Small but *with* graphics card?

[GreenT]

I'd like to put together a system that may well be impossible.

Two goals:

1. Small case suitable for placement on a home theater shelf.
2. Good for the Dolphin GameCube/Wii emulator.*

That second requirement may be incompatible with the first requirement. What's good for Dolphin is outlined here.

Something like the Mac Mini would be great if only it had a discrete graphics option. Something like the trashcan-style Mac Pro would be great if it used Haswell CPUs or later, but it doesn't. (Dolphin performs much better on Haswell and newer than the previous generations.) Why Mac Pro? Because for all its faults, it's very small and attractive enough for placement in plain view in a home theater setup.

So I guess this boils down to: Anybody know of a reasonably attractive, small case, which will allow for a dedicated graphics card too?

Thanks.

 

[trs96]

Look at the node 202 by Fractal Design.

 

[GreenT]

Thanks for the reply, trs96. The Node 202 looks like a winner for my use. It almost looks like a DVR case, which would fit right in a home theater setup.

 

[neilhart]

I'd like to put together a system that may well be impossible.

Two goals:

1. Small case suitable for placement on a home theater shelf.
2. Good for the Dolphin GameCube/Wii emulator.*

That second requirement may be incompatible with the first requirement. What's good for Dolphin is outlined here.

Something like the Mac Mini would be great if only it had a discrete graphics option. Something like the trashcan-style Mac Pro would be great if it used Haswell CPUs or later, but it doesn't. (Dolphin performs much better on Haswell and newer than the previous generations.) Why Mac Pro? Because for all its faults, it's very small and attractive enough for placement in plain view in a home theater setup.

So I guess this boils down to: Anybody know of a reasonably attractive, small case, which will allow for a dedicated graphics card too?

Thanks.

Actually there are many cases to choose from, for instance the NFC Mini S4 (see my build project: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/neilharts-s4-mini-nfc-project.216616/ ).

And there is a very new one becoming available in July: https://luna-design.org/dnk-prime#design

Good modding,
neil

 

[GreenT]

Neil,

Thanks for the pointers to other options. I'll check them out.

Quick question about the motherboard from your build. It supports Thunderbolt, huh? Have you tested that functionality in OS X?

 

[chedda7]

This is by far the best mini-ITX case resource I have found (Google Docs spreadsheet).

The folks over at r/sffpc put it together.