mid tower that will fit an ATX board with good airflow for my new Ryzen build?

I’d like to keep the noise level low from the case if possible. One of the reasons that I liked my Arc Mini R2. I’m not partial to one company over another, however. If another company has good noise dampening cases, I’d love to try them. My signature will still be somewhat correct. I will be bringing over the PSU, the GPU and the SSD to the new build. Thanks for all help with this.

 

[Bustos]

Have you checked out this link?

https://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/748535-Recommended-Cases-of-OCF

Lots of recommendations there.

 

[trents]

Concerning the carpet issue, cut yourself a hard pad from shelving board to put under the computer.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I would love some recommendations for a new mid tower case that can support ATX boards. I would try an ITX case

For sure, I know of no mid tower case that does not support a full sized ATX motherboard. And on the flip side, I know of no ITX case that supports a full ATX board.

Some mid tower cases will, however support ITX boards, but I think those numbers are pretty low. Most mid tower cases will, however support µATX boards.

I like Fractal Design and I was looking at the R6 or S2, but my case sits on the floor of my room and it is carpeted. So the feet from those cases would just sink into the floor and the airflow under the case (if there was any) would be gone.

Most of our builds in the last couple years have been with Fractal Design cases. I have the R4 with this computer. I highly recommend them and the R6 (which does support a front panel optical drive as seen here - the S2 does not).

Do note that any case with bottom vents would be affected by your carpet scenario. And I note that many cases, including virtually all cases with bottom mounted PSUs have bottom vents.

That said, even if you select a case that does not have a bottom vent, I would urge you to get a plank of wood (a shelving board would be perfect), or devise some other type of platform or risers to elevate the case above the surface of the carpet.

I don't know what level your room is on, but I can tell you such a wood plank saved several of my computers twice from water damage. My computer room at the time was in a basement office of my house. Once the washing machine hot water hose decide to break. Water seeped under the laundry room wall into the office and totally saturated the carpet. The planks of wood under the computer prevented the water-soaked carpet from touching the computers.

At least that was clean water. The second event was much worse. Roots from an old Maple tree penetrated and blocked the house's main sewer drain pipe causing raw sewage to backup, overflow the toilet and flood the basement. Not fun. But the computers, because they were on those 5/8 inch thick planks were saved.