Mini ITX build with Noctua-D15 Performance Gaming PC

[neyurt]

I apologize for the lack of updates as there aren't new photos to show.

At this point I'm fairly satisfied with my RTX 2080 TI (V2-B) and the altnerative V3 (Mini GTX 1080 ti) builds.

I am currently trying to come up with case designs to house them. I get a lot of questions and request about commercializing my case design.

Building a case for myself is easy as I can vary the complexity base on my own patience and tolerance but building a commercial case means I have to consider my case to be compatible with different set of variation of parts (mainly GPU sizes). So a lot more extra details would have to come into the design to satisfy those requirements.

But I am working on a case design that's hopefully can stir more interests. From talking to a few experienced individuals, this venture only makes sense if a good amount of people are interested for the first batch as most manufacturer has a "minimum units" for ordering a mass production.

But please voice your interest so I'd know to keep working on something for public consumption! I'd appreciate the feedback.

 

[SilverJS]

You can definitely consider me keenly interested. Small, powerful and silent - you can usually only have two of those three. But with your case, that paradigm changes significantly.

 

[neyurt]

You can definitely consider me keenly interested. Small, powerful and silent - you can usually only have two of those three. But with your case, that paradigm changes significantly.

I will start a new thread for case design separately to discuss case design. It'll be a good place to see what people might want so I can incorporate new ideas and changes for a final case product.

And I will continue to keep and update this thread when I want/need to experiment with prototype and performance testing.

 

[neyurt]

I have started a new thread for case design and prototype here:

SFF Forum:
https://smallformfactor.net/forum/t...led-truely-silent-high-performance-case.9940/

Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/sffpc/comments/abdoil/uniq1_112l_miniitx_uniquely_aircooled_truely/

 

[SilverJS]

By the way, one more thought (and I did see the Reddit thread, btw) : I'll just posit that you might not have to cater to that wide of a gpu swathe. Folks on these forums are VERY used to having fairly limited component selection - witness all the half-height builds or two-slot max builds, or even the legions of S4M owners like myself who are limited to 215mm GPU's (which is still pretty good, considering).

Although I see you've devised a solution to adapt your case idea to a very wide variety of GPU's (can't say as I wholly understand it, but I'll take your word for it), all I'm saying is that no one in these parts would bat an eyelash if you restricted the GPU selection to some measurements, or form factors, or what have you.

From what I understand, a 1080 chip is a 1080 chip is a 1080 chip (slight binning aside for some of the higher-end models), so once you remove the cooler, you remove the single most dramatic differentiating variable between them all. So, with that, you might as well go for the cheapest, or smallest, or the one that fits your tower build best.

Just my $0.02 - and it might be worth even less than that...

 

[neyurt]

By the way, one more thought (and I did see the Reddit thread, btw) : I'll just posit that you might not have to cater to that wide of a gpu swathe. Folks on these forums are VERY used to having fairly limited component selection - witness all the half-height builds or two-slot max builds, or even the legions of S4M owners like myself who are limited to 215mm GPU's (which is still pretty good, considering).

Although I see you've devised a solution to adapt your case idea to a very wide variety of GPU's (can't say as I wholly understand it, but I'll take your word for it), all I'm saying is that no one in these parts would bat an eyelash if you restricted the GPU selection to some measurements, or form factors, or what have you.

From what I understand, a 1080 chip is a 1080 chip is a 1080 chip (slight binning aside for some of the higher-end models), so once you remove the cooler, you remove the single most dramatic differentiating variable between them all. So, with that, you might as well go for the cheapest, or smallest, or the one that fits your tower build best.

Just my $0.02 - and it might be worth even less than that...

Hey thanks for the tip! I really appreciate that you're looking out for me!

I will keep the design parameters to fully house my V2-Dark tower build, and will not attempt to add more volumes to support larger video card. Supporting other video cards and conventional builds is secondary objective and that's just working within the frame that I have already designed for.

And I think you are correct that once you remove the AIB coolers/fans, you're left with a very similar PCB across most vendors. This is what I was thinking as well when I first tried to buy a gtx 1080 ti to use with a g12, I was definitely just looking for the cheapest card I could find.

 

[SilverJS]

No worries, my pleasure! Glad I can be of help. I'm serious when I say I'm excited about this, and I want to see it succeed. I love my S4M and will keep it for a long time, but when yours is available, I'm just about sure I'll bite.

 

[VegetableStu]

just to add to the 1080 point: there are positioning differences with the GPU die when it comes to custom cards relative to the PCIe board connector. also it'll be different between major stacks and generations

also certain cards are built better than others in terms of power delivery, but so far reference-board cards should be above average

one way i'd tackle this is (if trying to cover as many as possible) is to remove the PCI bracket on the GPU and run it mounted relative to the cooler, so the differences goes out of the window, but that'll put a lot of trust on the case mounting mechanism for the GPU cooler. another would be just to do reference cards, but then it'll be locked to a specific stack and generation of cards (depending on the positioning of the die. within the 10-series cards the 1080(ti) and the 1070 should be the same, but 1060 might be different (unless EVGA does 1060 cards on the same 1070/80 board))

 

[neyurt]

just to add to the 1080 point: there are positioning differences with the GPU die when it comes to custom cards relative to the PCIe board connector. also it'll be different between major stacks and generations

also certain cards are built better than others in terms of power delivery, but so far reference-board cards should be above average

one way i'd tackle this is (if trying to cover as many as possible) is to remove the PCI bracket on the GPU and run it mounted relative to the cooler, so the differences goes out of the window, but that'll put a lot of trust on the case mounting mechanism for the GPU cooler. another would be just to do reference cards, but then it'll be locked to a specific stack and generation of cards (depending on the positioning of the die. within the 10-series cards the 1080(ti) and the 1070 should be the same, but 1060 might be different (unless EVGA does 1060 cards on the same 1070/80 board))

This is definitely a solid concern and that is why I derived the PCIE mounting brackets in my case design thread (check it out if you haven't!). GPU once mounted onto the bracket (via standard pcie 2-slots spacing), the bracket then can be mount-adjusted both vertically and horizontally directly to the case frame so the cooler mounted on the GPU can "land" and stack on a good spot in reference to the other components.

Im hoping this would take care of MOST variations of the mounting holes and die location on different GPUs.

 

[SilverJS]

Yeah, I think that's an elegant and practical solution.

 

[neyurt]

I promised that I'd still update this thread to include all my experiments/prototyping adventures. I added update #14 as I'm starting to build a pseudo prototype (not the real full aluminium one)

 

[DrDogbreath]

About 7 years later yet my 2017 NH-D15S cooled de-lidded overclocked 5GHz all core 8700K itx gaming build with 1080ti is still my main system in Fractal Design Core 500 case:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/b/PbCbt6