Cheaper version of the Kimera Industries Cerberus?

Engr62

Gawd
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I have a mini-ITX system in an NCASE M1 that I really love. I've been looking for something similar that I could move my micro-ATX system into.

I remember seeing the HardwareCanuck's review of the Kimera Industries Cerberus a while back. At the time, I was looking for something for my ITX build, so I somewhat dismissed it. Now that I've got my ITX build up and running in the NCASE M1 (awesome case!), I'm once again looking at the Cerberus (linked here).

I'm just looking at the base set-up (black, no handle, regular side panels) but with the additional 2-drive 3.5" HDD bracket. Crap! It's going to cost me $282 counting shipping!!!

So, I'm looking around again. Does anyone know of a case with similar dimensions and aesthetics (not looking for a cube-type case) that's not quite so expensive? I don't really care if it's aluminum or steel (I do like the powder coated steel of the Cerberus). If possible, I'd like to keep it as near to $150 - $175 as possible. I'm open to mainstream manufacturers or start-ups that post here in the SFF forum.

The Cerberus is 12.57" x 6.78" x 14.09", so I'd like to find one that has a similar aspect ratio and size.
 
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It is really hard to find anything mainstream ish that has the dimensions of the Cerberus.
Every good mATX Tower case is pretty much >30L and it seems that mITX is gaining more traction than mATX for both PC cases and high-end motherboards.

Cooling and aesthetics wise, I still love and have the Silverstone TJ08-E, but it is quite an old design especially for mounting storage and it is larger than the SG10 I linked you to.
 
I have a mini-ITX system in an NCASE M1 that I really love. I've been looking for something similar that I could move my micro-ATX system into.

I remember seeing the HardwareCanuck's review of the Kimera Industries Cerberus a while back. At the time, I was looking for something for my ITX build, so I somewhat dismissed it. Now that I've got my ITX build up and running in the NCASE M1 (awesome case!), I'm once again looking a the Cerberus (linked here).

I'm just looking at the base set-up (black, no handle, regular side panels) but with the additional 2-drive 3.5" HDD bracket. Crap! It's going to cost me $282 counting shipping!!!

So, I'm looking around again. Does anyone know of a case with similar dimensions and aesthetics (not looking for a cube-type case) that's not quite so expensive? I don't really care if it's aluminum or steel (I do like the powder coated steel of the Cerberus). If possible, I'd like to keep it as near to $150 - $175 as possible. I'm open to mainstream manufacturers or start-ups that post here in the SFF forum.

The Cerberus is 12.57" x 6.78" x 14.09", so I'd like to find one that has a similar aspect ratio and size.

Man, the Cerberus is a beautiful case. The price is a little steep, BUT it’s size is perfect, the materials seem to be solid and well constructed, tons of options for different configs and addons such as a window or a handle. Not to mention it’s powdercoated?! Really nice not having a giant logo or case decal on the front, after all it’s what people see the most of (the case) Personally, I’ve been in this situation before where I struggled in justifying the price and went with a cheaper alternative. Unfortunately I would end up hating my purchase and sell it to buy the one I truly wanted to begin with wasting time and money in the end. Looks to be about 100 dollars more than you’re looking to spend, but this thing has perks over the others. In addition to that, I’m sure this thing will have great resale value on Craigslist or eBay if you ever decided to go a different route later on.

Apologies for not having a case alternative to suggest, and for the long ramble, that case just made me think “what if”.
 
Man, the Cerberus is a beautiful case. The price is a little steep, BUT it’s size is perfect, the materials seem to be solid and well constructed, tons of options for different configs and addons such as a window or a handle. Not to mention it’s powdercoated?! Really nice not having a giant logo or case decal on the front, after all it’s what people see the most of (the case) Personally, I’ve been in this situation before where I struggled in justifying the price and went with a cheaper alternative. Unfortunately I would end up hating my purchase and sell it to buy the one I truly wanted to begin with wasting time and money in the end. Looks to be about 100 dollars more than you’re looking to spend, but this thing has perks over the others. In addition to that, I’m sure this thing will have great resale value on Craigslist or eBay if you ever decided to go a different route later on.

Apologies for not having a case alternative to suggest, and for the long ramble, that case just made me think “what if”.
Good, small mATX cases are pretty much a niche and dead unfortunately. So many mATX cases are so big that they might as well be smaller ATX cases. The sparse high-end mATX mainstream motherboards does not help matters as well.
 
I have a mini-ITX system in an NCASE M1 that I really love. I've been looking for something similar that I could move my micro-ATX system into.

I remember seeing the HardwareCanuck's review of the Kimera Industries Cerberus a while back. At the time, I was looking for something for my ITX build, so I somewhat dismissed it. Now that I've got my ITX build up and running in the NCASE M1 (awesome case!), I'm once again looking at the Cerberus (linked here).

I'm just looking at the base set-up (black, no handle, regular side panels) but with the additional 2-drive 3.5" HDD bracket. Crap! It's going to cost me $282 counting shipping!!!

So, I'm looking around again. Does anyone know of a case with similar dimensions and aesthetics (not looking for a cube-type case) that's not quite so expensive? I don't really care if it's aluminum or steel (I do like the powder coated steel of the Cerberus). If possible, I'd like to keep it as near to $150 - $175 as possible. I'm open to mainstream manufacturers or start-ups that post here in the SFF forum.

The Cerberus is 12.57" x 6.78" x 14.09", so I'd like to find one that has a similar aspect ratio and size.
I would like to know if in the end you found a case similar to Cerberus but cheaper. I am in the same situation, I would be interested in a matx case as compact as possible and the Cerberus is the one I like the most but it is too expensive
 
I would like to know if in the end you found a case similar to Cerberus but cheaper. I am in the same situation, I would be interested in a matx case as compact as possible and the Cerberus is the one I like the most but it is too expensive
No, I never did find a mATX case like the Cerberus. After looking for quite some time, I just ended up selling the mATX system instead of chunking down close to $300 for a case.
 
No, I never did find a mATX case like the Cerberus. After looking for quite some time, I just ended up selling the mATX system instead of chunking down close to $300 for a case.
In the end, did you exchange it for an itx? I'm hesitating between riding matx or itx. The matx I really like the ability to expand the ram much more than the itx, but I read more and more comments that the matx are dead and that everything will be focused on mini itx. The matx is also cheaper, a very important point.
 
In the end, did you exchange it for an itx? I'm hesitating between riding matx or itx. The matx I really like the ability to expand the ram much more than the itx, but I read more and more comments that the matx are dead and that everything will be focused on mini itx. The matx is also cheaper, a very important point.

mATX dead? Perhaps dead for SFF where having the smallest is the main point, but not overall.

If you go on newegg and look at motherboard availability, I see something like 5-10 Times as many mATX MBs as ITX MBs.

Intel MBs >5X more mATX.
https://www.newegg.com/Intel-Motherboards/SubCategory/ID-280
mATX: 653
ITX: 114

AMD MBs 10X more mATX.
https://www.newegg.com/AMD-Motherboards/SubCategory/ID-22
mATX: 276
ITX: 27

ITX is the focus of the SFF community, but mATX seems like it must be significantly more popular given the availability of MB choices.
 
mATX dead? Perhaps dead for SFF where having the smallest is the main point, but not overall.

If you go on newegg and look at motherboard availability, I see something like 5-10 Times as many mATX MBs as ITX MBs.

Intel MBs >5X more mATX.
https://www.newegg.com/Intel-Motherboards/SubCategory/ID-280
mATX: 653
ITX: 114

AMD MBs 10X more mATX.
https://www.newegg.com/AMD-Motherboards/SubCategory/ID-22
mATX: 276
ITX: 27

ITX is the focus of the SFF community, but mATX seems like it must be significantly more popular given the availability of MB choices.

Looking at more modern mobos & chipsets (from an AMD perspective), Newegg has a total of 43 mobos (I did not bother to look for dups, but I feel there are one or two). By modern I mean AM4 & sTR4 sockets. And speaking of sTR4, it was only for the first two gens of Threadripper, so no 3rd gen or beyond upgrades, and there was a total of (1) one mATX mobo made for the socket.

If you limit the "modern" selection to the B450 / X470 / X570 chipsets, the selection drops to 22 offerings.

I am not counting any listing that is Out Of Stock...
 
If you limit the "modern" selection to the B450 / X470 / X570 chipsets, the selection drops to 22 offerings.

With that criteria, it drops to only 6 offerings for ITX, while the ratio is as bad for ITX with this critera, it still doesn't fit the narrative that mATX is being killed off to focus on ITX.
 
Look at x570, AMDs latest chipset and only Asrock even has a matx motherboard and it is mid level at best.
 
Look at x570, AMDs latest chipset and only Asrock even has a matx motherboard and it is mid level at best.

Only looking at in stock boards as before, I only see one ITX MB with that chip set as well.
 
Only looking at in stock boards as before, I only see one ITX MB with that chip set as well.
I wasn't talking about boards in stock, I checked Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and Asrock and Asrock is the only one that is actually making a matx x570 board. There are itx boards from Gigabyte, Asus and Asrock.
 
I wasn't talking about boards in stock, I checked Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and Asrock and Asrock is the only one that is actually making a matx x570 board. There are itx boards from Gigabyte, Asus and Asrock.

mATX tends to go in more affordable systems, looks lke more expensive boutique systems are ITX.

There are still many more mATX MBs than ITX motherboards.

Also if you like an ITX MB that much more you can use it in an mATX case, while the reverse isn't true.
 
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My main system is ITX and my FreeNAS box is mATX. I went with the Fractal 804 for that, which is large for a mATX case but with a somewhat unique form factor. It's perfect for a NAS build as it has copious 3.5" HDD capacity. I used an ASRock X470 board that supports my ECC memory.

Those Sliger cases look really nice. That SM580, at 15.9 liters, would make for an interesting mATX build.
 
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I came across the RAIJINTEK Styx Alu Micro-ATX case. It needs some mod work done for ventilation but seems like a really nice MATX case that has 5 expansion slots like the Cerberus. Its a little bigger but that allows you to fit a crazy big CPU cooler.
 
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