NSK2480B and Asrock H170M-Pro4: Not Ideal

I recently had to change the motherboard in my HTPC. The case is an Antec NSK2480B, a horizontally aligned case that fits up to micro-ATX motherboards.

I picked up an Asrock H170M-Pro4 to put in along with appropriate CPU and RAM. Didn't think there would be an issue as the Pro4 is a micro-ATX motherboard, matching the case. No issue, right?

Unfortunately, the Pro4 is a full sized micro-ATX board, larger on the "width" axis than most of the mATX boards going around these days. It physically fits in the case, but four of the six SATA ports are arranged so that the plugs go in parallel to the board — as shown in this pic:

The Asrock H170M-Pro4 side-mounted SATA ports

In a normal case this would be okay, but the NSK2480B has a solid metal divider that runs in between the motherboard area and the drive/PSU area. The side-mounted SATA ports on such a wide board do not fit. I managed to get two 90-degrees connectors in before mounting the motherboard, but the other two ports just can't be used. The pic below shows the mounting (bit hard to see due to the other cabling):

The Pro4 mounted in the Antec NSK2480B

The wall the SATA cables are pushing against is a solid piece riveted in to the case. Other than grinding out a chunk, I can't see any way to get access to those bottom two ports.

So...a full sized micro-ATX board with side-mounted SATA ports is not a good match for this case.

Trying to Evaluate the Thermaltake LitePower Gen 2

I noticed that Thermaltake have release another LitePower power supply, this one labelled the "Gen 2".

The way Thermaltake uses the LitePower for branding is frustrating, as there have been dozens of them over the years, by five different OEMs, and of markedly different quality. In general they're a last resort kind of PSU, so I was interested to see if this new one might have improved.

Unfortunately it was pretty difficult to find out anything useful. The awesome RealHardTechX database currently doesn't list a Gen 2, and no one appears to have reviewed it yet. The specs are also lean on detail (which is sadly normal for most PSU brands). The addition of 2x6+2 pin connectors on even the 450W model is much more promising than the previous OEM versions of the LitePower.

I asked Thermaltake for a bit more detail on 19th July 2016 — as yet there has been no response, but I'll update if anything comes through.