Stalled [New Video Assembly] Densium 4 & 4+ - Tiny cases with real hardwood frontpanel!

[RedSawn]

Yes, this is also a concern for me, however seeing how capable the 3060ti is (at gaming) It's not certain that the 4060ti will be the 'top pick' for value oriented builds moving forward. We'll have to see

It's not so much value for me as it is just long cards aren't made for 2 slots anymore. I might have got a 3070 or 3080 but there's literally only two models that fit my full length sandwich cases - the reference cards and the EVGA XC3. Cards were already extremely pricy and hard to get a hold of without being restricted to a tiny portion of the entire market. The 3060ti isn't a big enough jump from a 1080 either at this point to make that particular jump so soon into the cycle.

Unlike the SFF 1080s of old there is no such thing as a mini 3070. Spoke to a ASUS representative and they just flat out said it was thermals that they personally don't offer anything of the sort. If power draw keeps going up it seems like that won't change with the 4070.

So yeah, it's why I'm here. If the SFF graphics cards are the only ones I can trust to stay thin I might as well downsize to a case it'd look less puny in. Just a question of what they bring out

 

[Irish Os1r1s]

if you are free and comfortable to
could you try installing front panel upside down?

thank you sir

It fits if you cut out a small notch in one of the retaining brackets on the front panel. As I said I don't have my mobo yet so there might be clearance issues with the power button, but it might work. The front panel would be easy to substitute with another piece of your disired wood and you could drill a hole for power button in a more appropriate place if it does indeed obstruct anything. You could definitely work something out for sure.

 

[Bakaban]

Got a package in the mail yesterday. Just opened it up. Densium 4+ in mint condition. No nicks in the wood front panel, no issues with the sheet metal or paint. I wish I had the luxury of time and a back-up pc to start transplanting this system right away, but since it is used for work daily I can't risk tearing this thing down, building in the densium and then encountering issues with posting. No matter, I'm looking forward to my vacation next month, will set aside some time to really savour the moment and build.

I've carefully read through the changelog of your V2 version, and other than maybe making sure there is a basic mounting solution for HDPlex's 500 watt single unit I really see nothing to improve upon that wouldn't also include major additional costs. Great job Densium. If budget allows, you can expect me to order a V2 :-)

 

[scatterforce]

When you get to the Densium 4+ V2, would you consider an alternate front plate with x2 92mm fan mounts?

I love the wood, but I also love options.

 

[Densium.net]

When you get to the Densium 4+ V2, would you consider an alternate front plate with x2 92mm fan mounts?

I love the wood, but I also love options.

Actually tried implementing this, but the distance between the frontpanel flanges is 86mm. It'd be hard to increase 6mm it due to the front panel bends as you can see from the prototype pictures.

 

[Valantar]

As GucksTV and Valantar pointed out - It's a very niche desire and I don't wan't all my customers to pay for this feature unwillingly.

If you purchased the perfect length standoffs, you could use them to fasten the first riser, and then you could fasten a second riser at the end of the standoffs. If you'd get an M.2 to PCIe cable like this from ADT-Link

View attachment 1820

Yep, that's the cheap and relatively simple solution. There are other solutions as well, that don't require occupying an m.2 slot. There's a person who makes a bunch of custom designed bifurcation risers, including ones with PCIe 4.0 redrivers (c-payne.com, believe they started out making risers on [H]?), which could be used in various ways to enable dual AICs in a case like this. For the use case mentioned above - a 10G NIC (presumably PCIe x4) and an RX 6400 (natively x4), you could use something like this plus an appropriate host adapter and SlimSAS cable. They don't have a dual x8 adapter with single slot spacing if that is something one would want (that would likely be difficult to fit physically on the PCB, but I know they're open to custom designs if that's desirable too.
4x2 device adapter:

x8+x8 host adapter with and without 4.0 redrivers:

Of course none of this comes cheap, and a solution like this would cost significantly more than the case itself, at least for PCIe 4.0. And of course all of this would require some level of modifications to the case to mount the second card.

Another solution if one or both AICs is LP would be to run a standard riser to the stock mounting position, then use this bifurcation splitter plus a short cable for the second slot (compatible cables are mentioned in the product description):

There are lots of solutions for stuff like this, but they're bespoke, expensive, and need to be adapted to the use case at hand. Which IMO is expected and perfectly fine when you're talking really niche use cases.

 

[Densium.net]

It's not so much value for me as it is just long cards aren't made for 2 slots anymore. I might have got a 3070 or 3080 but there's literally only two models that fit my full length sandwich cases - the reference cards and the EVGA XC3. Cards were already extremely pricy and hard to get a hold of without being restricted to a tiny portion of the entire market. The 3060ti isn't a big enough jump from a 1080 either at this point to make that particular jump so soon into the cycle.

Unlike the SFF 1080s of old there is no such thing as a mini 3070. Spoke to a ASUS representative and they just flat out said it was thermals that they personally don't offer anything of the sort. If power draw keeps going up it seems like that won't change with the 4070.

So yeah, it's why I'm here. If the SFF graphics cards are the only ones I can trust to stay thin I might as well downsize to a case it'd look less puny in. Just a question of what they bring out

Yeah, I've actually given this lots of thought. If I were going to make a full length case, I'll have to make it at least 2.5slot due to the sheer lack of new 2 slot cards.

That being said, let's not count AMD out of the game just yet. Their RX6600 and 6600xt have pretty low TDP compared to their Nvidia counterparts. They might surprise us )))

 

[Valantar]

Yeah, I've actually given this lots of thought. If I were going to make a full length case, I'll have to make it at least 2.5slot due to the sheer lack of new 2 slot cards.

That being said, let's not count AMD out of the game just yet. Their RX6600 and 6600xt have pretty low TDP compared to their Nvidia counterparts. They might surprise us )))

The problem is that due to AMD's low market share they don't have as many AIB partners putting out as many different cards, which inherently limits choice. Still, the reference RX 6800 is a quite nice dual slot card, and as I mentioned above the Sapphire Pulse RX 6600 at 190mm and dual slot is quite SFF friendly. Unfortunately the 6600 XT Pulse is something like 5mm thicker I mean, we've seen >200W cards cooled competently in small packages previously, but they've always been niche products - and the main maker of these has been Nvidia-exclusive partner Zotac. It would be really cool to see this market make a resurgence.

Still, as things stand currently RDNA2 is notably more efficient than Ampere, so there's definitely room for interesting SFF implementations there.

 

[scatterforce]

Actually tried implementing this, but the distance between the frontpanel flanges is 86mm. It'd be hard to increase 6mm it due to the front panel bends as you can see from the prototype pictures.

The hole placement for a 92mm fan is 82mm. The fans could be mounted to he front of the case, externally (what I would want).

Alternatively, an 80mm fan has 71.5mm hole spacing, which would allow for internal fans. This would probably be better for ascetics and marketability.

The last option would be to drill the holes myself with the new front panel design and ditch the wood, but it would be nice to not pay for a beautiful wood panel just to discard it.

 

[blacklagann]

So in the images for the V2 I'm seeing case feet, would they be compatible with the V1? And if so would it be possible to buy just those

 

[SpringerTheNerd]

Has anyone else ran into a issue with the nuts for the cooler interfering with the riser cable?

Because of this I can't install the GPU

EDIT: I fixed it by trimming down the studs so they don't go past the nut. It still presses a little bit but I was able to get it all put together now

 

[Bakaban]

Huh, that is a wierd issue. What cooler, the z-39?

 

[SpringerTheNerd]

Huh, that is a wierd issue. What cooler, the z-39?

Yeah the z39 but realistically it would be an issue with any cooler. It's the socket location that's the issue. Unfortunately it's not technically standardized

 

[Bakaban]

What motherboard are you using?

 

[SpringerTheNerd]

What motherboard are you using?

Not sure exactly which one. Asus ROG 9th Gen Intel itx. Chipset starts with a B.

 

[Irish Os1r1s]

Can't you just remove the cooler and cut off the excess threads? Make sure to screw the nut on before cutting so you don't have threading issues.

 

[Densium.net]

The hole placement for a 92mm fan is 82mm. The fans could be mounted to he front of the case, externally (what I would want).

Alternatively, an 80mm fan has 71.5mm hole spacing, which would allow for internal fans. This would probably be better for ascetics and marketability.

The last option would be to drill the holes myself with the new front panel design and ditch the wood, but it would be nice to not pay for a beautiful wood panel just to discard it.

The bracket design can still be altered, I'll play around with it - If I find something viable, I'll post it here

 

[Densium.net]

Has anyone else ran into a issue with the nuts for the cooler interfering with the riser cable?

Because of this I can't install the GPU

EDIT: I fixed it by trimming down the studs so they don't go past the nut. It still presses a little bit but I was able to get it all put together now

Ah, too bad I didn't encounter this with the prototypes. Then I'd make the clearance a little bigger, as I did with the V2.

 

[oasis1991]

what is diamter hole of bottom/top panel?

i want to buy some case feet

 

[Valantar]

what is diamter hole of bottom/top panel?

i want to buy some case feet

From the changelog for the new version, first post in the thread:

Ventilation holes changed from Ø6 with 7.5mm pitch to Ø6.5 with 8mm pitch

So if you have the original they're 6mm, if you're getting the updated version they're 6.5mm.