In Win 901 Mini-ITX Case Review

We have talked at length about the trend towards smaller drive less installations both in reviews and in the podcast.  The In Win 901 is clearly moving us in that direction given the overall size and mini-ITX motherboard support. 

For our installation we used a Gigabyte Z77N-Wifi motherboard.  As expected it fit like a glove providing easy access to the cable management slots.  The large window allows for access to nearly the entire back if the motherboard.  No more fighting to get to the heatsink mounts here!

This installation only uses one of the two external card slots that seem destined to support a video card and nothing else.  901 supports large video cards up to 300mm (~11.8 inches) and double slot coolers will sit right up against the middle wall.  There are cutouts to help the video card breathe which may need to be altered depending on your video card configutration.

Here is a closer look at the clearance behind the motherboard and along the back of the case. With the back glass in place there is 12.7mm (~½ inch) of clearance behind the motherboard.  The large cable slots shown here run along the top and front of the motherboard tray.

With any mini-ITX installation you need to check and double check your components for size before purchasing them.  Our Cooler Master TPC 812 CPU heatsink is a great example.  The 901 supports CPU cooler installations up to 130mm (~5.12 inches) and the TPC 812 is simply too tall.  There are some great options in this size but most enthusiast heatsinks are off your list.  Again, a good self-contained water cooler is probably a better option.