Log Radbox the crt inspired sub 15l itx case 3D printed

T_Tank

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Mar 16, 2017
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This has been a long going project even before I got my ender 3 pro but once I got a larger printer it had been off to the races

The concept
The case was inspired by old 80s/early 90s small crt televisions from my childhood and a pinch of Playstation 2 in the front detail bits.
Also once I stumbled upon a lcd controller board from abusemark to control a bare ipad4 lcd I realized that I could make something like a all in one that would have a bit of style and room for decent bit of hardware!

The execution
I started designing the case in tinkercad which might be mind blowing to some, I've come from the background of primitive building from secondlife so it was the easiest thing for me to use
(sorry about some of the screen shots they were taken during lunch breaks)

Case was also designed to use a external brick and dc-dc pico psu


The layout is traditional with a cpu cooler that can handle a noctua nh-u9s with a 120mm as intake for the cpu chamber and two 60mm fans for intake on the gpu chamber. Ended up with a chambered design just from how the case took shape


After many revisions and a few failed prints or just abnormal printer malfunctions I got to a finished first prototype printed and running!







Currently the setup is using the following old hardware I have laying around
asus m4a88t-i deluxe
AMD phenomenon II 1045t
AMD r9 nano
Two 2.5" sata drives
Rgeek 450w pico pau
Revoccase 600w load switch
G-unique unlimited ac-dc brick

I still have to print out the 2nd revision of the case using a centered slim disc drive and some more internal cable management as I did forget to take in the consideration for the thicker cabling and the case doesn't have all the gpu vents though running no man's sky the gpu chamber didn't exceed 70c

Parts of the case are printed in pla and others in abs

I also have been working on a msx inspired keyboard case to go with the old school computer hardware.



The g-unique brick will eventually be replaced with a Silverstone 600sfx psu in its own enclosure and a cable harness from revoccase to adapt the 12v outputs to a xt90



Oh and the case and motherboard tray allow nearly full access to the back of the motherboard behind the screen to get at the 2.5" drives, m2 drives and the cpu backplate.

Eventually plan on trying to find a gently used am4 itx board that will take my 3800x and my zotac 1080 mini and 16gb of ram but for now it's being heat tested with the old hardware.
 

SFFMunkee

King of Cable Management
Jul 7, 2021
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Very cool design! I assume you're printing in ABS or PETG to handle the heat of the equipment (I think PLA would suffer from flex/warping due to being close to its glass point).
 

T_Tank

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Mar 16, 2017
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Final plan is to print in abs but some parts are keeping to pla since their either the coldest parts of the case or have constant fresh air being blown into them. Hadn't ran into a warping issue yet but this setup but the wall thicknesses on the pla components are 3 inner/outerwalls thick with the sections themselves being generally over 5mm thick up to around 10mm... way thicker then reasonable probably but hadn't melted anything even with that r9 nano thats know to peak 90c in some cases!
 
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T_Tank

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Mar 16, 2017
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version 2 of the front case section printed out with its working internal speakers!


need to check some stuff internally to make sure the disk drive isn't being pointed down by cable shenanigans inside so the custom drive bezel pushes back in smoother
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
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This is really cool! Well done. I absolutely abhor power bricks, and it looks like there would be room to squeeze a PSU in there somehow, but this is still very nice. Are you going to sand or otherwise finish the parts in any way? The finish doesn't look too bad for a 3D print, but that could still go a long way towards making it look more finished.
 
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T_Tank

SFF Lingo Aficionado
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Mar 16, 2017
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This is really cool! Well done. I absolutely abhor power bricks, and it looks like there would be room to squeeze a PSU in there somehow, but this is still very nice. Are you going to sand or otherwise finish the parts in any way? The finish doesn't look too bad for a 3D print, but that could still go a long way towards making it look more finished.
Yeah I plan on doing finish work on this when I start reprinting components in abs so I can acetone weld an smooth parts together then I'll loose my mind in finishing to get a mix of smooth semigloss and matte sections... and maybe some wood vinyl in certain parts to really whack home the 80's vibe.

I did try to figure out where to squeeze a sfx power supply but it all kept going to it sitting ontop of the BS2/BS3 low profile cpu cooler and I already ditched that idea in my steel wing.. least the custom brick housing looks the part but ironically it trips is over amp protection when trying to start up the rgeek pico psu but it runs my archdaemon perfectly fine in my ryzen rig.

if I wasnt' planning on having a gpu in this case and going apu yeah... I coulda just put a power supply where the gpu would go plenty of room there just would need a bracket.
 
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Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
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Yeah I plan on doing finish work on this when I start reprinting components in abs so I can acetone weld an smooth parts together then I'll loose my mind in finishing to get a mix of smooth semigloss and matte sections... and maybe some wood vinyl in certain parts to really whack home the 80's vibe.

I did try to figure out where to squeeze a sfx power supply but it all kept going to it sitting ontop of the BS2/BS3 low profile cpu cooler and I already ditched that idea in my steel wing.. least the custom brick housing looks the part but ironically it trips is over amp protection when trying to start up the rgeek pico psu but it runs my archdaemon perfectly fine in my ryzen rig.

if I wasnt' planning on having a gpu in this case and going apu yeah... I coulda just put a power supply where the gpu would go plenty of room there just would need a bracket.
When you already have a PicoPSU there are plenty of good, compact PSU options though - have you considered something like a MeanWell RPS-400-12 or 500-12? Those can easily power most gaming PCs, are very compact, passive or semi-passive, extremely efficient, and just great overall. Unless I'm seriously misjudging things you should be able to fit one of those next to your motherboard (opposite the I/O) or next to where your DC input sits.

Also, if your picopsu trips OCP on inrush current I don't know how much I would trust it - that's not a sign of a great design. Though I see the product page for that states a maximum 12A inrush current, so... does that PSU work if connected directly? Something seems wrong there.

Oh, and lastly, why do you need a load switch with a 450W-rated picoPSU?
 

T_Tank

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Mar 16, 2017
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I eyeballed a LRS-300 in cad an there wasn't much space but with the load of the hardware currently in it I didn't dare try going under 400 watts of supplied power.

I'm not planning on keeping this rgeek 450 watt in heavy use but I least know the g-unit runs it without a complaint (besides getting hot when playing no mans sky on it and I can hear the coil wine from the brick.... yeah I only do that in short 15 minute periods I'm pretty sure this old thing is pulling more then 500 watts...)

The old silverstone sfx 600-g I have has ran every rig I've hooked it up to an still working reliably if all else fails I could use a old thermaltake toughpower grand 750watt but then thats getting pretty large XD

Have a load switch setup cause for the time being for temp stress test and what hardware I have a R9 nano and a phenom II 1045t pull 500watts about but the r9nano is known to pull more that double its wattage on harder loads.... which is pretty much any modern game now XD.

And with the rumors on nvidia's shenanigans.... the next gpu's they make might yoink way more power then previous gens..... still annoyed that there hasn't been any low end itx gpu's that can match the 1080 mini from zotac thats planned to go inside here.
 

T_Tank

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Mar 16, 2017
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Been a while been messing with revision 3 with a pop out on the side for if I try to cram a longer card in but for the most part I just really need to get motivated to take everything apart and sand and buff everything and work on io pass through on the back for usb and ethernet












The gray side cap has some clear tpu light piping that runs to the ethernet connector on the motherboard to show network status.. Not needed but a fun little addon
Also slots and retains with a couple of screws so I can pop it off to get to the motherboard io



Have a revision on the rear cover I still need to print out but it's bigger than my ender 3 can print so I'm trying to figure the best way to split it up and the side vents are annoying me to hell and back to trying to get them looking nice so might have to print those as a separate part to..
 

ignsvn

By Toutatis!
SFFn Staff
Apr 4, 2016
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Been a while been messing with revision 3 with a pop out on the side for if I try to cram a longer card in but for the most part I just really need to get motivated to take everything apart and sand and buff everything and work on io pass through on the back for usb and ethernet












The gray side cap has some clear tpu light piping that runs to the ethernet connector on the motherboard to show network status.. Not needed but a fun little addon
Also slots and retains with a couple of screws so I can pop it off to get to the motherboard io



Have a revision on the rear cover I still need to print out but it's bigger than my ender 3 can print so I'm trying to figure the best way to split it up and the side vents are annoying me to hell and back to trying to get them looking nice so might have to print those as a separate part to..

Nice project, can't believe I missed this one!

Put one of these somewhere for the final touch 😁



These are brooches but with your 3D skill & a bit of glue I believe you should have no issue embedding them.

 
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T_Tank

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Mar 16, 2017
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I am half tempted to get a usb HD TV tuner inside this case and I probably could put something in the rectangular pocket next to the lcd power/control button
 

ignsvn

By Toutatis!
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Apr 4, 2016
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I am half tempted to get a usb HD TV tuner inside this case and I probably could put something in the rectangular pocket next to the lcd power/control button

USB TV tuner should be relatively affordable these days. Or buy pre-owned if you think you won't use it too often :)

And damn.. R9 Nano. No wonder you need 450 PSU.
 
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T_Tank

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USB TV tuner should be relatively affordable these days. Or buy pre-owned if you think you won't use it too often :)

And damn.. R9 Nano. No wonder you need 450 PSU.
Good point on the TV tuner

The r9 nano is my thermal stress test gpu especially to see if I have to switch to abs on a printed case

I've got a ryzen 7 3800x and a zotac 1080 mini in it now with a noctua nh-u9s and the system keeps decently cooled especially the gpu with the extra venting on the left side now but I may eventually get a 5800x 3D when they are on sale
 
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T_Tank

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Mar 16, 2017
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Also still been working slowly on updating my keyboard model a little for a little more detail and just feel like I should make the back a little larger to fit a standard size pi possibly or just to give more room for a integrated usb hub
 

T_Tank

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Mar 16, 2017
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Screenshot of the 2nd revision of my keyboard still working out the details on the handle... though I don't know why I'm partly going this far but I mean the back section has a lot of void space almost enough to fit a pi4.. Oh and I made the one detail able to slide back an forth and added some little indents for lighting (maybe the slide can be used with a kvm or something and the intends have 2mm holes behind them for light pipes for.... something... I kinda get lost in the details then think wait... how will I use that?

I'm still waiting for the weather to cool down an trying to think how I can reprint the back section of my case the best way or to split into even more parts so I can get the grills to be more complete.. its a bit to big to print on my ender in one piece but the grills won't print out well due to layering an even making supports makes them to brittle.