Motherboard Asus PIO B150M: it's here

chx

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May 18, 2016
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Got it from taobao via Superbuy. Pretty painless process.

I am planning to create a minimal sized case based on this board.

The CPU Is not yet here so I can't post anything working yet but I have dimensions: from the left edge to the the top of PCI flange of a full height card it's quite exactly 30cm. Of course you need to plan for PCIe power and cards like the Gigabyte 1070 Mini so the minimal case width 33cm.

From the bottom of the board to the top of the PCI slot it's 11mm. From the bottom of the board to the edge of a single slot card it's 23mm, I suspect a two slot will be 44-45mm -- quite close to 1U, I guess. Plus of course standoffs.

The means a minimal height case would fit a 34mm CPU cooler or so which means it's prudent to adjust just a little bit up to 37mm so a Noctua NH-L9i can fit. Alternatively, some other heatsink plus a thin 140mm fan would fit. I measured it and you can place a 140mm such that it is behind the ports, clears the RAM and doesn't collide with the video card. Barely but possible.

This would make the case from the case bottom 53mm high. This seems to be the minimal anyways if one wants to use an ordinary I/O shield, too.

Finally, it's 202mm deep so that's the case depth. This makes for a <4L case.

But. I am wondering whether a Flex ATX PSU would make more sense than a huge brick and a DC-ATX PSU. I could get a custom cover made wtih lots of vents for a series of Flex ATX PSUs and leave vent holes for two 80mm x 10mm fans on top so it's both quiet and well cooled. After all, there's 53mm and the PSU is just 40mm plus 10mm fan would fit easily. My problem with AC-DC adapters is that it's essentially cheating on the case size and weight. It's not worth it IMO. Two bricks for some of them? Come now. This would add another 80mm to the case width and not change anything else. 410 * 202 * 53 makes for a ~4.5L case and with an internal PSU and it's quiet.

Another interesting point which might be visible from the photo but I missed it: the mini PCIe slot fits full sized but it has the screw for half sized too.
 
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jeshikat

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dimensions: from the left edge to the the top of PCI flange of a full height card it's quite exactly 30cm.

Do you mean from the bottom edge of the motherboard?

This would make the case from the case bottom 53mm high.

1mm (case bottom) + 7mm (a 8mm standoff minus sheet thickness) + 1.6mm (mobo PCB) + 8mm (IHS height) + 37mm (L9i) + 1mm (cover) = 55.6mm

And having the CPU fan right up against a vent causes extra turbulence noise, so increasing the case height a bit wouldn't be a bad idea if L9i support plus low noise is a priority.
 

chx

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Do you mean from the bottom edge of the motherboard?

No, left edge, the card lies to the right of the motherboard, that's the beauty of PIO. 20cm for MB, another 10cm for the card.

1mm (case bottom) + 7mm (a 8mm standoff minus sheet thickness) + 1.6mm (mobo PCB) + 8mm (IHS height) + 37mm (L9i) + 1mm (cover) = 55.6mm

And having the CPU fan right up against a vent causes extra turbulence noise, so increasing the case height a bit wouldn't be a bad idea if L9i support plus low noise is a priority.

Yes, low noise is very high priority. How much space would you leave? You are the master :)
 

jeshikat

Jessica. Wayward SFF.n Founder
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No, left edge, the card lies to the right of the motherboard, that's the beauty of PIO.

Ok, we're talking about the same edge then. Historically I believe it'd be referred to as left and right like you're talking about since most PCs were horizontal. But these days those are usually referred to as the top and bottom edges.

How much space would you leave? You are the master

@K888D has done more testing on this than I have really.

But I'd say at least 4-5mm, with more needed if the vent pattern is restrictive. If the vent pattern is very open, then maybe you could get away with less.
 

chx

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Well, if we are raising and raise our target to be <5L then we can do a the copper 1U passive heatsink + 13mm thin 140mm fan attached to the top route... mmm :) with a Fllex ATX PSU in there there's no problem with powering CPUs... I wonder what could we cool quietly :)
 
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K888D

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Anything less than gap 2mm and your in jet engine territory, around 5mm is significantly quieter but still with some turbulence noise at high rpms. You need upwards of 10mm gap to completely eliminate turbulence but that just isnt practical.

If you replace a vent pattern with a dust filter instead i.e. open panel with dust filter covering the hole, then you can bring this gap down to 2mm with minimal turbulence noise. The fine mesh of a dust filter acts differently to larger open slots so you can get closer to them with less turbulence noise.
 

chx

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Well, then the big question is: is there a market for a 60mm high, 5L flex ATX powered barebone which can take any mini GPU -- without risers or small fans?

I am not the first to think that flex ATX could be cooled towards the top: http://www.global-spares.com/fuente...alinfo-compucase-7630-7314-hec-300sr-ats.html http://www.ebay.com/itm/142400538032?rmvSB=true (this is often listed as a TFX PSU but it's not) https://www.atxpowersupplies.com/240-watt-power-supply-Shuttle-PC35I2402.php (a bit weak)
 
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jeshikat

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The proportions are a bit awkward though, but if the frame was strong enough to stack a monitor on top then it could maybe serve as a miniature Cryorig Taku:

 

chx

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Well, I was planning on having vents on top which makes that sort of strength hard to acquire.
 

jeshikat

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With the vents facing down (convection is irrelevant at the scale of a SFF case once fans are involved) and good frame design it's doable. But like you said, need to figure out if there's a market for this form factor before going to the trouble of designing it to stack on monitor or TV on top of it.
 

chx

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Due to life changes this is up for sale (or something) if someone wants it. Needs to be January tho, I am not in BC until.