Subwoofer Box Depth

Ok, this one's been confusing me for awhile now so I thought I'd just throw it out there for discussion.  On subwoofer box designs, calculators and woofer specs will often give you the optimal box size in cubic feet, but not specify the optimal dimension (except that golden ratio thing I've seen somewhere).  So, my question is:

Given the optimal box volume, what is the optimal box dimension?  i.e.  Can I have the depth of the box just deep enough to house the woofer (+ a couple inch slack) and put the rest of the volume in the length and width of the box?   (ie Thin and long box)..  or does it perform better in a more square-like box?

Anybody have any experience with this?

Use the golden ratio or one very close to it to get the dimensions you need.  This will result in smaller resonant peaks and spreads it over the frequency spectrum.  This results in a cleaner more accurate sound. 

This ratio will result in more of a rectangular box.  You can play with the dimensions a bit to suit your needs, but definatly use it as a guideline!!!

While airspace is airspace and dimension doesn't matter for this, certain shapes will reflect resonant waves through your woofer cone and result in "noise".  If you are looking for better, cleaner sound, go with this ratio!!!

Has anybody tried this?  (scientifically?)  I think most of the time, we decide on box dimensions, build it, and if it sounds ok, we leave it alone. (instead of building multiple boxes, messing around with extreme dimensions,  to see which one sounds better.. maybe woofer manufacturers do this?)  It would be interesting to see some lab results..

I would do it myself, but that's alot of MDF to burn, not to mention time..