Freilite Alpha

[iFreilicht]

I thought I'd migrate the build log from OCN here like others already did, let's see how long it takes
Everything will be included, even the initial layouts I thought about. Here we go!

Build is done!

Parts List:

Case: LianLi PC-Q12

Motherboard: Gigabyte B85N Phoenix

Graphics card: GALAX GTX 970 OC

GPU Riser: Delock 89105

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770T

CPU-Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i

RAM: G.Skill Value 8GBx1 1600 CL9

SSD: Samsung Evo 840 120GB mSATA


HDD: Samsung Spinpoint M9T 2TB

PSU: FSP300-60LG


Final Pictures:

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Update List:

You may want to go through the complete build log, as it consists of a lot of planning and research. But, if you want to just see the major build updates, here they are:

(They still link to OCN, just wait for it!)

1. Case arrived, making first evaluations
   
2. Small case modification, test fitting with cardboard
   
3. Cutting off the back and standoffs, new layout
   
4. Mounting the PSU
   
5. Modding PSU to fit 80mm Fan instead of 40mm one
   
6. First installation of GPU and temp testing
   
7. Modding the PSU power outlets
   
8. Cutting and installing I/O panel and mainboard mount
   
9. System up and running!
   
10. Installation of final HDD and RAM
11. Last Stick of RAM

 

[iFreilicht]

Spoiler: Original Post!

So, this is the reason why I even found this site and made an account a few days ago, so let's get on with it!

I'll be putting a mITX system with a GTX 970 in a 6.7 Litre case, namely the LianLi PC-Q12

Working Title:

[IMG ]http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/2213723/width/500/height/1000[/IMG]

Goals:

• Most oomph possible, at least for games
• Case has to fit inside my shoulder bag
• No external power brick (those are cheating in my eyes)
• No external hard drives -> HDD is a must
• No external stands (increases total volume, so nope)
• SSD for OS and heavily used software
• WLAN capability
• Slot in Blu-Ray drive
• Case should look as stock as possible
• Can be used upright and lying down (So it can be used as a Steam Machine under my TV, too)
• Cool it well and silent

Well, the PC-Q12 fits in my shoulder bag quite nicely, at least from measuring.Graphical processing power will be be provided by a GTX 970 (a 980 just doesn't fit), which is conveniently economical regarding power draw.



Parts: (subject to change)

Case: LianLi PC-Q12
in black.

Motherboard: Gigabyte B85N Phoenix
I couldn't find the WiFi version of this board, so I'll have to buy an mPCIe card for that separately. Also, the Phoenix doesn't seem to differ from the regular B85N except for the colours. I had considered some other boards but ditched them, more on that later.

Graphics card: Zotac GTX 970
which is currently the shortest 970 available at 204mm, the PCB is even shorter at a guessed 170mm, so that is pretty convenient.

GPU Riser: Delock 41800 Delock 89130
111mm high GPU vs 88mm case is not going to work and DeLock has never disappointed me so far. They make great niche adapters and stuff like that. I am thinking about ordering a custom PCB at one point, but I'll do that only when the rest of the build is finished and I know exactly where the Graphics card will sit. EDIT: With the new Layout, I'll have to angle right, not left. I am a bit concerned about shielding now, but I hope it will be alright

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770T
which has a very low TDP of 45W. Also, this is only the final plan. For now, I'll be relying on a Pentium G3250T for budget reasons

CPU-Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i
Not really a surprise, is it?

RAM: 16GB, not decided which modules yet. But they have to be low profile. I'll also only buy one of them in the beginning. Again, budget reasons.

SSD: Samsung Evo 840 120GB mSATA
I could go for 250 or more, but SSDs are expensive and I am not rich at all. 120GB will be enough for Windows and Linux if I choose to install the latter. The data will go on an HDD anyways, so that will be groovy.

HDD: Western Digital Green 2TB 2.5"
Humongous capabilities in a small package. I'm not sure if I'll purchase this one immediately, we'll see.

PSU: FSP300-60LG
Short FlexATX PSU. It is very loud with that 40mm fan, but I will redo the enclosure out of mesh and it will sit under the two 80mm fans.
It took a while to decide on this PSU. Here is the initial list of options for reference:

1. SilverStone ST45SF-G, the SFX PSU we all know and love. It is nearly perfect for this build, BUT it is very large. I think I would manage to it in there, but it would be a thight squeeze and I want to cool my components decently, so I would like to avoid it.
   
2. FSP400-70LQ This would be the perfect fit. As a FlexATX, it is so thin that I could place it on its side, giving me space for a 120mm fan in the side panel! Also it is rated 80+ gold, so there will be very little whirring from the 40mm fan. I could even mod it and make a enclosure out of mesh, place two 90mm fans in the side panel and cool it that way. But, it is not in stock in Germany, and they would only import it from China at a minimum of 100 units, which I can not afford to buy. So, after talking to a salesperson of FSP, I end up with the third option.
   
3. FSP350-701UJ A very questionable option. At only 350W, it has barely enough to support my system under 100% load (or at least I think so Spoiler: I was wrong), I would have liked a bit space in that regard. I already posted a question in the Power Supply forum if that is actually enough. It is not a FlexATX, but a short 1U, meaning that it is 100mm wide. So I can't place it on its side, and it would complicate cabling quite a bit, I would probably have to mod it in order to get it where I want it to be. Also, it is only rated 80+ Bronze, which means more excess heat and more fan whirring, which I'd really like to avoid.

The layout:

So, I've already planned a lot and I made several considerations:

• The HDD cage will get thrown out, that is for sure.
• The side panel the GPU and CPU are facing needs holes for air to come in.
• The PC-Q12 comes with a stand, which has to be screwed on. I want my build to be as portable as possible, so I'll ditch the stand and lay the case on its back. This requires me to make a custom Motherboard mounting and I/O plate slot. try to find a way to put it inside the case for transportation. I can not guarantee that this will work, but I'll try to.
• I will be placing the 970 over the Motherboard, which will be a very tight squeeze. The I/O plate of a motherboard is 40mm high, the card about the same, and I only have 88mm in total. Because of that, my SSD can not be mounted on the back of the motherboard and why I decided on the Gigabyte board over the ASRock Z87E-ITX I will quite certainly have to make very short stand offs and put something between board and case so the contacts won't short circuit. This also means that I can not use the stock screws of the NH-L9 as they are pretty thick and designed as thumbscrews.
  Also, the GPU can be made a few Millimetres lower by removing the heatsink cover.
  [*] As the CPU Cooler will lie under the GPU, it should be as much exposed to air as possible.
  [*] I will probably have to sacrifice the clip-in side panel mounts of the case and weld the backplane to the frame of the case. EDIT: With the new layout, this will hopefully not be a problem anymore. But I can not be sure until I test it out.
  [*] I don't want the FUSB and power button to be on the top, so I'll have to cut holes in the front and place them there, that's also where at some time in the future the Slot in drive will find its place. To seal the holes in the top, I will use some of the material I'll have left over from cutting out the back of the case. To make the surface area for gluing larger and the fitting easier, I'll probably try to file the holes out so the edges get a phase from the inside.
  [*] I'll have to somehow seal the underside of the case. Don't know how, yet. But it wouldn't have to be pretty
  

With these points in mind, I came to the (badly shopped) following layout:

In this mock-up, the right hand area features the SilverStone PSU as I don't have pictures of the other two. You can guess where it will go, though: The FlexATX or 1U PSU could be placed at the top or to the right. With the low 40.5mm height of either, a larger fan could be placed in the Sidepanel. I really hope to get my hands on one of those. Also note that I have not decided on a position for the HDD, yet.

UPDATE: All new layout, closer to what I originally had in mind.

 

[iFreilicht]

UPDATE 1:

Finally, a major update! :wheee:

The PC-Q12 arrived today, and my god is that a tiny case. A beauty in black.The aluminium used is about 1mm-1.5mm thick, so I have a little more than 85mm of height inside. After doing a lot of fitting with mock up components I manufactured professionally from cardboard, it seems like everything will just fit into the height of the case, with some width to spare. The only thing I don't particularly like is that you can not just install the motherboard on the back panel and then clip that to the case, but to be frank, I didn't really expect that to be possible, and in the end, I will have to use a different mounting position anyway.

I have to say, the build quality is indeed very good, no sharp edges, no hidden flaws or unpainted areas, everything looks nicely designed and manufactured.

Actually, the case looks so good that I really fear putting more air intakes on its side, as it will probably kill the clean look completely, as I will be unable to make the new intakes match with the existing ones. I have no idea how much a custom made side panel would cost, but I suspect it would be a lot. Still, there need to be fans at the bottom and I can not just lay them flat against the panel, so we'll be on the lookout for a solution.

So here it is, with my keyboard for scale:

As I can only take pictures with a potato from apparently 20 B.C., I redirect to this review for much better pictures.

The inside of the case is quite packed with the PSU, 80mm exhaust fan and 2.5" HDD cage, but as soon as those are out, it becomes quite spacey. You can also see the USB3.0 front header at the bottom and the dual LED power button pin headers near the top here. The latter holds a pleasant surprise, too, but we'll get to that in a moment.

I actually don't care that much about the PSU, it is way larger than what I'll be getting, and wouldn't even fit in there if I stripped it off of its case. There will probably be a use for it someday, but that is going to be a long time from now.

Also note the other two silver thingys, the PSU stabiliser and the HDD cage mount, which are, opposed to the FUSB and PWBTN, bolted to the case, so I'll have to drill them out. Good thing tomorrow is a holiday in Germany
Now to the power button surprise: The cable connecting it to the board is actually removable, which will not only ease installation of the motherboard but also cable shortening, and boy am I going to short that cable

And now for the final two things. First, the stand for the case. It has to be screwed on, and while the holes and screws are very robust, I don't really like going through that process, and would like to clip the stand on the same way I can do it with the side panels and I hope to find some of those clips online. Also, I would like to be able to put the stand inside the case for transportation. I have some ideas on how that could work, but we'll see how it goes.

And finally the question, does the case even fit into my shoulder bag, which is one of the main features of this build. Yes it does! And easily so. If the bag is closed, you would never suspect there to be a PC inside

So yeah, tomorrow I'll be drilling out the two bolted parts and get an idea for how I want to install the mainboard. The next weeks will all be about acquiring hardware It would be very helpful to get my hands on a dead Zotac GTX 970 to dry fit it.

Also, I am in talks with a salesperson from sparklepower right now (thanks to [@]ilovelampshade[/@] for setting me up there ), and it looks like I'll get one of the first 400W FlexATX PSUs with a length of only 150mm! Very excited about that!

 

[iFreilicht]

Update 2:

I was at my parents place today to drill out the rivets of the PSU stabiliser and the HDD cage mount, and it turns out that there seems to be no reason at all for those two to be riveted instead of screwed to the case.

Here is a pic of the strapped case on my dads workbench and a close up of the FUSB screw countersink on the right and one of the HDD mount rivet countersink on the left. As you can see, there are barely any differences, the rivet sink is just a bit larger.

Bonus pic: The drill head after drilling. It was a pain to get all the rivets off.

So then, after making enough space inside the case that it would actually fit everything, I completed my cardboard mock ups and put them inside. It wasn't easy, especially the GPU, which has to be moved inside through the motherboards I/O panel cutout. It can not be said if that will be a problem with the final build, too, because I will remove the cooler shroud of the 970 and therefore only have a few heatpipes at the end of the card, making it less thick in that area.

So, here they are in their brown beige glory; All components fitting in there perfectly. From top to bottom:

• Motherboard
• Graphics card
• two 80mm Fans

Beneath the two fans sits the PSU and beneath that the 2.5" HDD, but I have not decided whether I want to keep the latter there or not.

I'll have to make some modifications to the right fan, though. The Front USB panel is just (what is the equivalent to "flat" in terms of depth?) enough to allow the 150mm long PSU to fit, but both fans together extend out to about 170mm. Fortunately, by cutting away the colliding corner - which has no use for me anyway - this can be fixed as shown below on the mock up.

And now, the really astounding thing about this all, the view through the back. As you can see, there are loads of space underneath motherboard and GPU, 32mm and a whopping 45mm in fact. The space underneath the Board will shrink when its mount is in place, but I'll still have about 20mm available easily. Pic of the backside:

This will allow for a some very cool features from which I didn't know whether I'd be able to integrate them previously:

1. Slimline DVD or Blu-ray drive
2. Storage for the stand
3. Storage for cables, especially the AC-DC power supply cable

And, even better: Both storage areas could be accessible by removing the right side panel, as the motherboard will be mounted on the frame of the case, not the stock mounts. I plan to make them out of the least airflow restricting mesh I can find so that the GPU can still get as much air as possible when the compartments are empty.

The stand could also slide in through the Motherboard I/O panel cutout.


So there you have it, this project will not be a complete failure In fact it will be pretty awesome, even though I have already lost the title for smallest brickless build to ilovelampshades Lone Industries L1 build, which clocks in at a mere 4.5 Litres.

Thanks for reading!

 

[iFreilicht]

Update 3:

I've finally came around to cutting out the back of the case and removing the motherboard standoffs from the right panel.

My dad had the idea of just breaking them off, which surprisingly worked very good. Unfortunately, we tried sawing one off before, so the panel took some damage in the process:

Ghetto fix: Permanent marker.

Looks a lot better, and is practically invisible when the case is closed, despite it overlapping the frame.

And here's the back panel, but without the panel. (mostly)

Wasn't too hard to cut, it would've even been possible with a hand saw.

As you can or cannot see, the case actually lies the other way around than it previously did, on the left panel with the intakes. This is because I realised that the PSU is 80.5mm wide, enabling me to actually put it on its side. This saves a humongous amount of space, and by playing around with it a bit, I came to a reverse-ATX layout:

From left to right:

• Mainboard
• Graphics card
• HDD
• PSU
• 80mm Fan or mounting space for more HDDs

This layout has quite a few advantages:

1. No need to mod the left panel

As I already pointed out, putting additional intake vents into that panel would most likely kill the look completely or be a huge hassle involving 3D modelling and laser cutting. With this new design, the Graphics card (which needs the most air) will face that panel and have about 20mm of clearance as well, hopefully giving it enough fresh air.

2. A bit of clearance on everything

The mainboard won't need to touch the wall or the GPU anymore, the GPU won't touch the PSU and fans. That's good in my eyes. With zero clearance between MB and GPU, there was also a chance that regular PCB x16 risers wouldn't have fit, and I didn't really want to purchase those expensive flexible cable ones.

3. Space for a third expansion slot!

Yes, that's right. As you may have seen two pictures above, the GPUs underside is nearly level with the Motherboards underside. That gives it a clearance of 20mm on the fans and about 26mm on the back, making room for another expansion slot! Even the riser solution will be very sturdy:

This riser seems to not only fit into the case, it also incorporates mounting holes for a second riser, e.g. for PCIe x1, so I can use an additional expansion card. That would come at the cost of abandoning my mPCIe WLAN chip, but I've always dreamt of a capture card in my PC to minimize the CPU load of capturing footage, and this dream might come true with this teeny tiny case.

4. Maximum airflow for everything.

By adopting this new layout, I am actually dividing the case into three channels for MB, GPU and PSU, reducing thermal coupling.

The motherboard will get fresh air from the bottom. I am not very keen on cutting holes there, but as the bottom won't be seen by anyone, I don't need to be extra careful. A round hole in the stand and bottom and a air filter will probably suffice.

The Graphics card will get its air from the side vents, mostly the upper ones. Hopefully I'll be able to make the motherboard tray in a way that a bit of air can move in through the lower ones, too. This is a potential bottleneck I'm worried about the most.

The PSU will either get its air through its 40mm fan or a 80mm fan in the top, where the case would normally exhaust. I think I will do the latter, because I care more about noise than about the space to mount two more HDDs. I'll just hope that by the day I run out of space, there will be larger 2.5" HDDs available

5. No need to drill holes for the motherboard tray

The motherboard will sit where the PSU and HDD cage were previously, so there are a lot of holes to work with, which makes my life a bit easier.

The only downside: No more storage space

Yeah whatever. Using the space where air normally is was a nice idea, but as long as everything fits into my bag, I'm happy.



So, before finally ordering some aluminium sheets, I want to get the riser card and find out exactly how much space it takes and what my clearance on the motherboard is. I would also want to get the PSU on my desk to see how I'll mount and mod that.

 

[iFreilicht]

Update 4:

I received the PSU, cut and drilled a bit, and now it fits inside! Unfortunately, it is not the black version as I thought, but the grey one. Well, If I really want it black, I can still paint it black.

I won't be making a custom enclosure, that would be much work with no return, but simply cut a 80mm hole into the top of the PSU, which rests against the top fan. Also, I will drill holes into the top to attach the fan to the PSU directly. Not only will this ease installation of the fan, which will be driven by the PSU directly, but it will also make the bond between case and PSU super strong, something which I was worried about previously. The danger of the PSU (which is quite heavy) bending the case is thus eliminated completely.

Talking of eliminated issues, look at how much space there is in this case (sorry, blurry picture):

On other good news:

The GTX970 will be my Christmas Present! My dad told me today that this was a possibility if it was the only thing I wished for. This would make this the most expensive present I've ever got by a far margin , and I'm a bit surprised they are so supportive of me building this PC. Yes, my dad helps me quite a bit and my mom isn't really against it, but that GPU is pretty expensive, really out of the range of what Christmas presents normally cost in our family.
To cite my mom: "It doesn't matter how much a present cost, but what it's worth." She really isn't an inconsistent woman.

 

[iFreilicht]

Update 5:

The 80mm hole is cut and "works" just as it should. I'm not so sure if I really want to attach the fan to the PSU, I'll maybe do that, maybe not.

I have to admit, the hole isn't pretty, but it's functional, and it's not like anybody will see it ever

With the fan on top:

Everything installed back into the case:

As you can see, there is some space above the PSU, which I will use for the modular connectors.
I plan to have three of those:

1. 2x12pin Motherboard
2. 2x2pin GPU on rail 12V2 (2x12V, 2xGND)
3. 1x4pin for everything else (3.3V, 5V, 12V, GND)

All of those connectors will be Molex Mini-Fit Jr.s, just like the connectors on the Motherboard and GPU already are.
This means that I can only use 9 Amps in total on the last connector, but as my CPU will only draw 3.75A, some of which will come from the Mainboard, and the only other devices I'll be driving from that connection will be two 2.5" HDDs or SSDs in the future, I will not even come close to that number.
I wouldn't really need to modularise those connectors, but if I ever want to upgrade my GPU or want to ditch the PCIex1 card and install two more drives, I would want to do that without resoldering.

Also a picture of the back, including three slot brackets to show how everything will fit inside.
The rightmost bracket is where the PCIex1 card will be able to go.

I also found some mainboard standoffs and fitting screws from my current PC and an adapter from IDE 4pin to fan 3pin, which will make the installation of the top fan easier: I'll just have to cut the wires from the connector, resolder them to the PSU fan leads and then I'll be able to plug in the fan as I wish, so the fan won't be soldered to the PSU directly.

And finally, I have decided on the way I'll mount the Mainboard, so I can purchase the Aluminium sheet. I won't bend it like I initially planned. It will just be screwed in with a few small washers to raise the Mainboard to the exact height I want it to.

 

[iFreilicht]

Update 6:

The riser arrived today, so I was finally able to test everything out, and what can I say, it works like a charm

The orange is not the fins of the CPU cooler glowing (though the temps suggest that), but LEDs on the backside of the motherboard PCB. I really like the look of them, I think I'll have to cut a hole in the motherboard mount just so those can be seen from the outside.
Also I wired the HDD LED to the PWLED header on the Mainboard, just because it looks nicer. One very unnecessary function of the Phoenix is the pulse mode, which makes the orange LEDs on the PCB and the power LED pulse. It could look nice in theory, but the problem is that this pulse isn't anywhere near continuous: It pulses on slowly and satisfyingly, but when pulsing off again, it just stops for half a second on half-bright. Fortunately, you can turn that off in the BIOS, so all LEDs are just running full-bright all the time. You can also dim them.

Speaking of mounting, no mounting stuff is actually here yet, so everything just sat in there for a bit of testing. I made sure to tape anti-static foil to the insides so nothing could get short-circuited.

I tested the temps with Furmark, using both the CPU-burner and the GPU test with PP enabled and 8xMSAA on a resolution of 3840*1920, so the load for both was at absolute maximum. The graph for temps didn't look very good:

The line that flattens out at 80° is the GPU, the other four are the four CPU cores. Needless to say, this aren't impressive results, but the bottom of the case doesn't have any inlets so far, so the CPU is just feeding itself hot air. Also, I'm not planning on putting much load on the CPU anyway, and in idle it runs just fine.
For the GPU, the flattening happens because it clocks down a bit. I may use an additional riser to lift it up by one slot so its second fan is less obstructed. As opposed to the CPU, it gets fresh air from the side, so it can recover easily when no load is present anymore.

For sound, the system is very quiet in idle, which is everything I wanted. The only fan you hear is the PSU fan, which is to be expected as it is currently running on full throttle. I will start modding the PSU tomorrow, so that issue will hopefully be solved after that. Modularisation unfortunately won't be done yet, but I'll get around to that eventually.

Things that will be done to the PSU tomorrow:

• Connect a 3-pin fan header to the open ends of the PSU fan controll
• Replace the two EPS12V connectors from rail 12V1 with two 6-pin GPU power connectors
• Replace the 4pin IDE power connecter on rail 12V2 with a single EPS12V connector and extend that cable

This leaves the SATA power cables untouched while removing the unused IDE connector and puts the load of the EPS12V connection on rail 12V2, so this rail will be driving the mainboard, CPU and hard drives, while 12V1 will drive just the GPU.

Both are specified for a maximum of 15 Amperes, so everything should be groovy. To be frank, it all worked fine today (with the GPU running off the SATA power), but I would feel better when the GPU had it's own rail.

Some oddity I noticed about the riser: It doesn't seem to be ATX standard compliant, as it places the extension slot brackets in the keep-out area of the motherboards I/O:

This is a bit strange, but it actually has a huge benefit: I can move the whole motherboard/GPU assembly towards the PSU by more than 1cm, which gives me enough room at the bottom to mount one or two 10mm high 80mm fans. This could tremendously increase cooling performance for the CPU, so I'll probably try it.
Of course, I'll have to drill a few holes into the bottom for that to work, but I wanted to do that anyway.

And finally, a picture of the perfect fit the GPU power connectors have. Have a nice day!

 

[iFreilicht]

Update 7:

But first, as promised, pictures of the riser:

Length from back to front is 155mm, so a bit shorter than the mainboard and the GPU.

But now for the star of todays update: the PSU!

All things I planned to do with it were executed; the GPU now has a rail on its own, while the CPU is running on the same one as the mobo and all other peripherals, so when the Graphics card is running under full load, it has a nice overhead of about 3 Amps.

This solved an issue I only wrote about in a thread on [H] about the Galax GTX970: Under maximum load, I could hear a silent whine, which I suspected to be caused by the PSU reaching its load limit. Guess what? That disappeared after the PSU was modded. What also disappeared was the noise the PSU fan made. As it is now controlled directly, the whole system is near dead silent when in idle. This is a huge step upwards from my current system, which can be very clearly heard even when nothing is done. (Protip: don't buy fans from A.C. Ryan)

Look at it!

The longer ATX12V cable really benefits the cabling:

You may notice the heatshrinks on the ATX12V and the PCIe power connectors. I have no crimping or decrimping tools available to me, so I had to go with that solution, and it worked out quite well, I have to say. I was able to use the soldering station and some other tools from work, here's the setup:

But this is only temporary. Once I recover from the financial impact of this first part of the project, I will be able to polish everything and make it look better.
The PSU will be modularised, and I would really like to paint it and the mounts for motherboard and GPU black, just for the looks. Maybe, just maybe, I will even get into sleeving to make those cables orange and black. I also have ideas for a small arduino driving the LEDs, which would be a fun little challenge to take on, so this build log will live on for quite some time

Hope you enjoyed it, this was one of the key mods for this build so far, so I'll have to update the first post now

 

[iFreilicht]

Update 8:

I am nearly done with the basic stuff, and everything seems to come along quite nicely.

The I/O pane is cut for the three expansion slots, and the GPU is mounted! It was quite a lot of work, but finally, the card is sitting exactly where it should.

One small problem that I encountered was the PCIe power connector:

It's probably a bit hard to see, but the right connector was pressing hard against the PSU, so I had to file it down a bit to ease the tension, and now it has a fraction of a millimetre clearance.

All that's left to be done is cutout the motherboard I/O and then mount it, then the system will be able to boot up in it's new home!

Of course, there are still some other things to be done, at the very least I'll need to get countersunk crews for the motherboard mount so the side panel will close. I'd also like to paint the panels black, but that can wait for now. I think I can even get away with using my current 3.5" HDD for storage, as long as I'll not use the third expansion slot.

If anyone has suggestions regarding 2.5" HDDs, please post them below. There are some 2TB drives, which seem very temping at ~100€, did anyone use those?
I can probably get away with using a 3.5" 1TB one from my current rig, but I would like to change that in the future.

 

[iFreilicht]

Update 9: Finished! At least for now

The only things that needed to be done were screws for the mainboard mount, rounding over all sharp edges and peeling of the protection foil on the visible parts of the Aluminium sheets.

The result is now running on Windows10 TP Build 9841, is near silent and looks awesome next to my screens.

Obligatory "Banana for scale" shot:

Only 128GB storage and 4GB of RAM for now, but I'll upgrade those as soon as possible

 

[iFreilicht]

Update 10:

Final Update for now!

I finally got my 8GB of RAM (just one stick) and my 2.5" HDD, namely the Samsung Spinpoint M9T with a whopping 2TB of storage. It's the only HDD of that formfactor with a thickness of just 9.5mm that actually has that much storage.

So finally, I don't have to externally connect my old 3.5" 1TB WD drive and can actually make use of the excellent mobility of this rig

The drive is just mounted with double sided mounting foam tape which decouples the drive from the case quite nicely and saves space.
Also, we moved furniture and I got a third monitor, so I now have a pretty nice setup on my desk for CAD and programming.
(A teaser for my next project can already be seen on the screen.)

Final potatoshots of BLACK in its new location:

The side panels will be popped off during operation, I am too lazy to find someone to mill new slots into the sidepanels ATM.

So for now, because it fulfils all functional requirements, I consider this build to be done! :wheee:

I'll hopefully get around to making some beauty shots and closeups of details, but I don't promise anything.

Thank you all for sticking around, it was a fun build to make, and a revelation as to how oversized PCs really are for most people.

 

[iFreilicht]

Update 11:

As I was having problems running GTAV and Vivaldi at the same time, and Windows thereby complaining that it didn't have enough memory left, I got a second 8GB stick and am now running on 16GB of RAM. Nothing too special, but I hope it will alleviate all problems I had. Also nice when dealing with larger CAD models

 

[Phuncz]

Nice project ! Very intensive to mod a small existing case into a completely different arrangement. I'd probably ponder over it, decide it's better to do from scratch using CAD, realise I can't do CAD and go play games

I'm also running 16GB of RAM, ever since I moved to Socket 1150 when it was released. I like it that I never run out of memory.

 

[iFreilicht]

Thanks! I botched a lot, and it's certainly easier than a scratch build, because you don't have to worry about structural integrity and stuff like that.

Yeah that's also the reason why I always have more storage in my PC than I need. I'll never run out!

 

[BirdofPrey]

What you could do is mount a plate covering the PSU space and fill the void where the GPU is with a filter so you have airflow and can still see the GPU plus less dust.

What happened with putting in that other expansion card?

 

[iFreilicht]

Yeah but that plate wouldn't fit with the style of case, or I'd have to do a lot of work to make it so.

I might buy myself access to a laser-cutter and other fancy tools in the near future, so maybe this may actually get another update, but don't expect anything.

Once I realised how good ShadowPlay worked, I had no need for it anymore, so I just left it out. Also it was really hard finding good ways of converting the mPCIe slot to PCIe x1 because of its orientation on the board.

 

[BirdofPrey]

Not sure I understand, there's already a metal plate under the motherboard, what style changes would a PSU cover need need besides being painted to match the rest of the case? Now work to actually mount it is a different story. (if it wasn't clear, I was talking about the back side of the case where the video card fans are)

Maybe I'm just biased since dust has murdered many a machine where I live, but I'd grab a hole saw to make cutouts over the fan and get some filters from someone like DemciFlex

 

[iFreilicht]

The dust buildup is really minor in this case, couldn't tell you why.

I thought you primarily intended this as a way to cover up the ugly PSU, not to filter dust. One problem with optics would be that the case is anodized and brushed, so just painting the plates would make it look extremely bad and I can't anodize myself.

 

[BirdofPrey]

I meant both actually. That PSU is pretty ugly.
I didn't realize the case had a finished exterior. That is a pain in the ass to match.