My new system built in a Fractal Design Define Mini will reside at the side of my desk on the floor. My office is carpeted, and the Mini's short rubber feet will bury themselves in the carpeting, so the PSU intake fan would be pulling air through the caprt unless I do something.

In a pinch I can place a couple sheets of cardboard beneath the PC. Later, maybe I can get a piece of granite or marble cut to the size of the case bottom. Any other ideas?

A couple of ideas:

1) Flip the PSU so that it intakes air from inside the case. You won't have to worry about clearance off the carpet, and it won't make any difference to PSU temps (unless you've got a GTX580 or similar in there).
2) For aesthetics as well as raising the case further off the floor, install some Lian Li casters? Did that with my P182, and although there aren't any bottom intake vents to take advantage of, it looks awesome. It raises the case off the floor by 2" / 50mm.

Another forum member solved the problem by buying a finished piece of wood shelving from Home Depot and then placed either rubber feet or casters under it.

The temps may not differ much, but I would think that the PSU fan would work a little harder to cool the PSU using internal air. I may also explore using the bottom mounted intake fan.



That looks nice, but I have no need for the wheels themselves on a microATX case. It also looks like it requires drilling eight holes, which I'd rather avoid.

Thanks.

Good idea. Cheap. Just may need to cut it to length.

If you don't want to drill holes, you could just get a case holder/trolley: http://www.verkkokauppa.com/files/images/65/124069-440x420.jpeg

Not terribly expensive, and in my experience doesn't cause too much of a change in acoustics, assuming your case fits the grip snugly. I've used one with all my cases up to the current Define Mini, which I decided to put up on a desk due to some unfortunate circumstances.

PS. The advantage of a "slab" under the case would be that it's easier to access the filter for cleaning purposes. Also eliminates the dust jungle that is carpeting, at least in the immediate vicinity of the bottom intake.