Prototype Project Orthrus - Smallest SLI mATX case (V2)

[Gioffry]

Hey Alfredo, good to see you on the forums.
Gizmodo Australia reported the size incorrectly in their article. Please note that the size will change once again in V2 to accomodate AIO liquid coolers.
You cannot fit an SLI-HB bridge, but you can use 2 x Flex Bridges, which will provide very similar results:

The vents on the side panels will most likely change before the final product is released to accomodate users who want to use graphics cards with 3 fans. However I do think the best performance will be with blower style GPU's or with top GPU water-cooled.
I will try to test thermals with fan based cards, however I might need to community's help to get my hands on such cards.

Size has not increased to accomodate a 2nd GPU water-cooled. Only 1 GPU water-cooled will be supported.

Perfect about the sli cable, i didn't know it.
About liquid cooler instead, i see many confuguration with 2 vga 1080 in matx closer than yours and without a gpu liquid cooled, that works good, are you sure that this cooler is essential?
When we can see the v2 case?

Thanks for all

 

[LukeD]

The 240mm AIO liquid cooler will allow primarily to cool the CPU in a very efficient manner. I'm not so much worried about the GPU cooling as I am about the limited options for effectively cooling LGA2011-3 CPU's.
Obviously the 240mm AIO will also allow cooling one of the GPU's (top one), however that is up to the user as there will be certain restrictions in certain configurations. More of which I will talk about over the coming weeks.

I will hopefully have the case in 2 weeks time. It is about to go into production, so I'll have it over the Christmas period. During that time I hope to work on it and prepare a reveal

 

[Gioffry]

Right i finally understand.

 

[BlackRogue]

I will hopefully have the case in 2 weeks time. It is about to go into production, so I'll have it over the Christmas period. During that time I hope to work on it and prepare a reveal

Ooh 2 weeks, fantastic. Will be really nice to finally see the new updated version. I have been preemptively putting cash aside bit by bit as to make sure I can get one of these cases. Have you considered using overclockers.co.uk as the UK point of sale, that's how Dan is selling the A4 when it goes into production

 

[LukeD]

So my new friend at LiHeat decided he'll share with me 2 of his pre-production PCIe 3.0 riser cables that they've been working on ! And good news, I didn't have to pay $10,000 for it so the work on the case can continue

 

[LukeD]

Just preparing the Kelvin S24 for the new case Out of the box it looked a little ...... rough

 

[LocoMoto]

Just preparing the Kelvin S24 for the new case Out of the box it looked a little ...... rough

As the internet police I must insist you refrain from calling it rough, it can be seen as mean and negative by the AIO, wouldn't wanna hurt it and make it rain now do we..

Great reading about the progress being made!

 

[LukeD]

As the internet police I must insist you refrain from calling it rough, it can be seen as mean and negative by the AIO, wouldn't wanna hurt it and make it rain now do we..
Great reading about the progress being made!

Officer, I apologise, she only needed a good'ole spit shine

And just for the record, I do love Fractal's stuff. They make excellent gear and I am a fan of their styling.

 

[LocoMoto]

Not sure If you've been asked this but, what have you liked the most since you started this build?
As an observer I've honestly felt that the PSU part of it has been very interesting!

 

[Weatherlight]

So my new friend at LiHeat decided he'll share with me 2 of his pre-production PCIe 3.0 riser cables that they've been working on ! And good news, I didn't have to pay $10,000 for it so the work on the case can continue

How about interference between those risers?

 

[aquelito]

Could you test it under load ? If yes, what is the noise level ?

In an other case width scenario, would it be also possible to pair two 300W units (with the Add2Psu PCB) to avoid overloading them, thus lowering the noise level ?
One would be feeding the MB, CPU and VGA1, while the other would be solely dedicated to VGA2 ?

I ask you that question because I'm also in the market for such a case as yours but in a "slim" desktop format, a bit like the SIlverstone ML04, with the possibility to watercool two GPUs (for rendering purposes).
Your project is fascinating though, I'll be keeping a close eye that's for sure.

 

[LukeD]

Not sure If you've been asked this but, what have you liked the most since you started this build?
As an observer I've honestly felt that the PSU part of it has been very interesting!

Yes, the PSU was a big challenge. It was the first time i sleeved PSU cables... mind you, its not the typical sleeving because these cables were soldered into the power supply on one end so it was a lot tougher to do.
But I actually really like the design process. Using every mm of space as efficiently as you can. And as you'll see, even though V2 grew a little bit, i still use every mm just as efficiently as V1

 

[LukeD]

How about interference between those risers?

Theoretically there shouldn't be any. They use EMI shielding material on those riser cables. But believe me, this will be all put to the test

 

[LukeD]

Could you test it under load ? If yes, what is the noise level ?

In an other case width scenario, would it be also possible to pair two 300W units (with the Add2Psu PCB) to avoid overloading them, thus lowering the noise level ?
One would be feeding the MB, CPU and VGA1, while the other would be solely dedicated to VGA2 ?

I ask you that question because I'm also in the market for such a case as yours but in a "slim" desktop format, a bit like the SIlverstone ML04, with the possibility to watercool two GPUs (for rendering purposes).
Your project is fascinating though, I'll be keeping a close eye that's for sure.

With 2 x 1080 and 6700k the 700 Watt FSP power supply is actually dead silent.

The FSP 700 Watt platinum is very efficient. Combining two smaller 300Watt PSU's doesn't mean the system will be quieter. Contrary, more than likely it will be louder (unless you get two 300W gold or platinums)
It would be possible to feed MB + CPU + VGA1 from PSU1 and VGA2 from PSU2.
You would have to turn on the VGA2 before MB+GPU+VGA1.

 

[aquelito]

With 2 x 1080 and 6700k the 700 Watt FSP power supply is actually dead silent.

The FSP 700 Watt platinum is very efficient. Combining two smaller 300Watt PSU's doesn't mean the system will be quieter. Contrary, more than likely it will be louder (unless you get two 300W gold or platinums)
.

I was indeed thinking of two Seasonic SS-300 M1U, gold rated.
Why do you think it would be louder ? Both PSU would be heating each other ?
These PSU are said to be fanless under 50% of load (shorter lifespan to be expected ?)

Only issue here is - as you already mentionned - that you have to build your own wire harness to power GPUs.

It would be possible to feed MB + CPU + VGA1 from PSU1 and VGA2 from PSU2.
You would have to turn on the VGA2 before MB+GPU+VGA1.

Isn't the function of the Add2PSU PCB to sync both PSU, thus avoiding to turn one PSU before the other ?

 

[LukeD]

I was indeed thinking of two Seasonic SS-300 M1U, gold rated.
Why do you think it would be louder ? Both PSU would be heating each other ?
These PSU are said to be fanless under 50% of load (shorter lifespan to be expected ?)
Only issue here is - as you already mentionned - that you have to build your own wire harness to power GPUs.
Isn't the function of the Add2PSU PCB to sync both PSU, thus avoiding to turn one PSU before the other ?

2 PSU's = 2 x 40mm fans - hence why i think it may be louder, when under load.

I'm not sure about the Add2PSU. The quick look that I had at it, looks like ... the main PSU gets turned on, that enables the 12v and 5v pins on the molex connector. This molex connector connects to the Add2PSU which detects the 12v and 5v are live and then turns on the 2nd PSU.
So PSU1 is still turned on before PSU2.
I'm not sure what the "timeout" or "grace" period is for the motherboard to detect hardware and obviously I don't know how quickly the Add2PSU enables the 2nd PSU, however if its not quick enough, your PC might boot without power being supplied to the 2nd GPU. Which means it won't be detected.
You'd have to do a little more research on that. I'm not familiar with Add2Psu

 

[LukeD]

I played around with the Seasonic SS-500L1U today.
Converted its cables to support 2 GPU's:

Also did some noise / temp testing on the PSU.
Ambient temp: 24.6c
Hot side psu temp: 38.1c
Cold side psu temp: 27.9c
PSU is less audible than the CPU and GPU's
All while sucking down no more than 450 Watts from the wall, using a 6700K@4Ghz, 32GB DDR4 3200Mhz RAM, 2 x 1080FE, NVME SSD, SATA SSD

 

[LocoMoto]

This is truly a project with great content as a side dish, pretty dope test ben...ch aswell

 

[Kmpkt]

That's pretty impressive. Pretty much the perfect PSU for an application like this, eh?

 

[LukeD]

This is truly a project with great content as a side dish, pretty dope test ben...ch aswell

Hehehehe, yeah that's my quick and dirty test bench out of MDF quick and easy .... i did use metal standoffs .... for safety.... i think

That's pretty impressive. Pretty much the perfect PSU for an application like this, eh?

It is. I'm loving it ! If i keep the 6700k instead of the 6800k then I'll definitely will be going with this PSU for my own build