Completed Caeruleum - Core P5 Inspired Custom Case

[NRG]

Hey all,

Back again after having a Corsair One and getting the itch to build a PC. I went balls to the wall and did a full custom loop in a Core P5 after falling in love with the open chassis style of cases (Even put the RAM on water).

I am left with this cable mess, Having waited nearly two months for my custom cables supplies to come, My eyes wandered to other builds I’ve seen. I ended up getting a Ghost S1 (Didn’t get the two large top hats so the build is postponed) and planned to do a small custom loop. A point that irked me was that I was going to have to forego my ATX motherboard, My full sized Platinum PSU and my 4 water cooled RAM sticks and RAM block. This motivated me to consider a full ATX sized SmFF (Smallish Form Factor) open style chassis that takes design points from the Core P5 and trying to maximise on part recycling in transitioning my builds.

From what started to a rough sketch on paper has developed to this initial draft of my concept, Bringing it here for peer review and some potential advice/enhancements that I’ve missed before I send it to a local sheet metal shop.

I’ll make some more renders and load in some components to help with the concept but this is what I have so far.

The plan is to have two 240 Rads mounted “externally” to the ATX footprint of the motherboard. The PSU will have to be SFX in order to meet my footprint requirements. My current build has one of those Phantek Glaciar 220 DDC Combos and I’m not sure there will be room for that but I will be making a bracket to mount the DDC pump on a plate that will use spare PCIE slots, So if that works then I will try to make a way to reuse my Glaciar in a similar fashion.

I’ve modeled cutouts for cables to match my motherboards I/O and the floating plate behind the motherboard tray will be the “cable management”. Still undecided how far I should space it off the backplate but that’s something I’ll work out down the track as it’s a simple matter of making standoffs, it really could be adjustable if need be.

It’s not shown in the picture, But every part is modular. The front and rear RAD mounts can be removed with a few screws and the case stand/feet can be raised/lowered to accommodate longer GPUs. I’m using a waterblocked 2080ti so my measurements are based around that.

 

[NRG]

Reserved

Build Log

Spoiler

OOOPPPPSSSSSS

Thanks for sticking it out to the end you mad lad!

 

[duynguyenle]

Not a bad concept. One thing I would be quite concerned about is the flexural rigidity of the various bits hanging about there. What you've got for PCIe retention and PSU mounting at the moment is basically two long thin cantilever beams with not a whole lot of stiffening. They're not even connected in the middle. The moment you put any weight on there, it's going to bend. Adding corner bracing would work, but depends on how much you value aesthetics, you might not want to go that route. Also your PSU is going to block a fair amount of total surface on the radiator.

There's also no bracing on the motherboard tray itself, with what essentially amounts to large weights hanging off to one side of the neutral axis (two large radiators and a PSU) with no cross bracing at the bottom, the whole thing will have a tendency to flex and bend and sag (if you look at your Core P5 system, you will notice that most of the heavy bits are mounted directly onto the tray, as close to the centre of gravity as possible. Keeping the heavy components low down and close to the motherboard tray is a good thing. Hanging them high up and far out is going to give you lots of problems.

Having a look at the back of the P5 also reveals that it's a closed box section, which is structurally quite a strong shape in terms of bending stiffness (think classical closed section thin walled beam not dissimilar to the C- and I-beams used in construction.

All in all, it's not a bad first start, but I think this needs some work.

 

[Windfall]

Hey all,

Back again after having a Corsair One and getting the itch to build a PC. I went balls to the wall and did a full custom loop in a Core P5 after falling in love with the open chassis style of cases (Even put the RAM on water).

I am left with this cable mess, Having waited nearly two months for my custom cables supplies to come, My eyes wandered to other builds I’ve seen. I ended up getting a Ghost S1 (Didn’t get the two large top hats so the build is postponed) and planned to do a small custom loop. A point that irked me was that I was going to have to forego my ATX motherboard, My full sized Platinum PSU and my 4 water cooled RAM sticks and RAM block. This motivated me to consider a full ATX sized SmFF (Smallish Form Factor) open style chassis that takes design points from the Core P5 and trying to maximise on part recycling in transitioning my builds.

From what started to a rough sketch on paper has developed to this initial draft of my concept, Bringing it here for peer review and some potential advice/enhancements that I’ve missed before I send it to a local sheet metal shop.

I’ll make some more renders and load in some components to help with the concept but this is what I have so far.

The plan is to have two 240 Rads mounted “externally” to the ATX footprint of the motherboard. The PSU will have to be SFX in order to meet my footprint requirements. My current build has one of those Phantek Glaciar 220 DDC Combos and I’m not sure there will be room for that but I will be making a bracket to mount the DDC pump on a plate that will use spare PCIE slots, So if that works then I will try to make a way to reuse my Glaciar in a similar fashion.

I’ve modeled cutouts for cables to match my motherboards I/O and the floating plate behind the motherboard tray will be the “cable management”. Still undecided how far I should space it off the backplate but that’s something I’ll work out down the track as it’s a simple matter of making standoffs, it really could be adjustable if need be.

It’s not shown in the picture, But every part is modular. The front and rear RAD mounts can be removed with a few screws and the case stand/feet can be raised/lowered to accommodate longer GPUs. I’m using a waterblocked 2080ti so my measurements are based around that.

You definitely need to use thicker metal (luckily changing that is easy in fusion).
I would recommend at least 16/14 gauge cold rolled steel for all load bearing parts!

Can't wait to see what you do.

 

[NRG]

Thank you both for the feedback. The intention was to use 2mm stainless steel and I'd have thought that'd be strong enough but I shall make some revisions over the weekend in an attempt to strengthen the chassis. The foot is intended to be 3mm stainless, I'm almost 100% that it'll take a decent amount of load. I do however think that the radiator mounts will need better support and have plans to implement in the next iteration. Looking forward to posting the next few steps

 

[Windfall]

Thank you both for the feedback. The intention was to use 2mm stainless steel and I'd have thought that'd be strong enough but I shall make some revisions over the weekend in an attempt to strengthen the chassis. The foot is intended to be 3mm stainless, I'm almost 100% that it'll take a decent amount of load. I do however think that the radiator mounts will need better support and have plans to implement in the next iteration. Looking forward to posting the next few steps

Can't wait to see what you do, it looks to be a cool project!

 

[duynguyenle]

Thank you both for the feedback. The intention was to use 2mm stainless steel and I'd have thought that'd be strong enough but I shall make some revisions over the weekend in an attempt to strengthen the chassis. The foot is intended to be 3mm stainless, I'm almost 100% that it'll take a decent amount of load. I do however think that the radiator mounts will need better support and have plans to implement in the next iteration. Looking forward to posting the next few steps

Of course just brute forcing it by using a thicker panel is a perfectly legitimate way to improve strength. Just make sure you provision enough fasteners at the joints to deal with the extra weight

 

[NRG]

Of course just brute forcing it by using a thicker panel is a perfectly legitimate way to improve strength. Just make sure you provision enough fasteners at the joints to deal with the extra weight

I've opted for the brute force method. Having played with some 3mm thick stainless steel at work, I'm more than confident that it will hold the weight. I have removed the modular nature of the front and rear rad plates as well as incorporated the case foot into the chassis. It will all hopefully come from a single sheet of stainless steel.

Here are the mock ups. Getting closer to contacting the local metal shop to discuss having this manufactured

Got some better renders on the way.

 

[danny.nguyen]

That psu wont hold well and it may bend over the time.

 

[wertigon]

I would probably still connect the PSU bracket to the extension cards bracket and fasten with a screw or two, and do the same thing with the extension cards bracket and the left holder. Since you already have screw holes there, this would provide enough structural integrity to the case to make it rock solid.

Perhaps you also want to have a slight support edge from the right side holding the PSU in place, or even better a supporting cross beam, but it's your case so...

 

[NRG]

That psu wont hold well and it may bend over the time.

I appreciate the feedback. I did however have a piece of 3mm stainless in hand from work today bent in a very similar fashion to how my psu bracket is. I could not bend the metal at all, it is definitely solid and I'm now more confident than I was that it would be suitable. I do however think they perhaps the weight may twist the radiator mount, although once the rad and fans is mounted it will stiffen any angular flexing.

I would probably still connect the PSU bracket to the extension cards bracket and fasten with a screw or two, and do the same thing with the extension cards bracket and the left holder. Since you already have screw holes there, this would provide enough structural integrity to the case to make it rock solid.

Perhaps you also want to have a slight support edge from the right side holding the PSU in place, or even better a supporting cross beam, but it's your case so...

The only problem with joining them like that is that the way that the bends are done, It simply wont be possible unless I make a jenky way of screwing them together after the fact. The PCIE bracket has M5 screws into the main 3mm thick chassis and is 2mm thick itself, which I think is more than enough. Any thicker and I'd start to have issues with cable clearances. Everything bar the PCIE bracket is from one single piece of 3mm thick stainless steel. It most definitely should be strong enough.

 

[NRG]

I placed my order through protocase this morning to have my chassis manufactured. Cross your fingers and pray I've measured everything correctly

 

[Windfall]

I placed my order through protocase this morning to have my chassis manufactured. Cross your fingers and pray I've measured everything correctly

Best of luck!
I've been where you're at, the anticipation of seeing your design become reality combined with the fear of having measured wrong.

 

[NRG]

Best of luck!
I've been where you're at, the anticipation of seeing your design become reality combined with the fear of having measured wrong.

Thank you, Can only hope it'll work out hahah

 

[Windfall]

Thank you, Can only hope it'll work out hahah

Wait, why do you even need this? You have Nova-00.

And people say wearing Gucci is flexing.

 

[NRG]

Wait, why do you even need this? You have Nova-00.

And people say wearing Gucci is flexing.

My beloved Nova is in the hands of another I’m afraid. Someone in Australia is showing it some love!

“It’s a hobby” - What I keep telling my gf :’)

 

[Windfall]

My beloved Nova is in the hands of another I’m afraid. Someone in Australia is showing it some love!

“It’s a hobby” - What I keep telling my gf :’)

Out of curiosity (no need to answer, sorry if I'm intruding) what is that prototype worth?

Yes, it is a hobby

 

[NRG]

Out of curiosity (no need to answer, sorry if I'm intruding) what is that prototype worth?

Yes, it is a hobby

I don’t recall specifically how much. James sold it at a reasonable price to me though.

 

[NRG]

It’s finally here!

Will start the tear down of my current pc soon

 

[Shatrod]

its beautiful