I am building a cluster that includes a Turing Pi (a mini-ITX cluster board), alongside a normal mini-ITX system. I wanted to put both of these in a single chassis to save space, which is possible with a “dual mini-itx”, or “twin-itx” chassis. This article covers most of the chassis I discovered.

As of writing, I have made a purchase (I went with the MyElectronics chassis) and am waiting for it to arrive. I will eventually be writing another article covering my exact setup.

1U

1U chassis will not fit a Turing Pi. So, I did not evaluate these.

1.5U

I gave up on this idea for a couple reasons.

One, we don’t yet know whether newer compute modules will fit. CM4s should, but there’s no telling how much clearance will be needed for RK1, etc.

Two, the second system, which I want to be a more normal x86 system, is not optimized for 1.5U. Next to no fans are going to fit in 1.5U, and fanless are all optimized for 1U with those loud and awful fans.

For this reason the 2U list is likely more complete.

OnLogic MK150

Items:

Notes: Normal mini-itx chassis that can be adapted into a dual-mainboard chassis.

Cost: $202 + $15

DV Industrial Computer DS12

Items:

Notes: Deep but with no hotswap. Thermals make no sense to me.

Cost: I have no idea what it costs.

2U

MyElectronics Dual Mini-ITX

Items:

Notes: No hotswap, but is short depth. Looks nice, makes sense from a thermals perspective. Is built specifically for PicoPSU, and a normal PSU will not fit. Allows you to have front-io even without headers, via adapters that plug into the back of your system.

Cost: ~$295

S208

Items:

Notes: Hotswap. Nice layout. I reached out via email but could not get in contact with them.

Cost: $290

Threads:

Travla / TAWA Series

Items:

All these are also available under the “Travla” brand here.

Notes: Number of different options. They tend to have really odd layouts internally. TAWA-T2900 has all front i/o which is unique.

Cost: I have no idea what it costs.

Threads:

Cablematic CK018

Items:

Notes: Deep but with no hotswap.

Cost: ~$125

RM-2270

Items:

Notes: Deep but with no hotswap.

Cost: $279

iStarUSA D-218M2-ITX

Items:

Notes: Deep but with no hotswap. There are some packages you can get that include PSUs, but they were out of stock when I looked.

Cost: ~$130

Threads: