Even in the heavily standardised desktop ATX world you can run into problems if you don't pay attention to clearances for heat spreaders around CPU heatsinks, and other such tomfoolery
No kidding. At work I have been re-using an old 3U ATX case as my "development" machine for some years. There is a slight issue with the PSU in that it doesn't take standard ATX format PSUs, but that's get-roundable because we have a lot of these things so always carry spares.
The latest refresh (first in five years) involved an AMD Zen and I was pleased to find that the processor & heatsink fitted in quite nicely.
What didn't fit nicely was the distinctly middle-of-the-road graphics card. Due to some kind of plastic frame holding the fan in place, this card is about 2 - 3mm too tall to allow me to fit the lid on the box. Any other case would have had enough leeway, but not this one.
It's currently sitting under the desk with the lid off. OpenSuse runs lovely, but Windows 7 refuses to install :-/ (W10 isn't an option at the moment)
M.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
