Building the System Part I
It's very easy to build inside the Colossus Micro-ATX, beginning with motherboard installation. After removing the default rear 120mm fan (at least long enough to install the rear I/O shield for the motherboard) an mATX or mITX board installs without obstruction. And on the topic of form factor, though the case is marketed primarily for micro-ATX it didn't take long before I started wondering how a mini-ITX build might work in this enclosure. (Naturally I completed a build with both to check it out!) Here we see both form factors on the tray:
The motherboard tray is not removable, but this didn’t become an issue in building up the system as there is a very large cutout behind the CPU.
This feature is really a must for any enclosure, and the size of the cutout in this instance will allow for easier installation of any CPU cooling solution.
Next up is the power supply. The PSU caddy is attached to the case with a thumb screw, and once it is removed the power supply attaches to it with standard case screws.
To rout the PSU's power connector to the back of the case, an extension cable comes pre-installed. Note: you will need to attach the power extension cable to the power supply after the PSU is installed. Routing this power cord down below the PSU before installing it allowed for an easy connection of this right-angle plug on the underside.
The power supply fan faces the front of the case when installed, as previously mentioned. With this design the PSU exhaust should travel up the air channel in the front door panel, exiting the top of the case. It's a clever solution to power supply heat in a small enclosure. There are mounting points for a front intake fan here, but obviously that will not be possible with the PSU in the way.
Next up is the cooler. For the micro-ATX motherboard I went with the 120mm Corsair H75 liquid cooler on the rear mount, since I wanted to leave room above to try a dual-GPU setup.
Both included 120mm fans can still be used with an AIO liquid cooler on the rear mount, and to use them both with this setup I ended up placing the BitFenix fans in both upper and lower mounts in an effort to move hot air upwards, and promote airflow across the motherboard’s heatsinks. Not ideal, as I again would have preferred positive pressure given the inverted thermal design.
Graphics Cards
For micro-ATX builds dual-GPU setups are possible. The 5.25" optical drive bracket was not in the way of the second GTX 770 in this example, but of course no optical drive could be installed with the second GPU in place.
For expansion cards of any type, the mechanism to secure them to the case is very convenient, and completely toolless. It was nice to see another instance where BitFenix paid attention to small details, and little things like this will be appreciated when using the case over time.
As you can see the design uses a single thumbscrew, which is loosened until the locking bracket can freely slide out of the way. The bracket can then be secured in the open position, providing space for easy card installation. Nice touch!
Any chance you could append
Any chance you could append the heat results of the SLI configuration? As someone currently looking into building with this case, SLI/Crossfire thermals would have been nice to see.
That’s a good question, and I
That's a good question, and I attempted to provide GPU thermals but discarded the test data since I couldn't get anything over 80 C with the GTX 770's, single GPU or SLI. The fan just compensated to keep the temps stable right at 80 C, and I never saw anything over 82 C. It would be a different story with a less efficient blower-style cooler, and of course with any card that vents into the case – but I don't have a different pair to test right now.
Hello, great review!
I want
Hello, great review!
I want to buy the BitFenix Colossus Micro-ATX case but I think my motherboard will not fit in the case. I have a Acer dao61078lam3 mainboard (Acer Aspire X5400), they say its a Micro-ATX but as you can see on this picture below my PCI-Express slot is way up, do you think it will fit?
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8s4r5futVEo/U0Lq5qbVb1I/AAAAAAAAYzg/qDDPmKR1DbY/s640/dao61-078l-am3-acer.jpg
Your motherboard is using a
Your motherboard is using a custom design, but as long as it's within the 9.6" x 9.6" standard for mATX it will fit. Your PCI-E slot looks to be in the right place, it's just a shorter board design so you'd have a little extra space up above here. My only concern would be with the standoffs in the case, as the screw holes are in the standard locations for mITX and mATX, and you have a proprietary OEM board… My guess is that it would be fine, but I'd still buy the case from a retailer that allows returns (like Amazon) just to be on the safe side!
I am curious, did you look
I am curious, did you look into mounting a 240mm radiator on the bottom, pulling air from the bottom, fit a 120mm fan on the exhaust in the rear and a fan pulling air in from the top directly onto the gpu? Thanks I cannot figure out the most optimal air flow.
I did, and you’re right about
I did, and you’re right about the best airflow plan – but the CPU is too close to the bottom of the case due to the flipped layout to allow an easy bottom AIO mount (motherboard layout dependent, really). It’s possible with mATX, but you start running out of room quickly. I felt that the upper just made sense for a 240mm, plus there’s the removable screen up there (no filters on bottom mounts).
I think a key takeaway might be to use a blower-style GPU in this case if you’re using an AIO on the upper mount – don’t want to push the GPU heat into the rad!
Sorry I forgot to add my name
Sorry I forgot to add my name for the previous comment. Hope you can get back to me. Thanks
What about a Front fan that
What about a Front fan that is an exhaust fan?
You state with mini itx and the top mounted AIO cooler but that looks to me like it would foul the graphics card.(Hoses)
And the side mounted controls could be better moved to the front, to the very edge, possibly? The lighting strip?? uh-oh, very personal choice..Finally storage.. would it really be possible;e to fit all the drives they say? 2x 3.5 and 3x 2.5? cable mgmt would be impossible wouldn’t it? I suspect 2×3.5 and one middle mounted 2.5 is all that’s practical.
Also route, rout. And Tourture, a trip on a coach to Lourdes perhaps. I use 2x Ps07 cases, looking at mini-itx next time, in perhaps 2 years.
I’ll try to answer in order
I’ll try to answer in order here –
1.) A front fan was my biggest concern when I was installing a system, since there’s no way to avoid blocking the front fan mounts when installing the PSU. It makes a lot of sense to use a front fan for exhaust or intake, but it’s not possible here unless you can mod a different PSU location.
2. Upper AIO mount isn’t a problem with the GPU because there’s enough space to go over it (big gap between GPU and side panel). Wouldn’t do upper AIO with dual-GPU though, myself.
3.) It’s possible to have 2x 3.5″ and 3x 2.5″ drives installed simultaneously, if you can use flat cables like the ones on the CX750M I installed. But even then it gets really, really messy! There was enough space to make it work up front but it looks terrible and its very hard to get to anything afterwards!
Would it be possible to
Would it be possible to install a Corsair H90 on the rear and still do a dual GPU Setup? Also, the Gigabyte Sniper M5 has slot spacing between the GPU’s. Other than the 5 expansion slots the case has, would the GPU’s still fit with the slot spacing in between?
I have the same question.
I have the same question. Because the H90 has a 140mm fan but the radiator has 170mm. That isn’t going to make it impossible to use dual GPU if we mount the water cooler on the rear?
i still can’t seem to find
i still can’t seem to find anything that breaks down the optimum air flow with this case :
can anyone let me know their thoughts on optimum airflow for this case while using the EVGA GTX 780 with an ACX cooler ?
other specs –
i5 4670k
Crosair H90 CPU cooler
Gigabyte G1 sniper M5 mobo
g skills ripjaws X 16 GB ram(2*8gb)
Corsair RM Series RM650 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular Power Supply
fans-
Bitfenix Spectre Pro LED Green 120mm Case Fan * 2 for the top
another Bitfenix spectre pro(probably LED Green only 😛 ) 200 mm case fan for the bottom
p.s.
also any thoughts about the MSI N780 Lightning in comparison to the EVGA ?
or throw in the extra to get the EVGA 780ti ?
im not looking to add another card for a while anyway… so thats not an issue.
This is an amazingly detailed review! My daughter recently inherited this cool little chassis, but it is missing the 9-pin cable which makes the door buttons work 🙁
I reached out to Bitfinex but they do not have stock on a replacement part, and have refused to tell me the pin configuration so that I can just build a new cable from scratch.
I can see from your photo “3c56-colossus16.jpeg” that the order of the cables is:
white
yellow
black
orange
blue
brown
purple
red
Is there any chance you still have this chassis kicking around? And if so, would you mind letting me know which pairs lead to , , etc? I’m desperate to fix this cute little chassis up like new for my girl.