IN WIN CE685.FH300TB3 300W MicroATX Slim Case (Black)

This product is just great, the price is affordable, and I really like the material used.

I like this case for the same reason that I like some other Inwin cases: they have stately appearances that make them appropriate for professional environments. Personally I don't need either water cooling or vibrant LEDs. My CE685 houses a NAS unit. It is a small form factor case because of its thin appearance, not because of its long front to back dimension. The existence of an external 5.25 inch drive bay allowed me to install some front superspeed USB ports, and I used the opening for a 3.5 inch drive to house the receiver of a Simerec remote control unit. Running the wires for the remote required some attention because storage got in the way. Adjacent to the 5.25 inch drive bay is an odd hard drive bracket. It works fine, but I had to install remote control wires as well as SATA cables with angled heads before I put the motherboard into the case because the fit between the hard drive bracket and outward-facing motherboard SATA ports was very tight. Nonetheless, using the hard drive bracket and the underside of the 5.25 inch bay allowed me to install two 2.5 inch SSD's with space between them. If anyone wonders, a 92mm case fan will fit into the bracket in which Inwin supplies a 90mm system fan, so that one can install a more silent 92mm fan if one desires. For my uses the case runs super cool, as the Pentium processor has never topped 60 degrees and the motherboard has not exceeded 45 degrees, even under heavy processor loads.

1) Mfg states internal clearance above CPU is 81mm. However, indent for top cover release catch and mid-plate support are both over the CPU. This reduces internal clearance over the CPU to ~64mm. 2) Adjacent to lower right of motherboard is metal support, presumably for securing hard drive. Plate is extremely close to motherboard and may block any of its right-angled connectors. With MSI PRO B650M-P ProSeries Motherboard, the 20-pin and SATA connectors are blocked. Loss of 20-pin connector means front panel USB ports are not available. 3) Poor documentation. Email to support to follow.

Bought this case to repurpose my old motherboard, CPU, and RAM. Overall the build went pretty smoothly, despite a couple of hiccups (see cons). Pros: - The case is well laid out. - Tool-less mounts work well. - Stock fan isn’t loud. Make sure you use a fan header than can voltage-control non-PWM fans. - Thinner than normal PSU wires make cable routing much easier for the 24-pin and 4+4 CPU power connector. - Love the dual-size power LED connector. Genius idea. - 4 front USB ports are a nice bonus. Cons: - Front panel LED connectors aren’t labeled with positive and negative. I had them backwards. I believe the colored wires are positive and the white is negative. - If you have a full-sized 9.6” x 9.6” motherboard that also has side-facing SATA ports, you will not be able to use the plastic cage for the 3.5” hard drive. I was able to mash the drive in without the cage, but it’s still a lot of stress on the cables. - Some steel parts inside the case are sharp. They don’t all have rolled edges. - Tool-less mechanism built in to the case cover MAY interfere with very wide CPU coolers that come close to the max. - As others have stated, the external 3.5” bay seems useless without removing the only intake fan. I’m not sure whether a card reader exists that’s shallow enough to clear the fan. - I think the case needs to have a vent above the CPU socket to aid in thermals. EDIT: 10/09/2021 - Case is still great, and is now an OPNsense router with a different mobo. HOWEVER, my SuperMicro X11SSH motherboard does not utilize one of the normal Micro ATX mounting holes. To avoid risking any shorts, I had to rip one of the standoffs out of the case. It seemed to be the only standoff that wasn't actually a "part of" the motherboard tray, but it was still press-fit into place and needed to be ripped out. I realized now I probably could have covered the standoff with electrical tape and would have been fine.

Perfect fit to remove my GPU and turn my mid tower pc into a small size form factor pc !