Concept Ocelot Boreal V2

[Cawa]

Hello!

After taking a bit of a break from building PCs, I am happy to announce this new project- the Boreal V2. The purpose of this project is to take make the Boreal B35 available to anyone who has expressed interest in getting their hands on one as well as to improve some design elements and ease of building inside the case.

The Boreal B35, pictured here is a 3.5-liter case meant for workstation use, accommodating a Quadro P2000 GPU and all-passive cooling. I have only built a single prototype of this design as it proved to be too expensive to produce at any volume. However, the design seemed to appeal to a few people and I want to share it with as many people as possible, so we're going to take another crack at it.

Here's a checklist of what this project hopes to accomplish:

• Use a lighter material! Steel is very heavy and expensive- while the B35 is sturdy, I feel like it is almost overly so.
• Find an affordable way to manufacture the front panel or change the design to make it easily manufacturable.
• Fix some of the integration challenges in the B35 design.
• Produce the case for less than $200 at low volume (10-20 units).
• [OPTIONAL] Create a dual-slot variant for smaller RTX cards.

As always, I welcome and and all input on this project, especially since this one is more for the community than my previous build.

If you want to check out the build log for the Boreal B35, you can find it here!

Also, I entered my previous build into the builds.gg air cooled competition, so if you like my build I would really appreciate your vote here.

Thanks for tuning in!

 

[InfernoZeus]

Any chance this would also support MSI's non-passive GT 1030? It's also single slot and low profile. Their passive version is super nice too, but the cooler makes it double slot.

 

[Analogue Blacksheep]

What type of riser are you using? Is it rated for 75W?

 

[Windfall]

@InfernoZeus Yeah, it would, but it supports single slot full height cards as well!

@Cawa Great to see you back Looking forward to updates.

 

[InfernoZeus]

@Windfall I couldn't find many full height cards that aren't expensive, workstation cards.

I'm looking to make a non-APU Ryzen build, and trying to find the smallest case possible for it! So I'm not that fussed about having a powerful GPU, just a cheap one with HDMI+DP.

 

[nextpc]

Nice to see you back.
I have some suggestions.

1) * The skeleton boxy frame of the ocelet looks better in my opinion than the smooth rounded front/top plate. If it makes it easier, perhaps you can have the bottom/front and top all one piece and the sides as separate panels? This makes it so that side panels can be customized to peoples likings as well.

2) * Another concept that I really like is the one from here : https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/cases-m1-m2-mini-produced-by-custom_mod.7526/
The Motherboard tray can be custom painted color and ;

the entire unit has essentially 2 pieces, the top and the tray/IO which makes working on the case east as well.
Will this reduce cost of production?

Use thinner gauge powder coated aluminum?

3) I may be a minority, but I would say the case can be designed a little more efficient by reducing the space in front beside the motherboard that was designed to accomodate larger gpus and the space at the bottom with the 3 fans.
Reduce the space to make the unit smaller or allow other parts to be integrated into those areas, like and internal power supply like this Meanwell (Meanwell RPS-200-12-C ) and ITX gpus only.

4) Add more areas for ventilation instead of having 3 fans which add to the cost for the consumer anyhow.

5) Locate the power botton to the back of case for a cleaner look.

6) The stands on the case are sweet looking. Is there a way you can include the stands in a horizontal orientation as well?

7) Cpu cooler height support?

* I would like to see the case accomodate dual slot cards itx only and reduce the case size so it's super small?

Cheers!

 

[Windfall]

Nice to see you back.
I have some suggestions.

1) * The skeleton boxy frame of the ocelet looks better in my opinion than the smooth rounded front/top plate. If it makes it easier, perhaps you can have the bottom/front and top all one piece and the sides as separate panels? This makes it so that side panels can be customized to peoples likings as well.

2) * Another concept that I really like is the one from here : https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/cases-m1-m2-mini-produced-by-custom_mod.7526/
The Motherboard tray can be custom painted color and ;

the entire unit has essentially 2 pieces, the top and the tray/IO which makes working on the case east as well.
Will this reduce cost of production?

Use thinner gauge powder coated aluminum?

3) I may be a minority, but I would say the case can be designed a little more efficient by reducing the space in front beside the motherboard that was designed to accomodate larger gpus and the space at the bottom with the 3 fans.
Reduce the space to make the unit smaller or allow other parts to be integrated into those areas, like and internal power supply like this Meanwell (Meanwell RPS-200-12-C ) and ITX gpus only.

4) Add more areas for ventilation instead of having 3 fans which add to the cost for the consumer anyhow.

5) Locate the power botton to the back of case for a cleaner look.

6) The stands on the case are sweet looking. Is there a way you can include the stands in a horizontal orientation as well?

7) Cpu cooler height support?

* I would like to see the case accomodate dual slot cards itx only and reduce the case size so it's super small?

Cheers!

The biggest appeal for me as a WS guy is the single-slot GPU.

 

[nextpc]

The biggest appeal for me as a WS guy is the single-slot GPU.

Yeah, i get that as well. Are all WS cards single slot and longer?
I like the concept of WS chassis too.
Perhaps @Cawa can come up with two iterations, then we'll all be happy?

 

[Windfall]

Yeah, i get that as well. Are all WS cards single slot and longer?
I like the concept of WS chassis too.
Perhaps @Cawa can come up with two iterations, then we'll all be happy?

Not all WS cards are single slot, but there are no dual slot ones that fit in this case. The Quadro p4000 and AMD WX5100 both are a perfect fit.

 

[Cawa]

Sounds like a full-length GPU is essential for the redesign. I'm not a fan of how the dual slot card version of the case looked (just kind of disproportional), so I'd be inclined to keep it single slot.

On the topic of space, I want to be able to fit a good internal power supply, but I'm not sure if there are any units small enough. Otherwise I might use a J-hack PSU because as good as the G-Unique PSUs are, they are definitely a premium item.

 

[Windfall]

Sounds like a full-length GPU is essential for the redesign. I'm not a fan of how the dual slot card version of the case looked (just kind of disproportional), so I'd be inclined to keep it single slot.

On the topic of space, I want to be able to fit a good internal power supply, but I'm not sure if there are any units small enough. Otherwise I might use a J-hack PSU because as good as the G-Unique PSUs are, they are definitely a premium item.

I want the short version to put a quadro p2000 in. Do you have one you would sell if the new version isn't going to be short?

In terms of a brick, meh. It works either way.

 

[CC Ricers]

The Quadro P2000 would be a really nice choice for a card here if you want to support an internal Meanwell RPS-200. Those are the most powerful cards you can run off just a PCIe slot.

 

[nextpc]

Sounds like a full-length GPU is essential for the redesign. I'm not a fan of how the dual slot card version of the case looked (just kind of disproportional), so I'd be inclined to keep it single slot.

On the topic of space, I want to be able to fit a good internal power supply, but I'm not sure if there are any units small enough. Otherwise I might use a J-hack PSU because as good as the G-Unique PSUs are, they are definitely a premium item.

I agree with the meanwell support. J-hack is also working on a Distro 400.
* So is this case going to be aimed for content creators? Single slot WS cards? That would be nice for sure, but would limit the rest of us that want a gaming card.
I suppose there are a few choices, but not many for single slot game cards, the higher end ones are super pricey and hard to come by as well.

* Would you be able to make the motherboard tray adjustable from a double to a single slot so the user can choose: Single slot card and larger cooler or double slot card with smaller cpu cooler?

Just throwing ideas out there.