1337^3

[Sure_Sh0t]

This is my overambitious case design idea flung into the world with my shitty modeling skills.

Hello world!

The idea was to create a no compromise watercooled ITX case. One that is stylish, showcases the hardware inside and has plenty of cooling capacity while being as small as possible. Look ma, no 3.5" bays!

The case was originally meant to be 13.37 Litres (get it?). Too many problems were encountered trying to make everything fit, but the name stuck. The design is currently 330 x 152 x 364mm or 13" x 6" x 14.3" (excluding the feet). It is slimmer than a Nano S or NCASE M1 and taller with ~18.25 Litres of volume. Why is it so big you ask?

What you see here is a Alphacool NexXxos Monsta 240 radiator in push/pull configuration with lots of placeholder components that I ripped from the Sketchup warehouse, because I really do suck at modeling, and not because I'm ugly. The radiator bracket is adjustable if you can't handle the Monsta's girth. Air goes in one direction so positive pressure is maintained. While a third of the top fans are occluded by the system tray there should still be enough airflow to cool the VRMs and motherboard chipset. This also means the GPU side gets no air, so you better have a full cover waterblock! Speaking of the system tray...

The tray is designed to be entirely rolled from a single pre-cut blank of 2mm thick steel (except for the cable shroud), minimizing the need for tapping and welding in manufacture to just mounting the components. The frame is designed to be open for building convenience before it goes into the case. Oh yeah... I forgot:

The entire assembled system is removable, even when powered on. Assemble your tiny custom loop outside the case and slide it in. The rear feet slide out from slots in the outer case so the whole system can sit balanced while you work... or ogle the innards of your computer. What you do is your business.

To-do list:
Figure out how I want to do the front panel.
Properly account for tolerances with the walls of the case.
Model PSU cables and water tubing (yikes).
Decide whether I should continue doing this...

 

[ricochet]

Interesting case idea, especially the ultra-cool drawer-like pull-out feature.

 

[|||]

It looks like your PSU will be exhausting right next to the intake for your Monsta radiator.

Also, would it be feasible to change up the sheet metal in the area below the GPU to put the sliding rail in flushly? Right now, it looks as though it pushes out the entire side of the case to only fit that rail in. Another way would be to fit it to the top where you'd extend the flange around the SSD all the way forward to have a mounting surface. The area of the top is smaller and would increase the volume to a lesser extent. Just thinking of ways you can claw back and get a smaller case...

 

[ricochet]

It looks like your PSU will be exhausting right next to the intake for your Monsta radiator.

Also, would it be feasible to change up the sheet metal in the area below the GPU to put the sliding rail in flushly? Right now, it looks as though it pushes out the entire side of the case to only fit that rail in. Another way would be to fit it to the top where you'd extend the flange around the SSD all the way forward to have a mounting surface. The area of the top is smaller and would increase the volume to a lesser extent. Just thinking of ways you can claw back and get a smaller case...

Great point about the PSU exhaust, I completely missed that.

 

[Sure_Sh0t]

If I turned the PSU around the plug and power switch would be pointing into the case towards the motherboard. Considering there isn't anywhere else for the PSU to go the choice is either hot air directly to the motherboard or hot air that goes through a very thick radiator first. I know it's not ideal, but I don't think there's much I can do about it without tossing most of the design. I guess it could vent sideways? That would look rather odd though. I don't think it ruins the thermals of the case but you might know better than I.

The slide positioning is not a bad idea were it not for the side being already that wide to accommodate pumps of the D5 or DDC variety. most of them are pretty wide. Might as well use that extra space for the rail while it's there. I would definitely take that suggestion were it not the case! (bu-duh-tiss)
Looking at it again it might be feasible to mount it on top!

Also that area beneath the GPU is where all the cables go through to keep things nice and clean. It would be a pretty tight squeeze with the slide sitting there, imo. I could do some guestamation measuring to see how feasible that would be.

 

[ZombiPL]

This is my overambitious case design idea flung into the world with my shitty modeling skills.

Hello world!

The idea was to create a no compromise watercooled ITX case. One that is stylish, showcases the hardware inside and has plenty of cooling capacity while being as small as possible. Look ma, no 3.5" bays!

The case was originally meant to be 13.37 Litres (get it?). Too many problems were encountered trying to make everything fit, but the name stuck. The design is currently 330 x 152 x 364mm or 13" x 6" x 14.3" (excluding the feet). It is slimmer than a Nano S or NCASE M1 and taller with ~18.25 Litres of volume. Why is it so big you ask?

What you see here is a Alphacool NexXxos Monsta 240 radiator in push/pull configuration with lots of placeholder components that I ripped from the Sketchup warehouse, because I really do suck at modeling, and not because I'm ugly. The radiator bracket is adjustable if you can't handle the Monsta's girth. Air goes in one direction so positive pressure is maintained. While a third of the top fans are occluded by the system tray there should still be enough airflow to cool the VRMs and motherboard chipset. This also means the GPU side gets no air, so you better have a full cover waterblock! Speaking of the system tray...

The tray is designed to be entirely rolled from a single pre-cut blank of 2mm thick steel (except for the cable shroud), minimizing the need for tapping and welding in manufacture to just mounting the components. The frame is designed to be open for building convenience before it goes into the case. Oh yeah... I forgot:

The entire assembled system is removable, even when powered on. Assemble your tiny custom loop outside the case and slide it in. The rear feet slide out from slots in the outer case so the whole system can sit balanced while you work... or ogle the innards of your computer. What you do is your business.

To-do list:
Figure out how I want to do the front panel.
Properly account for tolerances with the walls of the case.
Model PSU cables and water tubing (yikes).
Decide whether I should continue doing this...

Very interesting idea.

My quick 2 cents about such ball-sliders:
- do you know that this ball-sliders can't be slided fully out?
- for such "far" opening you should use sliders with 3 segments if you want full opening. With 2 segments it would be impossible to slide it (i see you are using 3 segments version, so ok, but keep that in mind),
- in your concept, slider is very far from the center of the case. It is even far from the middle of the wall. It means you will probably need two sliders on the opposite sides of the case to avoid blocking the cover on the side behind motherboard,
- slider mounting points on internal case need to be made on some frame. Such sliders are quite heavy, and if you will slide them out, then you will add some part of the cover's mass to those mounting points. 2mm frame design will make it too heavy (did you try to measure the future mass of the case in your CAD software?)
- slider is mounted with screws and there are no threaded holes in it, only simple holes, so you will have to attach it somehow to the cover,

- finally: firstly buy such slider and then design its mounting holes in the case. In my job i used such sliders in one of my simulators for testing ultrasonic and laser sensors for our wind turbines (such sliders aren't very stable and absorb many vibrations, and i needed such feature,nevermind). I took the CAD drawing from manufacturer's website and designed the frame of the prototype of my device. I ordered steel parts from laser-cutting company and then those sliders. I took 2 sliders from the same producer but with different lengths. Guess what. Both didn't match the CAD drawings taken earlier from the manufacturer's site. What is more, those were supposed to be made with the same mounting points and they weren't. It turns out that some of the manufacturers just take the steel bar with pre-cut-holes and cut it in the pieces on desired length and they do not make every-cut correction. Because of that, if with every cut they make some small error, they do not correct it, and errors starts to add to each other. It was even more odd because i picked them from of the most expensive ones, from, as i thought at that time, "good manufacturer". Next time i ordered the cheapest ones i found from some other manufacturer, and in this situation those had at least the same mounting points, but again this 2nd manufacturer were providing wrong 2D drawings. I'm not saying every producer will make such things, but i made two attempts and this is how it looked like.

Decide whether I should continue doing this...

As long as you have time and money for something like that, keep doing it. There is nothing better than making your own design according your own idea and bringing it to life.

 

[Ceros_X]

The case drawer idea is very nice! (Not much of a water cooling guy.)

 

[Sean Crees]

You do realize you've modeled that ITX motherboard upside down? The PCI-E connector would be at the top of the case.

Here is a high rez picture of the motherboard you used: http://images.anandtech.com/doci/7532/ASUS M6I - Top.jpg

The design looks like a Dan case with a bottom section for a 240 radiator.

 

[Phuncz]

Nice concept, I can't wait to see more !

 

[Thehack]

Great point about the PSU exhaust, I completely missed that.

A 1070 with i7 would output 20W of heat from the PSU. I don't think it'll affect things much.

 

[Sean Crees]

A 1070 with i7 would output 20W of heat from the PSU. I don't think it'll affect things much.

Depending on model used, if its overclocked, and the power efficiency of the rated PSU, it could be up to 50w of heat for an i7 and a 1070.

A K model i7 has a stock TDP of 91w but if overclocked could be upwards of 130w. A stock 1070 is 150w, then you gotta factor in power for all the other stuff, you could easily get a system like this up to around 300w. Then figure an 80+ bronze SFX PSU with an efficiency of around 82-84% and you get around 50w of heat.

You have to remember when you're designing a system, you have to account for all the possible hardware options. I find it best to work off worse case scenario combinations.

 

[Sure_Sh0t]

You do realize you've modeled that ITX motherboard upside down? The PCI-E connector would be at the top of the case.

Here is a high rez picture of the motherboard you used: http://images.anandtech.com/doci/7532/ASUS M6I - Top.jpg

The design looks like a Dan case with a bottom section for a 240 radiator.

Haha. I did say I am bad at modeling. For now I am just going to pretend the motherboard goes the other way

That's actually good news though as it eliminates the need for a cutout in the middle of the frame and the riser doesn't have to travel in front of the fans.

 

[Sure_Sh0t]

Very interesting idea.

My quick 2 cents about such ball-sliders:
- do you know that this ball-sliders can't be slided fully out?
- for such "far" opening you should use sliders with 3 segments if you want full opening. With 2 segments it would be impossible to slide it (i see you are using 3 segments version, so ok, but keep that in mind),
- in your concept, slider is very far from the center of the case. It is even far from the middle of the wall. It means you will probably need two sliders on the opposite sides of the case to avoid blocking the cover on the side behind motherboard,
- slider mounting points on internal case need to be made on some frame. Such sliders are quite heavy, and if you will slide them out, then you will add some part of the cover's mass to those mounting points. 2mm frame design will make it too heavy (did you try to measure the future mass of the case in your CAD software?)
- slider is mounted with screws and there are no threaded holes in it, only simple holes, so you will have to attach it somehow to the cover,

- finally: firstly buy such slider and then design its mounting holes in the case. In my job i used such sliders in one of my simulators for testing ultrasonic and laser sensors for our wind turbines (such sliders aren't very stable and absorb many vibrations, and i needed such feature,nevermind). I took the CAD drawing from manufacturer's website and designed the frame of the prototype of my device. I ordered steel parts from laser-cutting company and then those sliders. I took 2 sliders from the same producer but with different lengths. Guess what. Both didn't match the CAD drawings taken earlier from the manufacturer's site. What is more, those were supposed to be made with the same mounting points and they weren't. It turns out that some of the manufacturers just take the steel bar with pre-cut-holes and cut it in the pieces on desired length and they do not make every-cut correction. Because of that, if with every cut they make some small error, they do not correct it, and errors starts to add to each other. It was even more odd because i picked them from of the most expensive ones, from, as i thought at that time, "good manufacturer". Next time i ordered the cheapest ones i found from some other manufacturer, and in this situation those had at least the same mounting points, but again this 2nd manufacturer were providing wrong 2D drawings. I'm not saying every producer will make such things, but i made two attempts and this is how it looked like.




As long as you have time and money for something like that, keep doing it. There is nothing better than making your own design according your own idea and bringing it to life.

I don't have the wherewithal to do much of that but it is always interesting to learn from a pro!

I need to learn Autodesk before I can make a production quality model. This would be a good way to learn I guess.

 

[ImperialAlex]

I took the CAD drawing from manufacturer's website and designed the frame of the prototype of my device. I ordered steel parts from laser-cutting company and then those sliders. I took 2 sliders from the same producer but with different lengths. Guess what. Both didn't match the CAD drawings taken earlier from the manufacturer's site. What is more, those were supposed to be made with the same mounting points and they weren't. It turns out that some of the manufacturers just take the steel bar with pre-cut-holes and cut it in the pieces on desired length and they do not make every-cut correction. Because of that, if with every cut they make some small error, they do not correct it, and errors starts to add to each other. It was even more odd because i picked them from of the most expensive ones, from, as i thought at that time, "good manufacturer". Next time i ordered the cheapest ones i found from some other manufacturer, and in this situation those had at least the same mounting points, but again this 2nd manufacturer were providing wrong 2D drawings. I'm not saying every producer will make such things, but i made two attempts and this is how it looked like.

I just wanted to say that this kind of advice is what makes the SFF Forum so awesome. You've got so many people here (like @ZombiPL ) who are sharing their experiences and knowledge and that's why I love reading threads here because you'll always end up picking up something new.

EDIT: Instead of having the drawer system, a more "KISS" solution might be to take the bottom panel that's part of the "sheath/enclosure" right now and instead mount/attach it to the "tray". That might be beneficial for fan mounting/dust filters/etc anyway. Than you can have all four feet attached to the "tray", with the sheath simply sliding over it.

 

[Sure_Sh0t]

EDIT: Instead of having the drawer system, a more "KISS" solution might be to take the bottom panel that's part of the "sheath/enclosure" right now and instead mount/attach it to the "tray". That might be beneficial for fan mounting/dust filters/etc anyway. Than you can have all four feet attached to the "tray", with the sheath simply sliding over it.

That might make more sense given the shell is much lighter, so you would pull that out instead. That way the case would sit on the heavier tray, not the other way around and the slide wouldn't be bearing much of a load. Yeah, that is probably a much better way to do it.

I will make some changes after this weekend.