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

[rfarmer]

@Boil is 82mm the height of that daughter board? I have been waiting on measurements.

I was hoping to use this in my Ncase and watercool it but that isn't going to leave much room.

 

[Boil]

@Boil is 82mm the height of that daughter board? I have been waiting on measurements.

I was hoping to use this in my Ncase and watercool it but that isn't going to leave much room.

 

[Boil]

Alright me droogies, just pulled the trigger on a Cerberus chassis...!

Matte white / windowed left side panel / solid right side panel / internal SFX kit / black perforated top panel / black handle kit / top mount kit / black feet

@KSliger Got both top fan mounting options because I am not sure what my exhaust plan will be quite yet; I mean, I know what I WANT it to be, but I am not sure if that is what it WILL be...!

 

[Kuzan]

I have heard that the Cerberus (X) might come to europe resellers. How far is the project, is there any ETA? Would spare me a lot of costs I would imagine and I might pick one up finally since this looks like the ideal case for myself

 

[Jibbajabbawockers]

Managed to find this picture of a Cerberus X build that is pretty close to what I'm thinking of doing:

Question is- would a 3.5 inch drive/bracket fit below the GPU on one of the PCI expansion card tabs? Or would it be better served mounted vertically in the front below the PSU (minus a fan there of course)? Or would there be room to mount one somewhere else? Basically, could you mount a 3.5 inch HDD anywhere you have access to the infinite vents?

Motherboard:
I'm not really sure what you meant by a full size ATX. Do you just mean ATX, or do you mean the largest ATX, i.e E--ATX/XL-ATX etc.
I know Cerberus X might handle E-ATX with tight fit, but I still suggest ATX or smaller.

Yeah, I was just referring to a normal ATX size board as opposed to putting a mini-ITX board in the Cerberus X, maybe to save space. But a mini-ITX in a Cerberus X seems kind of like a waste of the space, unless I do that only to move the mini-ITX board into a smaller case down the road or something.

PSU:
SF750 is a good power supply. I just changed my HX1200i to SF750, by getting the SFX PSU front mounting kit from Sliger. However, I'm not sure if you can suffice with SF600 for the specs you've listed. A PSU calculator might help in that regard. In my location, the SF600 is only slightly cheaper, so I didn't think much of it, and went for SF750. They are wattage regulated anyhow.

I was leaning towards the 750 as I've learned to not cheap out on PSUs over the years, especially if I'm thinking of adding some more drives or an extra sound card or something down the road. I've just seen a fair amount of builds with 2080s that are using the SF600.

Showcasing:
Corsair SF series comes with relatively shorter cables, than the ATX PSUs. The SF750 comes with single sleeved cables, which is nice. But since Cerberus X haas little or no option for cable management, I myself had to get even shorter cables. Not sure if this information helps though.

I figure I should be ok getting creative with cable management with the SF750 to start. But probably once I put the whole thing together I'll go the extra mile and get some Pslate custom cables since they always look so nice in builds that use them.

Thanks for the reply!

From what I've seen most manufacturers recommend a minimum of 650 Watts continuous max draw for 2080/2080ti. I would recommend the SF750. Even if it is more than you "need," it just means that the PSU will run quieter and more efficiently. PSU's achieve maximum efficiency at roughly 50% of their max capacity. So, even if the sf600 would suffice, which it "probably" will, it is going to be running at 100% fan speed whenever the system is putting load on it.

That's another good point about the PSU running more efficiently I hadn't really considered. SF750 it is then!

 

[MarceloSiciliano]

So guys finished my build (for now):
Specs: CPU - 9700k 5.1GHz
GPU - RTX2080 Ti OC`ed to 2.125MHz
RAM - Dominator Platinum 32Gb 3200MHz
Storage - 970 Pro 512Gb and 970 EVO 1TB
PSU - SF750
Cooling - Heatkiller on the CPU and GPU, EK D5 Pump res combo, alphacool fittings, EK ZMT 10/16mm, EK XE 480 push/pull and EK SE 280 Push

 

[MuffinCrumbs]

Question is- would a 3.5 inch drive/bracket fit below the GPU on one of the PCI expansion card tabs? Or would it be better served mounted vertically in the front below the PSU (minus a fan there of course)? Or would there be room to mount one somewhere else? Basically, could you mount a 3.5 inch HDD anywhere you have access to the infinite vents?

Well, you could mount it anywhere to the front or bottom. But if to the front It'll most likely be to the side, and not laid down.

I've never really heard of anyone installing the 3.5" Drive bay bracket on the PCI expansion tabs. I guess it could somehow work, if it is tight and snugly fit. Well, enough fit to not move by the vibrations the disks inside the HDD makes. Though, I've always thought that HDDs should be laid flat, rather than being on the side, because of the disks inside making vibrations and can cause and instability. It should be okay, if it is well secured, stable and with a tight snug fit. I'd assume. But I've never done much research on the cons and pros to installing it sideways, rather than laid down.

But if you use the side where there are PCI expansion tabs, it might not give you any room for future upgrading, when it comes to future add-on PCIe cards. And that is probably a deal breaker with an HDDs in this case, having every side of the case filled up. Whist a SATA SSD is so solid state, that it can even be velcro taped or just placed in any orientation. I'm actually planning to velcro taping an SSD on the PSU, where it says SF750. Because there is no other good place. and I could most likely manage to do it in a nice way using 3M command velcro strips/tape.

But of course, it'll be a while till most people will replace HDDs with SSDs. SSDs are of course way more expensive, especially 1tb+ SSDs. So another option could be external drives, but of course, would rather want the HDD in the case.


EDIT:

Interesting though, because I just found this PCI 3.5" HDD bracket.

 

[kageiit]

With the 82mm tall SO-DIMM.2 M.2 riser card on the M-DTX motherboard, I do no think any PSU would be able to fit over the motherboard...!

This is the pic I have been looking at in regards to front panel fitment speculations...

So the above is a 280mm AIO & SFX-L PSU...

Will two 120mm x 25mm fans fit over the PSU & in front of the C14 input on the rear panel...?

Looks like the picture is from my build. I had to make a few changes later. Replaced with nzxt 280 (evga was a dud) and replaced top 120x25 with two 120x15. There is no way 2 120x25 would fit there as the clearances are extremely tight even for the 15mm fans

 

[MuffinCrumbs]

@KSliger

There will most likely be no USB-C and audio bracket anytime soon.
But I know you guys have worked on it. Assuming there are drawings or CAD work on it of some sort. Is it possible to get those, so we can make it ourselves or by someone?

 

[MarcParis]

Wanted some input as I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a Cerberus X for my next build.

I'm thinking of going with the Cerberus X so I can fit a full size ATX board in it, just for the extra flexibility that'll give in terms of upgrading stuff in the future. My rough plan right now is:
+ White Cerberus X with chrome handle, side window and black vented top
+ one of the new Ryzen CPUs (still waffling between the 3900X, 3800X and 3700X... waiting for benchmarks)
+ a full size ATX board (X470 or X570?)
+ Corsair H110i Platinum 240mm AIO
+ a Corsair SF750
+ 2 NVME SSDs + 1 2.5 inch SSD + an 8TB 3.5 inch drive (used for Plex) +
+ either a EVGA 2080 or 2080 Ti
+ 2 x8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3200 memory

All of that should fit in the Cerberus X, right? With the X, I'm going for a mostly all white build, hence the white Corsair memory and the white AIO and wanted the full side window on the Cerberus. I was thinking of putting the PSU in the front of the case, so you could see the AIO and all the RGB nonsense on the inside.

Questions!

- If I place the PSU in the front and have the handle, where does that leave possible mounting spots for my 3.5 inch drive?
From what I've gathered going through the forum, I'd maybe have room to stick it vertically along the front of the case under the PSU? Or maybe even in one of the expansion slots using the HDD bracket. I'm assuming if I'm mounting the PSU in the front corner, the only room I'd have for the AIO radiator would be the bottom, hence ruling out putting the HDD down there.

- Would any of the mounting options of the 3.5 inch listed above completely choke out airflow in the case to the point of not being feasible?

- With the above components, is the SF750 overkill or would a SF600 suffice?

- With all of the above, am I right in thinking that the only places to mount some extra case fans would then be under the handle mount at the top and the rear 92mm fan? And then possibly a front 120mm fan under the PSU, if I can mount the 3.5 inch drive on the expansion bracket?

I guess I'm just looking for some affirmation that all of this stuff could work reasonably in a Cerberus X since I'm new to SFF cases and it seems crazy to cram all of this stuff into a relatively compact case!

Welcome to Cerberus X club..

My first advice will be to go on SFX-L PSU, especially if you don't want a noisy computer on load (or after load...because SFX fan will continue to spin after load...very distracting).

My concern with your setup is the 8To 3.5 HDD. The only position should on front panel, in front of GPU. You could position it on side bracket, but with your setup I recommend to put only an exhaust 120mm fan there.

Alternative is also to use noctua C14S as cpu cooler and put HDD at bottom alongside intake 120mm fan.

ps : as global advice, forget 140mm fan with cerberus-x...stick to 120mm (very good of course..)

 

[vluft]

For the Cerberus X, does anyone know what combined radiator+fan width you can fit in the bottom position with a single-slot PCI-E card in slot 3 (from the bottom) is? It should be 38mm + whatever the clearance would be with a single slot card in slot 1, but I'm not clear on what the clearance is in that case.

 

[MarcParis]

For the Cerberus X, does anyone know what combined radiator+fan width you can fit in the bottom position with a single-slot PCI-E card in slot 3 (from the bottom) is? It should be 38mm + whatever the clearance would be with a single slot card in slot 1, but I'm not clear on what the clearance is in that case.

I guess XSPC TX240 (20.5mm thick) radiator and noctua NF-A12x15 (15mm thick) combo is the winner..

 

[vluft]

I guess XSPC TX240 (20.5mm thick) radiator and noctua NF-A12x15 (15mm thick) combo is the winner..

Just realized the X has 8 slots, not 7, which gives me at least 57 mm and... some amount from the bottom, judging from shots like this

so I think I'm likely safe at 65mm and can transfer my threadripper build with "why even have 60 spare pci-e lanes if you're not gonna use them" worth of cards

 

[Kuzan]

@KSliger Somewhere on reddit I read that there are plans to sell that case on caseking and another reseller in EU. I contacted caseking about a date but they said there aren't plans on listing cases from Sliger? I am confused should I wait for european reseller to sell the cerberus or should I just take the bitter pill and order from your website

 

[xingyeqin]

@KSliger I have an idea. As we can put 2*120 fans on the top bracket, can you design a lower psu bracket so that we can put a 240 radiator on the top? The cable is clear, cpu cooler can be shown, it's quite fit for the clear side panel and RGB.

 

[KSliger]

@KSliger Somewhere on reddit I read that there are plans to sell that case on caseking and another reseller in EU. I contacted caseking about a date but they said there aren't plans on listing cases from Sliger? I am confused should I wait for european reseller to sell the cerberus or should I just take the bitter pill and order from your website

No plans with CaseKing, but we are working with another distributor called DensityLabs out of Slovakia.

If you have time to wait and want to save I would wait for an upate on that. Otherwise our site is only option.

@KSliger I have an idea. As we can put 2*120 fans on the top bracket, can you design a lower psu bracket so that we can put a 240 radiator on the top? The cable is clear, cpu cooler can be shown, it's quite fit for the clear side panel and RGB.

Would require a full change of the layout, no plans right now to do that sorry.

 

[MarcParis]

Just realized the X has 8 slots, not 7, which gives me at least 57 mm and... some amount from the bottom, judging from shots like this

so I think I'm likely safe at 65mm and can transfer my threadripper build with "why even have 60 spare pci-e lanes if you're not gonna use them" worth of cards

Well in my cerberus-x I'm using an MCR 220 (27mm thick) and gentle typhoon (25mm thick)...and it's just in front of bottom i/o and I can't populate lowest pci slot (card is blocked by screw heads).
It depends what your space need.

 

[Ajax]

@KSliger

There will most likely be no USB-C and audio bracket anytime soon.
But I know you guys have worked on it. Assuming there are drawings or CAD work on it of some sort. Is it possible to get those, so we can make it ourselves or by someone?

Also curious about the USB-C + Front Panel Audio bracket for the Cerberus… IIRC this was supposed to be released at the beginning of the year, and I was really looking forward it. What happened?

 

[Chromavoid]

All,
I managed to find an image of a Cerberus side panel that was a combo of acrylic window on the lower half and the drilled vented on the upper. I assume this is either a custom or a no longer available option? or maybe it was a mock up, I cant tell. Anyways, any info to share? Anyone happen to have one in black gathering dust in their closet?

 

[MuffinCrumbs]

All,
I managed to find an image of a Cerberus side panel that was a combo of acrylic window on the lower half and the drilled vented on the upper. I assume this is either a custom or a no longer available option? or maybe it was a mock up, I cant tell. Anyways, any info to share? Anyone happen to have one in black gathering dust in their closet?

There are certain parts you can get by emailing Sliger. I'm not sure if this is one of them. But it wouldn't hurt to ask, I assume.