Prototype Piece of Sheet - dirt cheap 7.5 L, SFX, 10.5" GPU, AIO 92

[philpirj]

I've started my new build with a random ITX case which I wasn't totally happy with as it couldn't fit a full-height GPU and was excessively big.

Budget build: b450i 2400g 16g 250g rx 470

My laptop is slowly drifting away to the hopelessly outdated land. I travel with my family and two kids, and we always have our luggage maxed out. I aimed for an ASUS Zephyrus G14 with a Ryzen 9/RTX 2080, but decided to cut the budget by 75% and build an SFF machine instead. I don't do gaming...

smallformfactor.net

The (un)-availability of the coolest cases around here and their cost scared me off.
That made me think if I could make a case of my own for real cheap and without too much effort.
Here's the prototype I'm building.

Hello, my name is Piece of Sheet!

I have plenty of room!

With my bigger bro

The making of

Outside dimensions 308x210x120mm (with feet), inside 300x200x112mm.
Weight: 649g (without PSU bracket and before panels have proper holes for venting and I/O).

Cost so far:
- 4 plywood sheets 300x240mm 4mm - $3.5 ($4.5 for 5 sheets)
- 15 M4 10mm screws - dirt cheap
- 4 M4 20mm screws - dirt cheap
- 10 angle brackets - dirt cheap
- 4 mirror holders (for legs) - dirt cheap
----
~$5 total
+ $7.5 PCIe 3.0 noname riser

 

[Allhopeforhumanity]

Hello, my name is Piece of Sheet!

Just needs a little perforation to breath, and I'd say you've got yourself a solid case.

 

[Goatee]

The naming of this case is a stroke of genius!

 

[philpirj]

Just needs a little perforation to breath, and I'd say you've got yourself a solid case.

Absolutely. And holes for I/O panel, GPU panel, and power port - it's solid atm as well

 

[philpirj]

Getting ready to cut and drill aluminum profiles to make it a PSU bracket.
Cost of those two 65mm long profile pieces $0.50.

 

[philpirj]

Cutting and drilling aluminium PSU holder brackets.

PSU in place!

HIGH POWER!

 

[philpirj]

No day without a small update. Made a protective shim for the power wire that goes through the sharp cut in the aluminium PSU holder bracket. Out of a piece of a plastic tube I've found on the street lol.

 

[philpirj]

For better or worse, when M3 nuts and bolts finally arrived, I decided to change all case M4s to M3s.

Without M4s the case lost part of its brutal charm, and some M3s reveal how bad I am at drilling and measuring.

M3s occupy less space inside the case. And the case is now flat outside, since conical bolt head submerges into slightly larger holes

Now GPU fits and fans spin (spinned them using my finger for now).

The motherboard is waiting for its standoffs. Seems to fit as well, apart from maybe the cooler. But Noctua is coming as well.

 

[philpirj]

Quite a sad story, indeed, to realize that a 150mm PCIe riser is not enough.
You can see it on the picture above, and if you imagine a GPU on the other side, you'll realize how far its PCIe connector is. Even if I shift the mobo to the very bottom, and there's space there, still the cable is not enough to fit the GPU vertically as its height is on par with riser's length.

I'll go with a longer PCIe riser, but the longest available locally is 200mm Thermaltake, still not sure it will allow enough reach. But it's costly enough, $36.

I have an idea of putting the mobo to the side panel, and GPU on top of it. CPU fan won't be a problem for me with an AIO. But this will make the case less serviceable.

It's not my first struggle with sandwich case design using standard compoents.

E.g. if the PSU C14 outlet wasn't on the top side of the PSU, but rather on the bottom together with the other connectors, or on the right side, it would be possible to:
- get rid of the bracket altogether, and to screw the PSU directly to the top of the case
- - freeing up 20mm (x125x65 = 0.16L)
- - factoring out PSU ventilation completely
- reduce the length of the C13-C14 cable required

It will also allow putting the PSU to the bottom of the case directly under the motherboard, 65mm height, 100mm width, 125mm along with the case. It would be possible to ditch the inside power cable completely and let the outlet be available directly from outside of the case.

Due to the PCIe slot position on the mobo, PCIe raiser has to go all the way between the mobo and GPU, in my case covering the M.2 SSD.

I have something to think of.

 

[REVOCCASES]

Quite a sad story, indeed, to realize that a 150mm PCIe riser is not enough.
You can see it on the picture above, and if you imagine a GPU on the other side, you'll realize how far its PCIe connector is. Even if I shift the mobo to the very bottom, and there's space there, still the cable is not enough to fit the GPU vertically as its height is on par with riser's length.

I'll go with a longer PCIe riser, but the longest available locally is 200mm Thermaltake, still not sure it will allow enough reach. But it's costly enough, $36.

I have an idea of putting the mobo to the side panel, and GPU on top of it. CPU fan won't be a problem for me with an AIO. But this will make the case less serviceable.

It's not my first struggle with sandwich case design using standard compoents.

E.g. if the PSU C14 outlet wasn't on the top side of the PSU, but rather on the bottom together with the other connectors, or on the right side, it would be possible to:
- get rid of the bracket altogether, and to screw the PSU directly to the top of the case
- - freeing up 20mm (x125x65 = 0.16L)
- - factoring out PSU ventilation completely
- reduce the length of the C13-C14 cable required

It will also allow putting the PSU to the bottom of the case directly under the motherboard, 65mm height, 100mm width, 125mm along with the case. It would be possible to ditch the inside power cable completely and let the outlet be available directly from outside of the case.

Due to the PCIe slot position on the mobo, PCIe raiser has to go all the way between the mobo and GPU, in my case covering the M.2 SSD.

I have something to think of.

Have you thought to flip the GPU orientation? With the fans facing inwards? I did this with my RCC-BIG1 design because, same like you, I also wanted to safe cost for longer riser cables. For thermals it doesn't really matter if you put the vent slots at the right places. You may have a look at my thread and see if this solution might work for you. Think it's page 2 where I tested this.

 

[philpirj]

@Till - Revoccases nice idea, I have plenty of room between mobo's flipside and GPU's vents.
Does that mean that the GPU's riser's end should be screwed to the side of the case though, and inserted from the top instead?

 

[philpirj]

So, I was discouraged by the cable yesterday, but motherboard standoffs arrived.

8mm, more than enough to fit M.2 drive and riser cable bent behind tho motherboard.
And I've started crafting again.

First off, GPU holder angle brackets and bottom holding plate.
Also a few holes in the mid-plate for the motherboard, and new holes in the case to screw it to the rest of the case.

Decided to put the motherboard to the very bottom of the case. This has a few advantages - PCIe riser can be shorter; motherboard's airflow is even more isolated from GPU's airflow on the other side.

Half-ass-embled.

Of course, the stock Wraith Stealth didn't fit in the case. Just slightly, a few millimetres slightly.
That led me to an idea to check if these monstrous side panels are really needed. And it turns out that not! They are not even screwed to the fan body, just clipped on to it.

before - 50mm high

after - 45mm high

And guess what? The stock cooler fits in the case now!
Also, there's some space for power outlet left on the back panel.

I didn't cut the panel holes on the back panel for mobo's IO just yet, so it's left out.

Why not turn it on? That would make the achievement tangible.

Works! Yay!
Wish you all such a day with achievement, it feels great!

Cost update:
- 4 plywood sheets 300x240mm 4mm - $3.5
- ~30x M3 nuts and bolts $0.45
- 4x 8mm f-f standoffs $0.20
- 10 angle brackets - dirt cheap
- 4 mirror holders (for legs) - dirt cheap
- 2x 65mm aluminium profile pieces $0.50
- 2x 40mm aluminium profile pieces $0.50
----
Total: ~ $6.00

+ $36 PCIe 3.0 Thermaltake 200mm riser (shipping)

 

[REVOCCASES]

@Till - Revoccases nice idea, I have plenty of room between mobo's flipside and GPU's vents.
Does that mean that the GPU's riser's end should be screwed to the side of the case though, and inserted from the top instead?

Much easier. You can keep everything as it is and install everything from the sides.
Below is a picture which shows it a little bit better. Just imagine the aluminum parts are the wooden parts of your case.

Not sure which riser you have exactly, but the riser doesn't need to be fixed to the case unless you have some very heavy graphics card and need additional support to hold it. Else, just fix the GPU to the backplate of your case and leave the riser like that.

 

[philpirj]

@Till - Revoccases , good point. In my case, though, it's plywood and the GPU is only attached to the backplate, and the backplate has all those IO holes, so it's not too sturdy considering the length of the card.

 

[CuMiCo]

Great to see some progress here. Your initial thoughts are so true:

The (un)-availability of the coolest cases around here and their cost scared me off.
That made me think if I could make a case of my own for real cheap and without too much effort.

I would like to add that no case even the really hyped ones is perfect. There is always that little thing, which does not fit for your build. And 200+ € for a ITX case, wich is no perfect is way too much. After ordering multiple cases of AliExpress for around 80$ - 130$ I really come to the conclusion that those cases are overall better than the hyped ones.

 

[philpirj]

@CuMiCo I see your point, and I share this perspective with you. Even though I don't have any experience with ready-to-use cases.

My whole build is getting pricier every day, but there's no single item in it that would come even close to $200, and I don't want the case, a passive element, to become one.

If the buzz doesn't wear out, I'll share the blueprints so everyone could send them to their local laser cutting company, paint the case with PVA glue, and assemble the case with a Philips screwdriver and a few nuts and bolts. And share their improvements to the design. And invite me to do the keynote at the PieceOfSheetCon 2021 lol.

 

[philpirj]

A few missing parts arrived: Asetek AIO and a Noctua cooler.

Still waiting for the longer PCIe riser and AIO AM4 bracket.

 

[philpirj]

Size matters

Sometimes +25% is a lot.

Also, meet the power button ($0.50)

 

[REVOCCASES]

. Also, meet the power button ($0.50)

Now I'm curious how this turns out (on)

 

[TimeLordTim]

Also, meet the power button ($0.50)

Oh, that looks cool. Is it going to be a capacitive button then?