What cases for the new ACube 460

Hi All,

With ACube's progress on the 460 production restart, I've been wondering
what are the smallest cases that board would fit in. To some extent
this is a topic/questions for ACube. ;)

On their webpage they say the board is 21.6cm x 17cm ("Flex ATX"):

https://www.acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=hardware&pid=756

...and yet it sounds like it is smaller than what wiki says an ATX-Flex
board is (22.9cm x 19.1cm).

Notably, it sounds like it's only as deep at the SAM440ep Mini-ITX
boards (17cm x 17cm).

That makes me wonder if the new SAM board could fit in case the 440
fits, assuming there's room for the increased width?

My ideal goal would be to find if that board could fit in a wide case
I've already got my 440 in, but it would also require the 460 works
with a 90 degree 2-card riser (in the first slot):

https://apextechusa.com/products.asp?pID=158

Anyone have experience with slot riser cards in SAM 460's? Any
ideas whether my little scheme would work? It would be nice to upgrade
my 440 to its bigger brother! ;D

Otherwise, what sorts of cases are you thinking about for your new 460's?
Anything really small?

Thanks,

PJS

Hi,

Flex-ATX (with 3 PCI/PCIe slots) is size of original Sam460EX and Sam460CR .
New Sam460LE have Micro-ATX format (you need case for 4 PCI/PCIe slots). There is one slot space next to PCIe x16 slot - dual slot graphics card fits here without riser.

So generally cases for Sam460ex/cr and Sam460le are different.

@pjs
Depend on what graphics card you want to put in. If RadeonHD/RadeonRX, then you need something which come with Riser, i use The case "MasterBOX nr200": https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/c ... ini-itx/masterbox-nr200p/

There vid i made to show this case and how sam460 fits in with riser and RadeonRX card: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X75KbnOpZhA&t=543s

@kas1e

Remember the new revized Sam460 introduces an area of deadspace between the PCIe x16 slot and the PCI slot meaning you don't need any special solutions when fitting a double slot video card. The case you used for the regular Sam460 also wouldn't be suitable for the new board.

@pjs

like sailor said any case with 4 slots will do but avoid low profile cases since it will limit your choice when it comes to video cards.

Search the forums I asked, and answered, this question a couple of years ago. I use a nice low profile one I found.

@sailor @kas1e @rob

yeah, I expected if I was to try to reuse my old slim case,
I'd have to stick a 2 card 90-degree riser in the first slot
and skip using any others. Hopefully that lines up with the
backplane slots in the case.

I just don't know that risers work or not (like in the tabor).

Thanks,

PJS

@kas1e

Cool looking case picture (on the site).

Already having three "bog box" towered Amigas (XE, X1K & X5K),
my goal for the SAM(s) has always been to make them as small as
absolutely possible.

With this case & the 440 and a portable monitor, it's been a
great travel machine. It would just be nice to have the 460's
horsepower in the package... ;D

Thanks,

PJS

@pjs

Your current case is unsuitable. It is designed for ITX motherboards with the option of dual slot video card. You won't able to get a riser card that turns the Sam460 x16 slot into 2 slots and even if you could you'd likelyrun into mechanical problems fitting a card into the bottom slot.

If you want a slim case you'll need to get a low profile Micro ATX case.

Link

Having done a quick search there does seem to be a few places still selling low profile Radeon RX550 & RX560 cards which should come with a low profile bracket and it should be fairly easy to get low profile sound cards ans SATA controllers.

A suitbale video card would be something like this.

Link

I got this case https://sea.banggood.com/CEMO-M1-Alumi ... iNqAZma7&cur_warehouse=CN

and I stuck a laptop PSU in it with a PicoPSU adapter.

@pjs

I've got this micro-ATX case by SilverStone. Not the smallest you can get but it's very slick and "living room-friendly": looks like a VCR rather than a computer. Bought it two years ago together with a MSI Radeon RX550 card (the one Rob linked in his post above) hoping I could re-house my old Sam440-flex in it, but for some reason I never really got to the job. If the A1222 isn't released this year I might as well buy the Sam460LE instead and finally put the SilverStone case to some good use.