That case in the first link looks like a tower laid on its side...

Hamby wrote:

That case in the first link looks like a tower laid on its side...

Quite a common design in fact, I've seen Dells looking like towers laid on their sides (in fact you could stand them up as well).

NEC did that as well, and I belive HP did so with their Compaq series.

Some Compaq PCs also could be either laid vertically or horizontally (you could as well change the orientation of the expension bays oddly)

Mid 90’s ATX desktop cases certainly existed, Omnitech come to mind
You could pop out the rear panel and pop in a baby AT panel instead

The issue was that an older motherboard that didn’t have a bunch of integrated stuff would loose access to some expansion slots.

Enlight desktop ATX case, very large.

Suspect anything of the period but bigger than 44cm would be more of a custom than standard case. I used to have nearly all of my systems in desktop cases rather than towers, but the only two I have left now are these (bottom one, at 44cm, looks quite like that Enlight)

Both are original purchases in late 90s / early 2000s, and have had various format builds in them over the years, including Baby AT.

Only other thing that comes to mind is some of the Home Theatre desktop cases of the period from companies like Silverstone which were pretty large, though I doubt bigger than 44cm & pricey! They still do desktop HTPC cases today, capable of EATX, CEB & EEB format boards.

Well, thanks for the responses...I guess 44cm is as wide as off-the-shelf ATX desktop cases ever got. I can't help but wonder if this is because the ATX standard stipulated that the power supply fan should blow on the motherboard CPU, and anything much wider would pull those elements out of alignment.

Isn't only an EATX case which has the depth of a full-length AT? 33 cm if I recall right.

The Macase KA680 is just slightly wider than other ATX desktops, at 45.4cm wide, but is deeper than the 5170 case at 480mm (vs 439mm), which makes it quite bulky. Here's an old eBay listing for this model - https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Vintage-AT-ATX-D … =p2047675.l2557

Vynix wrote:

Some Compaq PCs also could be either laid vertically or horizontally (you could as well change the orientation of the expension bays oddly)

HP kept this design for their towers until 2012 with the Elite 8300 CMT (3rd gen i3/i5/i7) as the last of its breed.

Andrew T. wrote:

For more time than I cared to admit, I've toyed with the idea of building a computer with "new-ish" (post-2000) components and housing it in a desktop case. New ATX desktop cases are as scarce as hens' teeth these days: The only sources I'm aware of are an American industrial PC supplier and a British eBay seller, and shipping to Canada (where I live) is bound to be a punitive experience.

Although these cases would be satisfactory for my purposes, what strikes me is how narrow the footprints are: The lateral dimensions of 42-44 cm are downright diminutive compared to the width of an XT case (50 cm) or full AT case (54 cm). The same can be said of all the ATX desktop cases I've seen, including those from 1990s OEMs such as Gateway 2000. It seems that after some point in the early 1990s, "compactness" became the desktop case's sole raison d'être and people wanting wiggle room started embracing towers instead.

Has there ever been an ATX-compatible desktop case as w-i-d-e as the large-footprint ATs (or even XTs) of yore? Or is this a non-existent unicorn that I'll never find?

I recently bought the case in your first link. It was listed on Newegg as an HEC 7106BB. I was looking for a desktop case to complete my trifecta pc setup. I've always wanted one of these cases designed with ducted airflow for P4 systems. The case is designed to accomodate either ATX or AT boards. It certainly isn't going to accomodate some of the large AT boards I've seen in the past though. If you like I could take measurements of the interior motherboard space.