Redux - Custom designed 12.5 Litre tower case by Velkase

[Tazpr]

Hey everyone,

I have long been in the pursuit of my perfect SFF case, since I got into computer building in 2010 and ITX boards started to become more popular and available with 1156 boards.

I have constantly been changing my builds, always searching for the best option I could find and recently, while doing my second DanCase build I sort of settled on something: I'm not going to be happy unless I design the case myself.

So that's what I'm doing, with the help of Michael from Velkase who designs the 4L Velka series cases and takes custom case commissions.

I had some key aspects I needed to cover:
Air cooled with great airflow
Support for 130mm CPU coolers
Support for 225mm GPU's
Clean, industrial design

I have seen similar designed made by other people like sylphz and D_McG's mini-Spartan, but none of these ever really reached a conclusion or were cases that would be made available to the public.
But they sort helped flesh out my final concept and what I wanted from my final case.

I'm about a month away from have the case made, but in the final stages of the design and in a place currently where I can post the initial renders of the case and go through the build.

So, without further ado, I give you Redux:

Component wise the system will be as follows:
i7 9700K
AsRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX
16Gb Team T-Force XTreem 36000Mhz DDR4
Gigabyte RTX 2060 OC
ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 500Gb M.2 SSD
Thermalright Silver Arrow 130 with Noctua NF-F12
Silverstone Nightjar 450W Passive SFX-L PSU
2 x 140mm and 2 x 80mm Noctua Redux case fans

The case is designed to support 240mm radiators if you use a 17cm GPU, but I want to air cool everything for a simplistic and industrial final build.

It's not going to have any RGB, No IO with only a power switch hidden on the back of the case, nothing crazy. Functional, effective and stylish.

I'm eager to hear your thoughts and impressions!

Big thanks to Michael from Velkase for his patience and amazing talent to help make this a reality, and for allowing me to post his renders online!

Cheers,

Tazpr

 

[Tazpr]

Here are some more final renders:


Have removed PSU ventilation as I have a passive unit and the rear ventilation will be enough combined with the front airflow to cool the PSU.
Have also removed side Ventilation as it's not required and I'm trying for a more wind tunnel effect.

 

[BaK]

Clean design and straight to the point, nice one!

12.5l but what are the case measurements?
Any storage options?

Aren't you loosing some space, for storage maybe, with the PSU being in the middle of the back side like this?
Is a screw preventing you from placing it in one of the back corners?

I guess the height of the case is based on the 2x 140mm fans, thus the extra space above the PSU, right?
That makes me think that, with an SFX/ATX adaptor, you could even offer an ATX PSU compatibility.
Just thinking out loud...

 

[Tazpr]

Clean design and straight to the point, nice one!

12.5l but what are the case measurements?
Any storage options?

Aren't you loosing some space, for storage maybe, with the PSU being in the middle of the back side like this?
Is a screw preventing you from placing it in one of the back corners?

I guess the height of the case is based on the 2x 140mm fans, thus the extra space above the PSU, right?
That makes me think that, with an SFX/ATX adaptor, you could even offer an ATX PSU compatibility.
Just thinking out loud...

Thanks for the comments!
Dimensions are 260mm x 160mm x 300mm.
No storage options as I don't need them, it's just for me so I'm sure if someone else were to make a similar case they could move the PSU around.

I'm using a passive PSU so the space around it is to allow air to move and I did think of ATX support, but it would actually increase the height of the case and I don't think it's necessary.

The power switch will be relocating behind the PSU so it's not visible, but there are 2 screws either side of the PSU which attach the bottom to the back, so it'd have to be redesigned to support ATX.

I know there are sort of elements which don't make sense, but since I was designing it for me I didn't worry about those things

Another potential change I may make is relocating the PSU to the top, but not sure I want it there haha

 

[Tazpr]

Have hit a bit of a wall, as this design is looking to be very expensive to create small scale due to the long time it takes to drill out the holes.
Since I don't want to spend $1000 on a single case, we're looking at other option, potentially making the entire front and top completely blank with side gaps for intake.

Will update once we've come up with some new designs.

 

[Tazpr]

Should probably update this, as there's likely to not be any updates for a while as the Michael advised he cannot proceed with this project due to unforseen circumstances.. Sucks but I'll looking.

 

[SumGhai]

I've only just seen this project and I'm happy that you're pursuing your dream case.

Have hit a bit of a wall, as this design is looking to be very expensive to create small scale due to the long time it takes to drill out the holes.
Since I don't want to spend $1000 on a single case, we're looking at other option, potentially making the entire front and top completely blank with side gaps for intake.

Will update once we've come up with some new designs.

Drilling/laser cutting the many holes obviously seems terribly inefficient. If a turret press or other punching machine isn't available, why not try making large panel cutouts and filling the empty space with metal mesh? Unless the side gaps are very large, you're not likely to get better airflow compared to a mesh solution with fans pulling air directly through it. It might save you the case's aesthetic as well, if you wanted to preserve that.

 

[Tazpr]

I've only just seen this project and I'm happy that you're pursuing your dream case.



Drilling/laser cutting the many holes obviously seems terribly inefficient. If a turret press or other punching machine isn't available, why not try making large panel cutouts and filling the empty space with metal mesh? Unless the side gaps are very large, you're not likely to get better airflow compared to a mesh solution with fans pulling air directly through it. It might save you the case's aesthetic as well, if you wanted to preserve that.

The final design didn't actually have the holes, it was a solid front with a 10mm air gap along the entire front edge to minimise complicated manufacturing, the rear then had diagonal slats - But I never got renders of this.

The reason I went for this is because it looks better and I don't like the look of mesh over a gap...

My next steps may be to purchase one of NAVi's ITX tray kits then create a wooden enclosure I can slide it into.