Noobish SFF related questions. (Components spacing, water loops, some front IO stuff)

[Ephixi4]

Hey all,

I'd really appreaciate if you guys could answer some of these questions for me. I'm in a design phase of personal SFF project and these would help a lot.

Question number 1:
What is minimal required clearence between motherboard and other components? Also what is recommended clearence between components and case side panels.

Question number 2:
Is it nescessary for the motherboard tray to cover the back of the mobo? Or can I just screw it on two 'railings'?
example - https://i.imgur.com/C2kGWW2.png

Question number 3:
I'm planning to make a CPU + GPU loop with a 240 rad. (40mm thick afaik) I know it's a small rad, but I'm not planning on running an OCed rig normally. Even I'd try to delid and undervolt the cpu to get as low temps as possible for this rad.

The question here is - will adding a monoblock waterblock for the motherboard (ek one) instead of just using the cpu block increase the overall loop temps by much?

Last but not least, question number 4:
If I want to get some front usb ports / power button, where and for what type of things should I look for?
Are there some 2x hubs that I can connect to mobo and then just attach them to front side of the case?
What if I'd like a ON / OFF switch similar to these on PSUs? Is it hard to wire these in?

Thanks in advance for any answers!
I'll check back in when I wake up.

 

[1461748123]

Q2: yep that will work. You don't need a full cover tray.

Q3: a 240mm rad is planty (heck I'm trying to cool my CPU + GPU with 40mm rads lol). Don't worry about the temps, they should be fine With a monoblock you probably get a 1 degree C difference so it is basically negligible.

 

[Ephixi4]

Q2: yep that will work. You don't need a full cover tray.

Q3: a 240mm rad is planty (heck I'm trying to cool my CPU + GPU with 40mm rads lol). Don't worry about the temps, they should be fine With a monoblock you probably get a 1 degree C difference so it is basically negligible.

Awesome, thanks a lot for the answers!

Also good luck with those rads!

 

[owliwar]

Q4:
Motherboards use momentary switches instead of lock switches, so if you use a on-off switch like the ones in your psu you would tecnically be holding the power button, which turns the pc on then shuts it off after a while, so I'd advice against that.

BUT if you want to prevent your pc from turning on, or you want that kind of switch for the cool factor, you could put a switch like this before a momentary switch. but you would be basically blocking your power button from working, not really turning your pc on or off with this.

that system is basic eletronics, should be really easy to do. to turn you pc on would require 2 steps- > activate that swtich > press the power button.
but to turn it off it should not matter as you will be turning it off via software anyway.

 

[Ephixi4]

Q4:
Motherboards use momentary switches instead of lock switches, so if you use a on-off switch like the ones in your psu you would tecnically be holding the power button, which turns the pc on then shuts it off after a while, so I'd advice against that.

BUT if you want to prevent your pc from turning on, or you want that kind of switch for the cool factor, you could put a switch like this before a momentary switch. but you would be basically blocking your power button from working, not really turning your pc on or off with this.

that system is basic eletronics, should be really easy to do. to turn you pc on would require 2 steps- > activate that swtich > press the power button.
but to turn it off it should not matter as you will be turning it off via software anyway.

Thank you!

'Momentary switch' was all it took! Found some cool switches that I can get and just simply plug into the mobo.

It's mostly just for the tinker / cool factor. But now as you wrote it I need to look into this 'safety' switch idea.

I'm not so keen on this electronic stuff, do you think with some help I'd be able to connect this kind of switch to the PC?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FLIP-UP-...231118886479?_trksid=p2349526.m4383.l4275.c10

From what I've read the black button is a Push Button Momentary Starter Switch.

 

[1461748123]

Thank you!

'Momentary switch' was all it took! Found some cool switches that I can get and just simply plug into the mobo.

It's mostly just for the tinker / cool factor. But now as you wrote it I need to look into this 'safety' switch idea.

I'm not so keen on this electronic stuff, do you think with some help I'd be able to connect this kind of switch to the PC?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FLIP-UP-...231118886479?_trksid=p2349526.m4383.l4275.c10

From what I've read the black button is a Push Button Momentary Starter Switch.

that will work and should be pretty easy to wire up

 

[owliwar]

Thank you!

'Momentary switch' was all it took! Found some cool switches that I can get and just simply plug into the mobo.

It's mostly just for the tinker / cool factor. But now as you wrote it I need to look into this 'safety' switch idea.

I'm not so keen on this electronic stuff, do you think with some help I'd be able to connect this kind of switch to the PC?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FLIP-UP-...231118886479?_trksid=p2349526.m4383.l4275.c10

From what I've read the black button is a Push Button Momentary Starter Switch.

that will work and should be pretty easy to wire up

and you could use the led as the power led as well good luck!

 

[Ephixi4]

@owliwar @1461748123 that's dope! Thanks guys, anyway I will be going back to 'work' and hopefully will post in some time with some more info on the project.