Concept Project Starlight | 3D Printed <10L Dream Build

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Hey y’all,

Figured I’d finally make a post instead of just lurking. I wanted to share some early progress on the 3rd iteration of my custom 3D-printed SFF case.

This whole thing started because I was upgrading my 7-year-old PC out of a big ugly ~50L box and really wanted to go sub-10L. The problem was I couldn’t find a case that:

• was under 10L
• didn’t cost a stupid amount of money
• and could actually fit the parts I wanted

So, being an engineer and apparently a glutton for punishment, I decided I’d rather just build my own case than spend hundreds on one that still isn’t quite right.

Earlier this year I designed and printed my first version, which I called Ursa. It came in around 11.2L, supported a 3.5-slot GPU up to ~334mm, and had room for a 280mm AIO. On paper it was cool, but after staring at it for like 6 months, it just didn’t feel “SFF enough,” and there were a bunch of things I wasn’t happy with. So I decided to basically scrap it and go for a proper sub-10L design.

I don’t have access to my PC right now so I can’t pull nice renders, but I do have some older CAD screenshots of the current design. Just a heads up: this is still pretty early in the process — the vent patterns, screw holes, final cutouts, fillets, etc. aren’t there yet. Right now it’s mostly blocking out shapes, clearances, and structure.

The new case – “Starlight”​

The new design is called Starlight, and the goal this time is to actually hit what I originally wanted:

• RTX 5090 FE-sized card (so 50-series FE dimensions or smaller)
• Ryzen 9 9950X3D
• 240mm AIO (originally tried to force a 280mm, more on that below)
• SFX PSU
• ITX board (think something like the X870I Pro Ice)

Originally I wanted a 280mm AIO in there, but after playing with layouts for way too long, I realized that to cram a 280 into <10L without absolutely choking it, you end up making so many compromises that the bigger rad isn’t really worth it. So I gave in and went with a 240mm AIO, which lets the case actually breathe and keeps the size reasonable.

Right now Starlight measures about:

316mm x 130mm x 240mm (no feet) → ~9.85L

So it just sneaks in under 10L, which I’m pretty happy with.

GPU note: this thing is tight. It’s basically sized around a 50-series FE card, so if your GPU is bigger than that in any direction, it’s not going to fit. That’s kind of intentional though — the only way to get the volume down was to stop designing for giant custom 3-slot monsters.

Printing & materials​

I’m planning to print this on my Bambu Lab H2S in PPA-CF.

PPA-CF is plenty strong, but it’s like ~7x less stiff than aluminum. That means to get it feeling anywhere close to a normal aluminum case, I have to:

• make the panels roughly 2× as thick
• and actually use the mounting structure as part of the frame, not just as “stuff to screw components to”

The layout is basically a sandwich-style case with a structural spine:

• There’s a motherboard spine running down the center.
• That ties into a middle structural plate.
• That plate bolts into the front and rear panels, so the inside of the case acts like a skeleton.
• Then the side panels go on mainly to handle shear and close everything up.

The idea is that once everything’s bolted together, you can grab it with one hand, toss it in a backpack, etc., without feeling like it’s going to flex or crack.

If this exact design were made out of aluminum with thinner panels and a bit tighter clearances, I’m pretty sure it could drop down to something like ~9.2L, but for a fully 3D-printed PPA-CF case I’m happy with ~9.85L.

What I’d love feedback on​

Since this is still early and I haven’t committed to all the details yet, I’d really like to hear what people think about:

• Side panel venting – pattern ideas, how open you’d go, etc.
• Airflow setup for a 240mm AIO + FE GPU in a sub-10L sandwich layout
• Any structural tricks you’ve used with CF filaments (ribs, curves, lattices) that help stiffness without turning everything into an 18-hour print
• Little quality-of-life things you’d want in a printable SFF case (cable routing, removable panels, handle/strap mounting, whatever)

I’ve also thrown in some images/renders of the old Ursa case so you can see where I started, even though I don’t have great pics of the final print.


I built this mainly because I wanted something that fits my own ridiculous parts list, but I’d love to make it actually nice to look at and something people might want to print themselves eventually.

Would really appreciate any thoughts, roasting, or ideas on where to take it next — especially for vent design and airflow.

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