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

[jsco]

I have an asus strix 1080ti and want to see how many space I hace to mount my new alphacool eisbaer lt240

got it. there's about 30mm of clearance in the front of the case and 69mm in the bottom.


with an SFX-L power supply, the power cables press against the GPU backplate. i leaned the card downward as far as i could using the elongated screw holes on the rear bracket, but the cables still push on the card a little bit.

also, having two fans in the bottom of the case actually RAISES the GPU temperature in a lot of my testing. with such a short distance between the fans and the GPU cooler, the airflow patterns of the case fans are interacting with the airflow patterns of the GPU fans and causing low pressure areas and turbulence. if you're going to mount an AIO in the bottom, i would highly recommend putting the fans underneath the radiator so that the intake airflow is laminarized by the radiator fins.

 

[Allhopeforhumanity]

also, having two fans in the bottom of the case actually RAISES the GPU temperature in a lot of my testing. with such a short distance between the fans and the GPU cooler, the airflow patterns of the case fans are interacting with the airflow patterns of the GPU fans and causing low pressure areas and turbulence. if you're going to mount an AIO in the bottom, i would highly recommend putting the fans underneath the radiator so that the intake airflow is laminarized by the radiator fins.

How much temperature increase have you been seeing?

If you think its a turbulence issue, might it be worth trying a flow plate like this one ( https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:432630 ) , as opposed to the LED rings that you have on there currently?

 

[KSliger]

 

[Allhopeforhumanity]

Ooooooooo Shiiiiineeeey! Are those chrome painted or polished aluminum panels?

 

[KSliger]

Ooooooooo Shiiiiineeeey! Are those chrome painted or polished aluminum panels?

Polished aluminum with chrome handle and feet. It's glorious! (but way too expensive)

 

[galletabah]

Can you measure the outside dimensions of that radiator? Should fit not problem, but I'm skeptical on the length.

I will have it tomorrow or wednerday

got it. there's about 30mm of clearance in the front of the case and 69mm in the bottom.


with an SFX-L power supply, the power cables press against the GPU backplate. i leaned the card downward as far as i could using the elongated screw holes on the rear bracket, but the cables still push on the card a little bit.

also, having two fans in the bottom of the case actually RAISES the GPU temperature in a lot of my testing. with such a short distance between the fans and the GPU cooler, the airflow patterns of the case fans are interacting with the airflow patterns of the GPU fans and causing low pressure areas and turbulence. if you're going to mount an AIO in the bottom, i would highly recommend putting the fans underneath the radiator so that the intake airflow is laminarized by the radiator fins.

ohh.
I will have a lot of problems them.
What temps do you have actually?

Thanks for the pics!

 

[MarcParis]

Invisible case...

 

[jsco]

with side panel removed, as much as 6-7 degrees C increase over fans at 0 RPM. this is worst at mid RPMs (1200-1500) and goes back down somewhat at max RPM (2000).

i only have a solid (non-vented) side panel to test with (packing error), but with that panel in place, the effect is milder. 0 RPM temps are higher than they were with no panel, low RPM (800-1100) are 1-2 degrees cooler than 0 RPM, mid-high RPM temps are 2-4 degrees higher again.

i would really like to test out some flow plates! i am not an aerodynamics engineer and i don't have a 3d printer, but it seems like the right part would make a big difference here. i'm not sure i could live with them aesthetically in this particular build, but it'd be nice to have hard data to apply to future builds.

and actually, you can see in the pictures that i'm using phanteks halos RGB rings on top of the bottom fans. these have a slightly smaller ID than the fan housing, which would generally be a bad thing, but in my case it actually seems to help a little bit.

 

[jsco]

What temps do you have actually?

i've seen as high as 84C in furmark, using the "OC" setting (+25/+90) and 120% power target in GPU tweak, with the panel closed and the fans running at exactly the wrong speed. still much better than the founders edition card, but much worse than usual for the strix.

 

[KSliger]

i've seen as high as 84C in furmark, using the "OC" setting (+25/+90) and 120% power target in GPU tweak, with the panel closed and the fans running at exactly the wrong speed. still much better than the founders edition card, but much worse than usual for the strix.

Have you tried setting a fan blowing in from front of chassis perpendicular the rear of the GPU?

 

[jsco]

Have you tried setting a fan blowing in from front of chassis perpendicular the rear of the GPU?

yes, briefly, with side panel removed. temp was the same as with no fan. i'm sure it would be better than no fan with the side panel in place.

i should also add that placing a single 140mm fan in the bottom center (instead of 2x140) improved temps across the board. there is also a noticeable sweet spot when you slide it side to side where it stops making loud turbulence, gets quiet, and temps go down. so i think my problem is specifically using two big fans to blow onto the 3 small fans on the strix cooler. it might be totally different with a 2 fan cooler like most aftermarket cards.

unfortunately, i like the way 2x140 bottom fans look, so i had to keep trying different speeds and configurations until i found something that worked at least a little bit. it still runs super quiet and maintains safe temps when OC'd at full system load, so it's still a success, just not as big of a success as i was imagining.

 

[Allhopeforhumanity]

i would really like to test out some flow plates! i am not an aerodynamics engineer and i don't have a 3d printer, but it seems like the right part would make a big difference here. i'm not sure i could live with them aesthetically in this particular build, but it'd be nice to have hard data to apply to future builds.

I may be able to source a 3-D printer to test print a couple of these. If the quality looks good, and they have extra space on the print bed, I'll shoot you a PM to try and get you a couple.

 

[jsco]

that would be awesome! i'd gladly pay shipping+materials. i will promise a comparison test if this pans out.

 

[loader963]

Polished aluminum with chrome handle and feet. It's glorious! (but way too expensive)

Got to be that guy, but can you give me a hint as to what something like that costs lol?

 

[KSliger]

Got to be that guy, but can you give me a hint as to what something like that costs lol?

I paid $125 to get them polished, not horrible, but that's right on top of panel costs so... ~$200 for polished panels

 

[Sancus]

FWIW I really like the hybrid GPUs in this case. Tubing is mildly irritating but the cards are on the small side compared to the typical 2 or 3 fan air cooled GPU arrangement, making cabling easier. I guess this is technically a "water cooled" build (yes, cheating).

 

[KSliger]

FWIW I really like the hybrid GPUs in this case. Tubing is mildly irritating but the cards are on the small side compared to the typical 2 or 3 fan air cooled GPU arrangement, making cabling easier. I guess this is technically a "water cooled" build (yes, cheating).

Love it! Replace that EVGA fan and cut your noise in half, it's good pressure but obnoxiously loud (least on mine it was)

 

[Sancus]

Love it! Replace that EVGA fan and cut your noise in half, it's good pressure but obnoxiously loud (least on mine it was)

Yeah I did actually, it has a Corsair ML120 on it now and I plugged it into the motherboard. Much better. It's inaudible except when playing games that have high GPU utilization. Old photo, I keep meaning to go back in and do a better cable job and then take new photos haha.

 

[galletabah]

Omg, I think I will cancel my AIO and get a tower cooler.
Sorry for the posible repeated question. Max height?

 

[EdZ]

SHINY AND CHROME!

I paid $125 to get them polished, not horrible, but that's right on top of panel costs so... ~$200 for polished panels

That's... not that bad actually. Tempted to swap from the beige Amiga-retro look to All Chrome All The Time (and give me the impetus to use chromed brass hardline rather than wimp out with Norprene).
::EDIT:: Also, because we're clearly in the future (regularly landing orbital rocket boosters, developing medical micromachines, etc), and everyone knows everything is chrome in the future.