Project: OSIDIAS (officially v4). What's this? A worklog?!

[craigbru]

So, let’s get up to speed on my current hardware situation. For almost the past 2 years, I’ve been running an Asus Z170-I with an i5-6600k, a Zotac 1080 mini, and the 400w HDPLEX. It was intended to go in OSIDIAS as soon as the case was finished. Needless to say, it’s been sitting on my desk ‘open air’ the entire time. Various delays have now made the hardware a little dated, and as motivation to get finally get moving on this project, new parts were ordered. As of this week, I’m now running an Asus Z390-I with i5-9600k, the Zotac 1080 mini, the HDPLEX, and a few shiny new Samsung SSD’s. I’ve got a 1TB 970 EVO for the OS, a 2TB 860 EVO for primary games, a 2TB 860 QVO for secondary games, and lastly a 500GB for misc. data. The below pic was from just before the upgrades took place. Fancy, huh?

Regarding cooling, in the interest of saving room, I’ll be running an air cooler. While using a Cryorig C7 and Noctua Industrial 140mm fan for the past 2 years, I’ve now moved the Cryorig C7 G. I know the effects of the graphene coating are debatable, but I’ve seen significant temp drops from previous. It was a switch from aluminum to copper however, and I’m sure that’s most of the reason. I also switched to a new Cooler Master fan, although it has a lower CFM rating and overall speed. Using the original 90mm Cryorig fan was never really an option for me. A 140mm unit essentially covers most of the motherboard, including any heatsinks and RAM. Since there aren’t any fans in the case otherwise, this gets cool air where it needs to go. Below you can see the C7 in it’s original form, and then nestled in on the motherboard with the fan removed.

While the Noctua simply sat on top of the previous cooler as a temporary fix, I figured it was time to actually design something more permanent. Below is the test design for the Cooler Master fan mount. A quick print later, and it looks like it will work! The fan sits snugly in place as it should. Most of my designs deal with very tight tolerances, and this one is no different.

 

[Windfall]

So, let’s get up to speed on my current hardware situation. For almost the past 2 years, I’ve been running an Asus Z170-I with an i5-6600k, a Zotac 1080 mini, and the 400w HDPLEX. It was intended to go in OSIDIAS as soon as the case was finished. Needless to say, it’s been sitting on my desk ‘open air’ the entire time. Various delays have now made the hardware a little dated, and as motivation to get finally get moving on this project, new parts were ordered. As of this week, I’m now running an Asus Z390-I with i5-9600k, the Zotac 1080 mini, the HDPLEX, and a few shiny new Samsung SSD’s. I’ve got a 1TB 970 EVO for the OS, a 2TB 860 EVO for primary games, a 2TB 860 QVO for secondary games, and lastly a 500GB for misc. data. The below pic was from just before the upgrades took place. Fancy, huh?



Regarding cooling, in the interest of saving room, I’ll be running an air cooler. While using a Cryorig C7 and Noctua Industrial 140mm fan for the past 2 years, I’ve now moved the Cryorig C7 G. I know the effects of the graphene coating are debatable, but I’ve seen significant temp drops from previous. It was a switch from aluminum to copper however, and I’m sure that’s most of the reason. I also switched to a new Cooler Master fan, although it has a lower CFM rating and overall speed. Using the original 90mm Cryorig fan was never really an option for me. A 140mm unit essentially covers most of the motherboard, including any heatsinks and RAM. Since there aren’t any fans in the case otherwise, this gets cool air where it needs to go. Below you can see the C7 in it’s original form, and then nestled in on the motherboard with the fan removed.





While the Noctua simply sat on top of the previous cooler as a temporary fix, I figured it was time to actually design something more permanent. Below is the test design for the Cooler Master fan mount. A quick print later, and it looks like it will work! The fan sits snugly in place as it should. Most of my designs deal with very tight tolerances, and this one is no different.

Very nice!

 

[craigbru]

Very nice!

Thanks man! It's been an adventure so far, and I love getting into the details as I knock off a few major design tasks.

 

[Windfall]

Thanks man! It's been an adventure so far, and I love getting into the details as I knock off a few major design tasks.

What CAD program do you use?

 

[craigbru]

I've been using ViaCAD Pro for many years. The price isn't outrageous (compared to other CAD options), and it's nice cross between AutoCAD and Sketchup. It allows importing of Sketchup models, and has great export options. If you get the Powerpack upgrade, it even incorporates 3D print specific tools.

 

[Windfall]

I've been using ViaCAD Pro for many years. The price isn't outrageous (compared to other CAD options), and it's nice cross between AutoCAD and Sketchup. It allows importing of Sketchup models, and has great export options. If you get the Powerpack upgrade, it even incorporates 3D print specific tools.

Does it have patching tools for broken Skp files?

I got Spaceclaim just for the import functionality.

 

[craigbru]

There are all sorts of mesh repair functions. Tell you what, I'll get a copy uploaded and share it with you. You can run it for 14 days before you have to buy. I don't think you can get a copy to demo any other way. It's full functionality until then, so you can see what you think.

 

[craigbru]

Design is very iterative for me. I start with an idea, and then go through multiple revisions until it's just right. I've scrapped significant progress just because I wasn't happy with how things were working out. You could point to this thread as a great example. That said, once I get to the finally stages of a design I rarely have regret. I'm fully committed at that point and can confidently proceed. Part of why it's taken my so long to start working on this project again, is because MPD-01 was such a fantastic build for me. It was so functional, and I so loved the aesthetic, that it honesty killed some of my motivation.

I bring the preceding up to explain the following. A few posts back I had shown a fairly simple fan mount. It was perfectly functional, but I couldn't just leave it alone. I thought maybe it would look cool with the OSIDIAS name engraved in the 'top' of the mount. That brought me to this.

Yeah, that's kinda cool, but I decided to take it a bit further. Maybe I could light the logo? Hmm, sized as it was, it's too small to do so effectively. Maybe I should go a little bigger. Well, I couldn't go bigger without changing the design a bit. So, that's what I did. I enlarged the mounting areas on the top and the bottom. Even after doing so, there really wasn't room to add LED lighting to the new logo. I did however come up with an alternative. The logo will be lit by the fan itself. How I plan on doing that will be revealed later. For now, this is the new mount design.

 

[craigbru]

How about a little reality? I've got the first 2 final printed parts here. The first is the OSIDIAS logo in Accura 60. I wanted something pretty transparent with virtually invisible layer lines. I'd say it exceeded my expectations. The second part is the actual fan mount itself. It's printed in SLS. The textured finish is a little amplified due to the close picture, but it's an intentional choice by me. There will be likely be FDM printed components as well, and when sprayed with a Rustoleum bedliner, it's almost a perfect match.

I'll be modifying the Cooler Master fan to allow it's RGB lighting to illuminate the logo. I chose the passive lighting method for practical reasons. It didn't seem necessary to add complexity to a fairly simple part. (Uh, now that I've said that, it does seem a bit out of character for me, doesn't it? Haha.)

 

[craigbru]

Progress has been slow due to work on my garage/shop addition. That’s fine though, because I’ll have a pretty nice workspace once completed. It’s the one thing I’ve really missed compared to my previous house. Although slow, I have indeed made a few part modifications and committed to what I call ‘layer locks’ on both the GPU and motherboard sides of the case core. I’ve also finalized the case/core back. No further changes are planned, and my subsequent test prints indicate everything fits perfectly. Speaking of my test prints, overall part complexity has almost certainly moved me away from FDM print. SLS or MJF are likely the best route at this point. The parts would require significant post-processing due to small details and tight tolerances, and I’m not sure that’s time well spent.

I’m certain I’ve mentioned it before, but I really do enjoy the design and engineering aspect of case design, especially in the SFF realm. In the below pics, you can see the inside of the GPU side of the core. With one of the hot swap drive bays in place, the GPU riser has just enough room to slip past and route under the motherboard without interference. There will be no wasted space in this build.

 

[Windfall]

Progress has been slow due to work on my garage/shop addition. That’s fine though, because I’ll have a pretty nice workspace once completed. It’s the one thing I’ve really missed compared to my previous house. Although slow, I have indeed made a few part modifications and committed to what I call ‘layer locks’ on both the GPU and motherboard sides of the case core. I’ve also finalized the case/core back. No further changes are planned, and my subsequent test prints indicate everything fits perfectly. Speaking of my test prints, overall part complexity has almost certainly moved me away from FDM print. SLS or MJF are likely the best route at this point. The parts would require significant post-processing due to small details and tight tolerances, and I’m not sure that’s time well spent.

I’m certain I’ve mentioned it before, but I really do enjoy the design and engineering aspect of case design, especially in the SFF realm. In the below pics, you can see the inside of the GPU side of the core. With one of the hot swap drive bays in place, the GPU riser has just enough room to slip past and route under the motherboard without interference. There will be no wasted space in this build.

Very nice progress!

 

[confusis]

Keep it up @craigbru !!

 

[craigbru]

Keep it up @craigbru !!

Will do man!

 

[craigbru]

Just to keep you all in the loop, the following images are the completed core. What you see here is ready for print and I don't plan to modify any further.

 

[craigbru]

More parts finalized. The front panel components have achieved 'layer lock'. The front I/O is fitted in place, as well as the LCD control board and card connector. I'm running test prints right now. Assuming everything fits together in the real world, I'm one step closer!

 

[Windfall]

Amazing! Question, do you still have the case with a similar design that was featured in CPU Magazine (RIP)?

 

[craigbru]

Amazing! Question, do you still have the case with a similar design that was featured in CPU Magazine (RIP)?

Yes I do. It's in a box in my basement. Every once in a while I open the box and look at it. I do still love that design.

 

[Windfall]

Yes I do. It's in a box in my basement. Every once in a while I open the box and look at it. I do still love that design.

Wasn't it sheet metal? Maybe that was just my imagination.

 

[craigbru]

Wasn't it sheet metal? Maybe that was just my imagination.

It was all 2mm aluminum. I sometimes forget I never made a worklog for it...

 

[Windfall]

It was all 2mm aluminum. I sometimes forget I never made a worklog for it...

Shiny!