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Lian Li/DAN A3-mATX
- Thread starter dondan
- Start date
None of Dan's cases have front ventilation, nor is there anyone out there who misses it because the whole system of venting the sides, bottom, and top deck makes it unnecessary. By the way, I always recommend Linus Tech Tips' numerous videos for this airflow argument, which comes with the wrong expectations of airflow and fans. Probably the best video on this is when he stuffs the entire interior of a case with pillows and the temperature doesn't change at all in the benchmark test.
I like the design and also the mesh. How big or small the holes of the mesh are doesn't matter at all for the air supply (see false expectations/imaginings). Those who have problems with mesh should just invest 60 bucks in an IT Duster / Compu-Cleaner Xpert.
The problem with such projects (even more so with the C4 than with such a manufacturer-determined case) is all the special requests from people with niche applications.
The focus on microATX is very interesting to me and to be honest, I'm massively wavering right now as to what will meet my needs more. With A3-mATX, you could go back to internal sound cards without having to deal with the fiascos regarding software from motherboard manufacturers. With the C4, you would have to fall back on alternative solutions like external sound cards, which is also a good alternative thanks to TOSLINK in many motherboards.
The vertical looks much better for the front 
Where did the option go to mount the GPU in front of the CPU? This was the main selling point for me because it gives the option to utilise the full capability of mATX even with a thicker GPU. If this option goes away there is no real benefit for me in relation to an ITX case and board.
Does "Graphic cards support: 4.5 Slot GPU up to 395mm length" require an SFX power supply? Looks like SFX-L or ATX psus will limit card length to roughly 320-330mm?
Some mATX boards primary 16x PCIe slot is in the second physical position, effectively reducing slot thickness by 1 for "direct in slot" layout for those particular mATX motherboards.
It’s as simple as having multiple pcie slots available. The top slot on nearly every board is the one used for the gpu because it’s the fastest one (shortest lane length to cpu). But when I have a 2.5 or larger slot gpu (which are … all of them, at least the modern ones) there are no slots left on an mATX board making it essentially an itx one. I have the use case for populating multiple or all slots so it would be really beneficial to have all of them available without obstructing 80% of them by the gpu.
Will 140-150mm tall GPUs with 12VHPWR connectors fit in the A3 mATX in vertical GPU mode with the motherboard flipped like that?
The product photos make it look like most non-FE 4080 / 4090 cards (140-150mm height) won't have enough height clearance either at the bottom of the case with the GPU mounted vertically or at the top of the case with the GPU mounted horizontally.
One of the biggest opportunities of this design appears to be accommodating massive GPUs in a reasonably portable footprint. It looks like it'd be easy to adjust the design slightly to accommodate even the largest 4080 / 4090 cards - 360mm length x 198mm height (163 + 35mm for 12VHPWR) x 80mm width (4 slots).
The product photos make it look like most non-FE 4080 / 4090 cards (140-150mm height) won't have enough height clearance either at the bottom of the case with the GPU mounted vertically or at the top of the case with the GPU mounted horizontally.
One of the biggest opportunities of this design appears to be accommodating massive GPUs in a reasonably portable footprint. It looks like it'd be easy to adjust the design slightly to accommodate even the largest 4080 / 4090 cards - 360mm length x 198mm height (163 + 35mm for 12VHPWR) x 80mm width (4 slots).
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