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Concept Project Simplicity

GuilleAcoustic

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Jun 29, 2015
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Not yet certain I wont need a CAD GPU. A Voxel Story, my game design, had its visuals changed in my head .... And it is gonna be demanding more than an Intel HD4600.

Still a minimalist textureless voxel display, but a scene could have quite a bunch of polygons and lighting effect.

Here is Simplicity mk3, mATX version. It scales very well.

Colorized with Autodesk Sketchbook ...



... and modified with Snapseed.

 
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Soul_Est

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Really liking how it is coming along so far. May have to try Sketchbook as Clover Paint is lagging on my 2012 Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.
 

GuilleAcoustic

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Really liking how it is coming along so far.

I'll try to merge mk1 and mk3, as both use sheet metal and I still overly love mk1.

May have to try Sketchbook as Clover Paint is lagging on my 2012 Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.

I have a small Wileyfox swift and autodesk sketchbook is smooth.
 

BirdofPrey

Standards Guru
Sep 3, 2015
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Really liking how it is coming along so far. May have to try Sketchbook as Clover Paint is lagging on my 2012 Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.
EVERYTHING lags on mine. Makes me even more disappointed and annoyed I broke my Surface.

Anyways, yeah this design has come a long way. Mk 1 is hideous to be honest. Mk 3 I like
 

K888D

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Feb 23, 2016
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I've not seen that MK1 before, that design looks gorgeous to me. It would look fantastic in a living room next to some similar sized/design bookshelf speakers.
 

GuilleAcoustic

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I've not seen that MK1 before, that design looks gorgeous to me. It would look fantastic in a living room next to some similar sized/design bookshelf speakers.

Thank you a lot, that is an early design. I tried to mix MKI & MKIII.

Here come MKIV:



Base is make from 5mm steel, while chassis and cover are 3mm. The motherboard is laied horizontally, with provision for ITX sized PCIe card.

The tabs on each corner are for decoupling spikes, like on speakers.



 
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GuilleAcoustic

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Long overdue update:

I recently replace my mATX motherboard, ATX PSU, Noctua NH-C14 (single bottom fan) and 2.5" SSD by a thin mini-ITX motherboard, mSATA SSD, Engine 27 and external AC-DC. I started to work on a new design around those. Here is the first "render" (size is 45x190x200mm, 1.710L)



Still hesitating between decoupling spikes and cork sole. I think spikes could benefits the Engine27 (no vibration issue at the moment though). Will try the Digital paint approach for other updates as it really looked better and more natural.
 

Ceros_X

King of Cable Management
Mar 8, 2016
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Long overdue update:

I recently replace my mATX motherboard, ATX PSU, Noctua NH-C14 (single bottom fan) and 2.5" SSD by a thin mini-ITX motherboard, mSATA SSD, Engine 27 and external AC-DC. I started to work on a new design around those. Here is the first "render" (size is 45x190x200mm, 1.710L)



Still hesitating between decoupling spikes and cork sole. I think spikes could benefits the Engine27 (no vibration issue at the moment though). Will try the Digital paint approach for other updates as it really looked better and more natural.

For thin ITX height IO shields (25mm + 9.5mm in mobo standoff height to bottom side of case) you are obviously good, but if you ever want to switch to a non-thin ITX board I don't think you'll be able to fit the 44.7mm height IO shield. Not a huge deal for a one off, obviously, just thought I'd point it out!

Also interesting case feet :V
 

GuilleAcoustic

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For thin ITX height IO shields (25mm + 9.5mm in mobo standoff height to bottom side of case) you are obviously good, but if you ever want to switch to a non-thin ITX board I don't think you'll be able to fit the 44.7mm height IO shield. Not a huge deal for a one off, obviously, just thought I'd point it out!

Also interesting case feet :V

I get your point, but yes this is a one-off with very few simple parts (no bending) to keep the price down. This rig is already overkill for its purpose :D
 

Soul_Est

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I really like how you're building for the basics. Just enough case for what hardware and characteristics you need.
 

ricochet

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Is this project/build that you and I were discussing in regards to looking like your planned DIY amp and pre-amp?
 

GuilleAcoustic

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Is this project/build that you and I were discussing in regards to looking like your planned DIY amp and pre-amp?

Yes and no at the same time. Amplifier like chassis will be for the steambox, once AMD and NVidia started the price war. I'll have it matched to the amplifier for better integration, hence the DIY amp.

But yes, this is still HiFi inspired as I really dig minimalistic design from vintage audio and industrial stuff .... Function dictates the look.

I really like how you're building for the basics. Just enough case for what hardware and characteristics you need.

Thank a lot my friend. I like to go straight to the point, minimum material, no waste. Resources are sadly a finite thing, we should care more about that.
 
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ricochet

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Yes and no at the same time. Amplifier like chassis will be for the steambox, once AMD and NVidia started the price war. I'll have it matched to the amplifier for better integration, hence the DIY amp.

But yes, this is still HiFi inspired as I really dig minimalistic design from vintage audio and industrial stuff .... Function dictates the look.



Thank a lot my friend. I like to go straight to the point, minimum material, no waste. Resources are sadly a finite thing, we should care more about that.
Ah okay, gotcha ;-) So you are working on two (2) pc builds... one is an update of your Desktop (Main PC) and the other one is the SteamBox (gaming/HTPC) that will be sitting with your HiFi setup and thus will need to look similar.
 
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GuilleAcoustic

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Any updates on either build? Keenly interested in the hi-fi audio styling you are using!

No sadly, working weeks scaled from 60h to 80h since the beginning of the the year XD.

I'll get a sketchbook at work me think for lunch break and colourize drawings during transport time (3h a day). I should be able to move forward this way lol.
 

Soul_Est

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No sadly, working weeks scaled from 60h to 80h since the beginning of the the year XD.

I'll get a sketchbook at work me think for lunch break and colourize drawings during transport time (3h a day). I should be able to move forward this way lol.
An excellent way to bang out your ideas on the go!
 
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GuilleAcoustic

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Nvidia finaly released the GT 1030. This is a perfect timing as I was thinking about a way to add a GPU to my thin mini-ITX without going for powered PCIe riser and a 12V PSU.



The GT1030 has GTX750 performance level, but only draws 30W and is PCIe-4x electrically. Perfect companion to a thin ITX motherboard. I'll rethink my chassis around this new GPU.

This will allow me to play games that are so poorly optimised that they can't run on iGPU (even 2D pixel games like Hammerwatch). I also need an entry level dGPU for a game engine development, will fit perfectly and won't require a full build purchase.