Monolith - 8L Micro-ATX Case

[Colinreay]

Hey guys, hope you’re having a great day so far, and thank you so much for checking out my project log! Today I embark on the quest to build the most space efficient Micro-ATX case I can - in the end, who knows - it might just end up being the smallest in the world!
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I’ll try to keep my explanation and overview of this project as short as I can:


I’m a 15 year old high school student in the Bay Area, and really want to create a pc case. As I said above, space efficiency is my top priority. The case will be made out of laser cut 1/8 and 1/4 inch acrylic panels, and will be all held together with M3 screws, and Parvum mod cubes. My current projection for the total size (excluding feet) is a little under 8 liters, which puts it in the leagues of cases like the Dan Case A4, and Inwin H-Frame Mini. I’ll try to document my process of making the case, and will make all of the laser cut/3d part plans available for free online for anyone to try/modify! Also, if anyone has any questions/comments/suggestions along the way, please do comment, I’d love to hear them!


I adopted a similar vertical mounting system to the Dan Case A4, mounting the GPU and Flex-ATX PSU in a vertical position (this mounting layout is also similar to the Orthrus pc case.) I really want to maintain a clean and minimalist aesthetic throughout the build - hence the name “Monolith” - a large, minimalist slab of stone. I’m also using a 3m PCIe riser like the Dan Case A4, but a 500mm one.


Since the GPU and PSU dominate the left chamber, I want to make a custom SSD/2.5’’ shelf in the right chamber where the motherboard is (it’ll also cover up the silver 3M riser.) To clean things up, I want to make individual wire cutouts for sleeved cables I’ll be putting in, instead of normal large cable routing holes/grommets (this is the same direction Metallic Acid went in for his Air 240 build, and what p0pe does on many of his Hex Gear builds.) Hopefully I’ll be able to get one of iFreilicht’s RGB Vandal switches in the future aswell! Lastly, I’ll put some individually controlled RGB LED’s in there, because who doesn’t love those?​

Materials:

Have(Bought)/Shipping/Planned

General Hardware

CPU: AMD Athlon A10 7890K (HAVE)

CPU: Noctua NH-L9a (HAVE)

Mobo: MSI A88XM Gaming (HAVE)

RAM: 2x4GB Cheapo black PCB G.Skill (HAVE)

SSD: 120gb Intel 520 (HAVE)

GPU: EVGA 750Ti FTW (HAVE)

PSU: Seasonic SS-300M1U 300w Flex-ATX (HAVE)


Other misc. hardware:

SATA Cable: Silverstone CP11B-300mm Low Profile (HAVE)

Standoffs: Uxcell 6+6 M3 nylon standoffs (HAVE)

Nut: Uxcell M3 nylon nut (HAVE)

Screws: Uxcell 10mm M3 button head bolts (HAVE)

Acrylic: P95 Matte Black Acrylic + Cast clear acrylic from Tap Plastics (⅛ inch and ¼ inch) (Planned)

Construction: Parvum Modcubes (HAVE)

PCIe Riser: 3m 500mm PCIe x16 riser (HAVE)

Sleeving: UPC Aegis sleeve (Red, Grey, Black) + terminals, connectors (HAVE)

Wire: Buywireonline 16 AWG UL1007 (HAVE)

Cablecombs: Custom laser cut cable combs (HAVE)

GPU Bracket/holder: Custom 3d printed brackets (Planned)
​

So without further ado, let’s go!

Spoiler: First rough revision

This was my first design, and while not anywhere near to a final product, it did serve as a great way for me to just try test fitting different things, and coming up with ideas on how to mount stuff. Two things I've decided to change from this design is; no logo on the front for the case I think, and two; I'm flipping the GPU and PSU around, the GPU will be on top, and the PSU will be on the bottom.

Spoiler: Second Revision!

Anddd..... This is the second revision. Switching around the GPU and PSU and moving the bottom mod cubes to the underside of the case instead of the inside allowed me to make the case even smaller! I haven't finished the right side yet, hence no renders of it yet...

 

[LukeD]

That is a very nice looking design. I didn't quite catch what you're going to make it out of ? Is it going to be made of acrylic ?
Love the s-shaped vent.
One challenge you're going to have is:
Good Flex ATX psu's (platinum ones) are hard to come by. Gold and Bronze ones will be a little louder, due to the greater cooling requirement, due to the use of poorer components. You may want to think about supporting 1U PSU's (server grade)

And this is where your next challenge comes in, and that is: Component compatibility.
As you learn more about the components you're working with you will need to make provisions for them: brackets, mounting holes etc...
The less compatible with various components your case is, the less interest there will be in it.
Its a fine balancing act.

Project Orthrus started as a 11.9L project. Revision 2 is around 14L, due to the fact that I wanted it to appeal to X99 users as well and there simply wasn't any air coolers available that would work quietly with a socket 2011 cpu.

 

[Colinreay]

That is a very nice looking design. I didn't quite catch what you're going to make it out of ? Is it going to be made of acrylic ?
One challenge you're going to have is:
Good Flex ATX psu's (platinum ones) are hard to come by. Gold and Bronze ones will be a little louder, due to the greater cooling requirement, due to the use of poorer components. You may want to think about supporting 1U PSU's (server grade)

And this is where your next challenge comes in, and that is: Component compatibility.
As you learn more about the components you're working with you will need to make provisions for them: brackets, mounting holes etc...
The less compatible with various components your case is, the less interest there will be in it.
Its a fine balancing act.

Project Orthrus started as a 11.9L project. Revision 2 is around 14L, due to the fact that I wanted it to appeal to X99 users as well and there simply wasn't any air coolers available that would work quietly with a socket 2011 cpu.

Thanks for the great feedback sir! Orthrus was definitely one of the builds that sparked my interest to go back, and redesign my case to be even smaller and more efficient. You hit it on the head, I'll be using acrylic panels and mod cubes, pretty much how Parvum makes their cases . I already have a Flex-ATX PSU that I'm using in this build (granted, it is one of the Seasonics which sounds like a fighter jet taking off), but felt it was a good tradeoff for something I could afford, and something really small (although a 1U PSU would probably be an easy modification to the file.)

Good point about component compatibility, things like the distance that the connectors + wires coming from the GPU have to be taken into account, and it is things like that that are very hard for me to visualize unless I can measure things in real life with calipers. One of my ultimate goals would be for the community be able to access and modify the files to fit different components that I may not have thought of, that way people might be able to take this idea as inspiration (as well as many others), and make something awesome!

 

[Phuncz]

Awesome project, very well done on the renders and start post too !
Keep us updated on your progress, it's looks very interesting ! Are you releasing the design as an open-source project as I understand it ?

 

[Colinreay]

Awesome project, very well done on the renders and start post too !
Keep us updated on your progress, it's looks very interesting ! Are you releasing the design as an open-source project as I understand it ?

Thanks Phuncz for the kind words! Yes, the design will hopefully be open-source in the end, I'll try to make videos on the general idea and assembly for the case, and figure out a way to make all of the files for the case free and readily available. (Hopefully, Sketchup files, Step files, and SVG files for laser cutting.)

 

[iFreilicht]

Very cool! Open source designs haven't quite been established in the community yet (I only know of a single one that was made a few years ago and never caught on), so you're certainly testing new grounds there. Will you try to sell it anyway, or is it more like a scratch build that you will document so well that everyone can make it themselves?

Good Flex ATX psu's (platinum ones) are hard to come by.

Working on it!

 

[Colinreay]

Very cool! Open source designs haven't quite been established in the community yet (I only know of a single one that was made a few years ago and never caught on), so you're certainly testing new grounds there. Will you try to sell it anyway, or is it more like a scratch build that you will document so well that everyone can make it themselves

Thank you! I'm leaning towards the second option for this case, I don't have tons of time nor expertise to sell them, but it'd be great to see people build/modify it! Can't wait for the FSP Flex ATX (I believe that is still what you are working on?), as soon as I can buy one of those, I'll try to put it in the system.

 

[iFreilicht]

Thank you! I'm leaning towards the second option for this case, I don't have tons of time nor expertise to sell them, but it'd be great to see people build/modify it!

That certainly makes sense. Selling stuff is a tedious process.

Can't wait for the FSP Flex ATX (I believe that is still what you are working on?), as soon as I can buy one of those, I'll try to put it in the system.

It is indeed

 

[Colinreay]

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of updates, school has been really busy lately! I've gotten almost all of the hardware, just need to get the cooler (which is arriving today.) Hopefully I can finish up the case design this weekend, and post some hardware photos tomorrow.

 

[Colinreay]

WARNING: Picture dense post, proceed at your own risk; I now have everything I need (pictures of GPU, LED's and sleeving supplies are coming shortly). Semi-final renders are coming soon, just need to finish up some stuff!

Spoiler: Expand for pictures!

 

[iFreilicht]

Great pictures, thank you so much for putting them in spoiler tags! It always annoys the hell out of me when I go back to a log and have to wait two minutes for all the high-res pictures to load before I can scroll down properly.

 

[FCase]

Awesome case so please do not take my question for criticism:
Why build around mATX as opposed to ITX if you are only supporting one expansion card? Removing the advantage of multiple pcie slots defeats the purpose of mATX no?

FCase

 

[JP23]

Looking forward to the build!

 

[Soul_Est]

Awesome case so please do not take my question for criticism:
Why build around mATX as opposed to ITX if you are only supporting one expansion card? Removing the advantage of multiple pcie slots defeats the purpose of mATX no?

FCase

I believe the reason may be to support enthusiast platforms such as Intel's LGA 2011 v3 and AMD's AM3+.

 

[FCase]

I believe the reason may be to support enthusiast platforms such as Intel's LGA 2011 v3 and AMD's AM3+.

OK but 2011 v3 can be had in ITX and AM3+ will be supplanted by ZEN in a couple months and I'm sure they will support ITX. Also do enthusiasts who use those platforms not use their other slots? I'm still perplexed.

FCase

 

[Soul_Est]

OK but 2011 v3 can be had in ITX and AM3+ will be supplanted by ZEN in a couple months and I'm sure they will support ITX. Also do enthusiasts who use those platforms not use their other slots? I'm still perplexed.

FCase

That is true but there is also the addition of better power conversion and delivery, and more RAM which you do not get with Mini-ITX (those outliers notwithstanding).

 

[FCase]

That is true but there is also the addition of better power conversion and delivery, and more RAM which you do not get with Mini-ITX (those outliers notwithstanding).

Interesting. Thanks for the lesson.

FCase

 

[iFreilicht]

Additionally, you get lower minimum prices for mainboards. mATX boards can be ridiculously cheap. But yeah, more RAM and more choice on 2011-3 boards (for example, not being limited to Narrow ILM) are important factors.

 

[Colinreay]

Awesome case so please do not take my question for criticism:
Why build around mATX as opposed to ITX if you are only supporting one expansion card? Removing the advantage of multiple pcie slots defeats the purpose of mATX no?

FCase

Hey man, thanks for the feedback and question, sorry I only saw this now, I've been really busy lately! That's a great question, and if I was really doing this case for production, it would certainly be Mini-ITX (maybe something to talk about w/ Parvum.) Honestly though, my main motivation for doing this case was just to create something fun, and provide the resources to give other people ideas, and, well, I already had an M-ATX board, and couldn't really afford anything else. I might do another super SFF build w/ a Zen CPU and itx board if that becomes available

 

[Colinreay]

Well guys, it's back, and I'm making progress! Sorry it's been so long, I have finals in two weeks, Thanksgiving was busy, but I've found time here and there to work on it. I've bought all of the acrylic, and have everything I need now to complete this project! The only thing left now is to show you guys renders!

Spoiler: Expand for final renders!

Some quick notes: I'm still going to add a little arduino mount for some nice LED action, but that doesn't really play any part in the structural function/aesthetic of the case. I am going with the S-grill for the SSD cover, and the rear grill, I was planning to do it on a side panel, but realized the structural rigidity of the case might be seriously affected if I do that. I also am going to 3d print some parts, and will probably do those on 3d Hubs.