GAMDIAS ATHENA M4M Compact Micro Tower Chassis Review

TweakTown Rating: 93%

Our Verdict

As far as SFF cases go, the GAMDIAS ATHENA M4M ticks plenty of boxes, performs well, doesn't cost a lot, and includes fans and an hub. What's not to like?

Pros

• Good build quality and price
• BTF compatibility
• Three fans included
• Good performance
• Fan / ARGB hub inclusion

Cons

• The GPU support bracket could be better
• Limited color options

Should you buy it?

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Buy at Amazon for $79.99 USD

Buy at Amazon for $625.24 CAD

Buy at Amazon for £54.99

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

The GAMDIAS ATHENA M4M adds to the current ATHENA lineup from GAMDIAS, providing a smaller, compact chassis for MATX or ITX-based builds. Available in both a standard and wood-trimmed variant, the GAMDIAS ATHENA M4M is priced at $79.90. This chassis comes fully equipped, featuring three included 120mm NOTUS M1 fans, support for dual 360mm radiators, BTF compatibility, all-around dust filtration, and space to fit graphics cards up to 395mm long.

If you are looking to build a powerful, compact gaming setup, the GAMDIAS ATHENA M4M might be worth considering. By the end of this review, you will know whether it performs well enough to add to your basket.

Best Deals: GAMDIAS ATHENA M4M Compact Micro Tower Chassis

	Today	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$79.99 USD	-	$70.98 USD	Buy
	$625.24 CAD	-	-	Buy
	£54.99	-	£69.99	Buy
	$79.99 USD	-	$70.98 USD	Buy
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Packaging

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Time to take a quick look around the box for the GAMDIAS ATHENA M4M. First, taking a look at the front of the packaging, showing the case at an angle, with key information about its features,

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Around the back, the packaging offers an exploded view of the case.

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Moving to the sides of the box, there is specification information and a bit more on the case's main features.

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With the case out of the box, the standard closed-cell foam protection wraps the top and bottom, and a plastic bag surrounds the case.

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Outside the GAMDIAS ATHENA M4M

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Taking a look at the case with the packaging removed, the first thing you notice is the amount of ventilation and the case feet that lift the chassis off the ground, providing space for more airflow. The case seems practical, and, being micro-focused, it is relatively compact.

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Today I will start the walk-around at the front. The case includes a well-ventilated front panel with IO placed below. IO comprises 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB Type-C, an HD Audio combo jack, an LED control button, and, of course, the power button. Above the IO, there is a subtle LED strip for external case lighting. Lighting can be controlled either via the motherboard and software, or standalone via the front-mounted button to cycle through the lighting options.

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The rear side panel features ventilation on both the front and back sections, with the middle third solid.

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The rear is also fairly standard: two captive thumbscrews hold the top panel, with both sides using pogo-style ball catches to secure them. Power is supplied via an extension to the top right with the motherboard IO cutout and fan placement as expected. There is some horizontal adjustment for the rear fan, with ventilation above. There are five PCIe slots below, with a cover plate held in place by a captive thumbscrew for access. Three external tie-down points are also present on the left-hand side.

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Underneath is a full-length magnetic dust filter. The dust filter nestles slightly recessed under the case feet. These are plastic, with rubber pads included on the faces. With the filter removed, you can see into the case and the bottom mounting options, which include space for up to three 120mm fans or a 360mm radiator.

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Looking at the case from above, the top is well ventilated to expel hot air from the chassis, with the captive thumbscrews at the rear.

Inside the GAMDIAS ATHENA M4M

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Removing the top panel is simple, revealing the included dust filter sheet, which is also removable for cleaning. Depending on how you set up this case, if you use the top as the exhaust, it might be worth removing the filter to help the case release hot air more quickly.

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Peeking into the top of the chassis, as with the bottom, there is space for three 120mm fans or a 360mm radiator, with space for an SFF power supply towards the front. Additional venting sits above the motherboard tray.

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Looking inside after removing the tempered glass side panel, the case is well laid out. Two 120mm BK PWM fans provide intake at the front, with the single 120mm ARGB PWM exhaust fan at the rear. Generous rounded-edge cutouts surround the motherboard tray, allowing it to house ITX, MATX, and BTF boards, but no cable grommets are provided.

Sitting aside the motherboard tray, the internal panel hides the power supply and incorporates a simple graphics card support bracket with vertical adjustment. It's not the best implementation, and could do with being extendable as it's pretty short. The blanking panel angles out to provide internal space for the power supply without interfering with GPU installation.

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The front IO PCB is visible; however, given the price point, this is not an issue, with function being the primary focus.

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The front panel simply pops off to reveal the intake fans, and you can see the LED strip lighting a little better. The rest of the front is solid; maybe extra ventilation here would help draw more air towards the power supply, but the rear side panel should be able to cope. As with the other case panels, the front features a removable dust filter attached to the panel.

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Turning our attention to the rear, the GAMDIAS ATHENA M4M offers a good amount of space to work with for such a compact case. The power extension cable is a good length, with a door that allows additional wires to be tucked away. This is held in place with a screw, and while this panel is not really needed, it will help keep things nice and neat. There are cable tie-down points in logical locations for tidying up around the motherboard tray.

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The motherboard tray features a removable drive sled, held in place with two screws. Once removed, the sled is capable of holding one 3.5" and one 2.5" drive, or two 2.5" drives in total. This is perfectly adequate, given that I would primarily focus on NVME storage anyway, with the sled reserved for backup drives.

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As you will have noticed above, this case includes a fan hub, located at the bottom. Comprising eight ports, it is pre-populated with the included fans and front LED lighting strip. It's a great inclusion at this price point and will help tie all the fans and lighting together in one convenient place, with a SATA power connection.

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Finally, just before testing, the included accessories provide mounting screws, some cable ties, and a replacement pogo catch. It's a fundamental inclusion that provides everything needed to get up and running.

Installation, Testing, Finished Product, and Final Thoughts

Installing a test system in the GAMDIAS ATHENA M4M wasn't difficult, despite the small case size. There is some excessive cabling for the included fans and hub, but this could be tidied up well if you went all out with the cable management. The GPU support bracket is placed too far forward, so our card doesn't even reach it. Here is where I would like to see this design changed to offer more extended support, that is, angle-adjustable. Our graphics card isn't too heavy, so it's not an issue for this setup.

Given that this is an ITX or MATX-based case, I needed to replace the motherboard and power supply from my standard ATX test setup. The changes include swapping out the motherboard for an MSI B850I Edge TI Wi-Fi and using the be quiet! SFX L 600W power supply unit, everything else remains identical to my usual setup.

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Given the shorter cables included with the SFF power supply, this helped save some space in the back; however, the CPU power cable was a little too short, as you can see in the photo. While it's not under tension, I did have to route it differently than I would normally.

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Around the front, given an ITX board, there are compromises in component placement, such as the front I/O connector, requiring extra cables to connect everything. Overall, it looks tidy, and the graphics card has plenty of room underneath to breathe.

Kris' Test System Specifications

The system I have built for testing includes an AMD Ryzen 5 9600X CPU, housed in an MSI B850I Edge TI Wi-Fi Motherboard, paired with 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 memory modules. Our CPU is kept cool using the be quiet! Dark Rock Elite. For storage, I am using a Corsair MP700 Elite 1TB NVMe M.2 drive. Finally, for graphics, I have an ASUS Prime RTX 4070 12 GB Super. Testing is completed with PBO enabled, AXMP1, and MSI Smart fan configuration.

All testing was completed using Aida64 Engineer's System Stability Test v8.00.8000 for 2 hours. Other software used was HWiNFO 64 v8.32-5840, TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.68.0, and CPU-Z v2.17.0 x64.

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After over 2 hours of testing at an ambient temperature of 23 °C, the GAMDIAS ATHENA M4M performed exceptionally well. The AMD 9600X reached a maximum of 75.7 °C and averaged at 71 °C. This puts it a degree better on average than the HAVN HS 420 VGPU, which doesn't include any fans, and half a degree worse than the Cooler Master Master Frame 600. If we then look at the ASUS Prime RTX 4070 12 GB Super, it again performed well, averaging 71.1 °C and reaching a high of 73.3 °C. These results put it slightly worse overall than the Cooler Master Master Frame 600, and ahead of the Montech HS02 Pro.

In comparison, the GAMDIAS ATHENA M4M includes two 120mm intake fans and a 120mm exhaust fan, while the Cooler Master Master Frame 600 includes three intake fans and a single exhaust fan. If we compare it to the recently covered Lian Li Lancool 217 INF, the Lian Li ran the CPU three degrees hotter on average, and it includes much larger fans. Looking overall at the cases I have covered, and those that the GAMDIAS ATHENA M4M nestles between, its performance certainly isn't hampered by its size, and it performs really well.

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Should the GAMDIAS ATHENA M4M be added to your shopping list then? Overall, given its features and performance, it's a great little case for building a compact system. At under $80, with three included 120mm fans and the fan hub, it's hard to ignore. Couple that with its performance in testing, BTF compatibility, and space for two 360mm radiators, and there is scope to upgrade down the line. This case, with a top-mounted 360mm AIO, and some decent fans mounted in the bottom to push a load of fresh air into the graphics card, would undoubtedly be the way I would go. Would I look at a complete water-cooling loop? No, there are better-suited cases for that.

There's not a lot not to like here. Maybe GAMDIAS should look into different color options, offering us some options outside the usual black or white. I know some manufacturers are starting to explore other color options, and hopefully it will catch on. Everyone seems to be going down the wood route at the moment; it's the latest craze, and personally, I would like to see manufacturers widen their horizons a little. If the color options and the GPU support bracket are my only gripes, though, then GAMDIAS is undoubtedly doing something right with the ATHENA M4M.