The average Micro-ATX case is up to 50% cheaper than the average full ATX tower case. More often than not, they’re adequate to meet the needs of typical users and even demanding gamers. If you’re planning to buy or to build a personal computer system, you must determine from the start what kind of motherboard you’re going to use and the size of the PC case it’s going into. While it may not be a disastrous purchase, you don’t want any regrets buying something that’s too much for your needs or something that comes up short. For those of you who want to assemble a PC around a Micro-ATX motherboard. We’ve come up with a list of the best Micro-ATX Cases in 2020 and gathered all the necessary information needed that can help you pick the right one.
Best Adaptive Noise Reduction
NZXT H400i
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Best Minimalist Design
Inwin 301 mATX
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Best Value
Antec P6
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NZXT H400i
A tempered glass panel lets you showcase the internals, which features a shrouded power supply and a full RGB lighting and fan control system. It is one of the most spacious mATX cases and has enough expansion slot clearance to accommodate any size GPU cards.
Best Adaptive Noise Reduction
“One of the most spacious mATX cases and has enough expansion slot clearance to accommodate any size GPU cards.”
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The build quality of the H400i is excellent all around and looks sleek and elegant, with mostly aluminum chassis and panels, save for the one glass panel, of course. It is available in 4 color combinations. One rear exhaust fan and two fans at the front come standard. There are also mounting holes at the top for two additional fans. A metallic filter attachment covers those vents at the top.
Cable management is provided on the left side near the front panel and under the power supply shroud when facing the back of the motherboard. It would take some effort, though, to bend the thick cables of a modular PSU because of the small space, but it shouldn’t be a problem once you’ve done that.
It has what NZXT calls and Adaptive Noise Reduction system controlled with their utility software. The utility allows you to keep tabs on fan speeds that ramped up automatically as needed and reduced to when not for a quieter operation. It also lets you control the two RGB strips included that you can sync to temperature and audio levels, and even the games that you’re playing through different presets.
All in all, you can’t go wrong picking the H400i. It’s one of the best mATX cases that we can recommend.
Antec P6
The Antic P6 comes with a 4mm thick tempered glass left-side panel and a PSU shroud that a lot of PC builders are looking for. It has a nice blend of a sleek and stylish look without being too aggressive in its design that could turn off buyers at both extremes. There’s a logo that’s projected on the table surface by a white LED just under the front panel. The front I/O ports are located on the left side, along with the power and reset switches.
Best Value
“It’s just a shade under 65 dollars, that makes us think this case has got one of the best values for your money.”
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A water cooling will be limited to a 240mm radiator at the front. If it’s an all-in-one or AIO cooler, then you’re stuck with either a 120mm radiator at the rear or a 240mm one at the front. The front also has mounts for either 2x120mm or 2x140mm fans, depending on what you’re going with. It has a magnetic filter covering the top were mounting holes for 3x120mm, or a 2x140mm fan setups are available. It comes with a white LED-lit 120mm fan at the rear.
For cable management, the access holes lack rubber grommets, and it’s pretty much up to you to find a way to secure those cables at the back. For secondary storage, you have a removable drive cage at the bottom for 3.5 HDD or SDD drives that do make it tight, especially for modular PSU cables. You’re forced to remove the drive cage first to make it easier to plug in those cables. For smaller sized SDDs, mounting is not tool-less, and you would have to screw them into small trays using a screwdriver. The trays themselves attach to the back with a couple of thumbscrews.
It is wide enough for a CPU cooler that’s up to 6.3” from the base to fit in and has an ample 15.4” clearance for installing a GPU card of any size. A Liquid cooling solution is possible, giving you the ability to mount 240mm radiators whose heat can be dispersed by two 120mm fans up to 55mm thick. It comes with a rear 120mm fan with a red LED. It has mounts for additional 120 or 140mm fans.
Despite some limitations, it’s just a shade under 65 dollars, that makes us think this case has got one of the best values for your money.
Phanteks Evolv mATX
The Evolv mATX comes in a sleek and stylish all-aluminum body and a sandblasted aluminum exterior finish. It has rear swivel-mounted and tempered glass side panels that are secured by magnets at the front and also have a quick-release mechanism for easy removal. We like how the front edge of these panels follows the contours of the attractive front panels. It adds so much to the overall premium look and quality of the fit and finish of the case. It comes in three colors, namely satin black, anthracite gray, and galaxy silver.
Best Premium Design
“Comes in a sleek and stylish all-aluminum body and a sandblasted aluminum exterior finish.”
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There is a rubber trim around the edges of the case on both sides to cushion the glass panels. They also act as noise dampeners and seals those sides to provide more efficient airflow. It only has enough clearance for up to 12.5” GPU cards, but it shouldn’t be hard to find even a higher-end GPU that it can accommodate with that amount of space.
For secondary storage, it has two 2.5 inch SSD brackets placed at the back under the large CPU motherboard tray cutout. As a nice touch, there’s a window on the right panel that isn’t blacked out, so you can see through the glass both SSDs installed. It also has two drive bays for 3.5 inch HDDs or SDDs.
A perforated shroud covers the PSU, and cable management at the back is a breeze with a 26mm deep gap that provides enough room to hide the cables. It has rubber grommets to allow the cables to pass through. Water cooling is possible with up to a 280mm radiator at the top and 360mm (including AIO systems) at the front. It also comes with a bracket for a water pump, but you can’t have the two drive caddies if you decide to use that. Two 140mm fans, one at the rear and one in the front come standard. There is also a large removable dust filter at the front that can is easy to remove and clean.
The front I/O panel is hidden at the top by a retractable, flush aluminum cover. It includes two USB ports, audio and mic jacks plus a button that lets you cycle through the various RGB settings. There’s also an LED strip that you can install inside the case that syncs with the other lights.
It has about the same features as an NZXT H400i but is slightly less spacious. You can find one that less than half the price of the H400i, though, and if you love the design as we do, then you should go for this bargain instead.
Thermaltake Level 20 VT
With lots of room to operate in, this cube also comes with four 4mm tempered glass panels that show what’s inside. There’s one at the top, the sides, and front. The motherboard layout is flat, which is also easier to work with, and it allows heat to rise without passing other components for more efficient heat dissipation.
Best Cube Design
“Allows heat to rise without passing other components for more efficient heat dissipation.”
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It has enough clearance to fit 13.5” GPU cards and as much as 7.3” tall CPU coolers. For water cooling, it has ample space for 280mm radiators. There’s also enough space at the top for you to mount 2x240mm radiators.
It comes preinstalled with a large 200mm fan at the front. If you want to, you can replace that with 2x120mm or 2x140mm fans. There are mounting holes at the top for 4x120mm or2x140mm fans. The bottom allows mounting of 2x120mm fans but has no dust filter, which is unfortunate. The rear can hold either a 120mm or 140mm fan. All in all, up to nine fans can be installed in this case.
There’s a PSU shroud that also houses three tool-less 3.5-inch drive caddies. At the back of this lower chamber are three trays for 2.5-inch SSDs that you can slide sideways in any position in case you need extra room for cables. The bottom panel is removable for easy installation of these peripherals.
Cable management is a downer, though. Although it looks clean in the motherboard chamber when viewed from the top, it’s a bit of a mess on the left side near the GPU. It becomes an unsightly rat’s nest inside the PSU shroud and is evident through the glass, especially on the left-side panel.
The front I/O panel located at the top and includes 2xUSB 3.0 and 2xUSB 2.0, audio and mic jacks, as well as the reset and power buttons. As a plus, they’re mounted on the chassis making the removal of the front panel easier.
Despite its quirks and some minor shortcomings, it’s hard not to give this our recommendation, especially with its price below 100 dollars.
Inwin 301 mATX
The 301 is a boxy case with a very minimalist design that hardly gets old. The removable left-side panel is of tempered tinted glass and has a handy quick-release and tool-less design for easy access to the interiors.
Best Minimalist Design
“Has a handy quick-release and tool-less design for easy access to the interiors.”
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The front I/O ports and the Inwin logo above them, are illuminated with LEDs and are located on the right of the front panel. Included are 2xUSB 3.0 ports and audio headset jacks. Above the logo are the power and reset buttons near the upper right corner.
For cooling, air intake comes in the form of Y-shaped holes and indents that form the unique honeycomb patterns along the front edge of the right side-panel that is secured by two thumbscrews. The holes can be illuminated from the inside to highlight the honeycomb patterns even more.
Unfortunately, there’s no filter screen behind it. There is, however, a coarse meshed filter that covers large honeycomb holes at the bottom where 2x120mm fans can be mounted. 2x120mm fans can mount at the front along with a 240mm radiator. However, it’s a shame that it doesn’t come with any fans, not even one at the rear, which is usually provided by other manufacturers.
With the top-mounted PSU configuration, the fan of the PSU that you install would have a dual function of helping suck the heat from inside the case and from the PSU itself and vent it out at the back near the top. There is a plastic cover to hide the cable management on the right of the motherboard tray, but that takes up space and thus prevents mounting larger 40mm fans at the front. So it’s clear that some compromises were made to help keep the costs down.
It remains an elegant looking and very functional case. For those on a tight budget, it’s still a great value at 70 dollars and is a highly recommended mATX buy.
The ATX Form Factor
We’re not just talking about a simple computer case here but the motherboard itself. Think of the motherboard as the central nervous system of a PC. On it you install the CPU (Central Processing Unit) which is the “brain,” and system RAM (Random Acces Memory) which is where short-term memory is stored, and the HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or SDD (Solid State Drive) which is where the long-term memory is “remembered.”
A Form Factor is a standard set of dimensions, amount, and shapes, that guide the measurements that manufacturers use to design and build their products to conform to those standards. It’s simply how the components are designed to fit with one another.
The ATX was the successor to the old AT motherboard and power supply form factor that had been around since the early years of the PC. You may have seen those horizontal AT cases with an old CRT Monitor placed on top of it that takes up a lot of space on a desk.
To significantly improve on the AT’s flat horizontal case configuration, Intel in the mid-’90s, came up with design specifications for what they called ATX (Advanced Technology Extended). That form factor was for a tower design with a smaller footprint in mind and is what we commonly see everywhere today.
ATX motherboards are rectangular and measured at 12 x 9.6 inches and came with as much as seven expansion slots. These days, the ATX cases built around that motherboard are bulky. If it’s a gaming ATX case, they can get enormous because they were designed to fully accommodate complete water cooling solutions that sometimes had two 3-fan radiators. There are a lot of other motherboard sizes, even bigger ones like the EATX (Extended ATX) measuring 12 x13 inches. That particular one was for a dual CPU type of deal.
Not all computer users, though, needed that kind of large setup. For a lot of them, It can be quite expensive, and those extra expansion slots that will end up empty will just be a waste of space anyway. Shortly after the ATX, Intel introduced a smaller form factor in 1997 that was more suited for the practical purposes of typical users. If you’re one of those people, then you’ve come to the right place.
The Micro-ATX case
Sometimes people refer to them as mATX. The Micro-ATX case was designed around a smaller, mostly square motherboard form factor with dimensions of 9.6 by 9.6 inches. These cases are easier to move around and take up less space in any room where they’re set up. These smaller motherboards were backward compatible and shared the same components with the older ATX. The main difference was that their specifications only allow them to have up to four expansion slots.
Personal computer systems back then needed a graphics card, a more advanced sound card, and an Ethernet card using up three expansion slots if you need them. ATX motherboards had extra expansion slots left even after installing these essential peripherals so that it didn’t become a big issue with them.
To free up space in Micro-ATX cases and the use of the limited number of expansion slots for other peripherals, manufacturers started using integrated peripherals built-in to their Micro-ATX motherboards. These can handle the graphics, sound, LAN (Local Area Network) and Internet functionalities of the PCs as good as the expansion cards in the ATX computers back then. Pretty soon, even the design of ATX motherboards followed this idea.
Return of the GPU cards
Nowadays, especially in gaming rigs, the dedicated graphics solution made a return to those expansion slots, as GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) cards became more popular and essential in handling most of the work to speed up graphics-intensive applications like games. They’re more powerful and have more features than any integrated GPU.
Some motherboards even allow for a dual GPU card (Nvidia’s SLI and AMD’s Crossfire)configuration taking up two slots for gamers wanting even faster performance. And with the arrival of bulky cooling solutions for GPUs, some take up two slot spaces while only using one slot. That means a dual GPU setup with more advanced cooling would require four slot spaces, rendering the other two slots unusable.
To those gamers, that was just fine, because they didn’t have anything else planned for those unused slots anyway. And if you intend to buy a Micro-ATX case, likely, you won’t need those extra expansion slots either. However, You need to make sure about that before you buy a Micro-ATX case and motherboard.
If you don’t need anything else, you’ll be okay buying a motherboard with just two expansion slots spaced apart to allow for a dual GPU with no slots wasted, and it will be the cheaper and wise option. If you install just one card in that type of motherboard, then the other expansion slot would be located far enough to be usable for another peripheral in case you need it.
The dual GPU card configuration is possible in Micro-ATX cases. But even if you prefer that or only want one, either way, you have to be sure that the model is short enough to fit inside without hitting the drive bays or any advanced cooling solution you may plan to install in there.
Parts of a Micro-ATX case
You’ll be better off familiarizing yourself with the parts and features of a case or any other hardware you’re going to buy for that matter. That way, when you examine the real thing, you’ll have a better idea of what makes it stand out from the rest that will make you select it.
When you know more about what makes them tick, you begin to ask intelligent questions about the case that are relevant in helping you make up your mind. Things like, “does it provide enough ground clearance to let air in from the bottom?” “Are there rubber grommets for cables, and is there enough room for cable management?” “Is there enough space to fit an 800w power supply?” Questions like these help you make a more informed decision and helps minimize mistakes with compatibility and so on.
The only way to know what to ask is to understand what you’re looking for in a case. So it pays to learn as much as you can about the product. First, let’s deal with the different parts that make up a modern Micro-ATX case.
Side cover panels
These are simply the cover panels that can be conveniently removed to enable you to access the inside of the case. Usually, it’s the left side panel of the case that you remove more often to work with the computer components inside it. Some left panels have vents that allow airflow. Some even have a transparent window for viewing the inside made of either acrylic plastic or more expensive tempered glass.
The right side is sometimes removed to allow access to the back of the CPU that has cutouts on the motherboard tray.
Front cover panel
This front bezel is usually detachable by removing the side panels first. It allows easy access to any front-mounted fans for cleaning or replacement.
Top cover panel
Sometimes this can be removed for you to work on any top-mounted fans or radiators.
Power and reset buttons
The power button is used to turn the computer on or force an emergency shutdown in case a problem occurs where you can’t log off your operating system normally, or it won’t turn off by itself somehow.
The reset button allows you to reboot the system in case you encounter similar problems where you’ve lost control of your machine because it hanged or when it’s acting up so that you’re forced to reset your system and reload your operating system like Windows.
Motherboard tray
Located on specific locations on the motherboard tray are the different mounting standoffs matching with those found on the Micro-ATX motherboards. The motherboard is raised by these standoffs to ensure that none of the conductive traces beneath it ever come in contact with the metallic tray. If ever that happens, it could cause a short that would fry your motherboard and damage other components as well, rendering your PC totally useless.
The is usually a large hole cutout behind the CPU slot that makes it easy to install or remove CPU air or water coolers that require a backplate or any other mounting mechanism to secure them to the motherboard. It also allows for cable management to hide the cables behind the motherboard tray and the front-drive bay area to keep things tidy inside the case.
Front IO (input/output) panel
This panel, generally located at the top front of the case, has a few built-in interfaces for easy access by devices that you use more often. Usually, there are headset jacks for the earphones and mic, some USB ports, and sometimes even fan control switches.
Fans
Most cases come with fans at the rear and front. The front fans are intake fans that pull in cool air. The rear fan is an exhaust fan where the hot air vents out of the box. Most cases also provide mounting holes in other areas like the top and bottom or even the side panels in case you want to add additional fans.
Air Filter Screens
These are important to filter dust from going into the case and commonly placed at the front of the case and the bottom for the power supply fan and additional bottom-mounted intake fans. Some cases also have them at the top.
Their holes are usually fine enough to catch most of the dust particles but also large enough to allow for smooth airflow. These filter screens can be removed for regular cleaning when dust accumulation starts to clog them up.
Case feet
There are usually 4 case feet located on the bottom near the corners of the case. They’re usually made of softer materials like rubber to protect the surface where you place your computer, which is a desk most likely. More importantly, they help to dampen noise and vibrations, as well as provide a gap underneath the case where airflow access is allowed.
I/O shield mounting cutout
It is a cutout hole at the back of the case for snapping in the I/O shield that came with your motherboard. This shield itself has small cutouts and labels for the many different I/O ports where cables are attached.
Take care of snapping the I/O shield into place. They are usually a thin aluminum sheet that can cut your fingers if you’re not careful.
Expansion slot inserts
It is where you mount an expansion card’s back panel and secure it with screws. They allow access to the I/O panel of the cards and sometimes also function as an exhaust vent for a 2-slot GPU card.
Drive bays
It allows you to mount various sizes of drives ranging from 2.5 inches, 3.5 inches, and 5.25 inches. The 5.25-inch bays are for mounting optical drives like a blue ray player if you need it and come with matching removable faceplates at the front cover panel for empty slots. The 3.5-inch ones are for internal SATA HDDs and SDDs, while the 2.5-inch ones act as dedicated mounting sleds for smaller and sleeker SATA SDDs.
Case Features
These cases aren’t just a collection of useful parts. More often than not, manufacturers have designed and provided extra features to make them more convenient to use, more attractive, and more effective in particular tasks.
Tool-Free or Tool-Less Design
It implies that you don’t need tools like a screwdriver to install many of the computer hardware components of the computer inside the case.
It could be easily detachable side panels that slide and snap into place or secured by twisting a couple of thumbnail screws allowing for quick and easy access to work inside the case.
The installation of expansion cards like GPU cards is made more accessible with thumbscrews or levers instead of using ordinary screws on the expansion card rear panels. Or things like catches and levers that make the mounting of hard disk drives and SATA SDDS a breeze. They can be mounted just by snapping them in or locking them with levers without using any tools.
Removable Motherboard Tray
It’s a rare sight to see a removable motherboard tray nowadays, but they do still exist, allowing you to work on the motherboard and other components more conveniently. It also can be used as a motherboard test bed to check and see if everything is in perfect working order before you return everything inside the case.
Cable Management
Many cables connect to different sockets on the motherboard. It could be long and thick power cables from the power supply, SATA cables, USB cables, etc. If left as is, they create a twisted, jumbled mess of wires that not only makes the interior look untidy, and it also impedes the airflow inside the case. Continuous free airflow from the fans is needed to suck fresh air in and vent out heat generated from components like the CPU and the GPU cards that can get toasty.
Most cases right now provide a gap usually behind the motherboard tray and the right-side panel where there’s enough room for all of those wires and cables to be hidden. It leaves the inside of the case looking neat, and it makes it easier for you to work with the other components.
Provisions for a Cooling Solution
It could be for air or water cooling. Or things like holes with grommets where tubes could pass through or vents at the top and bottom of the case with enough space to attach radiators with fans. It could be enough clearance for a large CPU air cooler to be connected. These features are there to allow you to install a cooling solution if you want to. It will be a bummer if you find out later that it’s impossible to do that with the case you bought.
So it’s something to consider if you think that the stock cooling options of the CPU or GPU aren’t enough, and you want to install something a little more robust that can keep heat more manageable.
Other things on your checklist
Because of their smaller size, you have to be mindful that the other components you buy would fit your Micro-ATX case. You have to be certain that their size won’t give you a headache when you start installing them in your case.
Make sure your power supply will fit.
Because of their different power ratings, power supplies come in different sizes. The general rule is the more power they give, the larger they are, but it depends more on the manufacturer’s design. Sometimes they can get too big for your case to accommodate, especially if you require more wattage. Just make sure you buy something sufficient to power your system and would still fit in your case. You don’t want to unbox your power supply at home only to find out it’s a mismatch with your case.
Make sure your GPU card has enough clearance.
Any case with a clearance of 12 inches or more with the motherboard tray would fit most GPU cards without any issues. Some Micro-ATX cases are just longer at the sides, while some are shorter. The same goes for GPU cards. If they have less than 12-inch clearance, you’ll have to mind the length of your GPU card and make sure it will fit without its edges coming into contact with anything else except the rear panel mounts and the motherboard itself.
Make sure your CPU cooler will fit.
If you’re buying a CPU air cooler, make sure that it won’t be sticking out of the sides and hitting the side panel when you close the case. Some of these air coolers are huge with a bulky heatsink design and long heat pipes that extend their front sides further from the CPU, and some Micro ATX cases might not be deep enough to accommodate them.
Trends and Novelty features in Micro-ATX Cases
Every once in a while, a trend or novelty feature would come up that a lot of buyers would want to include in their computer case. We’ve listed some that you might find interesting for your Micro-ATX case.
RGB lighting
These have become popular not only in gaming cases but in keyboards, mouse, and monitors as well, that are all synced up to give your entire system a themed look. It affords you the chance to customize the look of your case even more that matches the lighting specifications you like to a tee.
Just so you would know, these kits have a base station that can be attached to a power supply cable and comes with lighting strips that can be controlled remotely to change lighting patterns and different color schemes. They can be expensive, but they do save you from the hassle of buying light strips and having to wire them yourself individually. They have the most striking look on the case fans, especially those on the front of the case, as seen through a transparent front panel.
Transparent Front Panel
They provide a means for you to showcase your RGB lit front fans. With the front blocked, airflow access is possible through vents located at the sides and under these transparent panels. These front panels are usually made of clear acrylic Plexiglas or tempered glass.
Transparent windows or side panels
Sometimes you put in so much work to ensure a very sleek looking interior and spend a good amount of cash on quality components that you want to show them off as a proud daddy. There’s no better way to showcase what’s under the hood of your baby than with a windowed or transparent side panel.
It’s a way to view the different high-quality components like the motherboard, CPU, GPU card, and RAM cards. You’ll also want to show off your cooling system, how neat you did your cable management, and all the cool RGB lighting that went in there. It gives a feeling of personal satisfaction and achievement, seeing the results of all your efforts in assembling your PC system.
Removable drive bays
Some of the unused drive bays can be removed to add more space inside the Micro-ATX case and also allow improved airflow. Some models even get rid of all of these drive bays altogether if you only intend to use smaller SATA SSDs attached to free areas on the motherboard tray. You may have an NVMe SSD that you can plug directly into the M.2 motherboard PCIe bus NVMe slot, further negating the need for drive bays.
Removing them would also allow easier installation of radiators and their fans in a water-cooling system.
Inverted motherboard configuration
The idea of flipping the motherboard upside-down is for the GPU card to be closer to the top vents. The now upwards-facing fans would suck in cooler air from outside instead of the warmer air inside the case. It should result in a cooler working computer.
It’s also to prevent the GPU card from affecting the other components with the heat rising from it as what happens in the normal motherboard position. With the motherboard inverted, all that heat generated by the GPU would stay at the top of the case and then vented out quickly.
Some manufacturers make this possible with an inverted motherboard tray. But in this arrangement, the case interior is now accessible through the right side-panel instead of the one on the left.
Custom graphics design
Some cases feature custom-designed art instead of plain paint or metal finish. It could be anything like a theme from your favorite game, or favorite computer manufacturer, or a simple logo. You can find these on some gaming rigs that make the Micro ATX case truly unique and stand out from the rest of the pack.
Open case design
Some cases aren’t even cases but are just a chassis where you connect the individual components. Their open design allows for optimum airflow to cool the computer and prevents heat buildup from happening that usually happens in an enclosure. The drawbacks of this design are that components are more exposed to dirt and dust, and their extreme looks don’t appeal to everyone’s tastes.
Pros and Cons of using a Micro-ATX Case
While there are reasons for you to go with the Micro-ATX form factor, there are also some advantages and disadvantages of using a Micro-ATX case.
Pros:
Saves more space
Because they were designed around a smaller form factor that can only handle a small number of expansion cards, they can have a smaller case footprint and free up more space on your desk.
Easier to transport around
And because they have fewer components, a smaller power supply, and smaller dimensions, Micro-ATX cases are also lighter and easier carry with you in case you need to move them around. It’s easier to set it up at your friend’s house for a LAN party, or take it to an event, or when you have to move it into another room, or move into a new apartment, etc.
Cons:
Harder to install a cooling system
Installing a beefier cooling system can be trickier and sometimes impossible, so you usually have to scale back on the size, thus limiting your options for cooling solutions. It means you may have to abandon a better cooling product for your rig because it’s too large for your case.
It’s not just the smaller space inside a Micro ATX case that you have to worry about. You also have to pay attention to the cramped motherboard where the CPU, GPU, and other components are not as spread out as in an ATX. The cooling solution you want may not be ideal because they might end up interfering negatively with other parts.
Tighter airflow
Even with terrific cable management and an excellent cooling solution, the airflow would always remain poor compared with that of an ATX tower case.
Harder to work with inside
It is more of an ordeal not only for those with bigger hands but anyone trying to build a Micro ATX computer from the ground up. The cramped space is difficult to work with, and removable motherboard trays to help alleviate the difficulty aren’t too common nowadays.
Not as expandable as a full ATX
To most users, this really isn’t a deal-breaker, but your expansion choices are severely limited in a Micro-ATX case and motherboard than in a full tower ATX case. If you know that you’ll be needing more expansion slots in the future, then a Micro-ATX will be a no-go option for you. You’ll be better of choosing a full-sized ATX computer. But if you think it has got you covered, then a Micro-ATX case is going to be your best bet.
Some final thoughts
Most of the Micro-ATX cases included on our list include most of the primary elements that are necessary, but frankly, the others are cheaper because of some cost-cutting measures. It may be through a design choice or with less offered features.
It isn’t necessarily a bad thing with the list because the cheaper ones would still be among the best products for smaller budgets and would work just fine. If you can pay a premium for the extra features and better design and build quality, there are choices on our list that can meet those higher standards as well.
So, in the end, it’s more about what you can afford and what your personal preferences are in a Micro-ATX case that will ultimately make you decide which one to choose. Our job was to show you all these excellent cases that would fit any budget. And to make it easier for you to weigh the many pros and cons of each.
We hope we were able to help you find the exact sweet spot between the value and the price that’s just right for you.
