I don't know how many people, like me, still love the mini small steel cannon while using the ATX console. Recently, I had the opportunity to review a single-fan RTX 3060 Ti graphics card, so I paired it with the Mechanic Master C24 Small Sugar Cube chassis to play with a "mini small steel cannon".
In the various forms of ITX chassis, the mechanical master C24 small sugar cube (hereinafter referred to as the mechanical master C24) can be called "face value online". This chassis is a detachable shell design, in addition to the main frame, side panel edges and handles, the front, top and bottom of the chassis are additionally designed with different color panels, currently it has 6 colors such as vitality yellow, moonlight silver, elegant black, etc., I experienced the vitality yellow version. Simplicity and fashion are the main theme of this chassis in the design, the overall shape is more square, but the top and bottom are added to the oblique design, so it does not look monotonous. The front of the chassis is only designed with two USB 3.0 interfaces and a boot button in the lower right corner, and the left panel on the front of the chassis is empty, leaving players with room for personalized customization, and players with personalized design needs may wish to paste their favorite stickers.
▲The lower right corner of the front of the chassis is designed with 2 USB 3.0 ports and a power button.
The small size is another highlight of the mechanical master C24, its specific size is 249mm× 160mm×249mm (length× width× height), placed on the desktop without worrying about occupying too much desktop space, but also can play a decorative tabletop effect. It is worth praising that this chassis is equipped with lighter aluminum alloy foot pads and side panel fixing screws, the side panel's fixing screw holes are designed with cushions, and this chassis also comes with screws with a clear classification and a screwdriver, which shows that the detailed design of this chassis is still very careful. After disassembling the panel of this chassis, you can see that its main frame is made of 1mm thick steel, and the side panel tempered glass is 3mm thick, and the material is relatively solid.
▲This chassis comes with a screwdriver, 4 anti-scratch nets, and a box of screws with a clear classification.
Although the size is small, the compatibility of the Mechanical Master C24 is still very good. It not only supports ITX motherboards, but also 225mm × 175mm or smaller DTX motherboards can also be installed, such as the ROG CROSSHAIR VIII. IMPACT motherboard (203mm×170mm) that I matched this time can be easily loaded, which is not possible in many commercially available ITX chassis.
In terms of graphics card compatibility, the Mechanical Master C24 can install graphics cards that are 245mm long, 130mm high, and 3 slots high, so most dual-fan graphics cards on the market can be easily installed, and the RTX 3060 Ti graphics card I am matching is only 184mm long, and the remaining space can also store excess power cords. If you hide these excess wires behind the power supply, players can also consider putting a hand-made one of their choices.
▲The bottom of this chassis can be installed with a chassis fan or hard disk, and the compatibility is not bad.
ITX chassis can only be cooled with air cooling? Of course not. Mecha Master C24 can not only support a 135mm height tower air-cooled heatsink, but also compatible with 120mm cold-drain CPU water-cooled heat dissipation solutions, so if the player is paired with an Intel Core i9-12900K or AMD Ryzen™ 9 5950X processor, then you may wish to consider using a water-cooled cooling solution to suppress the "fire gas" of such high-end processors. The AMD Ryzen™ 5 5600X processor I am paired with this time does not have a high demand for thermal performance, so I did not choose the water-cooled heat dissipation solution, but the AMD ghost prism heatsink with good performance and support for AURA SYNC shenguang synchronization technology.
When it comes to cooling, the fan configuration of the ITX chassis is also important. I chose the chassis fan configuration scheme recommended by the master of machinery, that is, 1 12cm diameter fan is installed at the bottom of the chassis, 1 9cm diameter fan is installed at the rear, and two 8cm diameter fans are installed at the top, forming a cooling air duct with the bottom air inlet, tail and top air outlet. However, in view of the different configurations for different configurations have different requirements for thermal efficiency, it is recommended that players take the time to test and adjust the chassis air duct design of the Mechanical Master C24.
The internal space of ITX chassis is often very limited, so how to make full use of the internal space is a difficult problem that chassis manufacturers need to focus on when designing. The Mechanical Master C24 is still relatively good in the use of internal space, and leaves players with sufficient DIY space. For example, in addition to a 12cm diameter chassis fan can be installed on the bottom of this chassis, players can also install two 8cm diameter chassis fans or a 2.5-inch HDD or two 2.5-inch SATA SSDs as appropriate.
For those who need to install multiple SATA SSDs, the chassis also features 1 SATA SSD mounting position on each side of the power supply (i.e., near the panels on each side of the chassis). Because of this, after removing the colored shell of the Mechanical Master C24, I saw densely packed reserved screw holes at the top, tail and bottom of the chassis, and when installing fans and SSDs, I also needed to carefully observe and analyze the real use of these screw holes to avoid misplacing them.
▲A power extension cord is designed at the rear of the chassis.
In fact, after learning about the design and installation techniques of the Mechanical Master C24, the installation of this chassis is not complicated. I recommend installing the CPU, CPU heatsink, memory, chassis front panel cable on the motherboard first, then fixing the motherboard, chassis fan, graphics card, power supply, and SATA SSD in turn, and after sorting out the excess cables in the chassis, the installation of the chassis panel and handle is completed. Based on the configuration described above, I focused on testing the heat dissipation of the entire host. At the same time, after half an hour of baking the CPU and graphics card, the CPU package temperature is 78 ° C, the GPU temperature is 84 ° C, the heating situation lies in its range, and the CPU and graphics card can work stably during the baking process, and there is no frequency reduction.
Overall, mechanical master C24 small sugar cube is an ITX host with high comprehensive quality on the market. It is not only online in appearance and has high compatibility, but also reserves a large DIY space for players, which is more suitable for players who want to assemble a personalized esports small steel cannon. At present, the official price of this ITX chassis is 599 yuan, and the preferential price during the event can be lowered to 499 yuan, interested players may wish to stay tuned.
Basic parameters
Material type: steel, glass
Plate thickness: steel plate: 1mm; shell: 2mm; tempered glass: 3mm
Motherboard compatible, ITX, DTX (length: 225mm, width: 175mm)
Chassis size: 249mm×160mm×249mm
Maximum compatible CPU heatsink height: 135mm
Maximum compatible graphics card size:
Length: 245mm, Height: 130mm, Thickness: 3 slots
Compatible power supply: SFX/SFX-L
Hard drive slots: 2.5" ×2 (on both sides of the power supply), 2.5" ×2, or 3.5" ×1 (remove the bottom fan to install)
Compatible Chassis Fans:
Top: 8cm ×2@15mm thick (no bumps on the edge of the motherboard can be compatible with 25mm thick) or 12cm ×1@15mm thick
Tail: 9 cm ×1@15mm thick
Bottom: 8cm×2 or 12cm×1 (graphics card 2 slot thick compatible with 25mm thick chassis fan, if the bottom is installed hard disk, the fan bit is not available)
Warranty period: 1 year
Reference price: 599 yuan
Advantages: small size, strong compatibility
Disadvantages: The chassis fan thickness requirements are high