Log New plaything build based on eBay ITX find: Casetronics C137

[princess_daphie]

So this case seems to be discontinued, but I was happily surprised to find a decently priced OEM version of that case in great shape on eBay and I bought it for a nice price (69$), and am itching to make a build in it for fun!

I also recently bought an nVidia Quadro M4000 just for the kick of it, because I love the form factor, and it's still about as powerful as a gtx 1050 or 1050 ti or something.

This baby will require some modding as well to fit (the 6pin connector is right up the edge of the case, hahaha, but it should work!

Also, I thought I'd only need a straight riser PCB to reach the PCIe slots, but I also need an extension in the other direction, ala Silverstone early SFF cases.

To be continued...

 

[princess_daphie]

C137 Mini-ITX case

Casetronic C137 Mini-ITX enclosure with

www.casetronic.com

5.65L with a RTX 3060ti and some room to spare?! That's what I want to attempt. I know it fits, haha, just gotta know the thermals. It will probably end up with that Quadro card long term though, or my RTX 2060, not sure.

Crazy that that case dates back from 2003. That explains the PCI riser, loll, but gotta say it withstood the passage of time with brilliance!

This case might not be the peculiar layout I was hoping for lately, but it's still pretty cool! It's gonna satiate my addiction for a while.

 

[princess_daphie]

I ordered these:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32902495819.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32987905927.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005905057383.html

And they should allow me to connect any combination of PCIe cards in this case. With some very specific mATX case, I could even plug in 2 different cards at the same time with this layout!

I'm tempted to order another one of these:

AC-DC250W PFC switching power supply AC 90-264V 12V 19V 24V 48V 5.21A DC Voltage regulator power Module Expansion board Module​

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004992822044.html

or one of these:

MEAN WELL LSP-160​

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005904218123.html

because there's a beautiful spot to position an internal power supply in this case as well! The main issue I see is where the hell would I put the bigger connector at the back!!!

 

[confusis]

I love these more industrial cases!

 

[BaK]

MEAN WELL LSP-160

 

[princess_daphie]

So, as for an update on this build, I have unfortunate news. Even with all the risers I've ordered, there is no way to connect the graphics card The measurements are wrong. The distance works well with the short extender, but the height is not "standard" 40mm, but a couple millimeters higher.

I'm using the build temporarily with a flexible riser cable, but as I've always feared with these pieces of junk, trying to make things neat, I probably kinked the cable and it's now not as reliable depending on how it's shaped.

I ordered a different riser, the last possibility I've found for using a hard PCB riser, but I don't know if it'll even work, since it's a bifurcation riser, but at least I'm 99% sure it has slightly higher positioned PCIe slots, so there's a chance things will at least plug in properly:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002332998954.html

I'll update you all with pictures soon, and when I receive this thing.

 

[robbee]

Check out the Adt-link R33C. I've tested a lot of angled pcb risers for my Yocto case and this has been by far the most reliable one. Supports pcie 4.0 without any issues.

 

[princess_daphie]

Check out the Adt-link R33C. I've tested a lot of angled pcb risers for my Yocto case and this has been by far the most reliable one. Supports pcie 4.0 without any issues.

Yeah, those look neat, I've been tempted to buy one of those instead of the blue one I got, BUT, the problem I have right now is not the reliability, but the measurements. Most angled pcb risers are either 20mm, 40mm or 60mm, but it seems that my case has really uncommon measurements, probably around 45mm, so I can't use any of the common risers. That's why I tried ordering this weird bifurcation riser. It definitely looks to be a bit taller and the slots a bit higher. It's my last hope for hard pcb risers, otherwise, I'll have to settle for a riser cable.

 

[princess_daphie]

I modified my M4000 so it fits in the case, decided to extend the cables to the PCIe connector.

Before:

After:

And then, I have a temp build in it, but like I mentioned, I had issues with the riser cable, it was rubbing against the fan of the graphics card (Zotac RTX 3060Ti), and when I tried to shape it better, that's when it started acting up

Still. Damn this looks good in my book, LOL, I love it!

 

[robbee]

Most angled pcb risers are either 20mm, 40mm or 60mm, but it seems that my case has really uncommon measurements, probably around 45mm, so I can't use any of the common risers.

Yeah, those number are the 1U, 2U and 3U dimensions. I'm afraid the bifurcation riser will be the same, 40mm 2U riser.

Silverstone does have some risers that aren't based on the server rack dimensions: the RC06 and RC07. AFAIK, they are about 30mm and 50mm high. They're expensive to buy seperate though, but you can find them on Amazon.

 

[princess_daphie]

Yeah, those number are the 1U, 2U and 3U dimensions. I'm afraid the bifurcation riser will be the same, 40mm 2U riser.

Silverstone does have some risers that aren't based on the server rack dimensions: the RC06 and RC07. AFAIK, they are about 30mm and 50mm high. They're expensive to buy seperate though, but you can find them on Amazon.

They seem to be too high still yeah... And they're about 100$CAD, woohoo!! Thanks for the sugg though!

 

[princess_daphie]

I received my weird bifurcator riser, and gosh darn it if I wasn't right, it WORKS with this case's spacing!

Now the current build in this case is a 5600G, so it only has 8X lanes on the PCIe slot, so funnily enough, the topmost slot of the riser doesn't work (as it's wired to the outermost 8x lanes), and the bottom slot work no problem! I'll make more tests with a different build to see how bifurcation works (or doesn't).

I've also managed to make a monstrosity using 3 different risers and leaving a tiny gap between them, lol, but I'm not sure I'd wanna use it for real. I could always hot glue the parts together so it feels more solid, but... LOL

 

[rokabeka]

you riser issue is gone but for custom heights one with a short but flexible cable can work. I used an Ameri-rack ARC1-PERLY423-C3V3 splitter in my builds earlier. just for reference.
I also really like the form factor of M4000, I run an xfx rx460 slim in my build.

 

[princess_daphie]

So I've finally received all my parts and had enough time to mess with my build in this new plaything! So I took a couple pictures and I think the whole thing is viable (as long as I keep the GPU power consumption down, A LOT, like around 100w instead of 200w, because of heat build-up).

Right now, here are the specs in this case:

- ASRock b560m-itx/ac
- i5 10600k
- 32gb DDR4-3000
- Zotac RTX 3060ti 8gb
- Samsung 1tb 970 evo plus NVME
- Samsung 500gb 860 evo

So one of the specific things I did, in addition to stacking up 3 different PCB risers to reach the GPU (1x straight ~22mm, 1x 90 degree ~20mm, 1x straight ~20mm), I also cut a piece of random cardboard to try and separate the GPU and CPU "chambers" to avoid dumping the excessive heat of the GPU onto everything else. I think it's working.

 

[princess_daphie]

Seeing these goddang pieces of tape at the front makes me wish I had a 3D printer and the skills to make the required models to make some actual covers... I wonder if I could cook up something with just hot glue, LOL

 

[mikejmcfarlane]

This is such an awesome project, the industrial look is fantastic, such a different aesthetic from so many of the other cool builds out there now.

I wondered about flipping the GPU over so that the top is the bottom and the connector is on the furthest side from the motherboard, and perhaps a flexible riser might then fit? Would need some metalworking to the case to mount the GPU.

 

[rokabeka]

... I wonder if I could cook up something with just hot glue, LOL

how about e.g. epoxy resin?

 

[Gingerbeer]

A piece of slightly oversize wire mesh or perf plate and the age-old tradition of 3M tape?

 

[princess_daphie]

how about e.g. epoxy resin?

i don't know how to handle that, but i think i remember seeing some ppl do that.

A piece of slightly oversize wire mesh or perf plate and the age-old tradition of 3M tape?

I wonder how that would look though

I had another idea yesterday when I took off the tape since it was too unsightly. I think I might be able to leave this area open for some more additional ventilation, and I'd just need to find a way to put some kind of mesh filter or something there instead?

 

[Gingerbeer]

Is the metal folded in around the aperture? You could cut off the folds, line it with u-channel and mount the mesh on the inside..

If you don't have any u-channel available, you can just slice open a lenth of appropriately coloured wire/cable and use the sheathing as u-channel.