Hi SFF, I have recently seen the 1080 hot rod build from LinusTechTip and discovered the Small Form Factor build. I had encountered small form factor computer before like Alienware X51/Alpha, or ASUS G20. But all of them did not impress me due to the lack of power. However, the NFC S4 Mini case really strike my interest. Then I found out about the Sentry, which is also an awesome case that remind me the Portal Turret. While these two cases are great, there are still some compromises that I am not willing to take personally. For the S4 Mini, it would be the external adapter. For the Sentry, it would be the need to use small GPU if I want water cooling.
There is also that in both cases, you cannot really showcase the internal of the machine due to the GPU is facing other way from the motherboard
That's why I tried to come up with my own solution for this. For me that have no background in design or engineering or anything related, just because I am so enamored with the idea of small but powerful PC, I have abused my student account to get a AutoCAD license and arranged something like this:
Update:
Have not updated for a while. I changed the design again cause having the case holding the mb, rad and psu hovering is probably not a good idea.
This time I have also punched all the holes for the components and add tbolts to hold the acrylic parts together. This way, I can actually access every component independently without taking the whole setup apart.
The next thing is to lay these acrylic parts down to 2D drawing. I kinda need some advice on this because every single prototyping company has different format. Is it possible to put everything onto one pdf page?
If the design works, I plan to change the material of the parts into metal so that I can either increase the sturdiness or just stick with the lightness of acrylic depends on how many metal parts I swap in
Some feedback would be nice
Old stuff
There is also that in both cases, you cannot really showcase the internal of the machine due to the GPU is facing other way from the motherboard
That's why I tried to come up with my own solution for this. For me that have no background in design or engineering or anything related, just because I am so enamored with the idea of small but powerful PC, I have abused my student account to get a AutoCAD license and arranged something like this:
Update:
Have not updated for a while. I changed the design again cause having the case holding the mb, rad and psu hovering is probably not a good idea.
This time I have also punched all the holes for the components and add tbolts to hold the acrylic parts together. This way, I can actually access every component independently without taking the whole setup apart.
The next thing is to lay these acrylic parts down to 2D drawing. I kinda need some advice on this because every single prototyping company has different format. Is it possible to put everything onto one pdf page?
If the design works, I plan to change the material of the parts into metal so that I can either increase the sturdiness or just stick with the lightness of acrylic depends on how many metal parts I swap in
Some feedback would be nice
Old stuff
So I looked into the AIO market and there are literally no decent 120mm cooler, the smallest acceptable AIO would have to be a 240mm or 140mm. So I have to redo the setup again to go with a 240mm AIO. Here it is
- The PSU is back to a SFX again. Right now it's probably only the SF600 is viable, but I think more are coming
- The AIO is now a 240mm cooler
- The height is increased again to accommodate the AIO. Now it stand at 430mm. The volume is 430mm x 310mm x 65mm = 8.6L (Back to the original volume I envisioned)
I think I am going to stick with this layout and move on to the punching holes for mounting and stuff. I have already compensate for the 5mm thick Acrylic which is going to be the material for the case. If it comes out nicely, I think I can change the material to 0.1 ~ 0.2 mm thickness steel
(As the beginner me, AutoCAD is torture, and my 390x struggled with it to boot)
So the idea here is not really new, but some touches were made to fit my preference:
- The GPU is face up to match the motherboard so that I can show the internal rig with transparent panel. The riser will go the space under the card, which also allows two SSDs to be mounted
- The custom water cooling loop is at the top of the rig, in the concept is the 60mm x3 radiator with 25mm thick fans, the empty space next to it will be for the pump and reservoir
The resulted internal volume of the case would be 310mm x 370mm x 75mm = 8.6L. That's a little bit bigger than Sentry's 7L but still smaller than Node 202's 10.2L
I plan to use acrylic for the whole case (please don't underestimate the power of a poor student). The case would be held together by acrylic parts instead of screws. If I go with that route, I can just design every part of the case and send it to a CNC or Laser Factory to be manufactured.
The next part of the development is to plan out the mounting holes and the part that would assemble the case. But before that, if there is any interest of feedback please don't hesitate to let me know. All opinions are valuable to me as this is the first time I have done something like this ever, and also forgive my ESL
Update: After reading some comment, I made some changes to the setup:
- As you can see, the PSU and the cooler's positions are now swapped
- The PSU is now a 1U PSU, the standard size is 240x100x40.5 for a wattage level of 700W
- The WC is changed from a custom loop to a standard AIO cooler, the one being shown is a H80i, the measured space is still enough for a 140mm AIO like the X42, but it will eat into the clearance for PCI-E plug
- One SSD is moved to the top of the PSU
- I have to increase the height of the case to 400mm, but by going back to a AIO cooler, I can shrink the thickness down to 65mm, which make the volume equal to 400x310x65 = 8.06L => Even less than the original 8.6L
- The low height PSU also leaves a lot of space, which I think is for cable management
More comments and feedback. are much appreciated...
- The PSU is back to a SFX again. Right now it's probably only the SF600 is viable, but I think more are coming
- The AIO is now a 240mm cooler
- The height is increased again to accommodate the AIO. Now it stand at 430mm. The volume is 430mm x 310mm x 65mm = 8.6L (Back to the original volume I envisioned)
I think I am going to stick with this layout and move on to the punching holes for mounting and stuff. I have already compensate for the 5mm thick Acrylic which is going to be the material for the case. If it comes out nicely, I think I can change the material to 0.1 ~ 0.2 mm thickness steel
(As the beginner me, AutoCAD is torture, and my 390x struggled with it to boot)
So the idea here is not really new, but some touches were made to fit my preference:
- The GPU is face up to match the motherboard so that I can show the internal rig with transparent panel. The riser will go the space under the card, which also allows two SSDs to be mounted
- The custom water cooling loop is at the top of the rig, in the concept is the 60mm x3 radiator with 25mm thick fans, the empty space next to it will be for the pump and reservoir
The resulted internal volume of the case would be 310mm x 370mm x 75mm = 8.6L. That's a little bit bigger than Sentry's 7L but still smaller than Node 202's 10.2L
I plan to use acrylic for the whole case (please don't underestimate the power of a poor student). The case would be held together by acrylic parts instead of screws. If I go with that route, I can just design every part of the case and send it to a CNC or Laser Factory to be manufactured.
The next part of the development is to plan out the mounting holes and the part that would assemble the case. But before that, if there is any interest of feedback please don't hesitate to let me know. All opinions are valuable to me as this is the first time I have done something like this ever, and also forgive my ESL
Update: After reading some comment, I made some changes to the setup:
- As you can see, the PSU and the cooler's positions are now swapped
- The PSU is now a 1U PSU, the standard size is 240x100x40.5 for a wattage level of 700W
- The WC is changed from a custom loop to a standard AIO cooler, the one being shown is a H80i, the measured space is still enough for a 140mm AIO like the X42, but it will eat into the clearance for PCI-E plug
- One SSD is moved to the top of the PSU
- I have to increase the height of the case to 400mm, but by going back to a AIO cooler, I can shrink the thickness down to 65mm, which make the volume equal to 400x310x65 = 8.06L => Even less than the original 8.6L
- The low height PSU also leaves a lot of space, which I think is for cable management
More comments and feedback. are much appreciated...
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