Hey y'all, this is my first post ever on here even though I've been a lurker for a while. I wanted to share some early progress I've made on the 3rd iteration of my custom 3d printed case. I originally started this process because I was upgrading my 7 year old pc from its monstrous 50L case and I decided that I wanted to try out going SFF. The issue was that I couldn't find a case that could fit all my requirements/components while being <10L without breaking the bank. Ultimately, being an engineer I decided I'd rather build my own case than spend hundreds of dollars on one. Earlier this year I designed and printed the first iteration of the case which I called ursa. It was 11.2L, and had support for a 3.5 slot GPU at <334mm length along with a 280mm AIO. I wasn't with it and decided to go for sub 10L after staring at my failure for the past 6 months or so. Unfortunately I can't access my PC at the moment so I cant get any actual renders, but here are some screenshots of the CAD progress on my current design that I took a bit ago. I would like to preface, relatively early in the design process, none of the venting on the panels, screw holes, final cutouts, etc. have been added yet and the desgn is mostly just blocking out features.
You may be asking, what are these specifications that you've been talking about? The original goal was to fit the following components into a sub 10L case: RTX 5090 FE, 9950x3D, 280mm AIO, SFX PSU. Unfortunately, I've found that unless some serious sacrifices are made in terms of cooling performance(essentially making the 280mm Rad useless), it's better to just go with a 240mm AIO to get the size of the case down. I believe I have now achieved the makings of a design that is able to deliver on this vision finally. Starlight measures 316mm*130mm*240mm (without case feet) thus giving it a volume of ~9.85L. I am going to be printing this case out of PPA-CF which is roughly 7x less stiff than aluminum meaning to make it as rigid as a typical case I need to make all the panels ~2x as thick. If I were to make this case out of aluminum, I could definitely get it down to 9.2L. I would also like to preface, the only GPUs this case fits are those with dimensions equal to or smaller than a 50 series FE card
While PPA-CF is plenty stiff, the case is designed to use all the mounting as structural members. The motherboard mounting spine running down the center allowing the sandwich style layout connects with a middle structural plate that screws into the front and rear panels thus creating a strong inner skeleton. From there we can just attach side panels for shear forces and we have a nice and sturdy case that could be picked up, put in a backpack, etc.
I'd really love to hear what directions people think I should go with the design such as side panel vents and otherwise. While I made this case to be functional, I'd love to make it beautiful and something people would want to make themselves as well. I've also attached images of renders of my previous Ursa case since I don't have any good pictures of the final product on hand at the moment. I'd also love to hear any feedback people have or ideas when it comes to structural design and otherwise.
You may be asking, what are these specifications that you've been talking about? The original goal was to fit the following components into a sub 10L case: RTX 5090 FE, 9950x3D, 280mm AIO, SFX PSU. Unfortunately, I've found that unless some serious sacrifices are made in terms of cooling performance(essentially making the 280mm Rad useless), it's better to just go with a 240mm AIO to get the size of the case down. I believe I have now achieved the makings of a design that is able to deliver on this vision finally. Starlight measures 316mm*130mm*240mm (without case feet) thus giving it a volume of ~9.85L. I am going to be printing this case out of PPA-CF which is roughly 7x less stiff than aluminum meaning to make it as rigid as a typical case I need to make all the panels ~2x as thick. If I were to make this case out of aluminum, I could definitely get it down to 9.2L. I would also like to preface, the only GPUs this case fits are those with dimensions equal to or smaller than a 50 series FE card
While PPA-CF is plenty stiff, the case is designed to use all the mounting as structural members. The motherboard mounting spine running down the center allowing the sandwich style layout connects with a middle structural plate that screws into the front and rear panels thus creating a strong inner skeleton. From there we can just attach side panels for shear forces and we have a nice and sturdy case that could be picked up, put in a backpack, etc.
I'd really love to hear what directions people think I should go with the design such as side panel vents and otherwise. While I made this case to be functional, I'd love to make it beautiful and something people would want to make themselves as well. I've also attached images of renders of my previous Ursa case since I don't have any good pictures of the final product on hand at the moment. I'd also love to hear any feedback people have or ideas when it comes to structural design and otherwise.
