I am looking for all kinds of feedback for a custom SFF project that I have been kicking around in the concept phase for a little while
I was inspired by someone on youtube to venture into a custom PC case in the vein of the mac pro. so far this is what I have come up with
What I wanted to do was make a sff cylinder PC case using off the shelf or easily obtainable components. While apple has access to custom PCBs that they can use to make their trash can tiny, normal people don't have the same resources. due to this I recognize that the dimensions for the mac are unobtainable with off the shelf components but I wonder how close I can get to their 6.6'' diameter 9.9'' tall case.
Other niche and obscure manufactures have come up with products that are also cylinders like the korean made imagic Pi and the european Bottlenext Entropy come close to what i'm looking for their reliance on atx or sfx PSUs or in the case of the Pi the restriction of low height graphics cards which severely limits any potential performance out of a build in their cases I think i could scratch build something similar but with a volume much closer to Apple's product.
Sizing components:
The standard of mini itx says that a motherboard should be 170mm in length and width. I figure you could have the io internally obscured and have a hole for cords to enter into the case and routed to the rear IO.
Graphics cards nowadays can be found at 170mm or less up to the gtx 1070 and if you're willing to have the card taller than the motherboard there are even more options like the 1080 ti mini from zotac for slightly taller builds.
The PSU. with power consumption of builds at an all time low the need for giant power supplies has gone away leaving appealing options like the HDPLEX and the G-Unique pico PSUs being able to deliver enough power to run basically any itx build you can imagine. Using one of those tiny PSUs also removes the limiting factor that the standard SFX or ATX psu would impose on the size of a case such as this.
Cooling is the final factor to consider. as it is with a cpu cooler like a Cryorig C7 providing a slim height cooling solution to a CPU you can do more with less. in the sketchup design draft i have I have two 120mm by 25mm fans intaking from the bottom of the case and exhausting out the top to allow the components to breath but with a little expansion of the lower portion the case could conceivably support a aio cpu cooler like the silverstone td03-slim aio as intake.
As of June 7th i'm considering using galvanized steel duct for the shell and attaching the frame to the bottom of the case to house a power button and possibly the rear IO shield but this needs to be worked out more
So SFFFORUM what do you think? am I way off base or do you think this is doable? do you see any issues? let me know
I was inspired by someone on youtube to venture into a custom PC case in the vein of the mac pro. so far this is what I have come up with
What I wanted to do was make a sff cylinder PC case using off the shelf or easily obtainable components. While apple has access to custom PCBs that they can use to make their trash can tiny, normal people don't have the same resources. due to this I recognize that the dimensions for the mac are unobtainable with off the shelf components but I wonder how close I can get to their 6.6'' diameter 9.9'' tall case.
Other niche and obscure manufactures have come up with products that are also cylinders like the korean made imagic Pi and the european Bottlenext Entropy come close to what i'm looking for their reliance on atx or sfx PSUs or in the case of the Pi the restriction of low height graphics cards which severely limits any potential performance out of a build in their cases I think i could scratch build something similar but with a volume much closer to Apple's product.
Sizing components:
The standard of mini itx says that a motherboard should be 170mm in length and width. I figure you could have the io internally obscured and have a hole for cords to enter into the case and routed to the rear IO.
Graphics cards nowadays can be found at 170mm or less up to the gtx 1070 and if you're willing to have the card taller than the motherboard there are even more options like the 1080 ti mini from zotac for slightly taller builds.
The PSU. with power consumption of builds at an all time low the need for giant power supplies has gone away leaving appealing options like the HDPLEX and the G-Unique pico PSUs being able to deliver enough power to run basically any itx build you can imagine. Using one of those tiny PSUs also removes the limiting factor that the standard SFX or ATX psu would impose on the size of a case such as this.
Cooling is the final factor to consider. as it is with a cpu cooler like a Cryorig C7 providing a slim height cooling solution to a CPU you can do more with less. in the sketchup design draft i have I have two 120mm by 25mm fans intaking from the bottom of the case and exhausting out the top to allow the components to breath but with a little expansion of the lower portion the case could conceivably support a aio cpu cooler like the silverstone td03-slim aio as intake.
As of June 7th i'm considering using galvanized steel duct for the shell and attaching the frame to the bottom of the case to house a power button and possibly the rear IO shield but this needs to be worked out more
So SFFFORUM what do you think? am I way off base or do you think this is doable? do you see any issues? let me know
