The 011 Mini: A Case Study for Custom Looping and Mid-Tower Systems

When it comes to building a system in the 011 Mini, one of the biggest hurdles that most people are going to have is simply deciding what they build. What motherboard will they go with? Which case fans and radiator options will they choose? The 011 Mini's compact design may seem limiting at first, but as we'll see, it offers a great deal of flexibility for users who want to create a unique system.

For those who want an overkill ITX system, the 011 Mini is an excellent choice. By using two 360mm radiators in a custom loop, you can create a truly monstrous cooling setup that will keep your components at a safe temperature even under heavy load. The case's compact design and sleek lines make it easy to install these radiators, which can be mounted on either side of the case or even below it. This setup is perfect for users who want to squeeze every last bit of performance out of their system.

On the other hand, for those who prefer a more reserved ATX mid-tower system, the 011 Mini also offers plenty of options. By installing an AIO liquid cooler on the side of the case, you can take advantage of the case's excellent airflow and cable management. The three fans that come with the case are perfect for pulling air up towards the graphics card, which in this example is the new MSI RTX 3080 Supreme X. The three additional fans that can be mounted to the top panel provide ample airflow to keep the system cool.

One of the standout features of the 011 Mini is its bottom intake fan mounting bracket system. Typically found on larger mid-tower cases, these fans are a crucial component in keeping GPU thermals under control. In this example, three 120mm fans were installed at the bottom of the case to pull air directly up towards the GPU, resulting in a temperature decrease of around 12 degrees Celsius. This is a huge improvement over other systems that rely on airflow from the top or sides.

Of course, one potential drawback to building in the 011 Mini is the SFX power supply cable management system. While it's not necessarily a complaint, it does mean that users will have limited options for managing their PCIe cables. In this example, the Corsair SF600 power supply cable was only long enough to reach the GPU, so a bit of stretching and rearranging was required.

The 011 Mini is also notable for its inclusion of pump mounting brackets. These can be used to mount radiators or fans directly to the case itself, providing more flexibility when it comes to custom looping setups. However, in this example, no additional pumps were installed, so we didn't get a chance to see these mounts in action.

Despite its compact size, the 011 Mini is not just for small systems. With the right combination of radiators and fans, it's possible to create an incredibly powerful cooling setup that would be at home in even the largest mid-tower cases. The case itself has a footprint of around 40 liters plus, which may seem limited compared to some other mid-tower cases.

For those who prefer a smaller system, the 011 Mini is also a great option. It's still plenty roomy for most users and offers excellent cable management options. In this example, we saw that installing case fans was relatively easy and straightforward, with no major issues or bottlenecks encountered during the build process.

The 011 Mini's retail price is around $100 USD, which we think is a great value considering what you're getting. The case itself may be small, but it offers plenty of flexibility for users who want to create their own unique system. Whether you opt for an ITX or ATX setup, the 011 Mini is definitely worth considering.

The 011 Mini is available now, and as always, we'll leave all of the links below so you can check pricing and availability in your region.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right finally an atx mid-tower case worth talking about this is leonle's new 011 dynamic mini and it's not that many right it's not the smallest of cases even by mid tower standards but i think once you see how much hardware you can actually fit in here a lot of you are going to be very surprised lee and lee have taken the design elements from the original 011 dynamic which has been insanely popular then made it 20 smaller in volume but then still kept a decent chunk of that epic radiator compatibility so let's go through what you need to know about the new 011 mini and how i'd recommend building in this case because you do have quite a lot of options firstly how many actually is the new 011 dynamic mini well in the context of a mid tower case the physical volume isn't actually that small at all in fact it's slightly larger than an ntxd h510 elite although it can fit significantly more hardware inside which is what makes this case so interesting in my opinion the footprint of the o11 mini is also quite large even in the context of a mid tower so just keep that in mind most of the space savings here compared to the regular 011 are in the vertical height of the case not so much the width and the length and then for some additional context here's the encase m1 which is housing my own itx system with two 240mm radiators and a custom loop just to give you an idea of the total volume and footprint of something that is actually mini now i've always been a big fan of the original 011 dynamic when it comes to design and i feel like the steel aluminium and tempered glass aesthetic just works really well the o11 mini is no different although i will say that i'm not a fan of the acrylic that makes up part of the top of the case does make it look a little bit cheap the case is separated into two main compartments you've got your primary system components and cooling located in the main chamber and then the less visually desirable components such as your power supply and drives hiding behind the motherboard tree back here you can mount up to two two and a half inch drives with the removable bracket then another two three and a half inch drives just underneath the power supply and that's one of the main things worth mentioning here only sfx and sfx l power supplies are supported personally i don't feel like this is too much of a drawback as even if you are throwing a high end atx system like this in here you have plenty of high power sfx and sfxl units available to you but here's where this case gets really interesting the 011 mini has modular motherboard and expansion slot panels which will allow you to switch between atx micro atx and itx boards this means that the o11 mini is both a space optimized atx mid tower and a generously sized itx case with absolutely huge radiator clearances swapping between the different motherboard panels is quite easy as well that's just done by rearranging the sections of the rear panel as you can imagine which motherboard form factor you end up going with directly affects radiator and fan clearances the largest radiator compatibility is achieved with an itx board in the middle position there you can install up to a 360 mil radiator at the top and the bottom as well as up to a 240 or 280 mil at the side with a micro atx board in the middle position a 280mm radiator at the bottom is no longer possible but a 360 still is and the clearance there will depend on how many pcie devices you have installed then with atx you can no longer install top mounted radiators but you do gain a bit of clearance for your side mounted radiator and fans as a result and again clearance for that bottom mounted radiator will depend on how many pcie devices you have installed so the big thing to note here is that a top mounted radiator will not fit along with an atx board and that seems like liam lee's main differentiation of the regular 011 and this 011 mini to be honest though i would have liked to have seen that 360 ml aio support at the top here seeing as one does physically fit here even with a bit of wiggle room available but i guess they didn't want to blur the line too much between this and the bigger 011 variant so with all of the different motherboard options and possibilities building in the 011 mini i see two options that make the most sense firstly just an overkill itx system with two 360mm radiators in a custom loop i think that would be an epic use of space in this case and secondly would be a bit more of a reserved atx mid tower system with say up to a 240 or 280 mil aio mounted on the side where perhaps you could use the rest of the mounting options just for case fans and additional airflow for your system this build here is a bit of an idea of what i think most users will be looking to build in this case so here we've got the msi b550 gaming carbon motherboard with a ryzen 5600 xt and that's called by the nzxt kraken z63 280mm aio and that's pulling fresh air from the side of the case then there's three 120mm fans pulling air up towards the graphics card which is the new msi rtx 3080 supreme x which also launches today and then we've got another three 120mm fans pulling air out of the case and through the top panel and i had no problems building this system in the 011 mini at all as a mid tower case should be it's pretty roomy and cable management was quite a breeze i think the biggest hurdle that most people are going to have building in this case is just simply deciding what they build what motherboard they go with and what calling options they go with as well because there are so many options available one thing i did notice though regarding the sfx power supply was that the pcie cables from the corsair sf600 were only just long enough to reach the gpu so it doesn't really leave you with many options for properly managing them basically they have to stretch over the top of the graphics card and then point directly to the power supply it's not really a complaint but just something to keep in mind leanly also includes a few different pump mounting brackets that will be super handy for custom loops ideally you'll be installing these towards the bottom and front of the case either mounted to a radiator or fan or just to the case itself now one thing i've always liked about the o11s design are those bottom intake fans that pull air directly up towards the gpu in a regular mid-tower case this area is usually completely blocked by a power supply and gpu thermals usually suffer quite a bit and here we can see just how important those fans are our rtx 3080 drops 12 degrees just by running those three bottom intake fans at just 900 rpm that is an absolutely huge difference so if you're building in this case definitely populate that bottom area with some fans we can also see that the o11 mini is relatively well ventilated by removing the top panel our gpu thermals only improve by around 2 degrees i'll also note that this new rtx 3080 flagship from msi can pull upwards of 370 watts and a boost to 2000 megahertz consistently so that's why thermals here look a little bit warmer compared to some of the other 3080s out there all right so wrapping up the 011 mini firstly it's not that many i mean even by mid tower case standards it's still around 40 liters plus and the footprint as well especially it's not going to save you that much space on your desk compared to say an actual rtx case however if you were considering the regular sized 011 dynamic which has a lot more kind of height and clearance for that top mounted radiator but you can't really justify that much radiator volume in your case then this is definitely something to consider especially if you're planning on building something a little bit more modest and then on the completely other end of the spectrum i think this case does make sense for itx systems and i know i said it's quite big even by atx standards but if you are populating with enough radiator volume let's say 360 at the top and the bottom and maybe a 240 or 280 at the side that is an absolutely monstrous amount of cooling and the lines are kind of being blurred these days with itx and atx the fact that you can slot you know insane amount of graphics power in an itx system along with a 16 core cpu and 64 gigs of ram i can see why a lot of people might opt for an itx board in this case retail price is said to be around 100 usd which i think is more than fair considering what you're getting and i will leave all of the links down below so you can check pricing and availability in your region as always a huge thanks for watching and i will see you all in the next oneall right finally an atx mid-tower case worth talking about this is leonle's new 011 dynamic mini and it's not that many right it's not the smallest of cases even by mid tower standards but i think once you see how much hardware you can actually fit in here a lot of you are going to be very surprised lee and lee have taken the design elements from the original 011 dynamic which has been insanely popular then made it 20 smaller in volume but then still kept a decent chunk of that epic radiator compatibility so let's go through what you need to know about the new 011 mini and how i'd recommend building in this case because you do have quite a lot of options firstly how many actually is the new 011 dynamic mini well in the context of a mid tower case the physical volume isn't actually that small at all in fact it's slightly larger than an ntxd h510 elite although it can fit significantly more hardware inside which is what makes this case so interesting in my opinion the footprint of the o11 mini is also quite large even in the context of a mid tower so just keep that in mind most of the space savings here compared to the regular 011 are in the vertical height of the case not so much the width and the length and then for some additional context here's the encase m1 which is housing my own itx system with two 240mm radiators and a custom loop just to give you an idea of the total volume and footprint of something that is actually mini now i've always been a big fan of the original 011 dynamic when it comes to design and i feel like the steel aluminium and tempered glass aesthetic just works really well the o11 mini is no different although i will say that i'm not a fan of the acrylic that makes up part of the top of the case does make it look a little bit cheap the case is separated into two main compartments you've got your primary system components and cooling located in the main chamber and then the less visually desirable components such as your power supply and drives hiding behind the motherboard tree back here you can mount up to two two and a half inch drives with the removable bracket then another two three and a half inch drives just underneath the power supply and that's one of the main things worth mentioning here only sfx and sfx l power supplies are supported personally i don't feel like this is too much of a drawback as even if you are throwing a high end atx system like this in here you have plenty of high power sfx and sfxl units available to you but here's where this case gets really interesting the 011 mini has modular motherboard and expansion slot panels which will allow you to switch between atx micro atx and itx boards this means that the o11 mini is both a space optimized atx mid tower and a generously sized itx case with absolutely huge radiator clearances swapping between the different motherboard panels is quite easy as well that's just done by rearranging the sections of the rear panel as you can imagine which motherboard form factor you end up going with directly affects radiator and fan clearances the largest radiator compatibility is achieved with an itx board in the middle position there you can install up to a 360 mil radiator at the top and the bottom as well as up to a 240 or 280 mil at the side with a micro atx board in the middle position a 280mm radiator at the bottom is no longer possible but a 360 still is and the clearance there will depend on how many pcie devices you have installed then with atx you can no longer install top mounted radiators but you do gain a bit of clearance for your side mounted radiator and fans as a result and again clearance for that bottom mounted radiator will depend on how many pcie devices you have installed so the big thing to note here is that a top mounted radiator will not fit along with an atx board and that seems like liam lee's main differentiation of the regular 011 and this 011 mini to be honest though i would have liked to have seen that 360 ml aio support at the top here seeing as one does physically fit here even with a bit of wiggle room available but i guess they didn't want to blur the line too much between this and the bigger 011 variant so with all of the different motherboard options and possibilities building in the 011 mini i see two options that make the most sense firstly just an overkill itx system with two 360mm radiators in a custom loop i think that would be an epic use of space in this case and secondly would be a bit more of a reserved atx mid tower system with say up to a 240 or 280 mil aio mounted on the side where perhaps you could use the rest of the mounting options just for case fans and additional airflow for your system this build here is a bit of an idea of what i think most users will be looking to build in this case so here we've got the msi b550 gaming carbon motherboard with a ryzen 5600 xt and that's called by the nzxt kraken z63 280mm aio and that's pulling fresh air from the side of the case then there's three 120mm fans pulling air up towards the graphics card which is the new msi rtx 3080 supreme x which also launches today and then we've got another three 120mm fans pulling air out of the case and through the top panel and i had no problems building this system in the 011 mini at all as a mid tower case should be it's pretty roomy and cable management was quite a breeze i think the biggest hurdle that most people are going to have building in this case is just simply deciding what they build what motherboard they go with and what calling options they go with as well because there are so many options available one thing i did notice though regarding the sfx power supply was that the pcie cables from the corsair sf600 were only just long enough to reach the gpu so it doesn't really leave you with many options for properly managing them basically they have to stretch over the top of the graphics card and then point directly to the power supply it's not really a complaint but just something to keep in mind leanly also includes a few different pump mounting brackets that will be super handy for custom loops ideally you'll be installing these towards the bottom and front of the case either mounted to a radiator or fan or just to the case itself now one thing i've always liked about the o11s design are those bottom intake fans that pull air directly up towards the gpu in a regular mid-tower case this area is usually completely blocked by a power supply and gpu thermals usually suffer quite a bit and here we can see just how important those fans are our rtx 3080 drops 12 degrees just by running those three bottom intake fans at just 900 rpm that is an absolutely huge difference so if you're building in this case definitely populate that bottom area with some fans we can also see that the o11 mini is relatively well ventilated by removing the top panel our gpu thermals only improve by around 2 degrees i'll also note that this new rtx 3080 flagship from msi can pull upwards of 370 watts and a boost to 2000 megahertz consistently so that's why thermals here look a little bit warmer compared to some of the other 3080s out there all right so wrapping up the 011 mini firstly it's not that many i mean even by mid tower case standards it's still around 40 liters plus and the footprint as well especially it's not going to save you that much space on your desk compared to say an actual rtx case however if you were considering the regular sized 011 dynamic which has a lot more kind of height and clearance for that top mounted radiator but you can't really justify that much radiator volume in your case then this is definitely something to consider especially if you're planning on building something a little bit more modest and then on the completely other end of the spectrum i think this case does make sense for itx systems and i know i said it's quite big even by atx standards but if you are populating with enough radiator volume let's say 360 at the top and the bottom and maybe a 240 or 280 at the side that is an absolutely monstrous amount of cooling and the lines are kind of being blurred these days with itx and atx the fact that you can slot you know insane amount of graphics power in an itx system along with a 16 core cpu and 64 gigs of ram i can see why a lot of people might opt for an itx board in this case retail price is said to be around 100 usd which i think is more than fair considering what you're getting and i will leave all of the links down below so you can check pricing and availability in your region as always a huge thanks for watching and i will see you all in the next one\n"