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

[EdZ]

Note that if you want to put an mATX board in the Cerberus-X there is nothing to physically block it: the problem is the standoffs are permanent installs (due to anchoring directly in the backplate) and for an ATX board to fit, there are three standoffs not present. These three standoffs (B,R and S) would normally support the entire lower half of an mATX board, so installing one means the expansion slot section is unsupported. If you are willing to install your own standoffs (self-adhesive plastic standoffs are ugly but easy to apply) you can use an mATX board in Cerberus-X.

 

[Pyrath]

Thanks for pointing that out EdZ, with the number of people wanting to mod the case/repaint/custom glass side panel, adding some standoffs is hardly a huge ask.

By my own measurements I can confirm with reasonable certianty that a ITX build with SFX psu can fit 360 (240+120) rad and leave the side panel completely unmolested for conversion into a beautiful clear wonderland. If you're not utterly married to your mATX board, EK makes a waterblock for the z270i board.

 

[MarcParis]

Personnally i prefer dual 240mm radiator with atx board and compact watercooling stuff, like apogee drive ii and radiator/reservoir or even aio.

Why limit yourself to mini itx in atx case? Take define nano s, or upcoming tg version...you will save 300-400$ just on case itself...

 

[Phuncz]

EDIT: see image a few posts down

Oh dear, finally a new mATX motherboard with two PCIe x16 slots ! Although I'm only seeing AMD Crossfire being mentioned, not Nvidia SLI. It seems ASRock has skimped on that one...

 

[MaskedNozza]

Well thanks for the advice. I'll be getting the Cerberus either way, regardless of if the full wc loop is possible because of the strength, design, aesthetic and portability of the case. It looks like the best option will be to double check that I can fit the rads in the case once I have it. Ideally I would probably have the res at front-bottom, drives at rear bottom, psu at front top, and slim 240 rad on the side bracket. Fingers crossed! And hurry up with that ETA, KI! I'm desperate for my next case!

 

[Pyrath]

Personnally i prefer dual 240mm radiator with atx board and compact watercooling stuff, like apogee drive ii and radiator/reservoir or even aio.

Why limit yourself to mini itx in atx case? Take define nano s, or upcoming tg version...you will save 300-400$ just on case itself...

It ends up being aesthetics. If I wanted the smallest possible watercooled ITX build, I would make an M1 or something homebrew out of acrylic. Fractal's smaller cases are great, but still too big, not to mention I've been in fractal cases since 2011 and want a break from their styling. Cerberus-X is the best way for me to cram all my goodies inside a tower-styled case and not feel like I'm wasting space, while still preserving the ~ ~ a e s t h e t i c ~ ~ I want. Namely, a big ol side panel window to look at all the parts.

 

[MarcParis]

RGB and TG are pure evil..

 

[MaskedNozza]

Well that's odd. A whole bunch of messages never showed up for me when I made that post yesterday....

Anyway, thanks for that idea, EDZ. I'll let my cousin know. He'll probably go for a new ATX board anyway, but he'll appreciate the suggestion.

And thanks for the suggestion Pyrath, but itx is a no-go for me since I use that internal capture card, and may go to sli later down the track.

 

[VegetableStu]

videocardz does anti-hotlinking

EDIT: Going by similar Z270M boards it's like those larger ITX layouts, i.e. 16x and PCH 4x

 

[MarcParis]

Pci-e 16x are badly placed for Cerberus.
Definitively having one pcie 1x before is great for front psu (sfx-l) compatibility.

 

[MaskedNozza]

@VegetableStu I'm not sure what you meant by that. What's anti-hotlinking? What's PCH? I looked them up and neither seem to make sense in the context. Perhaps I'm getting the definitions wrong?

 

[VegetableStu]

@VegetableStu I'm not sure what you meant by that. What's anti-hotlinking? What's PCH? I looked them up and neither seem to make sense in the context. Perhaps I'm getting the definitions wrong?

ahh wait no that's another topic started by phunz above o_o

PCH's the chipset of the motherboard. Stuff like Z270 or X370 or B250 or X399, they're not just model names, they do exist physically on the board.
PCH stands for Platform Controller Hub, from an Intel thing. A bit more in depth of what it is and was

 

[MarcParis]

I've just made some physical trials on my cerberus-X, especially about radiator compatibility and watercooling integration inside cerberus-X.

Just sum-up :

• Rear PSU mount, even with SFX psu, is very restrictive on height above cpu area. (too tight in my personal case for tubing)
• Dual 240mm radiator is clearly feasible but with some compromises :
  • Front 240mm radiator should have fans on external (fan with 15mm thickness are completely compatible with front panel) due to tubing. This will require special length screw dedicated to fans and radiator thread.
  • Even going with dual AIO, it's almost mandatory to have customed tubes length...standard tubes length (300-400mm) are too long while putting 2 aio in Cerberus-X.
  • Custom watercooling with optimised hard tubes is the best way to watercooling in Cerberus-X
• TRY to avoid to put single radiator on bottom, with fan placed as intake...(like my setup below)...it's, indeed, pretty good for CPU cooling, but really bad for GPU, as it's received warmed air as intake. Based on my today's experiment, my GPU just lost 10°C on temperature and 700-800rpm on fan speed without CPU radiator below it (I'll share my new setup by tomorrow)
• 

 

[VegetableStu]

(fan with 15mm thickness are completely compatible with front panel)

Any pics from the side with the front panel back on? kinda curious how much gap is there for airflow (maybe tomorrow when you update)

 

[MarcParis]

No issue, will do that tomorrow..

 

[dbjungle]

I dont like AMD cpus nor do I like ATI/AMD GPU's. Ill be honest, I never even considered an AMD cpu. When I was growing up, you didnt mix Nvidia and AMD... It might be worth looking into. But that still doesnt solve my case problem. A quick read from a few forums and articles says ryzen is hot and uses more power... no thanks, that defeats the quiet purpose of this build.

FYI, the "Ryzen hot" rumors are just a bunch of misinformed people spreading misinformation. I have a Ryzen 1700 on air and the thing rarely ever cracks 50C even under a heavy gaming load. Also, the Ryzen 7 CPUs run significantly cooler based on their max temperatures compared to Kaby Lake CPUs. When you compare Threadripper to Skylake X it's the same story. It's fair if you don't want to consider AMD CPUs, but just wanted to point out that the temperature thing is very far from the truth.

On a side note, when I first built this PC, I ran the Aida 64 stress test for over an hour and it was like 62C max the entire time. These CPUs are intended to not exceed 90C. The 1800X runs hotter than this, but not a lot hotter. If you watch the youtube reviews you'll see the same thing. Typically you'll reach an uncomfortable voltage OC'ing a Ryzen CPU before you reach an uncomfortable temperature.

 

[MarcParis]

Uncorrect...don't compare intel and amd max temperature, as they are not reporting same temperature...and tdp are also calculated differently.

For ryzen cpu, R7 1700 is reporting t° junction...and this temperature should not exceed 70°c to avoid any damage on long term.

Similarly ryzen offset temperature on xfr processor is rather useless and misleading. In fact, when cpu is not overclocked, there is no offset..it seems to appear only when xfr cpu are overclocked.

Ps : i own r7 1700x (just in case)

 

[MarcParis]

Any pics from the side with the front panel back on? kinda curious how much gap is there for airflow (maybe tomorrow when you update)

Here you are :

screw of 3/4" or 20mm length are required..

 

[Qrash]

Here you are :

screw of 3/4" or 20mm length are required..

What is the distance from the front of the fan to the inside of the front panel?

 

[MarcParis]

i would say something like 7-8mm between fan and front panel