We can't pick a date for when it became popular for DIY desktop PC builders to shove their proud creations under their desks. But it's so common a practice nowadays that most mid-tower PC cases now have their front-panel ports on top. To buck that trend, sometimes today the main objective of a PC build is simply to bring the desktop back to the top of your desk. SilverStone is ready to help with an unusually designed chassis, the Alta G1M ($180), that's about half the depth of the typical tower and should fit on even a college-dorm-sized desk. It doesn't run particularly cool or quiet, but it lets you cram a lot of PC (including a full-size graphics card and even liquid cooling) into a very, very tight footprint. The Design: Liquid Fortification Available in white or black, the Alta G1M stands apart from cube-shaped cases by having enough space for a large liquid cooling system, as evidenced by the single vented side panel. You may notice that the vents are on the right rather tha...
Its thermal and noise performance are nothing remarkable, but the Alta G1M PC case revisits a classic SilverStone design to tuck a MicroATX build into a very tight footprint.
Very compact footprint for a MicroATX case; Flexible liquid cooling support; Attractive vertical designation; Well-implemented dust filters
Relatively high tested temperatures; Mesh sides don't do much to suppress operating noise