Planning of my case has begun!

[LjSpike]

I just got directed over here from reddit, and thought I'd start off by showing you guys what I've already gone done with the early CAD planning. A couple of plan views below, and one angled view showing the dimensions of my working area. The coloured parts are placeholder components, blue being the MicroATX motherboard (RAM included in dimension), Orange being the PSU (with some rubber feet on), Dark green as the 2.5" Drives, and Green as the 3.5" drive.

I may shift around the layout yet still. I do need to determine all of the mounting holes for components and any switches, wires and ports which need to exit the case or connect up.

Planned graphics card I'll use is a RX480 (or perhaps RX470?), I'm going for a nice Micro-ATX with 4 Ram slots, cannibalising the 2 SSD's from my current PC (adding to 400GB storage approximately on them), going to get the spectacular value 3TB Toshiba HDD, and a nice Kaby Lake G4560. I'm going to try to fit on a 5.25" drive, optical drives can prove quite useful at times. I also want to fit larger fans rather than more fans (as it'll provide good cooling while being notably quieter, and perhaps cheaper too).

 

[LjSpike]

I've encountered a bit of a puzzling bit. I was looking at the MicroATX specification for the I/O and came across a bit of the diagrams I can't quite decipher.

The top bit is fine, however the bottom diagram there is a bit unusual. It seems to be showing the protrusion of the IO but I'm curious as to what the MIN-MAX measurement is for? Is that the maximum thickness of the case exterior at the point?

Also, I/O Spec link here: http://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/matxspe1.2.pdf

 

[D_McG]

It seems to be showing the protrusion of the IO but I'm curious as to what the MIN-MAX measurement is for? Is that the maximum thickness of the case exterior at the point?

Yes, that is the material thickness minimum and maximum. This gives motherboard IO shield manufacturers a range of metal thicknesses to support. 18 gauge stainless steel is 0.050 which is just under the maximum of 0.052. You can go thicker, but the IO shield edges may not fully come through the other side and snap in.

 

[zovc]

Hey!

This is a pretty interesting layout. Could you explain a little more about your motivation behind it?

Is this going to be an open-air case or are you going to have a frame/panels enclosing the components?

The most unique thing about the design is all the open space below the motherboard/to the side of your drives and power supply. Are you planning on doing anything with that space?

Chances are your CPU cooler will be taller than your RAM, but if you wanted to lower your height clearance there are low-profile kits of RAM that are about as tall as the RAM slots themselves.

 

[LjSpike]

Hey!

This is a pretty interesting layout. Could you explain a little more about your motivation behind it?

Is this going to be an open-air case or are you going to have a frame/panels enclosing the components?

The most unique thing about the design is all the open space below the motherboard/to the side of your drives and power supply. Are you planning on doing anything with that space?

Chances are your CPU cooler will be taller than your RAM, but if you wanted to lower your height clearance there are low-profile kits of RAM that are about as tall as the RAM slots themselves.

Well, I have the possibility to insert more 2.5" drives (most probably SSD's) above the current two in this setup, as I mounted the PSU on it's side causing the height at which the motherboard is to be raised. The motherboard in this current setup I chose to be horizontal as it can allow for quite good space for a CPU cooler as it is unlikely that many things would obstruct it (as proven in the Aerocool DS Cube).
The primary cause for the large amount of space beneath the motherboard is the rotation of the PSU, a slightly unorthodox choice but not completely original - In this orientation the fan for the PSU is on the side, allowing fresh air to be brought in, rather than in most orientations where the PSU is just sucking up dust from the group.

 

[LjSpike]

Note: I might redo the setup from scratch on SketchUp again. I'll keep the raw elements of the components, however I'm going to see about completing all the components first, preferably with details like I/O, switches, the points where cables exit and in the case of the GPU, fans.

It'll delay progress a bit, as well I'll need to get my hands on some good specifications for the GPU, and some reliable specs for the drives. It shouldn't be too much of a challenge with the motherboard and PSU.

One curious point though, it'd appear PSU's have mounting holes (as noted in a few of the formfactor specifications)? I've seen some however placed onto rubber pads for shock absorption, in the case of placing them on rubber pads, how would one fasten the PSU down?

Also, if someone happens to know a dedicated microATX specification, do share, on www.formfactors.org I can only find the specifications for ATX, BTX, Flex-ATX and Mini-ITX which when it comes to vertical clearance is a bit annoying as It may vary from ATX to microATX.

 

[jeshikat]

https://smallformfactor.net/forum/resources/accurate-blank-motherboard-pcie-card-models.25/

www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/matxspe1.2.pdf

One curious point though, it'd appear PSU's have mounting holes (as noted in a few of the formfactor specifications)? I've seen some however placed onto rubber pads for shock absorption, in the case of placing them on rubber pads, how would one fasten the PSU down?

The PSU is still screwed to the case via the mounting holes in those cases.