Prototype Not a sandwich case

Shatrod

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Dec 6, 2019
205
358
Hi all. Sorry if the post formatting is bad. I am new to the forum and am typing this up on mobile.

Anyways, I wanted to make myself a really small case that still supported full length GPUs and a 240mm radiator. Really liquid cooling oriented. There are a few options out there that fit the bill but I was not a fan of the sandwich style layout. So I made my own case!

It ended up being just under 10.5 liters and turned out, at least in my opinion, really well. I wanted to know what you guys think of it.

There are a few issues, like it doesn't fit standard ddc pump res combos and I don't want to use the dc-lt. It was also very expensive to prototype. Nevertheless I think the concept is solid and want try to make a limited production run with some design tweaks to make it cheaper to manufacture.

Sorry about the low quality pics, but let me know if this layout is something you would be interested in. I can also post the design tweaks that are ongoing.



Edit:
Design of version 2 is well underway. Some low quality renders follow.
I have moved the wood to the top and bottom. This approach makes the whole case one single bent sheet of aluminum (and the wood). No welding or rivets required. This should significantly lower costs.
The vent pattern has changed to triangles. I like it more, what do you think?
Now supports SFX-L power supplies
Now supports two 60mm fans in the rear or 1 60mm fan and a ddc pump (potentially with reservoir)
dimensions are not final but close. It grew a little bit from the original prototype to accommodate above changes



Edit2:

Design is almost complete. I have made the case 5mm wider to accommodate a D5 pump with a custom reservoir top as well as letting air cooled GPUs breathe behind the glass. The fits through the rear 60mm fan slots. Redesigned the front ventilation to be simpler. Added SSD mounting at the bottom. Now supports two 120mm radiators (lower tank < 12mm) or a single 120mm radiator. Below are a couple renders as well as flat pictures. Also a blow up of how the D5 reservoir top comes together. It will be using the case wall itself as a retention mechanism for the pump. I believe all that is left is to decide where to put the power button. Im thinking top wood panel. I have also thought of a name for this thing. I will likely call it The Monolith. Let me know what you think. I will also probably create a new thread once i finalize on the name and the minor design tweaks still left to be done. That will contain complete dimensions and hardware support.

 
Last edited:

Shatrod

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Dec 6, 2019
205
358
Hi, I really like the layout! What are you using for a power supply and where is it??
Standard SFX PSU. In my case a corsair sf600. It's behind the gpu under the motherboard. Makes cable management a breeze. I just shoved all the cables into a rats nest in front of the psu and the gpu covers the ugly.
 

Poblopuablo

King of Cable Management
Jan 14, 2018
816
465
Glad to see you posted it here. :) I'm really excited to see how this continues to grow! I love this layout. Its a very aesthetically pleasing view. Especially if it was Hardline! :D
 

Windfall

Shrink Ray Wielder
SFFn Staff
Nov 14, 2017
2,117
1,582
I love how you made the fan holes! Looks cool, will watch this thread! :)
 

esseun

Cable Smoosher
New User
Dec 10, 2019
9
3
Really like the touches you put in to version 2... especially the wooden trim. This looks fairly similar to the Xolid 13 prototype but I do like the rear fan support (though 60mm is kind of rough... 80mm would be better). Any plans to make it more air cooling friendly? Perhaps a set of top fans instead of rear (just my opinion)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Poblopuablo

Poblopuablo

King of Cable Management
Jan 14, 2018
816
465
Really like the touches you put in to version 2... especially the wooden trim. This looks fairly similar to the Xolid 13 prototype but I do like the rear fan support (though 60mm is kind of rough... 80mm would be better). Any plans to make it more air cooling friendly? Perhaps a top fans instead of rear (just my opinion)
I, too, would like to air cool the CPU then I could use a 240mm aio on my GPU. I wish I could use the nh-d9l @ ~115mm in height(but I think the CPU Clearence will be closer to ~105mm since the whole case is 120mm and to account for pannel thickness, motherboard and spacers I think ~100-105 is where it would be)


but if it supported 80mm fans, then the extra 20mm of CPU clearence would allow for the nh-d9l! Not only that, but then 3slot cards would fit. Or dual slot with better airflow. This would, however add almost 2 liters to total volume bringing it to 13.67L(318x305x140).(crazy to think how adding 20mm to one dimension quickly added almost 2liters!)

Just a thought. :)
 
Last edited:

Shatrod

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Dec 6, 2019
205
358
Thanks for your input guys. I am considering widening it to accomodate 80mm fans but, as you pointed out, it would add almost 2 liters to the volume. Wider GPUs could be supported yes but with a glass side panel (as opposed to plastic) you could not have any vents in there and it would choke airflow to the gpu anyway. It really is better to liquid cool the gpu in this configuration.

There is also a fundamental problem with going wider. Wood is hard to come by in that width. It gets a lot more expensive. The current dimensions let me get away with a 5 inch wide solid wood board which I can actually find. A 6 inch board however I can not :(

As for air cooling the cpu, there are some downdraft coolers that are under 105mm (cpu to side panel clearance, about) and with two 60mm fans bringing fresh air in from the back it should be sufficient?

Although right now, I'm thinking the optimal solution would be to change the radiator mount slightly to let it take two 120mm rads or a single 240mm. This would let one put a 120mm AIO on a cpu and another 120mm aio on a gpu. What do you think of that approach? Wouldn't have to sacrifice any dimensions to do this although it would be very tight with the tubing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bjornyyy

Poblopuablo

King of Cable Management
Jan 14, 2018
816
465
Thanks for your input guys. I am considering widening it to accomodate 80mm fans but, as you pointed out, it would add almost 2 liters to the volume. Wider GPUs could be supported yes but with a glass side panel (as opposed to plastic) you could not have any vents in there and it would choke airflow to the gpu anyway. It really is better to liquid cool the gpu in this configuration.

There is also a fundamental problem with going wider. Wood is hard to come by in that width. It gets a lot more expensive. The current dimensions let me get away with a 5 inch wide solid wood board which I can actually find. A 6 inch board however I can not :(

As for air cooling the cpu, there are some downdraft coolers that are under 105mm (cpu to side panel clearance, about) and with two 60mm fans bringing fresh air in from the back it should be sufficient?

Although right now, I'm thinking the optimal solution would be to change the radiator mount slightly to let it take two 120mm rads or a single 240mm. This would let one put a 120mm AIO on a cpu and another 120mm aio on a gpu. What do you think of that approach? Wouldn't have to sacrifice any dimensions to do this although it would be very tight with the tubing.
Is the space wide enough for the radiator fit 90° rotated from the being end tank to end tank?
 

Shatrod

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Dec 6, 2019
205
358
Is the space wide enough for the radiator fit 90° rotated from the being end tank to end tank?
No. But it can be. An extra 20mm in length is a little less volume addition. You can however fit one 120mm rad with tubes coming out towards the top and another rotated 180 degrees with tubes coming out towards the bottom. No size growth but you would sacrifice ssd mounting completely
 
  • Like
Reactions: the1q

esseun

Cable Smoosher
New User
Dec 10, 2019
9
3
As for air cooling the cpu, there are some downdraft coolers that are under 105mm (cpu to side panel clearance, about) and with two 60mm fans bringing fresh air in from the back it should be sufficient?

I suppose both the CPU top-down cooler and the GPU can bring in air from the panel and the rear 60mm fans while the 2x radiator area fans can pull the air out of the case
 

Shinken1

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Feb 3, 2019
90
95
Although right now, I'm thinking the optimal solution would be to change the radiator mount slightly to let it take two 120mm rads or a single 240mm. This would let one put a 120mm AIO on a cpu and another 120mm aio on a gpu. What do you think of that approach? Wouldn't have to sacrifice any dimensions to do this although it would be very tight with the tubing.
I think it'd be a great idea to allow 2 x 120mm aios or a 240mm. Personally do not think going bigger is a good idea as the case looks really good in its current form.
 

srekal34

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Oct 1, 2019
132
127
I would suggest making a case a little bit larger in order to add 360mm rad support and you will be golden.
 

Shatrod

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Dec 6, 2019
205
358
I think it'd be a great idea to allow 2 x 120mm aios or a 240mm. Personally do not think going bigger is a good idea as the case looks really good in its current form.
I agree. I also do not really want to make it bigger. At least not a lot bigger. I'm not sure how the tubing would work out with two 120mm aios.

As for 360mm radiator support, they are not actually 360mm. Closer to 400mm with end tanks. That would be an 80mm growth in height. Which would add 3 liters to the volume. This is quickly becoming not very ssf :) but maybe I will model it out of curiosity
 

Shatrod

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Dec 6, 2019
205
358
Hi Folks,

I drafted up some more preliminary renders for some potential cooling options. There were questions about AIOs and air cooling friendliness. The case design here is still uncahnged, so no support for two individual 120mm aios just yet. The clearance from motherboard to side panel is 100mm so a lot of the downdraft coolers should fit. The below renders are with a noctua NH-L12S. Also an NZXT Kraken G12 on the gpu with a decorative wood panel to face the window side.

 

penghutw

Trash Compacter
Nov 23, 2018
42
24
Hi all. Sorry if the post formatting is bad. I am new to the forum and am typing this up on mobile.

Anyways, I wanted to make myself a really small case that still supported full length GPUs and a 240mm radiator. Really liquid cooling oriented. There are a few options out there that fit the bill but I was not a fan of the sandwich style layout. So I made my own case!

It ended up being just under 10.5 liters and turned out, at least in my opinion, really well. I wanted to know what you guys think of it.

There are a few issues, like it doesn't fit standard ddc pump res combos and I don't want to use the dc-lt. It was also very expensive to prototype. Nevertheless I think the concept is solid and want try to make a limited production run with some design tweaks to make it cheaper to manufacture.

Sorry about the low quality pics, but let me know if this layout is something you would be interested in. I can also post the design tweaks that are ongoing.



Edit:
Design of version 2 is well underway. Some low quality renders follow.
I have moved the wood to the top and bottom. This approach makes the whole case one single bent sheet of aluminum (and the wood). No welding or rivets required. This should significantly lower costs.
The vent pattern has changed to triangles. I like it more, what do you think?
Now supports SFX-L power supplies
Now supports two 60mm fans in the rear or 1 60mm fan and a ddc pump (potentially with reservoir)
dimensions are not final but close. It grew a little bit from the original prototype to accommodate above changes



Looks great!

Any reason why you didn't just 90 degree turn the layout so it's slightly shorter but slightly longer? 315mm GPU support (AKA full length would be snazzy)
 

Shatrod

Cable-Tie Ninja
Original poster
Dec 6, 2019
205
358
Looks great!

Any reason why you didn't just 90 degree turn the layout so it's slightly shorter but slightly longer? 315mm GPU support (AKA full length would be snazzy)
Yes! It simply can not be slightly shorter. With the power supply and motherboard io shield there is maybe 2mm of total clearance. I am considering milling a recess into the wood for the power supply to sit lower but still the most the height can reduce is 4mm.

As for growing the case, I'm currently working on making it 5mm wider to keep it under 12L but give air cooled GPUs some breathing room so the fans don't choke against the glass.