wbahnassi wrote on 2025-03-13, 01:56:

how compact those baby AT towers and desktops actually were.

That's because at 216 mm height, BabyAT is lower than microATX (which has 244 mm height), yet has 7 extension slots like Full ATX motherboard.

That's also why a combo BabyAT/microATX case can be constructed, given that rear side is modular/swappable. Which is unusual, because the rear side is always non-removable. So one needs to be inventive about how to get around that. If this issue is solved, such case can be commercially viable, I think.

Also, those cases width was limited to the height of expansion slot. Modern GPUs are often much taller than its mounting bracket. That's another problem.

Actually, in some cases e.g. InWin A500, motherboard mount panel slided out together with expansion slots. So one panel can be for AT and another for mATX.

The screenshot is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI21Pj0WPXI