Kimera Industries Project Nova: 17 liters of 5-slot mATX goodness

[jeshikat]

Hopefully with X190 we'll see mATX boards that address the issues of the current gen. Presumably it'll have PCIe 3.0 lanes off the chipset like Z170 and so it shouldn't be a problem to have both 32Gb/s M.2 and PCIe 3.0 x8 on the bottom slot at the same time.

 

[Phuncz]

Theoretically it would be possible with just the 28-lane CPU right now. With AMD this isn't a problem and you could even do triple Crossfire (x8/x8/x8) and still have 4 lanes for the M.2 or U.2 interface. But I'm not sure about Nvidia.

 

[iFreilicht]

Could you imagine how awesome a board with four PCIe x8 slots would be? Something like Quad-CF R9 Nanos in this case sound unreasonable but awesome to me

 

[Phuncz]

That would be one awesome "block" of GPU power. Dual SFX PSUs needed though

 

[jeshikat]

Theoretically it would be possible with just the 28-lane CPU right now. With AMD this isn't a problem and you could even do triple Crossfire (x8/x8/x8) and still have 4 lanes for the M.2 or U.2 interface. But I'm not sure about Nvidia.

28 lanes is enough in theory but from what I understand it's a limitation of how the lanes can be split up.

That would be one awesome "block" of GPU power. Dual SFX PSUs needed though

I think the only build config that would maybe make that work is a 240mm rad on the front and an ATX PSU. If a 120mm rad is sufficient for the 295X2 then a 240mm should work for quad Nanos.

 

[Jeffinslaw]

Could you imagine how awesome a board with four PCIe x8 slots would be? Something like Quad-CF R9 Nanos in this case sound unreasonable but awesome to me

Like this board? it would be pretty awesome.

https://grabcad.com/library/asus-z10pe-d8-ws-m-concept-x99-motherboard-1

 

[iFreilicht]

Yes, exactly like that one. Wouldn't even have to be dual-processor, that would be impossible to cool in the Nova with 4 GPUs.

 

[jeshikat]

There are dual-socket mATX boards but they use smaller sockets. With as many cores as you can get in a single chip with the high-end Xeons I don't think we'll ever see a board like that.

Edit: But yes, I really would like to see a mATX board with 4 full-length PCIe slots.

 

[jeshikat]

Test fit the medium SLI bridge (1-slot spacing) and it looks good

 

[PNP]

So this came in the mail today:

Straight outta Zhejiang, it might look like a standard 22mm SPST momentary anti-vandal switch, but it is perhaps the only one in the world with RGB lighting. It even came with a rubber gasket.

The switch mechanism survived despite being poorly packed, but I have no idea about the LEDs. They have an integral current limiting resistor on the cathode (which is fortunate because the datasheet neglects to mention any Vf) and the pins play nicely with standard female-female jumper cables so it should just be plug and play. Just needs a little soldering and shrinkwrap for the switch leads.

This resolves having to choose between a power indicator or an HDD indicator for the [redacted] and even leaves a third color for exciting possibilities. Of course, the catch is that the LEDs are rated at a fixed 24/12/6 V for some reason and most motherboards supply at most 5 V. Minimum load is 3 V so it might work, might not depending on the value of the mysterious resistor inside.

 

[jeshikat]

Oh noes, production design uses 16mm switches (panel cutout diameter)

 

[PNP]

...well, serves me right for modding cases that don't exist yet.

Wait! There are dual LED 16 mm SPST momentary anti-vandals. LEDs rated for 12 V but no mention of an internal resistor. All is not lost!

 

[jeshikat]

Ok, but fair warning, the current design for the audio headers will limit the power button length to ~20mm (measured from the bottom of the bezel to the end of the terminals).

 

[jeshikat]

Honest question though, do you find the HDD light useful?

 

[PNP]

Ok, but fair warning, the current design for the audio headers will limit the power button length to ~20mm (measured from the bottom of the bezel to the end of the terminals).

I'm in luck, then.

Honest question though, do you find the HDD light useful?

Mostly it's because the idea of unused motherboard headers bothers me and I'm a sucker for colored light.

But if I absolutely had to give a utilitarian reason I suppose it would be that in the Windows ME days, I could use the noise of a mechanical HDD to figure out if my machine was being slow but moving or deadlocked when Task Manager or CMD failed to appear. Nowadays with noiseless SSDs, that's not as easy. This is not important when a machine is new, but since I tend to run my hardware in one form or another until it's completely inoperable it becomes useful late in a machine's life.

 

[jeshikat]

Awesome! That's pretty much the exact size of what I have in the current prototype.

Ok, makes sense. I abhor unnecessary lights and most everything I own either has the LED unplugged, clipped off, or covered with electrical tape

 

[Phuncz]

I personally don't care for HDD activity LEDs, I have a combination of AIDA64 and RainMeter with a desktop graph showing me how much percent of usage there is and a history. No distractions !

 

[willemdoom]

I hate them, they always bother me and I prefer them not to be there, especially with such a clean case.

 

[skukza]

Definite preference for no external LEDs (other than maybe one integrated into power switch).

 

[iFreilicht]

But if I absolutely had to give a utilitarian reason I suppose it would be that in the Windows ME days, I could use the noise of a mechanical HDD to figure out if my machine was being slow but moving or deadlocked when Task Manager or CMD failed to appear. Nowadays with noiseless SSDs, that's not as easy. This is not important when a machine is new, but since I tend to run my hardware in one form or another until it's completely inoperable it becomes useful late in a machine's life.

If Task Manager isn't responding anymore, a small LED isn't going to save you

Personally, if I were to use an Activity LED, it would have to match the colour of my power button perfectly. My PC-Q12 has red and blue LEDs, and everytime the HDD does something it turns purple. Yuck!