Cases – SFF.Network

Introducing the Fractal Design Ridge, a better, more refined, Node 202.

We would like to thank Fractal Design for providing us with a review sample of their Ridge chassis. Without their generosity, this case review would not be possible. Way back at CES 2019, representatives at Fractal were quick to quell our disappointment in their LFF case lineup by asking that we to stay tuned, and to rest assured that the ITX audience had not been forgotten. Immediately, I expected Fractal to simply take the easy route and refresh their wildly popular Node 202 chassis with some brushed aluminum variant but instead they released the wildly stylish Fractal ERA chassis that …

Cases Motherboards Reviews Systems

ASRock’s DeskMeet B660 – Fantastic Idea, Interesting Execution

ASRock’s DeskMini series has been a stalwart in the SFF world for some time now, even with the canning of the GTX/RX series (Rest in Peace, MXM graphics cards). Eschewing standard form factors to enable denser computers, the DeskMini has been the basis of many builds and mods in our community forum. But the challenge with the DeskMini has always been hardware compatibility – only really supporting CPU, RAM and storage upgrades. What if we wanted more graphics power and more RAM? Enter the DeskMeet. As a larger brethren to the DeskMini, the new DeskMeet series significantly increases component compatibility …

Cases Reviews

Goodisory A01 Review

Review provided by forum moderator ignsvn with editing performed by John Morrison. Want to contribute a review or editorial? Private message John (confusis) on the forum! Many forum members know that I’m never a big fan of external AC-DC brick. I see them as something that adds more wire on my already cluttered, fully-wired PC setup, regardless whether you put the brick on top of the desk, or on the floor. However, recently I have found a need to to build a low power, APU-only HTPC for family entertainment purposes. Think of watching online TV channels, Youtube, play light games, …

Cases Reviews

InWin B1 HTPC Case Review

Introduction Earlier this year InWin announced their latest HTPC case, the B1. More stylish than the popular Chopin with a tempered glass cover, and following a different cooling principle than the open air H Frame mini of yesteryear, the B1 is an affordable and stylish case for those seeking a compact home server or mini PC. At the time of writing, the B1 is $85.00 on Amazon, coming in under the InWin Chopin ($99.00). It offers a 200w 80 plus gold power supply as well as an 80mm internal fan, but trades the durable aluminum aesthetic of the Chopin for …

Articles Cases Feature Reviews

System76 – Thelio. A chassis that thinks outside the box.

This is going to be a unique article for us in that this is more of a showcase and not a review. This sample was paid for out of pocket and like all our articles, will remain unbiased to a fault. As far as I am aware, there are only two ITX computer case manufactures in the USA (R.I.P. Caselabs), one of them is Sliger Designs out of Sparks, Nevada and the other is System76 from Denver, Colorado. And while System76 both designs and manufactures their own chassis, they are not available for sale without the purchase of one entirely …

Cases Feature Reviews

Fractal Design’s ERA Chassis Review

We would like to thank Fractal Design for providing us with a review sample of their ERA ITX chassis. Without their generosity, this case review would not be possible. Way back at CES 2019, representatives at Fractal were quick to quell our disappointment in their case lineup by asking that we to stay tuned, and to rest assured that the ITX audience had not been forgotten. Immediately, I expected Fractal to simply take the easy route and refresh their wildly popular Node 202 chassis with some brushed aluminum variant but I am very glad that I was wrong. Available in …

Cases Reviews

Guest Review: Mini-Box’s M350

This guest review was provided by forum member Windfall, with editing performed by John Morrison. Want to contribute a review or editorial? Private message John (confusis) on the forum! Go back. Way back. Okay, maybe not very far back: 1996, when Mini-Box was founded. “Inspired by the unprecedented success of small form factor mainboards,” they have since “since directed [their] focus on designing and developing smaller, more compact PC peripherals.” I don’t know if that’s true or not, as I got it from their about page. I can tell you though, that from their product portfolio, it certainly appears …

Cases Other Reviews

Battle of the Boutiques Part 2: A4-SFX | S1 | SM550 | SM560

The following article is for Part 2 of our multi-part review. If you haven’t already seen it, you can view Battle of the Boutiques Part 1 here. We had originally intended to release the 2nd and final part of this review back in July but due to immature BIOS issues with Ryzen’s latest CPUs, we experienced some questionable voltage results and instability, so we decided to wait it out. Finally, on the 15th of August, ASUS provided a BIOS update(1.0.0.3 Patch AB, still not perfect) to their ROG STRIX X470-I GAMING motherboard, so I decided to crank through this in …