Chimera Industries Cerberus: The 18L, mATX, USA-made enclosure

[SirRolls]

So how do I get my hands on one of these smexy cases

 

[Biowarejak]

So how do I get my hands on one of these smexy cases

Gotta wait till it's ready for prime-time

 

[Pyrath]

So how do I get my hands on one of these smexy cases

Just buy all the parts and set them up in a cardboard box or cheap old case, and have a box full of very shiny watercooling parts chilling... waiting... And visit this thread about three times daily. One of these days.........

EDIT: I'd suggest you explore the rest of the website - there are plenty of other really cool cases and build logs in this subforum, and the articles the SFF guys publish are really good!

 

[MarcParis]

Be careful, you need compact watercooling inside cerberus or cerberus x..

 

[VegetableStu]

In other "Boards That Fit In The Cerberus" news, Videocardz has a picture of an MSI X299-A PRO motherboard.

Catch #1: Kabylake-X only.

LATE EDIT: It's official.

 

[MarcParis]

Well, for better compatibility with sfx-l psu, it's better that 1st pcie slot is only 1x..
Not mandatory but great for cable management..

 

[dbjungle]

Is there any time table on this case?

 

[MarcParis]

No ETA yet.

You can look at my latest Cerberus-X setup to try to find some patience...but I truly understand your unpatience..

 

[bafbaf]

Two quick questions.

1. I assume E-Atx mainboards fit the Cerb-X? The ones like Asus X99-ws or the new tr4 ones. I think they are just a bit wider than normal atx.

2. What about gpu watercooler support? IIRC someone had trouble with the size of his waterblock so the door wouldn't close. I can't recall if that was an especially large one.

Thanks!

 

[MarcParis]

Yes we discussed about tr4 and e-atx mb...and they are fitting in cerberus-x.

For gpu waterblock, it was on larger asus strix version. Consider you can fit msi gtx 1070/1080 in width (ie 140mm width from bottom of pcie16x to power pcie connector not offseted). Thus if you go to reference model you can fit standard waterblock.
After another alternative could be considered is to use nzxt or evga kit to fit aio..

 

[AleksandarK]

Two quick questions.

1. I assume E-Atx mainboards fit the Cerb-X? The ones like Asus X99-ws or the new tr4 ones. I think they are just a bit wider than normal atx.

2. What about gpu watercooler support? IIRC someone had trouble with the size of his waterblock so the door wouldn't close. I can't recall if that was an especially large one.

Thanks!

For gpu waterblock, it was on larger asus strix version. Consider you can fit msi gtx 1070/1080 in width (ie 140mm width from bottom of pcie16x to power pcie connector not offseted). Thus if you go to reference model you can fit standard waterblock.
After another alternative could be considered is to use nzxt or evga kit to fit aio..

Or simply mod the case for vertical GPU.

 

[VegetableStu]

I assume E-Atx mainboards fit the Cerb-X? The ones like Asus X99-ws or the new tr4 ones. I think they are just a bit wider than normal atx.

Check if the TR4 board you're looking at fits within the outline of the X99-E WS (as a guide). Also (the last on this topic (quoted below), if nothing's revised since) you'd definitely can't use the SFX mouting bracket on it, but not that you'd be getting one for X299 or X399 anyway.

Can the SFX bracket still be installed when the motherboard is installed first ?

Ok, double checked the CAD model and the the X99-E WS will not fit with the SFX bracket installed.

 

[MarcParis]

Good point i forgot to mention psu needs to go on rear position

 

[Nasp]

MSI just announced a new mATX x299 board. The X299 M Gaming Pro Carbon! It will serve all Skylake-x x299 CPUs.

 

[VegetableStu]

From site > Spec > Detail

Supports Intel® Core™ X-Series Processor Family for LGA2066 Socket
* X299M GAMING PRO CARBON AC does not support Intel® Core™ i7-7740X and i5-7640X processors.

They did make two boards for SKLX and KBLX, LOL

 

[Nasp]

From site > Spec > Detail



They did make two boards for SKLX and KBLX, LOL

Wow! Ok. I hope they made the Kaby Lake X board much cheaper or I don't really see the point. When all the other board manufacturers support both Kaby Lake X and Sky Lake X, why would MSI differentiate their boards like this?

 

[loader963]

I believe gigabyte has a cheapo atx board that will only work with Kabylake as well. As rock might too.

 

[VegetableStu]

I hope they made the Kaby Lake X board much cheaper or I don't really see the point.

I hear you man, I don't see the point recommending this over the Z270 system (unless it's better specced than the others in terms of IO and storage, and that feels kind of a stretch at most)

When all the other board manufacturers support both Kaby Lake X and Sky Lake X, why would MSI differentiate their boards like this?

Oh this one you can point to Intel for this. Basically the motherboard makers have to figure out how to physically route and divert PCIe lanes for both a spread-out configuration (x16 x16 x8 / x16 x8 x4) and a switching configuration (x16 x0 x0 / x8 x8 x0) which is much easier on a full ATX board

EVGA's inclusive solution makes the last slot electrically a x4 (EDIT: this x4 is from the X299 PCH) on both a 28-lane CPU and a 44-lane cpu, so that's the 4 lane compromise on the highest end. And not only that, a KBLX CPU would be forced to a x8 x8 x4 config

 

[VegetableStu]

Did some extra homework on the PCIe lane thing and thought I'd post it here instead of my other thread (since I'm talking about it here). So within MSI they have these particular three boards: Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon, Z270 Mortar, and the X299-A Pro. Their PCIe layout is quite interesting:

That makes:

• The ATX board quite the usual
• The Z270 mATX board basically an oversized ITX board with the extra PCH lanes
  • Something almost all AMD mATX boards suffers from
• The X299 mATX board a more flexible and logical alternative, but also potentially more expensive.

EDIT: even more digging:

Now outside of MSI, the proposition of the X299M KBLX board diminishes, because:

• if one just want an i7 and mATX, Asrock's Z270M Extreme4 and Gigabyte's Z270MX Gaming 5 got both covered. Those boards already does x8 x8 x4-ish, so why more $$ on it unless maybe wanting that 5ghz?
• if one wants x8 x8 x4-ish and an X299 and an mATX, the EVGA X299 Micro board actually makes better sense, especially the off-chance of switching to a SKL-X CPU if that apple ever falls. (bonus points for CPU heatsink clearance)
  • EDIT: yeah a hole in this argument: KBLX CPUs on EVGA's X299 will be set in x8 x8 and there's no switch for it to go x16 x0, so there's that argument for MSI's KBLX board
• If one wants two m.2 slots, that Asrock board and the Asus Strix Z270G got that covered (although the Asus board does x1 from the PCH on the last slot)

That being said, I think the X299-A is mostly covered by other Z270 boards already. Except becoming feverishly fast, but that's about it.

Oh yes, I looked up AMD's mATX offerings as well. Not one of any is willing to split that x16 from the CPU.

 

[ssj]

Hope you somehow make it also possible for Europeans to get ahold of the cases.