Concept Needle - small footprint, fully watercooled build at 7L

[robbee]

Hello there!

I've been drawing and tinkering on a new build for the last couple of weeks and I feel like I finally have something to show you guys!

The idea is to build a completely watercooled PC that can house a reference size GPU of current gen (Navi & Turing) and make the footprint as tiny as possible. For this to work, I need have a couple of specific (hardware) requirements:

- Vertical GPU: to make the footprint tiny, the GPU will need to be installed vertically. I don't like cables coming out of the top so I'll be using DP and HDMI risers to mount them on the back.

- Single slot GPU: Being watercooled makes this one not too hard. There are plenty of cards with single slot IO in the current gen. I'll probably go for the 5700 (XT).

- Alphacool Eisbaer LT pump/block combo: I want to limit cpu height clearance to the minimum and this seems like the lowest option that doesn't require an external pump (which there is no room for).

- Alphacool double 80mm radiator: Adding up the thickness of the GPU, standoffs, motherboard, socket and cooler comes up at about 77-78mm. Along with some extra clearance and tolerance, this makes this radiator a perfect match to be mounted above the stack i've created. Add a pair of 80mm chromax Noctua fans to that and we should be good to go.

- As for the PSU, there's plenty of room for Flex, but I hate noise and I still have a HDPlex 400 combo from a previous project, so I'll use that.

Complete list of supported hardware:
- Single slot gpu up to 272mm long and 140mm high
- Up to 2x 2.5mm drives at 7mm, or a single thicker drive (only when using a reference height GPU)
- About 40mm of cpu cooler clearance
- Flex atx or HDPlex PSU
- Double 80mm radiator (afaik Alphacool is the only one that's readily available)

Holding everything together will be a spine that's made of a single piece of 1.5mm stainless steel. I'll then 3D print an enclosure and might attempt to make parts of the enclosure in acrylic to showcase the insides.

Dimensions will be 88mm x 212mm x 380mm, for a grand total of about 7 liters.



CURRENT STATUS: collected most hardware and the spine is being laser cut. Should receive it in 1-2 weeks.

 

[Poblopuablo]

How do you plan to use display outputs on gpu? You'll need some very low profile extenders so they done hit the fan. Looks nice! Cable management will need to be on point! But then again you are a "Master of Cramming"!

 

[robbee]

How do you plan to use display outputs on gpu? You'll need some very low profile extenders so they done hit the fan. Looks nice! Cable management will need to be on point! But then again you are a "Master of Cramming"!

Hey there! I've ordered these DP and HDMI extension cables from ADT-Link which are very low profile and mount to the spine. The spine part will be mounted under the AC input. They're actually not in the screenshots, but you can see on the latest screenshot that there's some room left there.

 

[Poblopuablo]

Hey there! I've ordered these DP and HDMI extension cables from ADT-Link which are very low profile and mount to the spine. The spine part will be mounted under the AC input. They're actually not in the screenshots, but you can see on the latest screenshot that there's some room left there.

View attachment 765

Didn't realize they made something so low profile. Damn! Will be excited to see this when it comes to fruition!

 

[Poblopuablo]

Some have claimed that is is not wise to bend pcie extension cables. Not 100% sure of this. But something to keep in mind if you notice any issues. I have also heard other say that they notice no issue. Either way, I look forward to seeing progress!

 

[robbee]

Some have claimed that is is not wise to bend pcie extension cables. Not 100% sure of this. But something to keep in mind if you notice any issues. I have also heard other say that they notice no issue. Either way, I look forward to seeing progress!

Bending the riser is one of the thing I'm most anxious about. Seeing the reviews on the Velka 7, it seems possible but not pleasant. I will need to do a similar double bend. If it's really an issue, I did find an alternative in the form of the Comino riser: https://comino.com/en/risers/
They're expensive though, so I'm gonna try with a standard riser first.

 

[robbee]

So I managed to score an RX5700 for €230 and will be flashing the 5700XT bios on it.

As for the water block, I'd love to get a Heatkiller block because they're beautiful, but it's about 2mm thicker than an EKWB single slot block. That leaves about .5mm of margin... LET'S DO IT!

 

[Poblopuablo]

Bending the riser is one of the thing I'm most anxious about. Seeing the reviews on the Velka 7, it seems possible but not pleasant. I will need to do a similar double bend. If it's really an issue, I did find an alternative in the form of the Comino riser: https://comino.com/en/risers/
They're expensive though, so I'm gonna try with a standard riser first.

That pcb would be too thick looks about 30mm tall or so.

Edit: it's actually 39mm for the standard ("universal") but they do have a "compact" one that is only 26mm so that might fit. (Granted you even have issues)

 

[robbee]

Edit: it's actually 39mm for the standard ("universal") but they do have a "compact" one that is only 26mm so that might fit. (Granted you even have issues)

Yeah, the 'compact riser' was the one I was looking at. Although having an extra power cable could make cable management even more challenging. But I'm not so far into the project yet, first things first: the spine.

This might be a good time to talk about some of the choices I made with the spine and why I made them.

The main worry I had was cost. Of course I could've designed a way more advanced part, with the factory doing bends, extrusion, stamping, finishing, etc. But as this is a one-off project (probably), this would easily push cost way too high. So I went for a technique which is cheap for a single piece because it requires no tooling and little work hours: lasercutting.

The other things that need to happen (bending, threading, inserts, finish) will be done by myself. This will be a challenge but I think I'm up to the task

 

[Sicaris]

This is fantastic to see! I'd love to tackle some bending myself but being in a tiny apartment without tools or space I've been reluctant to try. I'm eager to watch your progress.

 

[robbee]

This is fantastic to see! I'd love to tackle some bending myself but being in a tiny apartment without tools or space I've been reluctant to try. I'm eager to watch your progress.

As for space, not a lot is required. I don't have a special bending brake, but I have these things that insert into a bench vise and they work really well.

 

[Sicaris]

Well then! Sounds like I don't have much of an excuse. Thanks for bringing those to my attention, do they have a specific name I should search for? Time to shop for a vise and probably a workmate to mount it to!

 

[robbee]

Well then! Sounds like I don't have much of an excuse. Thanks for bringing those to my attention, do they have a specific name I should search for? Time to shop for a vise and probably a workmate to mount it to!

It's called vice brake in English. Googling for 'bend sheet metal in a vice' in your language will probably tell you how it's called in your own language.

 

[Sicaris]

Awesome, thanks again!

 

[BaK]

Looks great, nice project and ideas!

Hey there! I've ordered these DP and HDMI extension cables from ADT-Link which are very low profile and mount to the spine. The spine part will be mounted under the AC input. They're actually not in the screenshots, but you can see on the latest screenshot that there's some room left there.

View attachment 765

Good find! I was actually waiting for the DP to be released, nice to see ADT finally did it!

Bending the riser is one of the thing I'm most anxious about. Seeing the reviews on the Velka 7, it seems possible but not pleasant. I will need to do a similar double bend. If it's really an issue, I did find an alternative in the form of the Comino riser: https://comino.com/en/risers/
They're expensive though, so I'm gonna try with a standard riser first.

We had some talking earlier about the double bend riser thing and @yawacool form Li-Heat was kind enough to provide some measurements. In case that helps...

The PCIe flexible riser card has standard features from Li-heat Ltd.

Edit date 2018/9/12 Technical specifications The most complete PCIe x16 GEN3.0 extension adapter X16 GEN3 system 1M long serial test: X4 GEN3 system 1M long, no loss of the series test: Support for Intel and AMD New published video: In fact，PCIe this interface，its pin contains three...

smallformfactor.net

 

[robbee]

We had some talking earlier about the double bend riser thing and @yawacool form Li-Heat was kind enough to provide some measurements. In case that helps...

Hey thanks, that's useful! I actually own a Li-heat riser that I used for a sandwich layout earlier, but it's too short for this build. I found them quite stiff though, so ordered an ADT-link riser for this project. They have a silicon cover which is hopefully a bit more flexible.

I think I'll be fine, there should be about 8mm room for the bend. (5mm motherboard standoff + 1.5mm hole in spine + 5mm gpu standoff - Xmm GPU backplate - Xmm CPU cooler backplate)

Also a little status update, the spine has been cut and sent, I guess it'll be here shortly after the weekend. Got his picture from the factory, which looks good:

 

[REVOCCASES]

The ADT riser cables are also quite stiff. But you can get the fold below 6mm or something if you use enough force. Managed to get the bend behind the PSU in my NUC1 build.

 

[BaK]

There is an 'ultra-thin' R33UF-THU ADT riser, that should be more flexible, but to no available unfortunately:

55.0US $ |Ultra Thin GPU Graphics Card Extension Cable PCIe 3.0 x16 Extender riser Card PCI e 16x flexible cable 30cm 1FT for W1 ITX case|Computer Cables & Connectors| - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

Dunno if they make other kind with the same cables...

 

[BaK]

Missed the spine yesterday, so neat!
Looking forward how you are going to deal with it next, especially the bending!
May I ask what price they asked you for laser cutting it?

 

[robbee]

Missed the spine yesterday, so neat!
Looking forward how you are going to deal with it next, especially the bending!
May I ask what price they asked you for laser cutting it?

It was $29.29 for the lasercutting and $24 for shipping from CN to EU. The manufacturer is Facfox, if you were wondering.