Hello, I joined becuse...

I'm fed up of waiting for Lian-Li to launch the 011D Mini.
5 months of delays, sat with hardware waiting to go into the build. I think I may just build my own instead!

 

[Skripka]

Howdy!

One thing not available is an opportunity to find something else you like. Loads of options of cases out there for ITX these days.

 

[Phuncz]

Welcome to the forum ! Waiting on a case is the worst, of the first world problems.

 

[Toothy]

Thank you. Very much a first world problem! ☺

The current hardware I have for the Lian-Li build, consists of a mATX board, SFX PSU, a 280 and 2x360 radiators. Plus a small-ish D5 pump/res. CPU and GPU on water.
I started doing some CAD package studies around these components and was coming out to something like 26-28L. I understand this a bit larger than most cases built here. However, as I now have the components, I would like to explore my options and work with what I have.
I'm a design engineer by trade, so hoping to apply my skills into something a little different.

Anything you think may provide me inspiration.Then feel free to share. I think I can come to a suitable layout OK, but need to look better at construction. I'll start a proper build / design thread once/if I flesh this out a bit more.

 

[Phuncz]

Start from a simple box with the motherboard in the center, the 360 radiators at the ends and the 280 radiator in between. The SFX PSU will have a place somewhere without issue. Then take a look at every aspect of that bounding box: what can you do to decrease the sizes ? Maybe overlap the board ? Maybe double-stack the radiators ? Would the size be able to shrink with the radiator parallel to the board (like the Lian-Li O11) ? And so on.

Just let your mind come up with solutions to each "problem" when you try to minimize the build.