Introduction:
Over the past 18 months or so, I've been working on a project and it's aim was to create a quiet, extremely powerful and compact computer. Something that can live on a desk as well as a home theatre cabinet.
Typically, when talking about PC's, those three adjectives can't really be used together, as powerful PC's usually draw a lot of power and exert a lot of heat, therefore need a lot of cooling, which is usually loud. This is how project Orthrus was born.
Project Name:
The name, which is only a working title for now, stems from Greek mythology. Its a symbol for a two headed guard dog (symbolizing the use of dual GPU's). Coincidentally enough, Orthrus was Cerberus' brother
(My shout out to Kimera Industries guys here)Principal of the design:
As mentioned previously, high performance computer parts and compact enclosures usually don't go well together. That is unless you move the components in the case around in a way which allows all of them to draw fresh cold air from the outside of the case.
Putting the dual GPU's straight on the back of the motherboard, not only allows the two GPU's and the CPU to breathe their own air, but allows to minimize the width of the chassis, by putting the only 2 perfectly flat parts of the PCB's against each other.
To achieve this, a number of design decisions were made:
- PCIe risers had to be used to place the graphics cards on the opposite side of the case.
- Longer than usual SLI cables had to be used to join the graphics cards together
- Only 2,5" disks would be used (when using both GPU slots), as 3,5" disks are too big, and with the cost of 1TB SATA SSD's quite low these days, I didn't see a point.
Case Details (V5):
Height: 33.60 cm
Length: 34.50 cm
Width: 13.40 cm
Weight: TBD
Volume: < 15.5 Litres
Material: 3mm Aluminium
Side Panels: 3mm Aluminium or 3mm Acrylic
Front Panel I/O:
- 3 x Keystone jack for keystone modules (including HDMI for VR Ready)
- 1 x Power Capacitative Button
Orientation: Horizontal or Vertical
PSU: FlexATX, 1U IPC PSU, SFX, SFX-L
PCIe Riser 1: Li-Heat Next Generation (350mm)
PCIe Riser 2: Li-Heat Next Generation (400mm)
Compatibility of components:
CPU:
Intel: 1151 / 2011 / 2011-3 / 2066
AMD: AM3 / AM4
CPU Coolers (up to 53mm - verified):
Noctua NH L9i (Recommended)
Thermaltake Gravity i1
Akasa K25
Silverstone AR05
ID Cooling IS-VC45 (will be compatible with v2)
Motherboards:
mATX and ITX
GPU:
Dual GPU's supported
- Length: Up to 295 mm
- Height: Up to 112 mm (measured from PCIe connector to top of card)
- Up to 250 Watt TDP (due to PSU restrictions)
RAM:
Any memory up to 53mm in height will fit.
PSU:
FlexATX (up to 250mm length)
1U PSU (up to 250mm length)
SFX
SFX-L
Recommended PSU's:
1U PSU:
For Single GPU builds: Modular:
Seasonic SS500L1U (500W - Gold)
For Dual GPU builds: Non-Modular:
FSP FSP700-80UEPB (700W - Platinum)
FlexATX:
For Single GPU builds:
FSP500-50FSPT (500W - Platinum)
For Dual GPU builds: Non-Modular:
FSP750-50FGGH1 (750W - Gold)
FSP850-50FGGH1 (850W - Gold)
SFX:
SFX-L:
DISK:
Motherboard side: 2 x 2,5" disk
GPU side: Replacing the 2nd GPU: 1 x 3,5" disk + 1 x 2,5" disk
Top of case: 3 x 2,5" disk
WATERCOOLING:
240mm Radiators up to 124mm wide, up to 278mm tall.
Thickness of the radiator + fan should not exceed 58mm
CPU Waterblock/pump height limitation is up to ~53mm
GPU Waterblock support:
- Full reference card waterblocks like EK and Bitspower are supported (for top GPU slot)
- If doing DUAL GPU water cooling, for bottom GPU slot, a universal GPU cooler like the EK-VGA Supremacy or Koolance GPU-220 / GPU-230 is supported.
FRONT FANS:
2 x 120x120 mm (thickness depends on radiator size used)
Benchmarks - Noise / Power Consumption / Temperature:
Photos (Case Only):
Photos (Custom waterloop build):
Coming soon ...
Preview by Linus:
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